Broxholm showed up almost every day, as did Fleef and Gurk. Aliens I had never seen before stopped in to say hello. The crystal captain sent me a plant whose blossoms made singing noises that reminded me of my interview in the diamond chamber. And Hoo-Lan spent hours with me every day, telling me wonderful stories about the history of the galaxy.
Every once in a while he would look at me strangely, and ask me questions about what had happened to me while I was having the operation. But CrocDoc was always there, and wouldn’t let him question me too sharply.
Finally the day came when CrocDoc was going to put my brain back in my head.
“Did you find what you needed?” I asked, still feeling groggy and disconnected.
His snout drooped down. “Not yet,” he said. “But we’re still analyzing the data. Don’t despair, Krepta. All is not lost.”
And then he put me to sleep.
When I woke up, the skimml was whirring on my stomach, and my brain was back in my head. CrocDoc was leaning over me, just as he had that first day, after he had put in the language implant.
“Am I all right?” I whispered.
“With any luck, you’ll be better than ever,” he said.
I opened and closed my eyes a few times, and looked around the room. My vision was sharp and clear. I stretched, and realized that my hands were no longer tied down.
“Can I stand up?” I asked.
“No reason not to,” said CrocDoc. “Just take it easy.”
“Why don’t you come up here?” I said, lifting Murgatroyd from my stomach to my shoulder. Murgatroyd snuggled in as I sat up and swung my legs over the edge of the table.
“Careful,” said CrocDoc.
I waited a moment before standing up. But I felt terrific. It was as if my brain had been wrapped in fog, and now the fog was gone.
CrocDoc made a gesture that meant “I put my hand beneath your grandmother’s egg,” and told me how much he appreciated my help. “You may come and talk to me any time about our findings,” he said. “I owe you that courtesy at least.”
I gathered my things, the little gifts that aliens had brought me, squeezed Murgatroyd for luck, and prepared to return to my room.
But when I stepped through the transcendental elevator, it spit me out into a place I had never seen before.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Duncan
I was in a chamber filled with machinery. I recognized some of the devices as things the aliens used for communicating across space.
To my right was a kind of desk. Sitting on the desk was a helmet.
“Put it on,” said a voice behind me.
I jumped in surprise, which caused Murgatroyd to squeak in protest. “Hoo-Lan,” I snapped, spinning to face him. “Don’t do things like that to me.”
“Sorry,” said the little alien. “I keep forgetting how skittish you are.”
“I assume you’re the one who brought me here.”
Hoo-Lan reached out for the skimml. I handed it to him. “You assume correctly,” he said, kneading the red ball of fur between his hands until Murgatroyd began to thrum with contentment.
“Would you mind telling me why?”
“Put on the helmet,” replied Hoo-Lan.
I looked at the helmet nervously. “Is it safe?” I asked. As soon as the words were out of my mouth I thought, Well, that was a stupid question, Peter. He won’t tell me if it’s not, so why bother to ask?
But Hoo-Lan spread his hands and said, “No, not entirely,”—which just goes to show how much I knew.
“Then why do you want me to put it on? Haven’t I taken enough risks already?”
“I ask because the possible benefit outweighs the risk,” said Hoo-Lan. “Put it on.”
I hesitated, then sat down at the table and put on the helmet. At Hoo-Lan’s direction, I moved a couple of the control balls on the table in front of me.
And then I was inside Duncan Dougal’s head. I shouted so loud that the skimml squawked and jumped out of Hoo-Lan’s hands. It lay flat on the floor, stretched out and shivering, its eye stalks shooting up and down as it looked for trouble.
“For heaven’s sakes, be quiet!” hissed Hoo-Lan, bending down to pick up Murgatroyd.
At least, I think that’s what he said. I was too enmeshed in what was happening inside my head to pay attention to him.
I’m not sure how I knew that I was inside Duncan’s head so quickly. It’s not like there were any labels saying: THIS IS DUNCAN DOUGAL’S BRAIN.
Maybe I knew just because it was Duncan’s brain, and his identity was stamped on every cell and synapse.
I felt uncomfortable about this. Little as I liked Duncan, I didn’t think I had any right to poke around inside his brain. Duncan, I thought. Duncan, can you hear me?
No answer; either he wasn’t aware of me, or wasn’t able to answer, or was answering and it wasn’t coming through.
Things happen fast inside a human brain. I started looking around. In a matter of seconds—or less, maybe; I don’t know exactly how long it took—I had learned more about Duncan Dougal’s life than I ever wanted to know.
Speaking from my point of view, here are some of the most important things I learned:
1) Part of the reason Duncan was such a beast was the way he got whacked around at home.
2) He was incredibly intelligent (this totally astonished me, until I found out more about it).
3) He was a sadder person than I ever would have guessed and
4) He had talked with my father not long ago, and my father was terribly upset about my leaving. Believe me, that last one was a shock to me.
Duncan, I thought again, can you hear me?
Still no answer. I took one last, quick look around the inside of his head, then raised the helmet from my own head.
Hoo-Lan was looking at me eagerly.
“What is going on here?” I hissed.
