*DISTINCLY DIVERSE DISCUSSION*
With a grunt, Yarn invited everyone to board her ship. Eliza and Paksha followed, giving each other quizzical glances. They had seen a Slunt Notte snatch Lucas and Link, watched a tiny tribe of minuscule people board a living space ship, and were currently being ushered aboard said alien space ship. As crazy as it all seemed, it all seemed perfectly normal.
Those new to the interior of space vehicles were pleasantly surprised when Leon grew several perfect chairs from the floor.
"Please, have a seat," Yarn indicated.
Yarn sat in her own chair, a filthy plaid recliner awkwardly jammed into a small space near the control panel. Suddenly, a tiny seating area had been established for the Fester Tails. Laddie/Vladimir crouched next to the recliner, beaming at his beloved Yarn/Natasha with eyes full of adoration. Izzian stifled his urge to gag.
"Leon is forever changing," said Yarn, to the newcomers who had never seen a partially organic ship before. "Don't let it frighten you, child," Yarn grabbed Paksha's hand which was trembling. "You'll get used to it and someday, perhaps in your lifetime, earth may have the same capabilities. Probably not," she added with a hitch to her shoulders.
"Oh, I'm not frightened," announced Paksha with glee, "I'm ecstatic! I knew there were aliens in the universe. I just knew it! And now here I am, sitting in a growing, changing ship named Leon. It's freaking awesome!"
Everyone laughed at Paksha and it felt good to laugh after the horrendous events of the previous evening. Paksha took it all in with a good natured spirit which was why Izzian and Eliza were drawn to the boy in the first place. Other than threatening to have Izzian locked up, Paksha was a go-with-the-flow kind of guy.
When the group had settled in, Yarn began, "I have some news about Klesia and Klesia Moon Prime. According to our resident tribe of Fester Tails," she said, indicating the tiny creatures sitting around a little conference table shuffling small important looking papers, "Klesia and Klesia Moon Prime have not disappeared." The group gasped in relief.
A sky map with the current date and time, showing a healthy looking planet and its moon, appeared on Leon's main big-vid screen. The Fester Tails watched the graphics on their own big-vid, which was much smaller in comparison. A duplicate imagine covered the screen, although miniaturized.
"That's fantastic," Izzian blurted, seeing images of his home sitting prettily on the big-vid, looking no worse for the wear. "So, it's just a communication's malfunction right? I mean we can still get home somehow, it will just take a while to program the coordinates-"
Yarn held up a hand to stop Izzian's outburst. "I wasn't finished, young Klesian," said Yarn with a note of authority. Yarn was the type of person who believed interruptions should only be permitted when she had finished speaking, which changed the very nature of an interruption.
The older woman had a few things to learn about the behaviors of a larger group, it seemed, especially one comprised of a several teenagers, a few graduate students and the know-it-all Fester Tails.
"Now," Yarn continued, softening her glowering face, "the planets are still there, but the people…the people have completely disappeared."
Now it was Izzian's turn to scowl. He desperately felt the need to interrupt the old woman and assault her with questions but remained silent. Thilillian looked equally as upset. Eliza and Paksha looked more confused than anything else.
"Where have they all gone?" Thil asked nervously. "How could an entire population of Klesians simply vanish?"
"Child, please let me finish," Yarn implored. "We were able to get the images of the planets that you see on the big-vid from a travelling freighter that passed by Klesia. The Fester Tails were able to contact the asteroid called…Footfall Freighter, I believe. They have also been attempting to contact Klesia for months since they never received a certain passenger that was supposed to be on board."
Thilillian glared at the floor in disgrace, knowing that she herself was the missing passenger. Thil wasn't even able to hide her shame, since the Fester Tails resided near her feet. Several tiny faces peered up at Thilillian, but she couldn't read their small expressions enough to know if they were judging her.
"Yes," Yarn continued, dissecting Thilillian with a single look. "One might want to do some confessing about now."
Suddenly, a loud yet muffled banging resonated through the ship. Someone was at the door.
"Ouch! I'm being punched," Leon screeched as another bang echoed loudly.
"It's only Mrs. Jesset," Gala said.
