by Pam Stucky
“Mmmmmphmm,” said Charlie, serving himself up a second meaty, chunky bowlful. “Delicious.” He reached out his hand, indicating that Chuck should pass him the plate of bread. Chuck complied, grabbing another piece for himself as he passed it.
“You eat up,” said Bek, clearly delighted to have people to cook for. “There’s plenty for everyone, and I can always make more!” He took some empty platters back to the kitchen, and returned them, full again, to the table.
Aly laughed. “I am so spoiled. My husband is quite a catch.” She planted a quick kiss on his cheek. “Now then. While you all were sleeping, we got some work done. First, we managed to find some of your things.”
“You did? How? Did you go diving?” asked Eve, incredulous. “You didn’t have to! Thank you!”
“No, no,” smiled Aly. “It’s not for naught that I’m Ambassador. I have connections, people both above and below the surface who are willing to help when they can. It cost me a few favors, but I got some young Klyvnini to do some salvage diving for me.”
“Did they find the stones?” asked Charlie. “The magnets?”
“If they did, they didn’t bring them up,” said Aly. “Mostly they found clothes, and two of those devices like Ben’s.”
“The iPerts,” said Ben. He protectively patted his own iPert, resting on the table beside him. Even though it still wouldn’t make phone calls, he didn’t want to let it out of his sight.
“Yes, the iPerts,” confirmed Aly. “Rather waterlogged, but I’ve sent one of them off to my lab to see if they can dry it out for you. I hope you don’t mind.”
Emma shook her head. “Not at all,” she said. She suspected Aly’s kindness was not completely without self-interest; she could tell the Ambassador was bursting with curiosity at all their tales. Likely, Emma thought, Aly wanted to see what she could learn from the technology. But Aly and Bek had been more than generous. Whatever knowledge they could glean from the iPerts, they had earned.
“We’ve put what clothes we found, plus the dirty clothes you’d been wearing, into the wash,” Aly continued. “They should be ready for you soon. I also looked at that bag Charlie was carrying. We don’t have anything exactly like it, but I managed to find something that should work. New bags will be delivered here for you in the next cut.”
Aly looked at what apparently was a clock on the wall. “We have come up with a plan, but will have to wait until tomorrow to do anything about it. It’s almost bedtime now, for those of us who didn’t sleep the day away.”
“And I definitely could use some sleep!” laughed Bek. He started to clear the table. Kata got up and helped him carry dishes back to the kitchen. Under his instruction, she put them into the Ka’Jovo version of a dishwasher.
“What’s the plan?” asked Eve, shifting forward in her seat. Now that she was rested, she wanted to get going right away.
“As I said, we have to be careful about taking you out into society. People will be suspicious quickly. We think, perhaps, that we should instead invite Gesil here. It makes perfect sense. As Ambassador, it is not unusual for me to entertain people of all sorts. And she does know me, though it’s been a while since we’ve talked. I can tell her I’m interested in hearing more about her books; that is not only believable but true. Many of the books on our bookshelves are books she wrote.” She nodded in the direction of the shelves full of novels that had so fascinated Emma days before.
“Just think of all the books in all the universes,” said Emma with awe. “I thought all the books on Earth were a lot of books, but if every intelligent species writes books? So many books!” She wanted so badly to read them all. Maybe, she thought, Aly will let me take one of them home with me.
“Can you call her tonight?” said Eve, not wanting to get off track. “Set up dinner for tomorrow, maybe?”
Aly looked at Bek. “Do you think you could get everything ready for dinner by tomorrow night?”
“I’d need to get to the store for groceries,” said Bek, already making a mental list of what he would need to purchase for the meal, “but I’m sure I can make it happen.” He looked at the others. “Not the first time I’ve had to put together an Ambassador’s dinner on short notice!” he laughed. “I am a professional!”
“I agree,” said Chuck. “You can cook for me anytime!” He wiped his mouth with a napkin and handed his clean plate to Kata.
