Escape from the Pipe Men!

by Mary G. Thompson

  “Help us get these lines off! The Masters keep sending more!”

  Ip stuck his head back through the portal. His horn shook. Then he turned around and blobbed toward the line the Pipe Men had just replaced. “I told them all they’d better help!” Ip called. He leaned backward over the place where the line was digging into Front’s hide and, with a single swoop, dug his horn into the fabric and cut it in half. The line went flying out toward the spaceship, where a single Pipe Man who had begun the journey toward us floated helplessly just below the hatch.

  Ahead of me, Pipe Men were crawling off the last three lines, using their spacesuits’ assistant arms to pull themselves on top of Front’s body. I counted eight. They struggled to stand, pushing with their new arms, wriggling inside their suits.

  “They’re not used to the gravity!” I shouted. “Their suits are meant for space!” I ran down the shimmering platform to the next line, where three Pipe Men hung on to Front, trying to pull themselves up, falling over each other.

  Becky jumped on top of Front, landing on her belly. She pushed one of the Pipe Men, and I pulled, and together we flung it past the platform and into space.

  The other two jumped at us, but only managed to get a few inches off Front’s body, pushing against the weight of their suits. Two more Pipe Men were crawling toward us, while the last three crawled away from us, toward Front’s second head, which was upright, three antennae flailing.

  “They’re going to get him!” Becky cried. She pulled herself up and leapt over the two Pipe Men crawling toward us, running full speed over Front’s body. Now I had four Pipe Men to deal with alone.

  One of them managed to lift itself halfway up and leap toward me. I braced myself, but instead of me, it was the Pipe Man who was thrown backward, covered by the black, hairy body of a Xaxor. The Xaxor rolled, its legs wrapped around the Pipe Man, sending them both off Front’s body past the jagged, shimmering edge.

  I reached out for the Xaxor. “Grab on to me!”

  It reached three legs out and wrapped them around my outstretched hands. I pulled, and as the Xaxor let go of the luckless Pipe Man, I fell back against Front, the Xaxor smashing against me.

  Something whooshed past us with a tinny hum. I struggled to untangle myself from the Xaxor. With its body flattened against me, its heartbeat pumped into my ears. The heat of its body burned against my skin.

  “It’s okay. Front isn’t going to let us fall.” As long as we keep the Pipe Men from getting him, I thought. I tried to see where Becky was, but my view was blocked by a mess of Xaxor and Pipe Men, all struggling on top of Front. “They came!” I exclaimed.

  Our Xaxor blinked at me, then jumped in to help its fellows. I ran toward Becky. She had knocked off one of the three Pipe Men, but the other two had grabbed her with their assistant arms, and she was clinging to Front, kicking and screaming at the top of her lungs.

  I plucked an assistant from Becky’s arm and kicked the Pipe Man it was attached to into space. Far behind me, Ip growled and a Pipe Man screeched, but the screech was abruptly cut off. I glanced back to see the Xaxor still fighting two Pipe Men. Beyond them, Ip stabbed a Pipe Man with his horn, and more Pipe Men were already floating in space. Ip had gotten all the Pipe Men on his end!

  Gript was scampering down Front’s body toward me. Dad stepped cautiously from the rift onto the platform and Mom, face white, followed him, holding all of Gript’s children in her arms.

  Lastly, Tast-e walked slowly out onto the platform, followed closely by Grav-e. They calmly took in the scene and exchanged a brief series of barks. Then Tast-e rushed forward, barreling toward a line that was just dropping three Pipe Men ahead of Ip. With a crash and a growl, Tast-e knocked all three of the Pipe Men out into space.

  One Pipe Man was still clinging to Front’s thin, tapering neck by one arm, holding Becky in the other. I crashed into its body as hard as I could, while Becky wrenched herself free.

  “Yes!” Becky scrambled on top of Front, pumping her arms in victory.

  Front’s neck sagged and his three antennae drooped.

  Becky’s face fell. “Front? Are you all right?” She hugged his neck. His antennae twitched.

