by Dan Kelly
As they climb down from the vehicle, they can’t help but notice that there is no sign of life anywhere. All they see are open fields bordered by forests and they hear what sounds like rushing water. Artie Asteroid immediately falls in love with the place, but the others have a wait and see attitude. “Where is everybody?”, thinks Pulsar. “There are a lot of buildings, a lot of vehicles, but no bodies in or around them.”
Pointer escorts them into the building and down a long wide hallway which ends at what looks like a classroom from the doorway. A voice calls out from the front of the room saying, “Please come in and take a seat up front. I’ll be right with you.” As they enter the classroom, they see that the room is a lot larger than it appears from out in the hallway. There is a good sized rostrum up at the front and a small office just off to the left of the rostrum. Two men are standing in the doorway of the office discussing what sounds like a schedule of some kind that is to be followed today. It’s not long before they finish their conversation and one of them leaves.
The other walks over to where their small group is sitting and says, “Hello and welcome to Camp Chameleon. My name is Commander Roozag and I’ve been assigned the task of helping you experiment with your powers so you will have a better idea of how effective they can be in different environments and on different life forms. If you assumed that this is some kind of military complex, you assumed correctly. This is also a highly secret facility and what you see, hear and learn during your visit with us is not to be shared with anyone but Queen Quasar.
“Your Queen is aware of the type of training that goes on here and has asked us to assist in helping you to hone your powers, making them optimally effective while maintaining maximum self- control. We will also be helping you expand your knowledge about the different ways your powers might be used in a broad variety of situations. You will be staying with us for two weeks and during that time you will be expected to concentrate as hard as you can so you can learn as much as you can. This is not intended to be some kind of vacation, but I can guarantee you that if you apply yourselves you will find that the learning process will also be a lot of fun. Are there any questions?”
Pulsar raises his hand and the Commander acknowledges him. “Commander, where is everybody? We’ve only seen you and the man you were talking with since we arrived. This being a military base of some kind, I thought there would be a lot of life forms moving about.”
The Commander smiled and said, “Follow me.” He leads them outside and tells them to stand in front of their vehicle. He then instructs them to look carefully around and call out if they see anybody. Five minutes go by with no one sighting anyone. The Commander jokingly says, “When was the last time you had your eyes examined? I find it hard to believe that all of you need corrective surgery.” The group looks around again, but they still don’t see anybody. Suddenly the Commander yells, “Reveal” and the next instant there is movement everywhere. The Commander turns to face them with a broad grin on his face and a proud gleam in his eyes and softly says, “ My troops also want to welcome you to Camp Chameleon.” and laughter erupts all over the place.
After the laughter dies down the Commander says, “Now you know why this base is called Camp Chameleon. We figured seeing for yourselves would have a much greater impact than us telling you, so we planned this little surprise. The troops have been practicing for weeks and judging from the looks on your faces you certainly were surprised.”
Headmaster Herby and the Power Pack readily admit to being completely fooled and are somewhat in awe of what they have just witnessed. Bushes , trees, fountains, walls, piles of leaves, parts of terraces, the doorway to the building they were just in, roofs, vehicles, even the vehicle they came in, all of these stood out in plain sight along with the troops using them for cover and no one saw a thing until they were ordered to move. Commander Roozag adds, “What you have just seen demonstrated is just one of the many new things you will learn during your training here.” Headmaster Herby and the Power Pack can’t wait to get started.
Chapter 14
The next two weeks are filled with adventure and crammed with a lot of new things to learn. Early in the morning of the first full day at Camp Chameleon the Pack is assembled in the Camp’s gymnasium and Commander Roozag is lecturing them. “As you know, the strength of your individual powers is directly proportional to the degree of concentration you employ. The degree you select must be attuned to the situation and environmental conditions existing when you elect to use your power. Too little or too much leads to under kill or over kill which frequently makes the situation worse instead of better. To acquire this fine tuning skill requires practice and lots of it. You are going to get a lot of practice here. Factors affecting environments include such things as gravity, radiation, density, ionization, temperature and moisture. Changes in these factors require changes in the degree of concentration to be used.
“Another variable to be addressed is the life form involved. Different life forms will react differently to some of your powers and there are many different life forms in the universe. A key reason for the Pack to be here on Croag is that you can be exposed to some of these different life forms and experience real life interaction with them. The troops at Camp Chameleon are all Croagans and thus have the ability to assume the physical, mental and emotional characteristics of many alien populations. This is an ideal place to receive the instruction you need.” Commander Roozag begins their first lesson by assuming the physique, mannerisms, attitudes, thought processes and emotional responses of an alien creature the group has never seen before. He also begins to speak in a language unknown to them.