“You mean you got through?” he whispered. His voice sounded almost hungry.
“What is going on?” I asked again, tired of giving more answers than I got.
But Hoo-Lan wasn’t ready to explain yet. Instead, he looked at me for a long moment, then answered my question with another question. Namely, “How would you like to visit another planet?”
I knew he was changing the subject, but I couldn’t help myself. “When can we go?” I asked eagerly.
“How about now?” Passing Murgatroyd back to me, he led me to a circle printed on the floor. “Stand here,” he ordered. “And as you value your life—don’t move!”
He crossed the room and fiddled with some dials, then crossed back and positioned himself next to me. Almost instantly a blue beam shone down from the ceiling, and the room faded from sight.
When I opened my eyes, I was on a tiny bit of sand in the middle of a huge body of water.
It was night, and the sky above us was unlike anything I had ever seen—a vast sheet of black filled with stars. All right, that’s not so weird. But their patterns were unfamiliar, and their light was so bright you could read by it. In the sky to our right floated a small green moon. A ribbon of shimmering, changing color stretched from horizon to horizon.
“All right!” I shrieked.
“Shhh!” said Hoo-Lan. “There are some very big animals around here. We don’t want to attract their attention if we can avoid it.”
I squeezed Murgatroyd and looked around nervously. I couldn’t see any big animals. But who knew what form they might take here? For all I knew, the island we were standing on was actually some enormous sea creature. I looked down, half expecting to see a huge mouth in the sand.
“How did we get here?” I whispered.
“We took a ship-to-surface elevator,” said Hoo-Lan. “It’s like moving around inside the ship, but on a grander scale.”
“Why didn’t Broxholm use one of these when he came to Earth?” I asked, remembering our trip from Kennituck Falls to the New Jersey.
“Because first you have to set them up,” s
aid Hoo-Lan.
“Why would anybody set one up out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“I set it up, to be a private place. I like to come here to think.”
I glanced at Hoo-Lan, who was easy to see because he was glowing again. “Who are you?” I asked.
“Your teacher,” he said, as if that answered everything. “And as your teacher, I want you to see some things here.”
He pulled a thin tube out of one of his pockets and blew a little tune on it. A moment later I heard the tune repeated somewhere across the water, as if it were being sung by a bird—or, for all I knew, some strange kind of fish. Or something else altogether, for that matter.
I turned to Hoo-Lan. He put his fingers to his lips and motioned me to silence.
We waited. The tune was repeated again, off in another direction, and then again, and again. Suddenly I saw a commotion in the water, as something bright and huge rose from the depths to the edge of the island.
“Our chariot arrives,” said Hoo-Lan.
My eyes were fixated on the green thing waiting just beneath the surface of the water. It was at least a hundred feet long. If it was a chariot, it was a strange one, because it was clearly a living animal—either that, or a very good imitation of one.
Hoo-Lan played another little tune. The creature rose to the surface and tipped back its head, which was the size of a small room. Its huge silver tongue extended to the shore like a gangplank.
“Go ahead,” said Hoo-Lan. “Step aboard!”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Rhoomba Ride, Hoo-Lan’s Home
Have you ever walked on a tongue? It’s an odd feeling. The surface is firm but squishy, and it’s a little hard to keep your balance.
I glanced behind me, to make sure Hoo-Lan was coming. Not that I didn’t trust him. But walking into a mouth is pretty scary.
He nodded to me.
Clutching Murgatroyd, I walked on.
Hoo-Lan caught up with me as I reached the creature’s teeth. They were taller than me, and made me think of huge icicles. Once we were clear of its fangs, the beast drew in its tongue, pulling us so far into its mouth that I was afraid we were going to be swallowed after all. Then it closed its mouth, and for a moment we were swallowed—by darkness.
That ended when Hoo-Lan began to glow. The blue light reflecting off the beast’s silvery tongue made everything look strange and ghostly.
“Where are we going?” I whispered. Not that I thought the beast would hear us. It was just one of those places that made you want to whisper.
“We’re going to my home,” Hoo-Lan replied. He looked happy.
“Are we going across the water—or under it?”
“Oh, under. Definitely under. Rhoombas don’t like to go on top of the water if they can help it.”
“Rhoombas?”
“That’s what you’re riding in now,” said Hoo-Lan. “They’re one of the best ways to get around on this world.”
“Do they ever, well—you know, do they have accidents?” I asked. I couldn’t quite bring myself to come right out and ask if they ever made a mistake and swallowed their passengers.
“No one’s perfect,” said Hoo-Lan with a shrug.
I realized he was speaking in English again.
“Why are you doing that?”
“What did you see inside my head?”
I looked at him for a moment. “What do you mean?”
“I mean if you tell me what you saw, I’ll tell you why I’m speaking English.”
I hesitated, for two reasons. First, I wasn’t sure just what I had seen when I was in Hoo-Lan’s head; I needed a moment to think about it. Second, any time someone wants to know something that badly it makes me a little nervous.
“I’ve spent a lot of time studying the Earth,” said Hoo-Lan, still in English. “Fascinating place.”