"She'll never fit inside," Izzian said more to himself than anyone else.
"Leon, uncloak and show Mrs. Jesset the door," Yarn said distractedly, her mind reeling from all the intrusions. "We'll never get anything done until every alien in the vicinity is here."
Yarn glared down at the Fester Tails and said, "What have you done? Sent out an alert to every agent in the area?"
Muriel the Fester Tail, although tiny, presented herself as tall as she possibly could and stubbornly turned away from Yarn, giving the old woman the cold shoulder.
"I suppose this was your idea, Muriel? Signal? Hulla, tell me you didn’t…"
Leon spoke up for his miniature friends, "It was my idea too. We needed Enot and Gala so of course we summoned them here. I suppose Muriel and Signal called Mrs. Jesset, the Firithian woman too. Sorry if we've made you uncomfortable, Yarn, but we discussed the matter while you were traipsing around Sudden Bluff like a tourist in love. We decided Klesia needed all the help we could get."
"I knew it!" Paksha yelled with glee, having had his suspicions all along that old Able Mabel Jesset was an alien.
"It's your body, Leon. Get on with it," Yarn said. She shrugged, permitting Leon to change form in order to accommodate the giant woman.
Immediately, Leon sucked up Yarn's old recliner, making the cabin appear much larger. Yarn frowned, hating to see her favorite chair go, but saw the logic in her ship's idea. Leon then rounded out the edges of his walls, causing each seated person and his or her chair to slowly ooze toward the center of the room.
"Wow," Eliza exclaimed. Paksha was too excited to speak. With wide eyes, he scanned the newly formed and still changing shapes of the ship. Leon flattened out his domed roof, and stretched out the walls, causing the room to grow even larger. Leon was thoughtful, if nothing else and provided a nice high, cone shaped spot just for the Firithian, Mrs. Jesset.
"Permission to come aboard?" Mrs. Jesset's deep voice boomed.
"Whatever," said Yarn, clearly uncertain about her feelings regarding the throngs of beings now clumped together on her ship.
"Oh, don't look at me like that," Yarn said to Muriel Minor who was apparently nodding her small head in shame at Yarn's callous behavior toward the newcomers.
"It's like an alien convention or something," Paksha said in wonderment to Eliza. The group, not including the hundreds of residing Fester Tails, was complete. With Yarn, Laddie/Vladimir, Eliza, Izzian, Paksha, Enot, Gala and Mrs. Able Mabel Jesset, the room appeared less crowded than one might have thought.
"That's perfect Leon," said Eliza, clapping her hands in recognition of the ship's organically artificial shape shifting abilities.
"Please. Can we focus? The Klesians have vanished right off the planet? All of them? I don't understand how that happened. Enot, do you have any ideas?" Izzian asked, ready to hear Enot's summation.
"I believe I know what happened to the Klesians. But it's only a wild guess. I mean, how could it have happened?" Enot was in deep thought mode, and seemed to be teetering on the edge of an important discovery. Izzian imagined he could hear gears clicking inside the man's head.
"How can I help?" Thilillian quietly asked. "I'll do whatever it takes to help our people and clear my name. I just hope…I just hope I didn't trigger the disappearance of the Klesians somehow. I mean, I always tinker with the Al203 Telescope and-"
In an instant, Thilillian paused at her own words, realizing she had just exp
osed the very source of the disappearing Klesians.
"That's it!" she screamed. "I should have known…" Enot looked to the girl, a sudden realization showing on his face as well.
"Could it be true, Thilillian? Is it possible?" Enot asked her.
The group was baffled by Thil and Enot's unexpected proclamations. Unfortunately, they were the only two on the ship who'd had a "eureka" moment. Everyone else remained confused. Enot and Thil continued a private discussion, oblivious to the rest of the world, which was in Yarn's opinion, all huddled together on her ship.
After a silent agreement had been reached between the two, Thil lifted her head. At long last, the girl from Klesia looked up and said, "The Al203 Telescopes have finally given the public the catastrophic event they have been predicting for years. Klesia and Klesia Moon Prime haven't exploded. The Klesians haven't all vanished. They've all been shrunk."
***
CHAPTER 32