The Secret of the Dark Galaxy Stone

by Pam Stucky

  As they stepped through the doors to the outside, Eve’s theory seemed all the more valid. The sun beamed down on them, unforgiving in its glare. The heat of it was still bearable, but it was definitely warm. Those who had put on extra layers of clothes quickly peeled them off, and Dr. Waldo’s WaldoWear was put to the test. To the wearers’ delight, the WaldoWear cloth somehow adjusted to the heat, giving them a refreshing feeling of coolness.

  “Careful not to get burned,” said Emma, looking at her own pale skin.

  “Make note to tell the committee, please, of the need to bring sunscreen next time,” said Charlie.

  “Noted,” said Emma.

  “Is your home far?” Eve asked Gesil. “Can we walk there?”

  “We could,” said Gesil, “but it’s easier to drive. Do you have transportation like this on your planet?” She pointed around the building to an area where several car-like vehicles were parked.

  “Cars!” said Charlie. “Yes, we have cars, automobiles, that’s what we call them.” He and Chuck raced over to inspect the vehicles. Like cars on Earth, they had four wheels, two at front and two at back. Most of the cars had four doors; a few had two, and fewer still had six.

  “Who do all these cars belong to?” asked Emma. Surely Aly and Bek didn’t need so many cars just for themselves?

  “Some come with the job and the house,” explained Aly. “One is our housekeeper’s. And a few belong to other people who are downstairs working right now.”

  “There are more people in the house?” said Emma, remembering all the closed doors they’d passed in the hall. She wished and hoped once again they could come back here again one day.

  Bek, meanwhile, led them to one of the vehicles with six doors. “There are so many of us, let’s take this one,” he said.

  “I’ll drive my own car,” said Gesil, walking toward a small gray-green car with two doors. “Would someone like to ride with me?”

  Five hands shot in the air. Gesil laughed. “Emma, why don’t you come with me. Bek, do you know the way to my place?”

  Bek nodded. “We’ll meet you there.”

  Leaving the others behind, Emma followed Gesil to her car. Emma stood by the front right door. Gesil looked at her, amused. “Are you going to drive?”

  Looking into the window, Emma could see a driver’s wheel on the right side of the car. She blushed. “Oh, sorry. In our country, the driver sits on the left.” She walked around to the other side.

  “Your country?” asked Gesil. “What is a country?”

  “What is a country?” asked Emma with surprise. “Don’t you have countries?”

  “We have the land and the water,” said Gesil. “Is that a country?”

  Emma frowned. “Well, I mean, not really, no. Countries are … they’re how we separate ourselves. How we define ourselves.”

  “How you separate yourselves? What do you mean?” asked Gesil. She pushed a button, and the doors unlocked. Gesil opened her door and got in, and Emma did the same on the other side of the car.

  “It’s like, it’s where you live, where you belong. Different countries have different ways of doing things. Like, in our country, the United States, drivers sit on the left in the car. But in other countries they sit on the right,” Emma said.

  “So a country is about where you sit in the car?” said Gesil. She pulled a strap across her, something like a seat belt. Emma followed suit.

  “No, it’s like … well, it’s the language you speak, and the food you eat, and … I don’t know, the clothes you wear.” As she spoke, Emma realized she’d never really thought about how odd the concept of a country might sound to someone who wasn’t used to the idea.

  The puzzled look on Gesil’s face confirmed this. “Why would you speak different languages?” she said. “Do you mean that if I learned your language, I wouldn’t know the language of everyone on Earth?” She started the car. A very quiet hum, so low it was almost nothing more than a vibration, was the only sign that the car was operating. Gesil backed out of her parking space, and headed down a wide, paved road.

