“Perhaps this would be the best place anyway,” said Tar Gibbons. “After all, BKR would hardly expect you to stay here waiting for him. So staying and waiting might be the wisest thing to do. Of course, he might think that we would think that, and decide to come here anyway. Or he might think that we would think that he thought that, and if we did think that then we would—” The Tar paused, squinched up its face, then said, “Oh, never mind.”
Madame Pong smiled. “Actually, staying here might be a good idea, if not for the fact that I suspect there is a traitor in the Mentat.”
“A traitor in the Mentat?” cried Snout in disbelief.
“I fear our diplomat is correct,” said Tar Gibbons. “Otherwise, how to explain the escape of Smorkus Flinders so soon after we had handed him over to their authority?” It turned to Madame Pong. “I bow to your superior wisdom, good lady. Where do you have in mind?”
Madame Pong smiled. “Not long ago I promised Rod’s mother we would take him to see the weeping forests of Kryndamar. Perhaps this is the time to make good on that promise—especially since Kryndamar is only a dimensional jump or two away. We don’t want to delay those going after BKR any longer than necessary.”
“Agreed,” said Grakker. He turned to Snout. “And where will you go, Flinge Iblik?” he asked, using our Mental Master’s formal name.
Snout was silent for a moment, his lizardlike purple face still and unreadable. Finally he said, “I am torn. I long to accompany my captain on his mission, to give him aid and support. I also desire to be part of the hunt for BKR. However, I think it is best if I forego both those choices and stay with Madame Pong’s group. Otherwise, Rod will have no way to communicate.”
“Then I shall accompany Captain Grakker,” burped Phil. “After all, he needs someone to run the ship.”
“I can run the Ferkel perfectly well,” growled Grakker.
Phil waved a tendril at him. “It is not fitting for you to return alone, Captain.”
“I am not a captain!” shouted Grakker. “I gave up that honor when I went against Galactic orders to go in search of BKR.”
“You will always be Captain to us,” said Madame Pong quietly.
Grakker blinked, and for a second I almost thought I saw his lip tremble. Then he said gruffly, “Do not make your crime any worse than it already is. Prepare the Ferkel for departure. Ah-Rit, I think it is best if you use your ship to take Rod and the others to Kryndamar.”
And that was how the crew of the Ferkel divided into three parts.
As we left the meeting, I felt the way I did after Dad had disappeared; I felt like I was losing my family.
Which made me wonder how Mom was doing back on Earth, with both me and Dad gone, and only the twins still at home. Even though Little Thing One and Little Thing Two (my pet names for the twins) had bugged me something fierce, I missed them like crazy.
Don’t get sentimental! ordered Seymour. With an eyeball like mine, if we start to cry, we’ll probably get dehydrated.
Sometimes I wanted to kick him. Of course, since I was inside his body, that would have hurt me as much as it did him. Besides, when it came right down to it, he had more control of the body than I did. That annoyed me, but was basically fair, since it really was his body, and I was only a visitor.
“Rod, come for a little walk with me, would you?” said Dad. “We need to talk.” He turned to Snout and asked him to come, too.
Normally I would have been glad for an invitation like that. Since I had found Dad, I tried to be with him as much as possible. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk to him right now. I was too mad.
What made things worse was that deep down inside I knew he was right; I shouldn’t go on the quest for BKR.
The problem was, going after him was the thing I wanted most in all the world to do.
We left the Ferkel. This did not take us outside, exactly. We were deep underground, beneath the Mentat, the school where Mental Masters like Snout are trained.
Not only were we underground, we were actually inside the belly of an incredibly huge beast—a beast so vast and enormous its stony insides were like massive caverns. My father had helped create this beast, which gnawed ceaselessly at the roots of the great tree that housed the Mentat.
When I had asked Dad if the beast wouldn’t destroy the tree of the Mentat, he had shrugged and said, “Perhaps. Perhaps not. For now, they are in balance. The tree grows, the beast gnaws, and everything stays the same.”
