by GARY DARBY
Tor’al’s image wavered, flickered, and then was gone.
Chapter Forty
Somewhere
In agonizing slowness, the darkness ebbed from Dason’s mind. With a grimace, he pulled himself upright. In the dim light, he found Shanon and helped her stand.
“You okay?” he asked anxiously.
“Yes,” she replied, rubbing the back of her head, “That was some ride—for a while there I couldn’t decide if up was up or down was down.”
“I know what you mean,” Dason replied. “I kept thinking my insides were on the outside and vice versa.”
He reached over and gave Nase a hand up. Dason nodded toward the consoles. “I’m going to check on the others, see if you can tell what happened.”
Nase gave a quick nod and with a slight limp made his way to the two Mongan consoles. As Nase bent over the consoles, Dason helped the others to their feet.
“More bruises on top of your bruises?” Dason asked Sami.
Sami squeezed both hands against his head and wheezed out, “Ugh, now I know what it’s like to go over Niagara Falls without the barrel.”
He glanced up and asked, “What happened to us anyway? We’re not dead, right?”
“No, Sami,” Dason answered with a little smile, “we’re not dead.”
As Alena and TJ sat up, Dason asked, “You two okay?”
Alena brought a hand to her forehead and winced. “Sami might bruises on his bruises but I definitely have a headache on top of my headache.”
“TJ?” Dason asked. She waved a hand at him as she massaged the side of her neck, “I’m good, I think. What happened?”
“That’s what I’m about to find out,” Dason replied.
He moved forward to stand next to Nase and laid a hand on the tall youth’s shoulder. “Please,” Dason implored, “tell me it worked.”
Nase raised his head and met Dason’s pleading eyes. “It worked, or at least I think it worked.”
He gestured at the top row of Mongan markings. “If I’m reading these sensors correctly, the protective shield kicked in just moments before the planet exploded.”
Pausing, he put his head closer to Dason’s. “And,” he began in a small voice that only Dason could hear, “if these readings are correct, we’re not on the AP planet anymore.”
Dason’s eyes widened but before he could reply, Alena asked, “What about the Kolomite gas in the nebula? Can you tell if the detonation dissipated the gas?”
Nase shook his head in response. “Not with these readouts, but I’m quite confident that the pressure wave would have been sufficient to disperse the gas.”
He gave Sami a slight smile. “Sami’s ‘big wind’ must have worked.”
Sami grinned while saying to TJ, “My idea, you know.”
“And the Mongans?” Shanon asked.
Nase shrugged in response. “If the blast wave caught them, I highly doubt that any of their ships survived.”
“I like it,” Sami announced. “They got a one-way ticket to you know where. Just what they deserved.”
“What about our people?” TJ asked.
Dason turned to the scouts. “I’m confident that my father warned them, and they got out in time, before the planet blew.”
“So, we did it,” Shanon replied in a small, awed voice.
“Yes,” Dason answered, “we did it.”
“And we’re alive, after all,” Sami pointed out in a jubilant voice.
“Yes,” Dason responded in slow measured words, “we’re alive, but there’s more.”
He turned to Nase and nodded toward the others. “Tell them.”
Nase turned away from the console and met their anxious eyes. “It would appear that the explosion of so much Kolomite might have caused a rift in time and space.”
“What?” Alena exclaimed. “I thought that could only happen if the Mongans caused a star to nova.”
“That’s what we thought was the case,” Nase answered.
He turned and waved a hand at the consoles. “But if I’m reading this correctly, the implosion pulled us through a trans-universe juncture point.”
Deep silence greeted Nase’s statement. “Are you sure?” TJ asked in a weak voice.
Nase drew in a breath and gave a little shrug. “Completely sure? No,” he replied honestly. “And I’m working with unfamiliar alien technology and so, yes, I might be wrong.”
He glanced down for a second before he raised his eyes and spoke in a low voice, “But I don’t think so.”
“So,” Alena asked slowly, “just where are we?”
“I guess we need to find out, right?” Dason replied. “Nase, any idea of what’s on the outside?”
Nase swept a hand at the console readings. “The sensors indicate that we’re resting on solid ground. Gravity, ninety-eight percent of Earth standard, atmosphere is a little light on oxy and nitrogen but breathable. Radiation levels normal, temp . . .”
He paused and called over, “We should be okay, TL.”
“Then there’s only one way to find out,” Sami declared. “Let’s crack the hatch and see.”
Dason strode over to the door and pressed on the controls. The oblong hatchway eased open to reveal a thick darkness. Dason stepped to the door and peered out.
A warm, velvety breeze caressed his cheeks, and he jumped the few feet to the ground. With cautious steps, he moved forward to test the soil, his footsteps making little sound on the firm ground.
The mild wind rustled through the soft, petal-shaped grass that covered the area and kissed the swaying palmlike leaves that crowned slim, tall, treelike vegetation that surrounded the meadow.
He gazed upward to where a half dozen glowing comets crisscrossed the night sky. Their delicate white tails streamed from one horizon to the other while a broad river of starlight straight over his head competed with the comet’s radiance.
The sky was ablaze with a multitude of radiant stars, distant, welcoming beacons to the young scouts.
Just peeking over the horizon was a melon-sized moon emitting a faint, yellowish light and just above it was a small, glowing nebula in the shape of a five-pointed star.
“Would you look at that,” Shanon murmured from behind Dason.
He turned to let his gaze follow her pointing finger. High above a hill-crowned horizon was an enormous spiral galaxy.