As with all novices in any situation, they were at a loss as to what to say or do. They just stood there and stared. Commander Roozag has assumed the appearance of a rather small but terrifying spectacle of a gnome-like creature with three heavy lidded charcoal black eyes, one above two others side by side. He has two holes where they have a nose with snake-like tongues flicking out intermittently and a larger hole where they have a mouth. His legs are short, but his feet are large and he has two sets of arms, one set above the other, and the hands are large, each with six finger-like appendages. His head is covered with what look like fish scales.
The Commander makes a sudden and aggressive move towards Headmaster Herby as if to strike him and they all retreat about ten feet in a state of alarm. The Commander starts waving his arms in an irritated manner, advances towards them and begins to yell. The Pack reacts decisively, with Artie picking up a huge statue and preparing to throw it at the creature, Belinda disappearing, Gracie generating an enormous amount of light with the hope of blinding the creature, Sally radiating heat intense enough to burn the creature on contact, Pulsar shooting huge lightening bolts with the hope of shocking the creature into unconsciousness, Tommy bringing up huge gusts of wind attempting to blow the creature off his feet, Norman broadcasting intense brainwaves trying to confuse the creature and the rest of the Pack looking for something to use as a weapon to fend the creature off. It is quite a sight. Then, in a blink of an eye, the Commander is back to looking like them.
For a few minutes no one says anything and the Pack gradually calms down. Once he sees that the Pack has their emotions under control, the Commander speaks. “Well now, what did you learn from this little experiment?”
Pulsar says, “Our initial reaction was out of fear instead of controlled caution and we overreacted. We too quickly assumed that you meant Headmaster Herby and the rest of us harm.”
“Very good, Pulsar. That is an accurate assessment, but none of you should be embarrassed about what you did. Your reaction was perfectly normal for someone who has never been confronted by a Werbik before.
“Werbiks are from the planet Solzen in the Vordinar galaxy and they are an interesting
species. I will tell you more about them in a minute. How about the rest of you? What have you learned?” They all responded at once, but basically they all said the same thing. It
was a lot harder for them to summon up their powers on Croag than on Proton and the powers seemed weaker. “To what do you attribute this, the situation, the life form or the environment?”
Casey Cloudburst shrugs his shoulders and says, “I’m not positive, but I think it’s a combination of all three. I definitely think part of the problem has something to do with the level of our concentration. There was an incident on Proton recently where just by sneezing my power was dissipated and we all know that when we become too emotional we lose control over our powers.”
“Casey, to use an old Earth expression, you hit the nail on the head. Your fear interfered with your ability to draw on your powers. It interfered with your concentration. The more you experience these types of alien situations the better able you will be to control your emotions and your powers. During your stay with us, we’re going to do our very best to give you as much knowledge as possible to help you deal with your fear.
“As for the part environmental factors played in your inability to fully draw upon your powers, Artie, you noticed that it took more effort for you to pick up that statue. That’s because gravity on Croag is a little stronger than it is on Proton, about ten percent stronger. Gracie, Sally, Pulsar, you all experienced more difficulty in drawing upon your powers because they are all electrical energy related and here on Croag the electrical frequency ranges are much broader and the magnetic fields associated with them are much stronger than on Proton. Tommy, the humidity on Croag is much higher and the density of particles in the atmosphere much greater, therefore, you were unable to generate winds strong enough to blow the Werbik off his feet.
“Now there are some other factors at play here that you should be aware of and store in your memories. When the Werbik tried to get closer to Headmaster Herby and then to the rest of you, all of you assumed he meant to harm you and this was not the case at all. You see, Werbiks have excellent night vision but poor day vision. The planet Solzen has a sun that emits a bluish indigo radiation, so it’s always dusky during the day. At night, the only light comes from the stars in the sky because there is no moon. The Werbik wanted to get closer to you so he could see you better. The arm waving and yelling was nothing more than a sign of his frustration over you not letting him get closer to you.”
As the Commander is speaking, the Pack is getting a much better idea of how much they have to learn. Pulsar whispers to Gracie, “When you started to glow like a beacon, that probably hurt his eyes a lot.”
The rest of the week just flies by. They are kept so busy that they don’t have time to do anything else but learn and sleep. Unbeknown to the Commander and the Pack is the covert monitoring of what is going on in their class by one of the Camp’s civilian maintenance people. Everything this guy sees is reported to the Chief of Planet Security on Erebus via an intermediary who is the head of one of Croag’s largest mining operations. These reports, of course, are passed on to Emperor Eclipse. The guy’s a spy!