Aly checked the clock on the wall again. “I suppose it’s not too late to call. I’ll see if I can reach her. To be honest, I couldn’t even tell you if she’s reachable without my actually going up to her home. She’s become quite secluded. But, I have connections.” She smiled and winked, then went off to her office, leaving the others behind.
“Bek, can you tell us more about Jovo?” asked Ben. “If we leave soon, we won’t have much chance to explore it. That’s the downside of this traveling we’ve been doing. Seeing the universes without actually seeing anything. What’s it like up there?”
“I can, indeed, young man! In fact, give me a minute …” Bek raced off without another word, leaving everyone else wondering what he was up to.
“I wish we could stay, too,” said Emma. “One of these days I’d like to plan a vacation somewhere, off Earth. To go and visit, not just go and rescue Dr. Waldo, or fight Vik, or find Eve’s mom.” She looked at Kata. “No offense. I’m glad we found you.”
“I’m glad you did, too,” said Kata with a smile. The table was cleared so she sat back down with the others. “I’m sure I would have found my way home eventually, but it’s good to have company.”
“The problem is not knowing where to go,” said Charlie. “With all the possible universes and planets, the chances are good that if you just randomly pick a place you’d end up in Nowheresville.”
“Nowheresplanet,” corrected Chuck.
Charlie nodded. “You and me, Chuck, we could start a travel company, where we research different places and tell people what they’re like. Write books and put stuff on the internet and stuff.”
Chuck’s eyes lit up. “We could lead tours! ‘Visit Parallel Earth!’ ‘Discover the Plassensnares!’ ‘See an Underwater World!’”
“I like the way you’re thinking, there, Chuck,” said Charlie. “It would not surprise me to find you are the smartest person on your Earth. Am I right?”
Chuck nodded with faked humility. “You are probably right, there, Charlie. And I suspect the same is true of you?”
Emma rolled her eyes once again, but Eve giggled. “I would so love to see you two start a travel company! I would definitely be interested in knowing some planets with nice, undiscovered sandy beaches!”
“Or waterfalls,” said Emma. “I love waterfalls!”
“We have waterfalls here,” said Bek, returning with a small object in his hand. He took the object to the panel between the two large windows that faced the water and plugged it into a slot on the wall. “Time for you to see more of Jovo!” As he spoke, a giant image of a lush green world appeared on the wall.
“Ohhh!” said Emma. “Beautiful! This is your planet?”
“Part of it,” said Bek. “We have many climate zones on our land mass, as I imagine you do on yours?”
The others all nodded.
“This is one of the tropical areas, near the equator, where it rains all the time. There are waterfalls aplenty here for you, Emma. I’m sure there’s a picture of one in here somewhere …” He pushed a button and flipped slowly through image after image. First on the screen was an image of giant-leafed trees with rainbow-hued bark, surrounding a dark sapphire-blue lake, rimmed with large, jagged, gray boulders. “A favorite swimming hole,” said Bek. “Aly and I like to go there a lot.” Next he brought up a picture of a flat, sandy desert, with rugged pillars of stones rising high out of the ground. “It does not rain much in this area,” he winked.
“It doesn’t?” said Chuck, jokingly.
The next picture was of a cliff overlooking the ocean, taken from a distance. The side o
f the cliff revealed layers of rock in shades of the sunrise, from a fiery orange to a deep amber and everything in between. Tufts of verdant grass covered the top of the cliff, while fluffy clouds dotted the cerulean sky.
“Can we have a picnic there sometime?” asked Eve, her eyes savoring the scene.
Next, Bek brought up a picture of a bustling market on a city street. Beings like Bek and Aly, with their long legs and multiple arms and hairless heads, walked up and down the aisles, perusing stalls where people were peddling strange produce.
“Is that where you get your groceries?” asked Ben.
“It is,” said Bek, “but sometimes I go to a store that has a greater variety of products. Depends on what I need, and how fancy dinner is going to be.” He winked. “Tomorrow might be pretty fancy.”
A rush of happiness spread through Emma. It may not have been her preference to be stuck for days in what basically amounted to a reverse aquarium, but she was glad to have met this strange couple who were not, she thought, so strange after all.