The pinwheel of burning stars floated majestically in the night sky and cast a pale light over the six scouts who stood transfixed at the sight.
“Wow,” TJ sputtered.
“Double, no wait, triple wow,” Sami muttered in return.
“We certainly aren’t in the Helix Nebula, are we?” Alena observed.
In the surrounding dark foliage, melodic chirps filled the air, giving evidence that life, in some fashion, existed on this world.
“No,” Nase answered. “The question is whether we’re even in our own universe.”
He raised a hand toward the glowing galaxy. “That might be our own Milky Way, or it could be—”
“A spiral galaxy in another universe . . .” Alena whispered.
“So,” Shanon began in a grave voice as she glanced at the somber group. “We succeeded in saving everyone else but in so doing managed to get ourselves utterly and entirely lost.”
The six stared at each other for several seconds as the realization sank in that they were beyond just being marooned. They were hopelessly lost to their world and to the life that they had known.
“Well,” Dason muttered after a bit, “what are we going to do about it?”
No one answered his question, their faces glum until Sami spun around to his teammates. “I’ll tell you what we do about it. Look around, we’re alive, we’re breathing, we’ve got food, water . . .”
Smiling, he said, “Feel that warm breeze? See that sky up there? You wanted a tropical planet with a night sky to kill for.”
Spinning around with his arms out he cried out, “Well, you got it!”
“Oh, yeah?” T
J stopped him. “Where’s the beach, mister? As I recalled, we ordered up a tropical beach, too.”
Sami swiveled around before turning with his hands on his hips and facing the group. “It’s here,” he stated confidently. “We just have to find it.”
“That,” he grinned as he turned in a tight circle, his eyes taking in everyone, “and everything else on this brand new world that’s just waiting . . .”
He stopped and his eyes lighted up as he declared, “Check that, make that a whole whole new universe just waiting for us to explore.”
He began to stride out ahead of the group before he turned to Dason. “Path Finder, LT? Just point me in the right direction.”
Sami’s exuberance was infectious, and TJ strode over to stand beside Sami. “Oh, no,” she quipped, “not this time, fella.”
She gave Sami a little elbow tap in his ribs. “Path Finders. Right, LT?”
Sami gave TJ a sheepish, sideways glance before he returned the elbow tap. “Sure, Path Finders.”
Dason gave Shanon a wry smile but before he could respond Sami held up a hand, came back the several steps to stand in front of Dason.
He looked Dason over before giving him a full smile. “My mistake, what I meant to say was, which way . . . Scoutmaster?”
Everyone turned to gaze at Dason before Shanon stepped next to him, slipped her hand in his, and asked, “Yes, Scoutmaster Thorne, which way?”
Dason drew in a deep breath and let his eyes go from one shining face to another.
“Well . . . Scoutmaster?” Nase questioned.
Alena stood next to Nase. “Yes, Scoutmaster, what trail?”
Dason turned affectionate and proud eyes on his team before he swept his arm up toward the star-studded sky. “Where else but Out There.”
“Then give the word,” Shanon murmured.
Dason gazed into Shanon’s eyes before he turned to the others, Alena, Nase, TJ, and Sami—friends, now and forever.
He hitched at his vest, squeezed Shanon’s hand again, and spoke in a deep, rich baritone voice that rolled out over their new world, their new universe, and now their new home.
“Scouts Out!”
The End
Other books by Gary J. Darby
Science Fiction:
The Star Scout Saga
Book One: Star Rising
Book Two: Fallen Stars: Darkest Days
Book Three: Star’s Honor
Book Four: When Stars Fall
Book Five: How Far the Stars
Fantasy:
The Legend of Hooper’s Dragons
Book One: If a Dragon Cries
Book Two: The Queen’s Vow
Author’s Note
Thank you so much for reading the concluding novel of the Star Scout Saga. I truly, truly hope you enjoyed the story and the whole series.
I do admit that as I put the final “The End” to this story I couldn’t help but wonder was this truly the end or was there still more to be told about Star Scout Dason Thorne, Shanon, Sami, TJ, and Nase?
Only time and the stars themselves know the answer to that one.
If you’d like to see what I’m working on for future publication visit my website and log into the member’s only section by using the password: Hooper
Check out my blog too and lastly, if you can recommend this story to others please do so by providing a review and posting it to your social media accounts. Free advertising is a blessing to us starving writers.
Again, thanks for reading my novel and I truly hope that all that you read fills you with wonder, awe, and uplifting moments and thoughts.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Professional copy editing services provided by Marthy Johnson of Copy Editing Services (CES). You may contact her at 907.720.2032 or e-mail: [email protected] if you’re an established or a budding author who needs a little help, well, maybe a lot of help with those clunky commas, pesky pronouns, and annoying adverbs.
She’s also the author of Write or Wrong, a nifty reference manual that all authors should have in their personal library as well as Breakpoint Down, an excellent mystery novel.
You might want to check out her newsletter, Word for Word, just for writers that will help you avoid the pitfalls and potholes of writing in this convoluted language we call English, or as I sometimes refer to it, Anguish. You can subscribe to her newsletter by contacting her via email.
As always, dedicated to those who dream of Out There and to the girl of my dreams and fantasies, my eternal sweetheart, Pamela and to our children and grandchildren who fill our days with wonder and awe.
Copyright © 2015 by Gary J. Darby
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form whatsoever without the author’s express permission.
This book is a work of fiction in its entirety. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, description of characters, extraterrestrials, places, and incidents are wholly the product of the author’s imagination.
Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental, I think.