  “Well, no,” said Emma. “I mean, Earth is bigger, I think, than Jovo. There’s more land. More people. It just … I don’t know, probably everyone used to speak the same language, a really long time ago when people first started talking, but then they moved apart, and different languages developed.” As they drove, Emma tried to concentrate on the conversation while looking on at the landscape with wonder. She’d seen several planets by this time, and many of them had some variations on the same themes: plants, trees, rocks, dirt, hills and mountains, oceans and lakes. Still, she couldn’t help but be amazed at the variety within those basic categories. Here, there were no tall pine trees like back at Dogwinkle Island. Instead, the tallest plants were maybe twenty feet high at most, with thick clusters of enormous teardrop-shaped leaves spreading out from the top of the tree to about two-thirds of the way down the trunk. Other trees looked almost like giant mushrooms, but with bristly caps of needles on top. Bushes of many varieties lay low along the ground. The paved road indicated civilization, but Emma saw no other buildings. Or, for that matter, people. She wondered if people on this planet also lived inside hills, like on Lero.

  “Interesting,” said Gesil. “It is fascinating to know how much alike planets can be, but yet how different. Every civilization finds its own way forward. Not always in the most pleasant or harmonious manner, either.”

  “No, definitely not,” said Emma, thinking of the wars she’d learned about in history class. And, apparently, the wars she was yet to fight, herself.

  Soon, Gesil pulled up to a gate blocking a wide opening in a long, tall wall that hid the property within. She looked behind her to see that Bek had caught up to them in his vehicle, then pushed a device on the car’s dashboard that opened the gate. Gesil drove through, waited for Bek to do the same, and then closed the gate again behind them.

  “Almost there!” Gesil said merrily to her passenger.

  Gesil aimed the car down a long winding road, this one paved only with dirt and stones. Whether it was anticipation or an actual change in the air, Emma felt like she could feel a surge of energy as they grew closer to their destination. With relief, she allowed herself to believe they might have found a way home.

  After maneuvering the car around a final curve, Gesil parked in front of a small, cozy-looking house. “It looks so much like our houses,” Emma said. The home was built from giant stones ranging from white to gray to beige; the door appeared to be made of a kind of reddish-brown wood with a wavy, irregular grain. A thick stone chimney stack climbed up the left side of the house, topping out over the roof by just a few feet. Slabs of giant, flat stones, embedded into the ground, led from where they were parked to the front door.

  “Sweet home,” said Gesil, looking at her house. “It would have been easier if I could have built it out of intention, like in the Hub, but this will do,” she said fondly.

  “Is the elevator inside?” asked Emma, getting out of the car and following Gesil to the front door.

  “It is. I didn’t want anyone seeing me disappearing and reappearing. That would cause even more gossip than already surrounds me,” said Gesil.

  By this time, the rest of the group had caught up with them. “Shall we go in?” said Gesil, opening the door.

  The inside of the house was snug and unassuming. A small living room and a pocket-sized kitchen filled the front of the house. “I don’t have guests, so no need for a big dining room,” said Gesil. “Back there are my bedroom and the bathroom,” she continued, pointing to the back half of the house. “Upstairs is just one big open room, where I go to write or think.” She walked to a door at the end of the dining room. “And here,” she said, “is the portal.”

  Gesil opened the door and walked into the small closet. “Coming?” she said to the others, who quickly followed her into the small room. As they did, the door to the elevator slid open. “Everyone inside!” Gesil said. Once everyone was i
n, the portal door closed. Gesil waved her Key in front of the wall on the other side, and the door to Gesil’s Hub slid open.

  “Welcome to my sanctuary,” Gesil said, stepping into the endless area.

  “Oh, wow,” said Emma, gaping in awe at the beauty of the expanse as they all exited the portal and spread out in the limitless space. Where Dr. Waldo had created the ultimate science lab in his Hub, complete with every kind of computer and scientific instrument he could think of, Gesil had intentioned into existence a calm, bucolic paradise. The sky spread out to infinity in a brilliant blue, with an occasional fluffy cloud floating by. The ground was covered with a thick carpet of soft grass. The space immediately before them was mostly flat, but off in the distance were rolling hills covered in wildflowers of all colors; a majestic snow-capped mountain rose from the horizon even farther away. A river meandered through the landscape, and various walking paths led to points of interest: benches, a gazebo, a hammock swinging idly between two short trees. One path led to the river, which it crossed with a short stone bridge. And another path led to a giant building that looked very much like Gesil’s own home, but much larger.

