Links to other sites on the WebSuzee and Cat came over. Squinting down to where Sophiana's finger was pointing Suzee declared "it's there. It's hard to see I know but trust me, I've been around templates my whole life."
"So what do we do now?" Radu asked softly.
"Come over here," Suzee commanded, making sure that she addressed both of the boys. "We all have to place our feet on the template."
Harlan and Radu obeyed her command. Like a choreographer Suzee positioned one foot from each person on the template. "Now you guys keep your minds blank," Suzee continued. "And I'll think of the room where we arrived. Make sure you guys think of nothing else or you might be beamed some place else. Ready?"
"Ready." Her friends chorused in unison.
Crossing her fingers for good luck Suzee concentrated on the image forming in her mind. Just as she had hoped, the beam dropped down a few seconds later and the five some disappeared.
In a flash the group found themselves back in the rectangular room. As the beams disintegrated the friends regained composure. "Well I got us in here," Suzee addressed Sophiana. "Now you get us out."
"Not so fast!" growled a voice from behind them. Rapidly the five-some spun around. Several guards stepped out of the shadows, fully armed. Suzee and Catalina prepared to unleash their powers but before either could do so a weapon appeared in Sophiana's arms. Pointing it at the guards she pushed a button and wham! The guards were vaporized.
The space cases stared at her in wonder. "What was that?" Harlan whispered.
"A Scatterer," Sophiana said indifferently. It transports the people its aimed at to another part of the structure that they're in."
Why haven't I ever heard of it? Suzee stared at the Scatterer as if it held the secrets of the universe. Obviously this dimension's present had made some advancements that Yensid's past had not. How is that possible?
As Suzee was stuck in her reverie Cat asked Sophiana "But where did it come from?"
Sophiana paused. "Shortly after I left the Christa I met up with a race called the Conjurers." She explained. "They taught me the skill of conjuring up objects in my mind." She paused again. "There were only twelve Conjurers in the galaxy, thirteen including me" she continued, "and we always traveled together. But one day, about five years ago, I was out taking a new vessel for a test drive and… and the Spung tracked down the Conjurers and… they were dead before they knew what hit them." A tear slowly trickled down Sophiana's cheek but she aggressively wiped it away. "The Conjurers were like a second family to me," she whispered. "Anyway the Spung tracked me down and tried to force me to use my powers for them- the same way they treated Elmira. But I refused. They were getting tired of me and were about to kill me when somehow they found out that I knew you guys. So they brought me here," She paused yet again. "They knew that I wouldn't use my powers when imprisoned and assumed that they were to rusty to help you when you came along. But they did want me to watch you die… so that maybe I'd break down and reveal my powers to them."
There was a short silence. Then Harlan cleared his throat. "Why didn't you just use your powers to escape? Couldn't you have conjured up a ship?"
"Yeah," Sophiana answered. "But where would I go? The only people still alive that know of my existence are the Spung and the Luff. Besides…" she took a deep breath and smiled. "I wanted to be here to help you escape. Sophiana grinned. "Even if I could use my powers the Spung thought there'd be no way which I could save you 'cause I'd have to get you up here. But lucky for us, Suzee does exist."
Another moment of silence passed, this time with a happy air around it. Finally Catalina asked, "so what are you gonna do?"
"Conjure up the mixture," came the reply, then a laugh. "That's another thing the Spung want from me- the knowledge of how to make a mixture that allows them to travel backwards in time. Anyway, we'd better hurry."
Sophiana closed her eyes and a look of intensity crossed her face. A few seconds- that seemed like hours- passed. The room seemed to come alive with dangers- what if the Spung burst in before Sophiana could complete the task? Finally a jar of liquid popped into the air, then splattered to the floor. Sophiana opened her eyes in relief. "Hurry," she said, "touch it simultaneously, like you did last time."
"Wait!" Radu's voice rang out, louder than usual. "There's just one thing I'd like to know. At one point you said 'the Spung treated Elmira' not 'treat'…." Radu left his question unspoken.
A somber look came across Sophiana's face as she gazed into Radu's eyes. "The Serola had a mental breakdown and was executed shortly after your disappearance," Sophiana said softly. "I heard… I heard you two were close."
"Yeah." Radu regarded her, stiff and straight.
Suzee touched his arm. "The sooner we get home the sooner we can stop all of this from happening," she assured him. "Elmira will be alive, the rest of the crew will be alive, the Conjurers will be alive." She smiled shyly at Sophiana. "All it takes is one touch."
Radu nodded and turned back to look at Sophiana. "Thanks for everything."
Sophiana grinned slightly. "Well I got you into prison once," she said, winking at Catalina. "I kinda figured I owed it to you to get you out."
The group shared a chuckle. Then slowly Harlan, Radu, Cat and Suzee bent down toward the liquid. "On my signal," Suzee instructed. "One… two… three!" The four hands dove into the mixture and they immediately disappeared.
The cadets fell with a thud to the floor of the boys' bunkroom. Stunned they lay there for a moment, as if in a trance. Finally Suzee Radu and Cat heard a strained "get off of me!" and took the initiative to get to their feet.
The foursome surveyed the room as if they had never seen it before. Suddenly Suzee whispered "the mixture's gone."
The others' heads snapped to where the mixture once lay. The floor and equipment looked as clean as it did when Suzee entered, the only vestige of their experiment being the smashed jar, positioned in the place where Harlan had knocked it to the floor.
A sudden noise outside of the room startled the cadets. They swerved around in time to see Bova and Davenport step in. "Girls! What are you doing in he-" Davenport started but was cut off by Bova.