“I hope we can come visit you again, after we figure out how to get home,” she said.
Bek looked at her with a wide toothy grin and nodded. “Yes, I would very much like that, young Emma,” he said. “You are welcome here any time.” He reached out to stack hands in the gesture of the Ka’Jovo before remembering she only had two arms and couldn’t complete the stack. Charlie rushed over and gave Emma a smile. Emma stacked her two hands on Bek’s proffered hands. Bek stacked his other two hands on top of hers. Charlie completed the stack with his own two hands.
“We’ll be back,” said Charlie. “You can bet on that.”
“We’re all set,” said Aly, walking back into the room and filling it once again with her confident presence. “Gesil will be delighted to join us. I suggested lunch, so you all don’t get anxious waiting all day,” she continued. “Bek, you’ll need to get to the market first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Not a problem at all, my love,” said Bek, releasing Charlie and Emma from his grasp. “I know just what to make.”
“And with that,” said Aly, “I need to go to bed. This has been a long but interesting day. You all may stay up or go to sleep again, whatever you’d like. I will see you in the morning.”
Bek shut down the impromptu slide show, and with a small bow, made his leave behind his wife. “Goodnight, new and fascinating friends,” he said. “You have brought me much to dream about. Sweet sleep to us all.”
chapter thirteen
After having slept all afternoon, and with the excitement of potentially meeting Gesil the next day churning in her head, Emma spent the night with her eyes closed but her mind wide awake. In the room she shared with Eve (who apparently was able to sleep anywhere and anytime, and fell asleep again rather quickly), Emma tossed and turned most of the night. Before they went to bed, Bek had explained to them how to read their clocks. Emma watched hers all night as the time passed, eagerly awaiting the moment they could reasonably get up again.
At some point in the night, though, her adrenaline crashed, and Emma fell into a deep slumber. She awoke abruptly to Charlie bouncing on the side of her bed.
“Emma! Get up! Wake up! Bek showed us how to work the showers, and sister, you need a shower. Time to get ready!” He stopped bouncing and put his face right next to hers. “Emma Emma Emma Emma Emma Emma,” he chanted mercilessly until she groaned.
Emma pushed her brother’s face away from hers as she rubbed her eyes. “What time is it?” she asked.
“If I told you, would it make any difference?” asked Charlie. “You have somewhere you gotta be?” He put his face right up next to hers again.
“Stop it, Charlie,” said Emma. Somehow, even with all the sleep she’d had, she was more tired than ever. She dropped her head back on her pillow and closed her eyes.
“No, no, no!” said Charlie, shaking her arm. “No more sleep, Emmz! Time to wake up! Wakey wakey!”
“Oh for gosh sake,” said Emma, punching Charlie’s chest. “I’m getting up.” She looked over at Eve’s empty bed. “Am I the last one?”
“Last one,” said Charlie. “We’ve all been up for hours.”
“Hours?” said Emma. “I think you mean cuts. And you can’t have been up for many cuts. Bek told me how to read the clock and I know it’s not midday yet.”
“You know what I mean. Time to get up!” He gave the bed one more rattle.
“Stop, Charlie!” said Emma. “Don’t break it!” She rolled out of the bed, and as her brain woke up she grew excited again for the day. “Did Aly hear back from Gesil?” she asked.
“Yup,” said Charlie. “She’ll be here in two cuts. Bek is cooking now.”
Sure enough, as if to prove Charlie’s point, mysterious but delicious aromas wafted into the room from the kitchen. Emma shook her head. “I think I’ll miss Bek,” she said. “And Aly. Crazy to meet aliens who already feel like friends.”
“What do you mean?” said Charlie. “Eve feels like a friend, and she’s an alien. And Chuck, too!”
Emma laughed. “Can you believe it? Eve feels so much like a friend I keep forgetting she’s not from Earth. And Chuck, well, he’s just another you.”