  “Dr. Waldo told me about his Experimental Building,” explained Gesil. “That building is my own version of it.”

  “What’s inside?” asked Chuck, eager to explore. He had not had much chance to create things in any hub yet, and was hoping now might be his time.

  Gesil answered with a smile. “Do you want to see?” she asked.

  “Obviously!” said Chuck.

  “Yes!” said Eve.

  “Totally!” said Charlie.

  They walked the path to the building’s massive front entrance. “Emma and Ben, you and Dr. Waldo taught me how to create things here in my Hub. At first it was really difficult,” she said, “but I practiced a lot. I even learned to un-make my mistakes, which is good, or you’d see a massive hole in the ground where I meant to build that mountain. I somehow got ‘up’ and ‘down’ reversed. I was still learning.” She smiled. “Eventually, I created this building. My writing retreat.” She opened the front door and a gentle wind greeted them.

  “A breeze from inside?” said Charlie. “I’d ask how that’s possible, but in the Hub …”

  “Everything is possible,” said Emma and Ben simultaneously. Emma laughed.

  The building was not as vast inside as Dr. Waldo’s Experimental Building was, but the design was similar. Once inside, the lobby branched off to the left and right down wide hallways, with a grand, ornate staircase in the center leading to a second floor.

  “Which way should we explore first?” said Gesil.

  “Left,” said Emma.

  They followed the hallway to the left, passing doorways with plaques over them. “Beach house,” said one. “Woods,” said another. “Hot springs,” read a third.

  “Hot springs?” said Chuck. “What’s in there?”

  “Hmm,” said Gesil, teasingly. “Might be hot springs?” She opened the door for them to peek inside. Sure enough, the scene opened up to an outside setting, a rocky landscape leading down a short path to a pool, its crystal-clear waters steaming into the fresh air.

  “This is my kind of room!” said Charlie.

  “Not now!” said Emma. “We don’t have time.”

  Charlie turned to Ben. “We are totally going to have to make a room like this in the Experimental Building back home.”

  “Indeed,” said Ben. “I think that’s an imperative.”

  Gesil pulled the door shut and wandered farther down the hall. “This is one of my favorites,” she said.

  The plaque over the doorway where she’d stopped read “Treehouse.” She opened the door and stepped inside.

  “I didn’t want to actually climb up a ladder into the treehouse,” she explained. “Call me lazy. So I made it so the doorway opens up to the top level. There is a ladder that leads to the ground level, but mostly I stay up here and write.”

  As they all crowded into the rustic room, a cat-like creature greeted them, rubbing itself warmly around their legs. Seemingly appearing from out of nowhere, another cat-like creature joined the first. Their ears were slightly different from those of Earth cats, but they were of nearly the same size, with soft fur and loud happy purrs.

  “You have cats on Jovo?” asked Emma, trying to decide if it would be safe to pick one up. They looked friendly enough, but one could never be sure.

  “Not exactly,” said Gesil. “I saw animals like these once in my travels. I liked them, so I came home and created some in my treehouse. They’re not real … or rather, they are real, but they disappear when I’m not here. I didn’t want them to get lonely if I was gone for a while. But they have access to the ground level, too. I made them so they don’t need food, as I didn’t want them to starve, either. Creating live creatures is rather tricky, as it turns out.” She picked up one of the purring animals and handed it to Emma, who hugged it to her chest, feeling the vibration of the creature’s hum thrumming into her own chest.

  “Awwww,” said Emma, rubbing her face into the impossibly soft fur of the cat’s head. The furry creature responded by purring even louder. “So sweet.”

  “This is where I do most of my writing,” said Gesil. “I use the other rooms too, sometimes, but I like it here the most.” She sat down at the desk and looked out a window before her. The view was magnificent, more mountains in the distance, a babbling river just below.

  “Ben, we’ve got to make a room like this, too—” Charlie started to say, but then looked around. “Hey, where’s Ben?”

