Standing

by China Dennington

  Keed was still leaning out of the ship, staring at them and the approaching people in horror. They had been knocked farther from the ship.

  “Hurry!” cried Keed, beckoning to them.

  “No! Go!” called Force.

  Keed looked uncertain.

  “Go!” Force cried out again.

  The soldiers were getting closer. This time Keed didn’t hesitate. The ship started rising at a moderate rate.

  With that, Force grabbed Gale’s hand and they started swimming as fast as they could. Gale had no idea what he was doing, but she trusted him. She trusted him with all of her heart.

  “They’re gaining on us! We can’t outswim them!” cried Gale, looking over her shoulder.

  “Just follow me, I have a plan,” Force said.

  Gale’s breath was coming and going very fast. The feeling of the water rushing in and out of her lungs made her dizzy. Force was used to it since he had lived in the water all of his life, but she wasn’t. Force and Gale zigged and zagged, trying to lose the mini army. That was how Gale had come to think of them.

  After ten minutes of intense swimming Gale glanced back, realizing how quickly the attack squad was gaining on them. Force better put his plan into action soon! she thought. As she was looking back, one of the people aimed and fired his weapon. Gale gasped in horror. It looked like it was happening in slow motion, she didn’t have time to warn him. A focused shot of electricity rocketed through the water. The moment before it hit him, Force made an abrupt turn to go behind a rock, pulling Gale with him. The bolt of electricity hit his shoulder. He grimaced in pain, but he didn’t stop. Behind the rock he did another turn into the rock. Gale had no idea what he was doing and she couldn’t slow down, so she braced for impact thinking, It’s all over, we have failed.

  CHAPTER NINE

  She braced for impact, but...none came! Gale opened her eyes. They were in the center of a tiny metal chamber with barely enough room for the two of them. Suddenly she realized that the rock formation had been an illusion. Force motioned for Gale to be quiet. He knelt down on the floor and flipped open a small panel. On it was a fingerprint scanner. He placed his second finger on it. After a moment, a small concealed trapdoor flipped open.

  “Come on,” said Force climbing down into the dark space through the trapdoor. Gale could tell that he was in serious pain. At least we’re almost safe. I should be able to make sure that he’s okay in a minute. As soon as she was far enough into the darkness for her head to be out of the way of the hatch, it closed. She was now climbing down a ladder.

  “How far is it down?” called Gale into the complete darkness below her.

  “Not that far, just keeping going,” answered Force.

  So Gale did. A few seconds later she reached the bottom, then a light that Force had just activated came on. It was a very white light that shone straight through the blue water.

  Gale swam over to Force, “Are you alright?”

  “It hurts really sharply, but I should be okay. It just brushed me, I’m lucky it didn’t hit me full on,” he replied.

  Gale smiled and sat down, she motioned for Force to do the same. She wanted to take his mind off of the pain, so she decided to ask a few questions that she had.

  “I have a question. Why can we walk and sit down here without any effort? I mean shouldn’t we be crushed? I feel like the gravity is less than on earth but greater than how it would be on the moon.”

  Force smiled, “When you have the ability to time travel, your body reacts differently to water. It’s called the equilibrium effect.”

  “But what about Ginvay’s people who were down here?” asked Gale.

  “They must have found a way to counter the pressure,” Force replied.

  “What is this place and why did your fingerprint open the hatch?” Gale asked curiously as she looked around.

  “It’s an old Dellinian hiding place. It was used for shelter when deep sea storms came. But it works for this purpose also.” He grinned.

  “There is one thing I keep trying to figure out. When Keed sent the message, how could Dellinia be destroyed? I keep thinking with a bomb of some type, but that wouldn’t have much effect here if it detonated on land.”

  “It’s completely possible that they could do it by accident. One scenario is if the bomb ignites the atmosphere and burns it up. These bombs could be configured so that the electrons change sequence during each attack, sending out zeta radiation, causing the electron’s charges to reverse. Then when it hits the atmosphere it could overload and the…nevermind, suffice to say that Dellinia and everything else would be sucked into the vacuum of space.”

  Gale smiled, she felt like she had been told a secret. Force is kind of...a genius.

  “One more question, how are we going to get out of here? Without evidence that we’ve died, the commandos may keep searching for us.”

  Force raised his hand. “I have a solution for that also. This room holds more than it appears to.” He stood up, walked to the wall, and said, “Voice affirmation, Force eight-one-two-two-four-three.” Then a door in the wall slid open, revealing a cave tunnel in which lights began to come on.

  “What is it with hidden doors today?” asked Gale jokingly as she stood up.

  Force smiled. “Come on,” he said motioning to the door, “I’ve done the math, and this tunnel will emerge on the surface only a few miles away from Keesen.”

  Gale raised her eyebrows. “That’s handy!”

  “Yep!” replied Force as they started down the tunnel and the cold metallic door silently slid shut behind them.

  “Force, why did you tell Keed to go?”

