Universe Between

by Dean Wesley Smith

  I just shook my head. I didn’t want to let myself think about the Atlantis Fifty at the moment. Screamer and I needed to keep going.

  So I kissed her and thanked her for telling me and jumped to the next person.

  Two other gods from hotel and apartment management areas joined in helping Screamer and me when we reached the eleventh floor since they could teleport. Four of us were about as fast as the ambulances could handle the load of people. Luckily the hospital was very close.

  And since none of the residents of the building were actually sick, they all would be released fairly quickly.

  As the hours went by, Patty made sure the main floor was cleared of anyone who didn’t need to be in the building.

  Screamer and I were bringing down the last two residents from the third floor. Both were young women who had been having coffee together at an apartment kitchen counter.

  The second floor had already been emptied by the two gods from Patty’s area. They were now all gone.

  Patty and two others were waiting with stretchers. Both of the others looked like paramedics. Both paramedics were young women and intent in their job.

  They helped the two residents we had brought down carefully on to the stretchers and covered them.

  “This is it,” I said. “Let’s all get out of here.”

  We turned for the door.

  We didn’t make it.

  So close.

  11

  A shimmering went through the air.

  It seemed the lights blinked, but I couldn’t be sure on that.

  The world spun for just a second, then snapped down solid again.

  I glanced around.

  Patty, Screamer, two superhero paramedics from the medical world, and the two building residents were standing around me in a cabin that smelled of pine and a cold fireplace. Everyone had a shocked and worried look.

  I was sure I was no exception to that.

  Only a couple lights were on in the big, high-ceilinged room and curtains were pulled tight over the big windows.

  “Oh, no,” Patty said softly.

  “We didn’t make it,” Screamer said.

  One of the residents of the building looked around and asked, “What just happened?”

  Screamer nodded to the superhero paramedics and then reached over and touched the two residents lightly. They both fell instantly asleep.

  The paramedics caught them both and stretched the residents safely out onto the floor.

  That would take care of that problem for a while at least.

  I wanted to just sit on the floor with them and bang my fists, but instead I walked over to the closed main door of the big wooden cabin and eased it open. The hinges on the big wooden door actually had the decency to squeak.

  The air outside smelled fresh and warm, like the day might be getting warmer soon. The wonderful scent of pine needles hit me next.

  The cabin sat on a hillside covered in tall pine-like trees and in the distance I could see the blue hint of a lake.

  Tucked off to one side of the cabin were ten cars like I had never seen. They all looked like they had been designed by a 1950s movie guy trying to imagine what a car of the future would look like.

  One of them even had a bubble on it that covered six different seats.

  They looked very, very much out of place in the rustic mountain setting.

  Those cars were the transportation for the Atlantis Fifty, more than likely.

  A highway seemed to wind along the hill below. From where we were, I could hear high humming sounds that seemed to come from the vehicles buzzing past.

  Not gas engines, that was for sure.

  Patty stepped up beside me and looked around for a moment.

  Then I pushed us both back into the cabin and shut the door.

  “Are we where I think we are?” Screamer asked, standing next to the paramedics above the two residents stretched out on the floor.

  “We’re not in Kansas anymore, that’s for sure,” I said.

  I took a deep breath and tried to think about jumping to my office hovering over Vegas.

  Nothing. It wasn’t there.

  We were over eleven thousand years in the past. And who knew on what timeline.

  In other words, we were screwed.

  I looked around at the four others expecting me to lead them. I didn’t have a clue what to do.

  That silence just got too heavy.

  “We stay here for a time,” I said, finally, trying to sound decisive and in charge. Better than sitting on the floor pounding my fists.

  But not much.

  “You think Laverne might be able to get to us?” Screamer asked.

  I shrugged. “Laverne or Chronos. We have no other hope otherwise, other than to get off this continent in the next sixty years and find a place to live and survive. So we sit tight for now and make it easier on them if they can rescue us.”

  All four of them nodded, clearly feeling as stunned as I felt. No one wanted to talk anymore about the fine mess we found ourselves in. I was okay with that.

  “What happens when they come looking for the missing kids,” Screamer asked.

  I looked at him. “When that happens, we had better be gone. Somewhere.”

  That really nailed the silence so we all started looking around.

  The place was bigger than it looked at first glance and that Nicky had described. It had a nice living room tucked over to one side with a large stone fireplace and a bunch of comfortable-looking couches and big chairs, all in dark brown tones that seemed to go well with the wood. The couches and chairs weren’t shaped that different from anything you would see in a modern furniture store.

  The ceiling was high and peaked and had wood beams.

  On the opposite side was a kitchen and beyond that what looked like a bathroom. I had a hunch from the looks of those cars out front that using a bathroom in Atlantis might just be a learning experience.

  Fifty people would have had no trouble being in here.

  I turned to Screamer. “Help me find Nicky’s machine.”

  He nodded and we started for a hallway that led off to what must be bedrooms of some sort.

  “How long will they be out?” one of the paramedics asked, pointing at the two women on the floor.