  “We have to get the rest of them off,” I said. “It’s the only way to help him!” I grabbed her hand and turned to look back down Front’s body.

  All the Xaxor were hanging on to each other by their legs, making a haphazard, confused chain that contained two struggling Pipe Men. One Xaxor hung dangerously beyond Front’s body, hugging itself with its legs. In the confusion, two of the Xaxor pushed a Pipe Man into space, leaving only one Pipe Man struggling to free itself from Xaxor legs. That was when I saw Ip.

  Far down Front, he was hanging on by one blobby arm. A Pipe Man had its assistant arms wrapped around Ip’s horn. It was attached to a line with two other Pipe Men on it, still hanging in space. Dad was leaning on Ip’s arm, using his weight to hold Ip down.

  “We have to help Ip!” I cried.

  Becky raced behind me on the platform.

  I reached Ip, panting, and grabbed the assistant arms around his horn. At the same time, the line tugged its Pipe Men back, pulling on Ip’s horn.

  Ip wailed.

  Becky kicked the Pipe Man holding Ip’s horn while I kept pulling its assistant arms. Finally, I wrenched the arms free, and Becky and I pushed the Pipe Man away, expecting it and its fellows to float away helplessly, but it didn’t work. Their ship was closer now, and it somehow was exerting force on the line to keep the Pipe Men only a few eyes away. They kept reaching, falling back toward us.

  Both of the bottom two ships were bearing down on us from above, their hatch-mouths gaping open, Pipe Men waiting in rows, slowly but surely about to reach us.

  “Go float!” Becky yelled. She kicked one of the Pipe Men as it reached toward her. The Pipe Man fell back, but it managed to grab Becky’s foot with its assistant arm. It pulled her away from us.

  “Becky!” I reached for her arm, but she slid away from me.

  Dad jumped after her, and I jumped after him. Dad grabbed her arms, and I hit the platform behind him, clutching his legs. The Pipe Man and its line tried to drag us all off the platform, but Dad and I pulled back. Becky’s head and shoulders were still with us, but her legs were kicking around in space. Both Dad’s head and mine were also past where the platform used to be, but the edge of it expanded under us, shimmering and jagged and looking more fragile than ever.

  Come on, Front, I thought. Hang on to her. Don’t let her go.

  The jagged edges of the platform shifted. Front must have been trying to keep us all in his zone of power, but how long could he do it? Tiny holes opened beneath my chest, then closed again.

  “Now, son! Pull!” Dad shouted.

  We both pulled with all our strength. Becky snapped free of the Pipe Man, and we all fell against Front. I stood up just in time to see Tast-e head-butting a Pipe Man out into space, back near Front’s second head. At the same time, Gript released a line and sent three Pipe Men flailing. All five Xaxor bounced on top of Front’s body, humming.

  “Yes!” Becky and I cried together.

  “We did it!” Ip punched his blobby fist into the air.

  Front, free of his lines, began to drop away from the Pipe Men ships. At first he dropped slowly, but then he fell faster and faster. My stomach was reeling, and all I could do was hang on. Several Pipe Men, still attached to their lines, became smaller and smaller. Front rippled as we fell, shaking with some colossal effort.

  “The rift,” I gasped.

  “It’s still there!” cried Becky.

  I raised my head just enough to see it, a shimmering blackness with a hint of red inside. Was it falling through space with us, or was it big enough to cover all this distance? “We can go back through it.”

  “Will it go back to Frontringhor?”

  “Front!” I cried out. I had no idea if Front could hear me. “The rift! Go back through it! You have to stop dropping! We can’t tak
e it!” Ip was slumped over Front’s body, and I felt like doing the same. Mom was clinging to Dad, pressing Gript’s family tightly against her chest. Front was too big around to properly hold on to. We were sucked into him only by his own force, and I wasn’t sure it would last much longer.

  “His head!” said Becky, pointing at the head floating in space. “We have to make sure it’s awake!”

