Curtains Of Time
Page 12
Chapter 12 – Twylo
Giselle was in orbit around the plant Twylo in the galaxy Argus, at the edge of Gizmo’s home universe when they heard the signal loud and clear from the planet below. In the silence that followed, Marco and Gizmo just stared at each other.
Now what?
“Awaiting your orders sir,” Giselle said.
“I don’t know,” Gizmo replied. “What do we know about them? Are they humanoid? What are they like? Are they friendly? Giselle, you got anything?”
“Not much is known about them sir. They are a small colony of nomad miners that roam around looking for anything they can sell for a profit. From the limited reports I have been able to locate in my memory banks, they are a rough group that work hard, play hard, and are reportedly not to be trusted.”
“So what do we do? We can’t just ignore them since we were the ones to initiate contact.” Gizmo said.
Marco gave the equivalent of a shrug.
“Giselle, open the circuit,” Gizmo said.
“Circuit open sir.”
Gizmo turned to the control panel and flipped a switch activating the circuit. “Greetings from the starship Giselle. We are on a research mission and just arrived in your airspace for a brief visit.”
“Welcome to Twylo at the edge of nowhere. Stay as long as you want and if you want to land, we always welcome visitors. We don’t get many at this outpost.”
“Thank you for your generosity. We haven’t yet decided how long our research will last or how long we will be in your airspace. How long have you been on this planet? And how much can you tell us about this galaxy and what lies beyond?”
“We been here far too long if you ask me, but it won’t be much longer before we can leave this hellhole. We’re almost done with our work here so hopefully we can leave this place soon. As you might have gathered, this ain’t been my favorite assignment. We have a planet scientist on staff here and if you want, we can set up a conference with him. I’m sure he’ll be able to answer many of your questions. Up to you of course but if you want to land we can give you the coordinates and landing instructions. As you no doubt know by now, the planet surface is not the most hospitable place. We all live in catacombs beneath the surface since that’s more comfortable.”
“We need to run some tests which shouldn’t take more than a day or so, but we would be very interested in talking to your planet scientist. Can we set up a meeting with him say, tomorrow afternoon?”
“I’d have to check with him first and get back to you but I don’t think he’ll holler too much.”
“Great, I look forward to hearing from you.”
§§§
Two days later a time had been set for the meeting and landing instructions had been given.
“Permission to initiate landing sequence,” Gizmo requested from the planet below.
“Cleared to land.”
With the circuit closed, Gizmo said, “Giselle put yourself on your highest alert. If you see or hear anything suspicious get us out of here as fast as you can. Don’t wait for an order from either Marco or myself. Our survival is in your hands in case of an emergency. We don’t know what we’re walking into. When we’re on the planet surface, don’t allow anyone to board or even to get near you. I don’t want any tracking devices or anything else attached to you, and I don’t want anyone close enough to examine you. Give them a verbal warning first and if that doesn’t work zap em enough to get their attention.”
“Your wish is my command sir.”
“You have my permission to pull us back on board at the first sign of trouble. Marco and I both have our Leap Frog devices implanted and if we should find a need to use them, be prepared to take off immediately.”
“Understood sir.”
§§§
They continued to descend slowly toward the planet surface. The last thing they wanted was to draw attention to Giselle’s special Leap Frog technology. As they descended on the coordinates they were given, they saw the planet surface below them beginning to open like the petals of a flower to allow them to land on a subterranean landing pad.
They settled down gently on the landing pad that rose to meet them. As soon as they were securely down on the pad, it started to lower and the flower petal surface started to close over them. It was an ominous feeling knowing they were completely encapsulated in a subterranean chamber beneath an unknown planet surface. Had they made a mistake? Too late now.
With the landing pad doors above them completely closed now, they became aware of the glow of interior lights. They expected the landing pad would be alive with activity but it seemed deserted. In fact the landing pad was empty except for them. Gizmo wondered briefly where the miner’s vehicles were, and where were their hosts. Shouldn’t someone be here to greet them?