"My equipment!" he cried. Shoving past his classmates he scooped up his jar from the floor. "I told you guys not to touch this stuff!"
"Take it easy Bova," Cat said quickly. "Don't accuse us just because a jar fell."
'Don't play games with me," Bova spat. "It's not just the jar! All my equipment- my arranged equipment- has been tampered with!"
"Who did this?" Davenport demanded.
Suzee took a deep breath and opened her mouth to confess. But before she could utter a syllable Harlan blurted out "I did it."
"No," Cat stepped in front of him. "I did it Ms. Davenport."
"You don't have to protect me," Radu said meekly. "It was me."
Suzee stared at the cadets in surprise. Out of the corner of his eye Harlan winked at her and Cat shot her a smile. Suzee knew what she should do. She said "it was me."
Davenport wasn't the least bit enthused. "If none of you will turn in the culprit then I suppose that I shall have to punish all of you. For the next four days you each will take a turn washing the dishes after meals. And three demerits to all of you." With a prominent nod Davenport left the room and after giving his crewmates a nasty glare Bova stalked after her.
As the doors slid shut Suzee's crewmates turned to her. "Why did you do that?" she whispered.
"Well it wasn't planned," Harlan said, "but speaking for myself I was too glad that you were alive to get you into trouble. Once the shock of this experience has passed, I'll get you."
Harlan and Cat nodded their heads in agreement.
"Well thanks guys," Suzee replied. I guess they really are my friends.
Suzee cleared off her plate and gave it to Cat, who was furiously scrubbing off a stain on the Commander's dish. 'Thank you," Cat said with mock sincerity, turning toward her friend. "I really need another plate to clean."
Suzee let a chuckle pass her lips and she turned to go. Suddenly thinking of something she looked back. "Cat? I don't mean to sound dumb but are we still best friends?"
Cat turned to look at her, genuine affection in her eyes. "Of course," she said, "best friends forever." Turning back to her work: "now get out of here," sarcasm slowly creeping in, "enjoy the freedom you have before you become the dishwasher."
Suzee smiled slightly and left. As she wandered the corridors she pondered what to do next With Cat doing dishes and Rosie on monitor duty I have the girls' room all to myself. She realized, sighing in relief. The time changes had wearied her down and being onboard the Christa with her crew, who were dead to her hours before, had a surreal feeling.
The doors of the girls' bunkroom opened for Suzee and without even bothering to turn on the lights she crossed the room to her bed. But as she was lying down- "ow!" a blunt object seemed to jab into her upper back. "Lights on- full power," Suzee called out. As the lighting adjusted to her wishes the girl hastily moved off her bed. On her sheets was the book she had bought at the space station. "I was wondering where you went," Suzee muttered, picking up the book.
Now looking at the object, it seemed almost incoherent that a book telling of science that Yensid had discovered years ago, held the key to time travel. Suzee shook her head in disbelief as she turned to the table of contents and stared at the list of new scientific developments that she had lived with all her life in her home dimension.
But suddenly something on the opposite page caught her eye. It was writing- not typed but handwritten- of words in the universal dialect. Surprised and curious Suzee read the note.
To whom this may concern- If you are reading this then you are about to embark on a great journey or have already done so. As for me, I have just gotten back and as the legend of this potion predicted, life seems a little more bearable now. For the last few years I have been living in an environment which I thought to be primitive and the companions savage. But the trip to the future, (where the potion took me,) proved that my companions were my closest friends and my current situation not as dull as I previously thought. That's the purpose of this mixture- so the legend says- to make outsiders feel like insiders by an emotional journey to the future. So if you are about to go on that journey- may the goodness of the universe be with you. If you have already taken it, legend says that you should pass this potion on to somebody else. The goodness of the universe is supposed to make sure that the potion goes to the right person. That's why even though I place the potion inside a book on the shelf of the Svorkian Book Store that you, reader, have faced the same dilemmas I did. So please, pass this potion recipe on so the legend can continue.
Suzee stared at the message as though she expected it to continue. This thing predicted my every thought and movement- how is that possible? How could my coming across this book be planned? Never before had Suzee stumbled across so many unanswerable questions. Yet even with the dead ends in her head she did come up with one solution to what was asked of her. "Thelma!" Suzee called.
"Yes Suzee," the android responded instantly to the call, seeming to appear suddenly into the room.
"I need a capsule, just a bit bigger than this book and a pen," Suzee requested.
"Why… I have them right here." And Thelma extended her arms, holding out what Suzee had asked for.
The girl shivered, thinking again of her life being planned out. 'Thank you," she addressed Thelma.
The android nodded and scooted out of the room.
Suzee took the ancient pen and wrote under the note- Ditto.Slowly Suzee removed the recipe from her coveralls, where she had placed it shortly after completing the mixture and gingerly lay the paper in the book. Closing the book she placed it into the capsule then sealed that shut.
Suzee walked the corridors, feeling confused and confident both. Once she reached her destination she activated the airlock doors to open and set the capsule in that small place between the ship and outer space. The doors slowly closed, blocking her from the action yet Suzee heard the whooshing sound of the second pair of doors opening and that small place being filled with vacuum.
Quickly Suzee rushed up to the Com. Post, recently deserted by the ship monitors Harlan and Rosie. "Screen on, starboard side."
The view screen clicked on and just as Suzee had hoped the capsule was floating outward from the Christa. "Good luck to the next me," she whispered and the mixture continued its journey through space.
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