  I pulled myself onto Front’s body and helped Becky up. We had to climb over the unconscious Ip, past a ball of tangled Xaxor, and Grav-e and Tast-e, who were hanging on by their front legs, blue hair sticking straight up. We crawled toward Front’s head, which was hanging so low that all I could see was his thin neck. Front’s body was even more slippery than before. We slipped and slid, but managed to make our way to where his head drooped unconscious, all three antennae hanging low.

  “Front,” I shouted. “Front, wake up!” I held his head, and Becky gently lifted all three of his antennae.

  “It’s me, Becky.” She drew the antennae along her face.

  “Front, please,” I pleaded. “We need you with us. We need you to crawl back through the rift. We need to stop falling.”

  Front’s head moved a little, and one of his antennae twitched.

  “Come on, wake up,” Becky whispered.

  Front’s mouth didn’t move, but I still heard his voice, very quiet, almost too quiet to hear. “Ryan.”

  Far down his body, I could see the others still hanging on, smashed against him. It seemed like we were not dropping as quickly anymore, that the others were not quite as distressed. But what would happen if Front died right here in space with all of us on him? Would we still have air and gravity? Would we have any way to get back home? Would we keep dropping forever?

  Dad was waving from the other end of Front’s body, calling out something, but I was too far away to hear.

  “Front, come on, you have to go back through the rift. Take all of us through or we’re going to die here.”

  Two of Front’s antennae twitched.

  “Becky!” I cried. “Go down to the other head and wake it up. He’s not all here without it. Both ends are going to have to move!”

  Becky didn’t argue. She ran along the platform until she reached the others.

  Dad and Ip and our Xaxor converged on her, but after a few seconds, they let her through. She scrambled over Front’s body and disappeared again into the rift.

  “Front!” I tapped him lightly on the side of his head.

  His mouth twitched, then turned upward into a smile. “Ryan,” he said again, this time out loud. His voice was very soft, and I had to lean in close to hear him. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, Front,” I said. “Anything you need, but you have to get us back through the rift!”

  “I’m going to get you home, Ryan,” said Front. As he said it, our progress through space slowed. Then it came to a complete stop.

  Far away, Gript was looking toward me, perched on top of Ip’s head. In front of Ip, the rest of the Xaxor were still all bunched up together. Closer to me, Grav-e and Tast-e stood on the left side of Front’s body, both staring the same direction into space.

  I looked where they were looking, at the patterns of stars in the endless expanse. I might never see this again, might never be out in space again at all, anywhere. I took a deep breath, trying to quiet the shaking that had started out of nowhere. All of a sudden, I didn’t want to go back through the rift. I didn’t want this all to end. But I could feel us moving, though our tiny movement made no difference in the view before us.

  Mom and Dad disappeared, then Ip, Gript, the Xaxor, and the Hottini, until it was only Front and me, slowly heading for the rift. I put my hand on the top of Front’s head. “Thank you,” I said.

  Front wrapped an antenna around my arm as we slowly slid into the rift. The last thing I saw was a cluster of stars in the black sky, worlds too far to fly to in a lifetime, but still somehow right next to us.

  Thirty-Three

  THE SPRAY HIT ME LIKE A dozen hammers. I fell backward off Front and splashed into the water, then flailed my way upright. There was water everywhere, except for Front, floating on top of it, and my friends and family splashing around him.

  Front’s head was still, his three antennae lying slack in the water.

  I got one arm around his body to hold myself up and lifted his head with the other. “Front! Wake up! You’ll drown!”

  Front’s head did not move, but I still heard his voice. “I will not drown, Ryan. You do not need to worry about me. Let me sink.”

  “Not yet,” I cried. “We have to get everyone home!” I let Front’s head down gently until it reached the water and slowly sank. His body was still floating high enough for me to hang on to.

  Half of Front’s body length away, Grav-e and Tast-e were treading water, while Ip lifted a wilted Xaxor onto Tast-e’s back. Grav-e was already covered with three of the soggy buglike froms.

  Gript was on top of Front, huddled with his children.