Gizmo and Marco exchanged looks. “Well, we knew they were a rough group. Keep your eyes open and let’s just be friendly but cautious. At the first sign of trouble Leap Frog back to Giselle. Are we ready?”
Marco looked apprehensive but slowly nodded his head.
“Show time,” Gizmo said as he reached over to open the door.
§§§
As they stood on the hanger deck looking around wondering which way to go, they saw their hosts approaching from a far corner. From this distance, they looked humanoid but not quite human. They looked almost a cross between Marco and Gizmo, having some characteristics of both. It was as if their species had crossbred. It was disconcerting to say the least.
Their hosts approached quickly and stopped a few feet away. “Sorry for not meeting you when you arrived. We had a minor emergency to attend to. I am Devir, the leader of our little band of nomads, and this is Eagnor, our planet scientist. This is Nale and Kotar,” he said indicated the two others by their side. With a sweep of his uncommonly long arm he continued, “If you will follow us please.”
They were led from the landing pad into a corridor or unknown origin. The walls were rounded and porous making Gizmo wonder by what method they had been constructed. As they walked, Gizmo looked around to determine the source of the indirect lighting. No source was detected; the light was just strong enough to see where they were going but not strong enough to read by. It was then he realized the maze of corridors branching off in various directions and disappearing in the distance as far as the eye could see in the dim light. They had already made several turns and Gizmo was glad he had an escort because he was sure he would never be able to find his way out again.
After more twists and turns they arrived at a door which opened with a wave of Devir’s hand. The room they entered was small and contained nothing but a table and six chairs; one for each of them. Gizmo wondered briefly how they had known how many chairs would be needed.
Once seated, the chairs seemed to conform to their shapes. Gizmo was impressed and his mind went immediately to the mechanics of how they had been built and how he could duplicate them. He was brought out of his reverie by the sound of Eagnor’s voice directly across from him.
“I understand you have some questions for me. I can’t promise I’ll be able to answer them but I’ll do my best. Who wants to start?”
Gizmo looked at Marco, then at each face around the table before he started. “I guess this is my party so I’ll be asking the questions. I’m from this universe but Marco is not. It is generally accepted that this universe is continuing to expand outward. My research is to determine what it is expanding into. This galaxy is at the edge of the known universe. We want to know what lies beyond. Is there a neighboring universe? If so, how close? And what happens when they collide with each other?”
He stopped to catch his breath and looked at the faces around the table. Kotar was sitting at the end of the table and as Gizmo’s gaze passed him and moved on, he caught a slight movement. He quickly looked back at Kotar but saw nothing unusual. Kotar was looking down at the pad in front of him. Gizmo was just ab
out to turn away when he saw it again.
It was almost as though he were watching an old time TV with a poor signal. Kotar looked just as he had when they first met him then it seemed like his image flickered and momentarily his image changed into another very different creature. Stunned, Gizmo watched as Kotar now reverted to his true form.
Form changers, he thought. As he looked around the table, all of their hosts had reverted back to their original form. There was no longer a reason to keep up the pretense. They each had very large unevenly shaped hairless heads in a mauve hue with big pointy ears. They resembled stick figures with thin bodies and long skinny arms ending in smallish hands with seven long fingers. It was when Kotar stood that they noticed he had three very long legs. In the silence that followed Gizmo saw their large bulging eyes were all focused on them. Gizmo was only sure of one thing. They had to make a quick get-away. With Marco’s telepathic abilities, he thought, “Marco, Giselle, now.”
Suddenly laser guns appeared in the long boney fingers of their hosts. Where they had come from and how they had appeared so fast, they were not sure. As the guns started to come up in their direction, Gizmo grabbed Marco’s arm and they were suddenly back in Giselle.
“Now Giselle,” Gizmo yelled. “Get us out of here.”
They looked out the windows of Giselle at the large group of aliens gathered around them all pointing guns in their direction.
“Giselle?”
They were suddenly back in space.
§§§