Dad had retreated into the beast to hide from BKR when he realized what the little villain really intended to do with the project they had been working on together. Now Snout and Seymour and I followed him through a series of tunnels that led to the chamber where he kept his ship, the Jean. (He had named it in honor of my mother.)
As we walked, we heard a great thump—the beating of the beast’s heart. According to Dad, the heart was a piece of living stone the size of our house back on Earth. Rather than blood, the beast had hot lava flowing through the rocky channels that made up its veins.
* * *
As we approached the Jean, we saw someone waiting nearby. It was Selima Khan, who had helped us escape from the dungeons beneath the Mentat. She looked like a female version of Snout. This wasn’t surprising; the two of them were from not only the same planet, but the same egg group.
“Greetings, Flinge Iblik,” she said now, using Snout’s formal name.
“Greetings,” replied Snout, making a hand gesture I had never seen before.
Selima Khan’s eyes widened. She swept her cloak around her in a swirl of purple, threw her head back, and stalked off without another word.
Holy cow, what’s wrong with her? asked Seymour—speaking inside my head, of course.
I don’t have the slightest idea, I replied.
I wanted to ask Snout about it, but he had broken his contact with us.
We turned to the ship, and I studied it with pleasure. (One of the few good things about being stuck inside Seymour was that he had the most phenomenal eyesight you can imagine. I saw things more clearly, and in more detail, than I ever had before.)
The ship was sleek and powerful, and it pleased me that it belonged to my father.
* * *
The room we sat in to talk was very comfortable, not only physically but mentally—mostly because it looked more like the kind of place where I had grown up than anything on the Ferkel did. Dad’s ancient Earth background, I guess.
“How you doing, son?” he asked, once we were all sitting.
I’m okay, I thought.
You are not, replied Seymour, even as Snout spoke the words out loud for me.
Seymour was right, of course; I wasn’t okay, and we all knew it. I was terrified about what was going to happen, crushed because I was going to be separated from Dad again, and totally freaked out over being stuck in an alien body.
Dad sighed. “Rod, I wish things could be different.”
So do I! I thought quickly.
If I had been doing my own talking, I might have kept that thought to myself. As it was, Snout repeated it before I could stop him.
“Well, I can’t blame you for that,” said Dad. He paused, sighed, then said, “Listen, son, I have some things I need to tell you. When I settled on Earth and married your mother, I thought it was going to be the end of my wanderings. Probably I was fooling myself, which is the greatest error anyone can make—especially someone who is supposed to be a Mental Master. So I want to tell you I’m sorry. If I had known this would happen . . .”
He spread his hands helplessly. What could he say? That if he had known this was going to happen, he would never have married Mom . . . never have had me?
I thought about that for a second. Would I rather not exist than be in this situation? Absolutely not. I loved being alive.
I just wanted my body back.
“It’s okay, Dad,” I said, through Snout.
He smiled. “Look, Buster—I’m supposed to be reassuring you, not th
e other way around.” He paused again, then said, “I thought you might like to see some pictures.”
“What kind of pictures?”
“Sort of a . . . family album.”
He touched a button. One of the walls turned into a viewing screen, showing three-dimensional images that looked so real I felt as if I could walk into them. And I did want to walk into them, because what Dad had to show me was a series of pictures of his hometown, ancient Atlantis. I loved seeing that strange and beautiful city, with its graceful towers and weird statues. What I loved even more were the pictures he showed me of his family. After all, even though they had died 35,000 years ago, his parents were my grandparents; his brothers and sisters my aunts and uncles. It was good to see their faces. But it also left me wondering what it would have been like to grow up knowing them.
“This was my little brother, Kah-nath,” said Dad, flashing a picture of a handsome young man of about twenty. He had bright red hair, and a quizzical expression that made you think he was interested in everything in the world. “He was my favorite. We used to—”
Dad’s words were cut off by a rumbling sound.