  Mom, looking drenched, held on to Front next to Gript and his family, and as I watched, Dad burst through the surface. He pulled a Xaxor from the water behind him and passed it to Ip, who set it carefully on top of Tast-e.

  Becky came into view from behind Front’s other head and clambered on top of him, dripping. She waved at me.

  Hanging on to Front, I made my way down his side. As I got closer, I could hear what she was saying.

  “We’re on Earth, Ryan!” She pointed at the sky. “Look!”

  A few clouds rolled by, but the sky was mainly blue. There was only one sun and nothing else above us. Water stretched out in all directions.

  “There are probably lots of other planets with oceans,” I said.

  “It is Earth,” said Front’s voice. “I promised I would get you home. I have closed all my portals everywhere. You will be safe from the Pipe Men.”

  “All of them?” I asked. “What about the rift? And the tunnels through space?”

  “There are no rifts without me,” said Front. “There are no tunnels. I have closed everything. That is why I am so sick. Once I went through the rift, I began closing them all. And now, I am finished. Thank you, Ryan and Becky. At great risk to yourselves, you have set me free. I will never forget it.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “How could they trap you?”

  “When they came to Frontringhor, I did not know what I was. I had lived my whole life, many thousands of your years, without ever knowing there was more in the universe than me. One day my insides began to burn. The Pipe Men came, telling me they could help me, teach me. I did not know they were the cause of my pain, that they were inside me. But I learned. I listened to their thoughts, began to feel the truth of my own body, to understand what I am.”

  “What are you?” I asked. Right now, he looked like a big, soggy, sick animal. I rubbed a hand along his back, feeling the wet, thick, sweaty hide.

  “I am . . .” he paused. “There is no Earth word for what I am. I am the place between all points. I am not here in your universe.” He paused again, leaving the channel to his mind open, giving the impression of listening to his mental breath. “I am like another universe. One that is everywhere in your universe, but no particular place. I was tied to this universe only by my planet, Frontringhor. And now I am free. I am sorry if I cannot explain.”

  “But if you’re so big, how could the Pipe Men keep you?” asked Becky. “Why couldn’t you just open a rift and leave?” She laid her wet cheek against Front’s body.

  “I tried to open bigger doors,” said Front. “But each time I would open one, they would steal flesh from my insides and mud from my planet. They used my own body and my home against me to close them. As long as I was on Frontringhor, I could not expel them. I needed a rift of variable infinity. They are unpredictable, moving through space and changing quickly. It was the only portal so complex that the Pipe Men would not be able to control it, and I could not make it by myself. Tha
t is why I changed the door you hid behind so that it would lead to Frontringhor. That is why I gave you the calculator, Ryan. That is why I asked you to open a portal from Brock. I knew the Hottini were close to discovering me. They had the power to interfere with your portal, and the ambition to attempt it. I set the calculator to help me cause a rift when it was interfered with. I am sorry I could not tell you. I could not risk the Pipe Men learning.”

  “It’s all right,” I said. “You helped us save our dad.”

  “You have helped me far more than I have helped you,” said Front. “Leaving Frontringhor was only the first step. You helped me escape their spaceships. I am very tired, but for the first time since they came, I am no longer in pain.”

  “What if they come back?” Becky asked, squeezing Front’s back. “They still have the calculators.” She looked at me, eyes tearing up. She was right. The Pipe Men could just open a portal and find him.

  “Don’t worry, Becky,” said Front. “The calculators are tied to my planet as well as to me. They are made of my flesh and its earth, and they need power from us both together. That is why I had to get away, no matter how much I love my planet. The calculators will never work again unless I go back home. No one will ever use me again. No one will come inside me unless I want it.” I thought I heard a smile in his voice.

  “Are you going to stay with us?” asked Becky.

  “I will be here until I get my strength back,” said Front. “I have never been through such a thing, so I can’t say how long it will be.”

  “Can you still open portals?” I asked. “Just to get everyone home?”

  “I will try,” said Front. “But I do not have much longer. I must sink to the bottom and sleep for a long time.”