  “We haven’t been introduced,” I said, suddenly realizing I didn’t know two of the people I was stuck with. I stopped and turned back. “I’m Poker Boy, this is Screamer, this is Patty.”

  The one paramedic with short blonde hair said, “My name is Katie.”

  “I’m Rocha,” the taller one with short brown hair said.

  Both were clearly in great shape and very strong from their handshakes.

  We all did the pleasant stuff, as much as five people can do when trapped thousands of years from home in a world we didn’t know. Then Screamer answered Katie’s question.

  “They will be out eight hours at least,” Screamer said. “All harmless, I assure you.”

  The paramedic superhero nodded. “Let’s get them back on a bed if there are any in this place.”

  “Hang on,” I said, and went down the hallway and opened the first door on the right. It was a bedroom all right with a very comfortable large bed that seemed huge.

  I jumped the two sleeping building residents onto the bed.

  “Might want to straighten them out a little and cover them up,” I said.

  Katie nodded thanks at me and went into the bedroom.

  “Can I do that?” Screamer asked.

  I smiled at my friend. “I sure don’t see why not.”

  “I’m going to check out the food supplies,” Patty said.

  “I’ll help you,” Rocha said, following her. “I’m hungry.”

  When she said that I realized I was as well, but I doubted I could eat at the moment.

  Screamer and I quickly found Nicky’s machine. It was in the bedroom on the left, sitting right in the middle of the floor.

  Honestly, it looked
more like someone had taken a motor out of a lawn mower and hooked it to the top of some plastic dome.

  Only it was like no internal combustion engine I had ever seen. It had what looked like a big blue crystal sticking out of the top of it like a gearshift.

  It wasn’t humming or making any noise at all. In fact, it didn’t even seem to have switches to turn it on or off. But it was glowing slightly.

  “Any ideas?” I asked Screamer.

  “Besides not touching it?” he said. “Not a one.”

  We headed back out and joined the other three in the kitchen area.

  “Anyone here alive in Atlantis time?” I asked.

  I had learned a long time ago that sometimes a superhero or a god could surprise you with how old they were. Since none of us aged much at all after we came into our powers, living a long time seemed to be an option. Ben looked moderately old, but he had been around for far longer than Atlantis. In fact, more than likely, he was here somewhere.

  And we knew that Stan and Laverne were living here somewhere as well.

  But I don’t think we dared contact them. At least not until we gave Laverne some time to mount a rescue operation from our own time.

  Of course, since it was time travel, the rescue might come in one hundred years of this time, but only in a half an hour of our Las Vegas time. No way of knowing.

  If rescue came at all.

  I pushed that thought away. I would deal with that possibility soon enough.

  “Not even close to that old,” Screamer said, answering my question about anyone being alive in Atlantis.

  “I was born in 1930,” Rocha said.

  “I’m only slightly older,” Katie said.

  “Not even close,” Patty said, smiling at me.

  I always felt like the baby around gods and superheroes. This time was no exception.

  12

  I was about to suggest that Screamer and I explore the back rooms and around the outside of the cabin when Stan appeared.

  The wrong Stan.

  He was standing with his back to the front door and looked to be the same Stan from our time except for one major exception. He was wearing a brown toga and brown sandals. Even in a toga, he didn’t wear anything but bland colors.

  “Stan!” I said before my mind processed that more than likely this wasn’t the Stan from our time period.

  This was the Stan looking for his daughters. More than likely the angry dad Stan who didn’t know any of us from a tree.

  He frowned slightly, staring at me. “Who are you?”

  I knew that tone in his voice. He was already angry.

  I started to open my mouth, then stopped myself when warning bells went off in the back of my head.

  I glanced at Patty and then Screamer. Both had wide eyes and both were shaking their heads.

  The two paramedics were standing off toward the kitchen, just watching, clearly scared but saying nothing.

  If we did something wrong here, we could really, really screw up a bunch of timelines. I knew enough about time travel to know that. I just hoped that we could keep Stan under control and thinking this through.

  “I don’t think I can tell you,” I said. “Beyond that we are from your future.”

  Toga-Stan started to open his mouth, then shut it and stared at me like he was trying to get a read on me.

  I had no idea if there was such a thing as poker in Atlantis, which meant I had no idea what area Stan was a god in.

  The silence between us grew.

  I flat had no idea what to do.

  But I did know that anything I did right now that was stupid would doom us to remain in the past.

  “Never thought I would ever get here,” Stan said from my left.

  All of us spun around.

  Stan from our time was there, smiling at his toga-self. He had on the same plain clothes he had been wearing earlier.

  I don’t think I was ever so happy to see someone. I wanted to hug him, I really did.

  He looked at me. “We needed that me to arrive here so we could track where and when you exactly were,” regular Stan said.

  Behind the toga-Stan, Laverne and another older man with a long white beard appeared. Laverne touched toga-Stan on the shoulder. That Stan then slumped gently to the ground.

