by Steve Simons
Chapter 6 From the floor the ceiling is a long way
"Oh great!" exclaims Barry, "Not content with having a war on your own planet, you want to start one elsewhere too.... possibly even our home planet!" Then he looks at Tom, "Well we might get home Tom, but I don't know if there will be anything left when these..... these..... people have finished with it."
Dar-Reg, who has so far remained quietly in the background asks, "Does your observation indicate, have not, your people sophisticated weapons and at mercy of our security people?"
Aseer-Alc turns towards Dar-Reg and with much anger says "Be quiet you, find we out soon enough what weapons have these people. Suffer enough these children without further questions and.... stupidity."
Dar-Reg, quite enraged now says, "Approach you would differently, after discovery ours of how to open gateway, we succeed?"
"Well I wouldn't go through the gateway with blazing weapons and apparent aggressive intent. If these children's people have sophisticated or powerful weapons we could have created yet another enemy, rather than an ally." replies Aseer-Alc.
Dar-Reg still seems pretty mad at Aseer-Alc's protest, but manages to suppress his anger as he says, "No attacks Gaganeyannes since explosion food servery damage."
"Bring you that news is good." Replies Aseer-Alc, then to Barry and Tom, she says, "The Gaganeyannes are our enemy and Dar-Reg has just told me that they have made no further attacks since our.... explosion."
"Perhaps they got wind of your success of travelling through the gateway and are planning what to do should your people bring back superior weaponry." suggests Barry somewhat sarcastically.
Actually, you may have a good point there replies Aseer-Alc, "But what is this wind they will have acquired?"
"I was joking actually, the wind part simply means, they have found out, as in sound carried by the wind." replies Barry.
There is a loud knock on the door, making them all jump. Dar-Reg responds, "Come in you."
The door opens and in walks one of the security people complete with face mask, but no weapon. he quickly takes off the face mask.
Dar-Reg asks, "Report you what?"
The new man replies somewhat breathlessly, "Return security team or at least one from Gateway." He had obviously run straight here to make this report.
Dar-Reg, somewhat shocked asks, "Happen what to other member of team?"
The man replies, "Eaten.... he was by large creature, size creature about four to five times height of us. Startled team and chased them, caught Yarag Notslleh and ate him. Escaped Di-Vad senoj."
"What happened?" Asks Barry totally confused.
Aseer-Alc reassures Barry, "It is OK..... one of the team that went through the gateway has been killed by a large creature, the other one has made his way back safely. Do you have any large creatures about 4 to 5 times the height of a man? In your place?"
"Only a giraffe, but I don't think even that is about four times the height of a man." replies Barry.
"They aren't that tall," interrupts Tom, "Sounds more like a dinosaur, perhaps its a parallel world where dinosaurs didn't die out, but continued to inherit the world."
"Hey I suppose that is feasible." remarks Barry, getting quite excited at the possibility. He had always been interested in dinosaurs and often wished he could see a real living one. then Barry says, "Hey that is fitting, you go in search of weapons and instead end up being the prey of a pretty unsophisticated monster creature, who's only weapons are its arms, legs and teeth."
"Good thing that creature did not come back through the gateway, we would have then had two enemies for sure!" replies Aseer-Alc. Then she turns to Dar-Reg and says, "Where is Barry's comms device?"
Dar-Reg somewhat confused replies, "In bedside lockers device is of these children, why you ask?"
"Make I sure these children assured of safety and way back they to their place." says Aseer-Alc.
"Why concern you of this now?" asks Dar-Reg.
"Do job I properly, go through gateway without war starting." replies Aseer-Alc.
"Take us children why not?" asks Dar-Reg.
"Safer they on their own probably. Instructions we must leave for their safe escort to gateway, when they well. Go us soon through gateway before another war like approach." says Aseer-Alc.
Tom says, "I managed to follow that, I will explain it to Barry for you."
"Good, hope we see you before you leave for your place. Once Barry's arm is fully repaired you are both free to go. I will make sure our people will take you safely back to the gateway." replies Aseer-Alc.