As time will tell, Emperor Eclipse is much more ambitious than Queen Quasar realizes.
He has a conqueror’s mentality and Proton is only one of many planets he has targeted for possible take over. The reports he’s been receiving have piqued his curiosity to the point where he decides to pay a visit to this Camp Chameleon to check things out for himself.
The Emperor has no specifics as to the class or Commander Roozag. All he knows is that everything about the class, the students, the commander, the curriculum, is highly secret and a lot of strange things happen when the class is in session. The reports cite incidences of bright flashing light, intense heat, strange sounds, unusual odors, yelling and even boisterous laughing coming from the closed and locked classroom and sometimes the Camp’s gym. These things are not typical of a normal classroom.
He must first decide what reason to use for wanting to come to Croag. The Emperor is a ruler of a large and powerful planet with a great deal of influence in many galactic communities throughout the known universe. Such a dignitary does not just show up on another planet uninvited and unannounced. He knows that all planets are always looking for ways to increase trade, establish or strengthen existing security agreements and bring about greater cooperation with other planets. This will be an excellent reason for wanting to come to Croag, but he also must decide what ruse he will use to find out what is going on at Camp Chameleon.
After much pondering, the Emperor concludes that one of the meetings he must arrange is with Croag’s Chief of Planet Security. “If anyone knows what’s up with this special class at Camp
Chameleon, it will be him. I must also figure out how the subject should be approached? What question or questions should I ask that might provoke an informative response?”
After further thought, he decides that the best approach would be the most direct and most honest approach. “At the appropriate time, this is what I’ll say.” ‘Chief, I’ve been hearing rumors about a special and secret class that’s being held at a Camp Chameleon. If there is such a class and it is being kept secret, I assume it must have something to do with your global security. Can you confirm or deny these rumors and, if there is such a class, can you share anything about it with me? There are many trouble makers throughout the universe and I am always looking for ways to strengthen and improve the security systems and programs on Erebus.’ “If he asks for the source of these rumors, I can respond by saying, ‘I believe one of my sources said he read about some usual things going on at the Camp in an article in some magazine.’”
He deliberates for another hour or so, rehearsing responses for all anticipated scenarios, before he is finally satisfied that he is fully prepared for any situation that might arise. “I will get the ball rolling tomorrow.”
Chapter 15
The second week draws to a close and the Pack has just finished packing up for their trip back to Proton in the morning. It is early evening and they’re all sitting around with nothing to do when who stops by but Commander Roozag. This surprises them as he‘s never done this before. “I just want to tell you that I am very impressed with how hard you’ve worked, how much you’ve learned and how much more proficient you’ve become in using your special talents. I couldn’t let you go without telling you that.”
He turns to leave, but pauses at the door, turns around and then loudly says, “So, to celebrate your successful completion of the training program here I’m taking all of you to town for a special Croagan dinner and some surprise entertainment!”
They all jump up, belting out their appreciation with a chorus of “thank yous”, with Mickey doing a solo of “When do we leave?” The Pack’s excitement has soared to a fever’s pitch and when the Commander says “Now.” they almost bowl him over in their haste to get to his troop carrier.
The trip to town is a huge success. Everyone is having a ball. They’re seeing and interacting with all kinds of new life forms, they’re seeing all kinds of different architecture, vehicles, clothing and they’re even being transported on moving sidewalks.
All of the food is new to them and most of it tastes great. They quickly learn though that the appearance of the food is no guarantee of what it will taste like. Some of it is really yucky. All of the entertainment is terrific. The music sounds different from what they hear on Proton because all of the instruments are different, but it is a nice sound. There are street performers of all kinds; singers, dancers, comedians, mimes, puppeteers, acrobats, jugglers, caricaturists, cartoonists, skaters and even contortionists. They couldn’t help laughing when they saw couples with two sets of legs and big feet dancing together. They kept expecting them to trip all over themselves, but they never did.
The kids are having the time of their lives and don’t want the evening to end. As they pass by the windows of the many shops that line both sides of most of the streets they’ve been on, they are fascinated by the merchandise displayed. They don’t have a clue about what a lot of the stuff is used for, but The Commander is happy to play tour guide and fill them in about wh
at they’re seeing.
Suddenly, Pulsar lets out a loud gasp and turns quickly around to look at the pedestrian traffic drifting by on the moving sidewalk going the other way. He can’t believe his eyes!
Molly Moonbeam asks, “What’s up, Pulsar?”
“You’ll never guess whose reflection I just saw in one of the windows we just passed.”
“You’re probably right, so just tell me already.”
“Emperor Eclipse!!” he shouts out.