  “I think I saw him head back out,” said Bek, “after we left the Hot Springs room. Wasn’t paying much attention to him, to be honest, but now that I think of it, that’s what my brain is telling me.” He winked at Emma. “Good thing to have a brain that’s paying attention even when I’m not! I need it!”

  “I suppose that’s a good trait for a doctor,” said Emma. “Not the not paying attention part! The good brain part. But I also think we should find Ben. I don’t like it when one of us gets separated from the rest of us.” She remembered all too well when she once was left behind. “Let’s find him.”

  She walked briskly back down the hall, not wanting to betray her sense of worry. “Ben?” she called out, peeking into doorways. “Oh, nice,” she said, briefly distracted on seeing the Beach House scene, a warm wind carrying the scent of the ocean to her from across the white sand. She moved on.

  “Ben? Where are you?” Emma called more urgently, picking up her pace and heading out the front door, the others running along behind her. “Ben? Ben? Ben!” A wave of relief rushed through her as she saw him, not too far away, seated on a bench. He cradled something small in his hands. On his face was a look of radiant joy and pride.

  When Emma got near enough to hear him, Ben held up the object in his hands. “Dark MATTER,” he said, as she sat down next to him on the bench. “We can go home.”

  chapter sixteen

  Emma gently took the precious sphere from Ben’s hands. “A Dark MATTER sphere? Where did you get this?”

  Ben shrugged and blushed. “I made it. You know, the Hub. Everything is possible. I made one before, back at Dr. Waldo’s Hub. Just to see if I could. It worked. So, you know, I thought I may as well try here, too.”

  “Will it work?” asked Emma, turning it over in her hands. She didn’t want to doubt Ben, but she also didn’t want to end up in pieces, spread across the galaxies, because Ben had made a faulty sphere. It looked like the others, but that didn’t mean it would act like the others.

  “It should,” said Ben. “I mean, I don’t want to brag. But it will work. Don’t worry.” He smiled at her. “I wouldn’t hurt you.”

  “Dude,” said Charlie. “Dude, you’re great and all, and I trust you and whatnot, but I am not trusting that thing. I mean, you’re like an apprentice scientist. I am not ready to be ripped apart just yet.”

  Chuck nodded his agreement. “My family would not want me to c
ome home as a bag of plasma,” he said.

  “Guys, I appreciate that, but I really think it’ll work,” said Ben.

  “Therein lies the problem, my good man,” said Charlie. “You think. But you don’t know.”

  “Do you have a better idea?” asked Emma, somewhat relieved they might not have to test out Ben’s creation. She liked him, but perhaps not so much as to trust the second Dark MATTER he’d ever made.

  “I have an idea,” said Eve. “Gesil, do you think your elevator will connect with Emma and Charlie’s Earth?”

  “It might,” said Gesil.

  “I should be able to tell, if I look at the coordinates closely,” said Ben. “I did a lot of planet mapping the last few months.”

  “Okay,” said Eve. “Here’s what I think. I think we collect all those coordinates and everything else we can use to pinpoint where we are now, and where we might end up on Earth. And then we write all that information down, tape it to the Dark MATTER, and send that back to our Hub. Let them know we’re on our way. If it gets there, great. And if not, well, that’s better than our not getting there.” She looked at Chuck. She did not want to become a bag of plasma, either.

  The rest of the group agreed to this plan. They trotted back to Gesil’s elevator, where Ben and Eve studied the panel, muttering and comparing notes and opinions. Ben wrote down some information and a quick note to Dr. Waldo on a piece of paper Gesil supplied him with. “Best I can do,” he said. “Based on what I can see, this elevator should take us to our Earth. I’m not sure where, but we should get there. And after that …”

  “After that, we’ll deal with wherever we end up,” said Kata.

  “Okay. Ready?” said Emma.

  “Ready.” Ben attached the paper securely to the Dark MATTER with a sticky substance Gesil gave him, then entered the coordinates of their own Hub into the device. He swiped the control panel and let go instantly.

  It disappeared.

  “Hopefully Dr. Waldo has it now,” said Charlie.