Something Broxholm had said when I first came onto the spaceship floated to the top of my memory. “Hoo-Lan, did you name the New Jersey?”
“You get a cigar for that one,” he said, putting his finger beside his nose.
“Who are you?” I asked, for the third time since I had known him.
“All take and no give makes for a lopsided friendship. Tell me what you saw in my head.”
I closed my eyes and thought for a moment. “You were in a classroom. Only you didn’t look like yourself. You were in disguise—sort of the way Broxholm was, when he took over our class. It was night. You were angry about something, angry enough that you began to glow until it was so bright it showed right through your mask. So angry you blew up a TV set.”
He stared at me with a look that was something like horror. “Have you told this to anyone else?”
I shook my head.
“Please don’t.”
“Did it really happen?” I asked.
Before he could answer, a low, groaning sound rumbled around us. “Ah, we’ve arrived,” said Hoo-Lan. “We’ll talk more about this later.”
“Arrived where?”
“At the city under the sea.”
“But how are we supposed to get out?” I cried.
I didn’t mind getting wet, but I knew if we were deep enough, the water pressure would crush us.
“Step back here,” answered Hoo-Lan, leading me further into the Rhoomba’s throat. After we had gone about ten feet we came to a kind of chamber, a round area that went straight up.
Once Hoo-Lan was sure I was standing in the right place, he slapped the wall of the chamber three times. The Rhoomba roared and a mighty gust of wind sent us flying straight up, as if we were being shot through a whale’s blowhole.
I landed on a padded surface, inside a small room. I was still trying to recover from the surprise when I saw a being who resembled Hoo-Lan drop something down the Rhoomba’s blowhole, which was pressed against an opening in the floor. You could see the Rhoomba’s leathery green flesh all around the edges.
“Reward,” said the stranger, when he saw my questioning look. Then he drew a trapdoor shut across the opening, sealing off the little room.
No sooner was the trapdoor shut than a door in the side of the room opened and three more beings who were clearly of Hoo-Lan’s race came running into the room. They wore light green togas, not brightly colored shorts. One by one, they clapped Hoo-Lan on the back, then gave him a big hug.
When they were done greeting Hoo-Lan, they turned to me and cried “Welcome, Krepta!”
“Thank you,” I said, feeling a little shy.
Clutching Murgatroyd for comfort, I followed them out of the little room, still wishing Hoo-Lan had finished telling me why he was so wound up about what I had seen inside his head.
My questions faded when I passed through the door of the little room and found myself standing in the center of a great city of tree-lined streets, soaring buildings, and busy markets.
Something about the city struck me as odd. It took me a few minutes to figure out that the place had almost no sharp edges. The buildings, even the tallest ones, were smooth and rounded, and had a soft, almost gentle look. Some of them were covered with decorations. I don’t know what they were made of, but the colors were mostly soft shades of blue and green and yellow, with here and there a deeper, stronger color that kept things interesting.
Even more striking than the buildings was the fact that the city was completely encased in a clear dome that stretched far above the top of the tallest building that I could see.
On the other side of the dome, above and all around the city, was water.
“Hoo-Lan,” I whispered. “It’s wonderful!”
“I’m glad you like it,” he said, patting a six-legged animal that happened to be walking by. “I’m very proud of it.”
We spent the whole day touring the city. It was beyond anything I had ever imagined. The rhoomba that delivered us was typical of the way things worked here; much of what needed to be done was taken care of by animals that had been trained and bred to the task. My favorites were t
he trash munchers. Every home and store had one—a fat little beast that loved to eat all kinds of garbage.
“Cuts down on the mess,” said the little blue woman who first explained them to me.
All the animals seemed happy and well cared for.
All the people did, too.
After a while I began to get suspicious. I knew enough about cities to feel like something was missing.
“Don’t you have anyone hungry here, anyone without a home?” I asked at last.
“Why should we?”
“I don’t think you should,” I said. “I just didn’t know there could be a city without people like that.”
“There can’t, on your planet. The difference is that we’ve made a decision that it’s not going to be that way. There’s enough to go around, you know. Enough here, and enough on Earth. It’s not like people have to be cold and hungry. You just haven’t decided it’s a bad idea.”
“Of course we think it’s a bad idea!”
“No, you think you think it’s a bad idea. If your people, all your people, really believed it was a bad idea, they would stop talking about it and change things so it didn’t happen anymore.”
I squeezed Murgatroyd, trying to keep from getting angry about what Hoo-Lan had said. I had a feeling he was blaming me, personally, for everything that was wrong on Earth.
We had this argument outside a huge building.
“Come on,” said Hoo-Lan. “There’s something in here I want to show you.”
People in the building greeted him as if he were an old friend. That was nothing surprising; it had been happening all day. One of the weirder things about the visit was the feeling I got that the whole city knew my teacher.
A series of long, snakelike creatures lifted us from floor to floor, until we were near the top of the building. On every floor, people shouted greetings to Hoo-Lan.
“Who are you?” I asked again, when we were standing outside a door on the top floor of the building.
Hoo-Lan smiled. “Why don’t you look into my brain and find out?”