  “Simple, we were too far away. If we had gotten there and started the ascent, then we wouldn’t have had time to escape. You saw for yourself how the evacuation ships aren’t the fastest rising machines, and of course I knew about this place. So it made sense that both groups should survive and not die trying to get to each other. Now it’s my turn to ask you a question. Do you have permission from your parents to put your life in danger again and again to save the world?” Force asked grinning.

  She laughed. “Let’s just say I got a...save the world exception.”

  He grinned once again, “Well, at least I’m here to protect you, otherwise I would be very uneasy.”

  “You wouldn’t even have known me!”

  “Maybe not, but I would know you were in danger.”

  “How’s that?”

  He just gave her a mischievous grin.

  Gale looked up and smiled slightly. It was nice to have someone familiar in this strange underwater world with all of it’s workings.

  After they had been walking through the water for a few hours, Gale noticed something on the walls. “Wait a second! Let me look at these.”

  Force paused. On the walls were colorful paintings of graceful mermaids and beautiful ships. There were a few murals of a planet that looked like a sphere with no sky or atmosphere, just water and a rock core surrounded by space. There was even one image that Gale instantly recognized as the Continuance. She was filled with wonder at the beauty of the colors and shapes.

  One picture in particular drew her attention. A mergirl with red hair and a golden tail looked out into the distance as her hair was blown by the wind. There was a round red and black mark on her arm.

  “Who’s she?” Gale asked, motioning to the mermaid.

  “Astrid, she was the one who found out that the planet was dying and led everyone here.”

  Gale looked at it again, wondering what the rest of this mergirl’s story was. Was that girl like me? Did she have some of the same struggles?

  “Beautiful aren’t they? Some of the first Dellinian settlers that came here painted these. It tells about their journey from their dying planet to earth. Then over here it tells about them building and setting up the government of Dellinia,” said Force, walking a little further down the tunnel. Gale followed and looked. Where Force had indicated were pictures of Dellin
ians building and and talking in groups. It made her smile.

  After a few minutes, with a reluctant sigh, Gale said, “Alright, I’m ready to move on.” She started walking again, and Force followed her.

  For the next two days they trekked on. In the middle of the second day they emerged above sea level. They discovered that they had to sleep on the rock floor because they had forgotten to bring the black bag. Gale was continually amazed by the gorgeous murals that told the stories of the Dellinians. Every stroke was elegant and had purpose, yet the paintings were almost abstract.

  On the morning of the third day, Gale saw some real light coming up from ahead.

  She turned to Force and said, “Looks like some non-artificial lights! I think that we’re near the end of the tunnel!”

  Force grinned. A few minutes later they walked into the sunlight. A light layer of snow covered the ground, and the sun shone brightly across a plain with no trees.

  “Well, it looks like it isn’t going to storm this time!” said Force.

  After about an hour of walking, Keesen emerged into view on the horizon. Force and Gale stopped a moment to look at it. The pitch black exteriors of the buildings rose into the sky, strong and evil. Unlike the buildings in Draysok, these were shiny and maintained, but only for a display of power. Keesen was much, much bigger than Draysok. It spread across the horizon tall, proud, imposing, and cruel. Force and Gale stood for a few minutes facing the sight of the final battleground.

  Force broke the silence a few minutes later by saying, “The camp should be about two miles to the west.”

  Gale smile and replied, “You’re pretty good with directions, aren’t you?”

  “I’d like to think so,” he said with a grin.

  They turned and started the short walk to the camp.

  They saw the grey camp just ahead of them. It blended into the snow, so hopefully none of Ginvay’s troops would spot it. Tivia was the first one to see them. She ran out to them, her golden hair flying behind her.

  “Hi! I’m glad you’re back!” Tivia said.

  “Me too!” answered Force.

  Tivia feigned disappointment, “Did you two have an adventure without me?”

  Force looked at Gale with a grin, “I’ll say we did!”

  “Yep,” Gale replied.

  She burst out laughing hard at the improbability of the situation. Here I am talking to my descendant about talking to the head of a country of mermaids who came here from another planet.

  “What?” asked Tivia.

  “Oh, nothing.”

  Tivia smiled. It must be strange for her too, thought Gale. They slowly walked back to camp, happily talking all of the way. When they reached the grey tents, Gale turned toward Force and said, “You’d better go to the medical tent to have that shoulder taken care of.” She looked at the singed, long sleeved black outfit and burnt shoulder.

  “I’ll be fine,” he answered as he started to walk in the opposite direction of the medical tent.

  “Ah, ah, ah! To... the...medical tent!”

  Force threw up his hands and laughed, “Okay! Okay!” then went to go get his shoulder assessed. Junior joined him along the way.

  Gale didn’t really have anything to do, so she went and sat down on one of the heavy tarps that surrounded the swiftfires. The joints in her arms and legs ached— for that matter, everything ached. It felt good to just sit down. She closed her eyes for a moment to rest and think.

  Several minutes later a voice interrupted her reverie. “I see that you’ve had an adventure, and you will have a few more before you are done.”

  Gale’s eyelids opened to meet Lynn’s twinkling blue eyes. “How do you know these things?” she asked in total amazement. She was at the point of wild curiosity.