The ship began to shake.
Edgar eeeped in alarm.
What’s that! I thought.
“It’s the beast!” cried Dad, answering even though Snout had not spoken my words aloud. “It’s still disturbed by the fight we had here with BKR and Smorkus Flinders.”
“So this is just indigestion?” asked Snout as the ship shuddered again.
“When you’re inside a creature this big, indigestion can be fatal!” replied my father urgently. Even as he spoke, we heard another rumble. The ship lurched sideways.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” cried Dad. “Right now! Flinge Iblik, contact the Ferkel. Tell them to follow me.”
Snout went to the ship’s radio. No sooner had he delivered the message than he cried, “Selima Khan! She’s still outside. We can’t leave her!”
Racing past Seymour and me, he plunged through the door of the ship, into the heaving belly of the beast.
CHAPTER
3
Indigestion
MY FATHER SWORE WHEN HE saw Snout leave. Turning to Seymour and me, he shouted, “Go to the door. See if you can spot Snout and Selima Khan. I can only give them a couple of minutes. Then we’ll have to head out of here.”
Edgar clung to our neck, eeeping like crazy, as we hurried to the door of the ship.
Our friends were nowhere in sight.
We’ve got to find them, I thought urgently.
Got any bright ideas? asked Seymour as another spasm shook the walls.
Yeah—we go look.
You’ve got to be kidding! It’s dangerous out there!
As if to prove Seymour’s point, a huge rock fell from the ceiling, landing about ten yards from the ship.
That’s why we’ve got to find them! I replied, though I was getting more frightened myself.
Well, count me out, answered Seymour. He started to back up—taking me with him, of course.
I was furious. We couldn’t just leave Snout and Selima Khan. I said, we’ve got to find them! I thought fiercely.
Then I did something that astonished both of us: I took control of our body. Leaping through the door, I landed on all sixes and raced in the direction Selima Khan had headed when she left the ship.
What are you doing? demanded Seymour. Where are you going? This is my body. Give it back!
“EEEEEeeeeeEEEEeeeeEEEEEp!” wailed Edgar, still clinging desperately to our neck.
I didn’t say anything; I was putting all my attention into looking for Snout.
I’ve been bodyjacked! accused Seymour.
I’ll give it back as soon as we’ve found Snout! I replied, hoping to shut him up so I could concentrate.
Give it back now, or I’ll never speak to you again!
Is that a promise?
Before Seymour could answer, the ground rippled beneath us as if a wave was rushing through it. The movement knocked us off our feet. A nearby stone column collapsed, just missing us. Dust got in our eye. It stung, and we began blinking like crazy.
Turn back! pleaded Seymour.
Ignoring him, I scrambled to our feet and hurried forward. Snout! I thought desperately. Snout, where are you?
He didn’t answer. Not surprising, since we weren’t in contact at the moment.
We kept going, Seymour grumbling all the way. Then, scrambling over an undulating pile of rock, we saw them.
It was worse than I had feared. Selima Khan was trapped under a pile of rubble, buried from the waist down. Her eyes were closed, and she wasn’t moving. I wondered whether she was unconscious . . . or dead.
“Help me!” cried Snout desperately when he saw us. “We’ve got to get her out!” He was already pawing at the rocks, flinging them away from her body as fast as he could.
Selima Khan moaned, and I felt a surge of relief. At least she was still alive.
I raced to Snout’s side.
Okay, thought Seymour grudgingly. As long as we’re here, I suppose we can help.
We started to dig, our little blue paws scrabbling at the loose stones. Seymour’s body turned out to be well designed for the job—we were able to use our middle and back legs at the same time, so we had four paws going instead of just two.
Suddenly I heard a horrible cracking noise above us.
Don’t look up! thought Seymour, even as I did exactly that. A rain of dust and pebbles showered down, filling our huge eye with grit. I longed for a mouth so I could howl out in agony. Thick tears welled up, washing away some of the grit, but none of the pain.