"Thanks." says Tom. Then he sets about explaining what has been said to Barry. Whilst Dar-Reg and Aseer-Alc leave to travel through the gateway.
It is now day 3 since Dar-Reg and Aseer-Alc left to travel through the gateway. The boys have been watching these people's equivalent of television. Barry was used to the backwards speak now and coping really well. The boys had even taken part in some of the interactive programmes, without anyone suspecting they were aliens.
As the days progressed Barry was getting more uneasy about travelling through the gateway. He wants to go as soon as possible, he is worried about another attack on the centre. The medical staff, however want to make absolutely sure his arm is totally repaired. The machine had been removed two days ago, but apparently the repairs continue after the machine has finished its world. This does not help with Barry's sense of agitation.
Tom is immersed in a programme, when Barry unexpectedly speaks, taking Tom by surprise. Barry says, "The fact that at least one of these guys got back to their own universe and time, has got to mean that we stand a good chance of getting back to our own world this time."
Tom does not respond, so Barry prompts him with, "Doesn't it?"
Tom's brain has caught up with what Barry had said and he simply replies, "Yes I would have thought so."
Barry is not very pleased at Tom's reply, he was hoping that Tom would be much more positive. However, before he has a chance to pursue the discussion any further, the door opens and it is like a whirlwind has hit the place, as Aseer-Alc walks briskly in. She is alone and both boys wonder if Dar-Reg has suffered the same fate as that other poor soul who was eaten by a dinosaur or some such creature.
Aseer-Alc says, "You will not believe what has happened to us," then pauses as she realises, "Well you probably will come to think of it, having been through the gateway yourselves. It was like stepping from one room into another, we could not believe how painless it was."
Tom mutters, "Unless you fall off a cliff."
Aseer-Alc decides to ignore the comment and continues, "The people we met were pretty much like ourselves, but we found ourselves at some sort of freight and passenger space port. It was massive and noisy. We thought we were going to be arrested, when someone in a uniform approached us. But he thought we were lost and was very helpful, getting us 'back' into the passenger departure area, where he thought we had come from. We wondered about for a while taking in the sights, amazed at the things that were for sale in the shops. There were devices that, had we the money we could have purchased and brought back here and made an absolute fortune selling them. Anyway one of the staff at the space port got rather suspicious about us and cornered us, she was very clever and quickly found out that we were not only not from their world, but not from their time zone. We decided that we would abandon our attempt to try and blend in and admitted that we were from another time zone altogether. We were taken in 'custody' which they explained was more for our protection than anything else."
"Isn't that what most policemen say?" asks Barry somewhat sarcastically.
"Anyway," continues Aseer-Alc, ignoring Barry's outburst, "We were taken to some quite important people, who were most interested in our struggle against the Gaganeyannes. Apparently there was mention in their history of a similar struggle. They believed that we were travelers from their past. If they are us in the future though, I thought
it strange that they talked more like you boys than the way we talk."
Barry seemed to have forgotten his sarcasm as he says, "Ah that happened in our case too, if we could travel back in time we would find that the way our ancestors talked was totally different from our speech today. We would probably have some difficulty understanding what they are saying."
Aseer-Alc still fired up by her visit agreed, "Yes they spoke in some sort of shorthand at times, cutting words down considerably. They even ran some words into each other or used the starting letters of several words as if it was a word on its own. We wondered what they were on about when they kept saying "Begets" , turns out it was "Better Get There Soon". Anyway they asked us loads of questions about our war and other things. Then we were treated to a rather posh reception, after which we were taken to some sort of manufacturing place and were given the plans to some of their weapons, which we were assured would rid us of our enemy, but we had to promise that we would not mis-use the weapons to turn on our own people. Well that was easy to agree to. so we have come back, hopefully with the solution to our problems."
Barry asks a somewhat embarrassing question, "Now you have these weapons and a means of travelling through the gateway, are you going to go charging through to other worlds conquering as many worlds that you can?"
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