  Lynn smiled and then slowly sat down beside Gale. “Now is a good time to tell you my story.”

  Slowly, with a mysterious smile, she drew back her white hair from her ear. Gale gasped. Her ear was pointed!

  Lynn began to speak, “I am the very last elf.”

  An elf!

  She smiled, “I know that you have many questions, but first let me tell you all about my kind. That should answer many of your queries.” She began, “Contrary to what some people believe, elves cannot grant wishes, but we do have certain special powers. Our powers mostly have to do with the mind. For example, we can read people’s thoughts when we want to. We can also feel the presence of every other elf on the planet. That is how I know I am the last one.” She shook her head sadly. “They were all destroyed in the bombings, I am the only one that escaped. The elfish race has existed on this planet since humans have. Some of us lived among mankind, and others preferred the quiet of the woods or a cavern. I have always enjoyed living among humanity myself.” She crossed her arms and smiled with the remembrance of some long lost memory, then looked over at Gale, “We live for about a thousand years apiece. I, for example, remember wearing one of those huge horrid dresses to a ball that the king of Spain threw. It was quite extravagant! The music was excellent and the food was even better. It went on for hours, I remember just waiting to get home and out of that dress!” She paused for a moment, “We also have the power do small things...like this.”

  She raised her hand into the air. Gale watched in complete amazement as pink sparkling specs began swirling around Lynn’s outstretched hand. They swirled and swirled, and then suddenly came together as a strawberry!

  “What?” asked Gale her eyes wide. “Magic? How did you do that?”

  Lynn chuckled as she handed the full red berry to Gale. “No, my dear, not magic, an ability. With our minds we can bring together the molecules in the air to produce small objects, or, say, clean something quickly.”

  “How did you know what the future was before I came here? Did you read my mind about the destruction of the world?”

  Lynn looked surprised for a moment, then she nodded with understanding. “No, I had not read your mind about that until just now. That’s another gift that some elves possess, and some humans as well. Wisdom. It is the most wonderful kind of gift— but remember, if you gain it, then follow it. For it’s not given to you so that you can waste it.” Lynn smiled.

  There was something about the twinkle in the eye of this old elf and the very space that surrounded her that gave Lynn a magical air. Gale just stared in wonder at her.

  Lynn got up. “Remember that if you ever need me, then I will be here to help you.”

  She walked away leaving Gale sitting on the tarp. Gale laughed out loud. That is so cool!

  That night, Gale and Force related their adventure in Dellinia to Liam, Tivia, and Junior over dinner. They decided that the next day they would have a meeting to decide how to infiltrate Keesen. Gale was getting hints already from Taynar that it was going be a lot harder to defeat Ginvay than it had been to defeat Jaegear.

  CHAPTER TEN

  She was an old woman who looked young. She had seen many things, good and bad. A sixteenth century ballroom spread before her. Her crimson dress swirled around her feet as she headed toward the refreshments table. Many things seen. The stench within the castle permeated the air. She watched as shifty-eyed nobles whispered together, probably plotting to get more land. Everyone pushed past each other roughly. You would expect some decorum to be shown in a royal court, but that was not the case. Then she was suddenly rushing through the woods with President Franklin Roosevelt. He had been in office for about a year now. She had been advising him all throughout it. Now she was in the process of saving him from an assassin. She had read the perpetrator’s mind right before he fired his shot. Now the assassin was in pursuit. This was the Secret Service’s job, but she wasn’t going to abandon a friend in need. Unfortunately, Roosevelt had become so fed up with the Secret Service being with him every second of the day that he had gone out to his country home and ordered them to stay away. They were safe. Finally. Many things seen. Then she was by the ocean. She was watching a fourteen-year-old Gale shy away fr
om the water as her siblings splashed. Something about the girl rang a bell like a memory long lost. It was on the edge of her memory, but she couldn’t quite get it. Many things seen. She could tell there was something special about this girl. Then she was in a computer lab. She finally cracked the last bit of her science formula! This would allow for person-sized flying machines to be made in a few years! Scientists all around the room were jumping up and down and congratulating her. Many things seen. She looked down and smiled at a newspaper that showed a picture of nineteen-year-old Gale. Its headline was, Queen of Europa Elected. She stood on a cliff feeling utterly helpless as the cities that she had watched rise from the ground crashed. Bombs were destroying the peaceful world that had lasted one-hundred and eighty years. Many things seen.

  Gale woke up in a cold sweat. Where were all of these strange dreams coming from?

  Gale got up even though it was still dark and the sky was barely starting to turn pink. She enjoyed the crisp morning air as she thought about her dreams. Then Lynn came up behind her. Gale gave a little jump as she tapped her on the shoulder.

  “Good morning, Gale. That is quite puzzling indeed. I had the same dream that you did last night.”

  Gale turned to her, “You did?”

  “Yes, the dream itself was made up of fractions of my memories.”

  Gale’s eyes widened.

  Lynn’s face was contemplative, “Sit down, I believe I have the answers to some of your questions.”