Edgar, picking up on our distress, eeeped like crazy.
I told you not to look up! thought Seymour bitterly. If you’re going to steal someone’s body, you should take better care of it.
Shut up and dig! I replied, trying not to let him know how guilty I felt—which he probably did anyway, since we didn’t have many secrets inside that head.
We dug.
A pillar of fire erupted next to us.
We doubled our efforts, trying to ignore our blurred vision, and the burning pain in our huge eye.
Suddenly Snout stood and closed his own eyes. At first I wondered why he had stopped helping. Then I decided he was trying to make mental contact with my father, to tell him where we were.
It must have worked, because a minute later the Jean came zooming into the cavern. It was only a couple of feet long now, and I realized it must have the same shrinking capacity as the Ferkel. At first, I figured Dad would just shrink us, too, and that would get Selima Khan free.
Are you kidding? scoffed Seymour. If he shrinks her right now, one of these rocks will roll in and squash her flat. Come on—let’s help Snout with that big one.
We stepped beside the Mental Master and helped him push against the large boulder pinning down Selima Khan’s left leg. As we worked the floor beneath us rocked and heaved, the movements so wild we could hardly stay on our feet. Sounds like thunder rumbled around us, punctuated by the hiss of gas. I was afraid the whole chamber would explode before we could get Selima Khan free. Either that, or collapse on top of us.
Suddenly the Ferkel flew into sight. It, too, had shrunk down. It hovered next to my father’s ship.
“Work together!” shouted Snout to Seymour and me. “Don’t push again until I count three.”
It wasn’t easy to wait, even for a few seconds, with the chaos that was raging around us. More rocks fell from the ceiling. Flames continued to erupt on all sides.
“One!” cried Snout, bellowing to be heard. “Two! Three!”
We pushed with all our might.
The boulder rolled forward a few inches, then rocked back.
Selima Khan groaned in pain.
“Again!” called Snout. “One. Two! THREE!”
Again we pushed. Again the boulder rolled forward, then began to teeter back.
“Push!” shrieked Snout. “PU
SH!”
We pushed, straining so hard I could feel something snap in our shoulder.
At the same moment the boulder rolled away.
Almost instantly a purple ray shot out from Dad’s ship, and we began to shrink. Soon the falling rocks looked like falling mountains. By the time we were down to a couple of inches, the flames seemed as high as skyscrapers. But almost instantly another ray pulled us into the ship.
Safe at last! I thought, so relieved I could almost ignore our throbbing eye and the sharp stab of pain in our shoulder.
As if reading my mind, Dad said grimly, “Now, all we have to do is get out of here in one piece.”
He was right, of course. We weren’t anywhere near safe yet. Not while we were still inside the beast.
“Captain Grakker!” Dad snapped into the radio. “Follow me.”
We started a desperate flight through the belly of the beast, dodging the falling rocks, the bursts of flame, the sudden contractions of the stony walls.
Snout crouched beside Selima Khan, holding her hand. His eyes were closed, and I got the feeling he was trying to beam mental energy into her, to keep her alive through the sheer force of his mind.
As for Seymour and me, our shoulder was throbbing with pain and our eyeball felt as if someone had attacked it with sandpaper. Thick tears continued to well up, making it hard for us to see. Even so, we focused our blurry vision on the large viewscreens.
By the glow of the ship’s exterior lights we could see that we were hurtling through rocky tunnels, coming terrifyingly close to the walls, especially on the turns.
Suddenly the ship jolted forward, as if we had been struck from behind. It tumbled end over end, tossing us about like Ping-Pong balls in a shoebox.
“What’s happening?” cried Snout.
“More indigestion,” replied my father grimly, gripping the controls so tightly his knuckles turned white. “The beast is expelling some gas.”
Great! I thought to Seymour. We’re caught in a giant fart storm!
At least the ship has its own air supply, he replied—which made me wonder what the fart of a vast stone beast would smell like, anyway.
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