  I recognized the older man with Laverne as Chronos, the God of Time. Or Father Time as many called him. But instead of white robes, he had on a silk business suit with a vest and suspenders. He looked like any really rich old guy you would see on the street.

  I couldn’t believe how happy I was to see him as well. But not once did the thought of hugging him cross my mind.

  A moment later toga-Stan vanished.

  “I find him in an hour in my office,” Laverne says. “I just put a memory block on him to forget all this until he sees Nicky today in the future. That way he doesn’t tell me anything.”

  That made a lot of sense. It protected the timeline.

  Then I thought about it. She had just planted the plan to rescue us in Stan’s mind to carry for over eleven thousand years while he was in the middle of rescuing us. Have I ever said how much time travel gives me a headache?

  “We need to get out of here,” she said.

  “Hold on, we have two residents of Patty’s building with us,” I said.

  I nodded to the two paramedics to be ready and then instantly brought the two unconscious women to the front room. The two paramedics expertly caught the two women and held them like they did something like that every day.

  “Got everyone now?” Laverne asked.

  I nodded and took Patty’s hand, feeling her calming influence on me.

  Laverne turned to the white-bearded man who seemed to just be standing there smiling slightly as he watched like a grandfather pleased at the actions of his grandchildren.

  “A ride home if you wouldn’t mind, Burtram?” she asked.

  Burtram Chronos? I was never getting that out of my mind.

  He smiled and waved his hand.

  Without even seeming to move, we were standing in front of the booth in my office that hovered over the Las Vegas Strip.

  Laverne and Chronos were gone.

  Stan was no longer with us either, more than likely with his daughters. I had a hunch we weren’t going to be seeing him much for a time.

  Around us the wonderful city of Las Vegas spread out across the desert. The sky was perfect blue, the desert perfect brown, and the planes were filling the sky on approaches to the airport. Below I could see the moving traffic and lights of The Strip.

  It felt wonderful to be home.

  Part of me had believed I would never see it again. Actually a very large part.

  Ben and Madge were both sitting in the booth, sweating as if they had been running.

  “Oh, thank heavens you are back,” Ben said. “We couldn’t hold this office up much longer.”

  I frowned and figured I would have them explain that later. It didn’t feel like I was suddenly holding up the office.

  Patty kissed me and then let go of my hand.

  “Patty’s building safe?” I asked Ben.

  He nodded, using a napkin to wipe the sweat off his brow as Madge slid out of the booth and sort of staggered for the door to The Diner. “I’ll get some milkshakes and fries started.”

  “I’ll jump you two into the back area of the lobby,” I said, turning to the two paramedics who were still holding up the two unconscious women residents. “From there you can get these two to the hospital.”

  They both nodded and I jumped them to the empty main floor of the building, thanked them for their help, and jumped back to my office.

  It felt wonderful to be home.

  Just wonderful.

  Screamer was pulling a chair up to the booth and Patty had already slid into the side across from Ben.

  “Go get Sherri,” I said to Screamer as I slid into the big booth beside Patty. “Have her join us for a late lunch so we have someone to tell this st
ory to.”

  He started to open his mouth, then remembered he could teleport and broke into a huge smile.

  “Right back,” he said, and vanished.

  “Very good job today,” Ben said, nodding and sipping on a glass of water in front of him. “You all saved a lot of people in a lot of timelines. How did you like Atlantis?”

  “Seemed pretty advanced,” I said. “But we didn’t luckily see much of it.”

  “How are the Atlantis Fifty going to be?” Patty asked.

  “The Atlantis what?” Sherri asked as she appeared with Screamer and slid into the booth as Ben slid over. “And someone want to explain to me how my husband can now teleport?”

  “The Atlantis Fifty,” Ben said. “They were before your time.”

  “Considerably,” Sherri said. “If they were actually from Atlantis. I’m not that old, thank you very much.”

  “But we were there today,” Screamer said, smiling at his wife.

  “Where?” Sherrie asked, looking very puzzled.

  “Atlantis,” Screamer said. “Nice place, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I hear it had flooding problems.”

  Sherri opened her mouth, staring at her husband, then shut it and looked at me.

  Patty and I both laughed.

  Patty finally took pity on Sherri and looked at me. “How about we start from the beginning and tell her about our day.”

  “Should I start with the shower part?” I asked, remembering how wonderful she looked there, naked and not moving, covered in drops of water. “With you frozen in the shower and me just staring.”

  “Pervert,” Patty said and smacked me on the shoulder and Ben smiled like he did when amused.

  “After the shower,” Patty said.

  “Oh, bummer,” Screamer said.

  And with that the laughter drained away the last of the tension I was feeling.

  It was wonderful to be home, wonderful to have stopped a horrid tragedy from happening, and wonderful to be back in this time.

  And even though thousands of years before in Atlantis, fifty families had been torn apart with a horrid tragedy, the Atlantis Fifty had now found a new home. They were safe and would get the help they needed.

  And Stan had two daughters back he thought he’d lost forever.