Charlie nodded solemnly. “I am sure it is hard to believe how lucky you are, having two of us now. That is, truly, almost unimaginably amazing.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “Unimaginably. Show me how to use the shower, dork,” she said.
The shower turned out to be a room they’d seen before, but the purpose of which they hadn’t been able to discern. To the unsuspecting eye it was nothing more than a fully enclosed space with smooth, apparently waterproof walls. When Bek showed them how to activate the shower, though, the room transformed. The press of one button started a process in which various shower heads at various body heights sprayed powerful but yet comfortable jets of water at the person in the middle. Then, a misty, soapy substance spritzed out from all sides and above; and then, the water jets returned, whirling and spraying from all angles to clean off the suds. A blast of warm air followed, and the shower purred back into silence.
“It’s like being in a car wash for people!” Charlie told Emma with great joy.
“Just keep your eyes closed, and let the shower do the rest,” Bek told Emma, before she stepped in to try out the room for herself.
He was right.
“Oh my stars,” said Emma, emerging into the living room feeling refreshed and energized after her shower, and back in her own WaldoWear, which Aly had returned to her fresh and clean. “I feel like a new person! That shower was fantastic!”
“You smell a lot better now, too,” said Charlie.
“You’re one to talk,” Emma quipped back. “You were getting pretty ripe yourself.”
“That’s enough,” said Aly, smiling. “Now we know to keep instructions on the walls in case more aliens show up at our home unannounced. Sorry we didn’t think to get you cleaned up sooner. At any rate, we have just a short time before Gesil gets here. I have been trying to decide whether it’s better for us to meet with her alone, or if it would be safe for you all to be present, too.”
“We have to be there!” said Emma. The idea that she might not get to be a part of the meeting distressed her. “Besides, how will you know what to ask her if we’re not there? Even though we’ve told you a lot, she might ask something you don’t know. And it could be something critical to our getting home. We have to be there!”
“I made food for everyone,” said Bek with his immutable smile. “It’s up to you, Ambassador.”
Aly tilted her head. “I suppose you have a point, Emma. You’re right. I’m just worried about the risks, but I think that’s a risk we’ll have to take.” She clapped all four hands, top left hand to top right hand, bottom left hand to bottom right hand. “All right, no time to waste. She’ll be here soon. We’ll set the table for …” she counted the people in the room. “I guess we are nine. Quite a party!” She laughed. “You are putting Bek
in his element. He may be a doctor, but I can tell you, entertaining is his passion.”
“I am here to help,” said Bek. “Lunch for nine, coming up!”
While Chuck and Charlie helped Bek set the table, Ben, Eve, and Kata worked to tidy the rooms they’d been staying in. Emma grabbed the opportunity to talk with Aly, who was putting the living area back in order. She felt a little shy about it; still, she knew the opportunity might be gone soon, and she wanted to take advantage of her time while she was there.
“You said you’ve heard of some things before, alien things,” Emma began, feeling her way into her questions. “Like, what kinds of things?” She picked up some pillows that were strewn all over the couch and arranged them neatly.
Aly dusted the low end tables with a fluffy cloth. “Well,” she laughed, “it’s all moot now. I think we’re beyond the point of questioning whether there’s life on other planets, or even whether ours is the only universe.” She looked at Emma. “Seems we have those answers.” She looked around the living room and gave it an approving nod. “I think we’re good. Shall we sit?”
Emma nestled into what had become her favorite chair. After tossing the dust cloth into a basket by one of the end tables, Aly sat on the couch.
“When I was young,” Aly continued, “and I lost all my family, I felt completely alone. I’d say that’s what got me interested in the idea of life on other planets. I wanted to know that there was someone else out there … anyone else. I suppose what I really wanted was to see my family again, somehow. Now I know that’s impossible, of course, but at the time, I thought maybe they still existed somewhere.”
“They might!” said Emma excitedly.
“What?” asked Aly, suddenly tense. “What do you mean, ‘they might’?”
“There’s a ghost universe,” said Emma. “At least one, maybe more than one. We’ve been there. Where ghosts from all sorts of planets and universes live.”
