The entire evaluation group spent the following morning in the waiting room of the medical clinic. As requested, they all brought something to read.
Liberty was called in fairly early, and spent almost an hour with nurses and doctors to determine if her stomach trouble was anything serious.
Ashley soon finished the book she was reading, so she looked over the rack of pamphlets. Most of them were routine subjects like how to brush your teeth and how not to get pregnant. Then her eyes stopped on one that piqued her curiosity — The Lyceum Hospice Program.
Just then, Ilika was called into the examining room.
“Shawn, look at this!” Ashley said, plopping back onto the couch with the pamphlet in hand. “People who are dying, and have some important scientific or artistic work they’re trying to complete, can live right here at Lyceum, with all the labs and studios to help them finish!”
“You know someone who’s dying and is working on something important?”
“Yeah!”
At that moment, Liberty returned to the waiting room. “What’s up, guys?”
“Remember I was telling you about my friend Jenny who’s writing a symphony?”
“Yeah . . .”
“This would be perfect for her!”
The three friends spent the next twenty minutes reading the entire
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pamphlet and talking about Jenny. Ashley told them about the only place Jenny could play without angering the other residents, a little outdoor porch at the nursing home. She went on to describe the young musician’s only instrument, a cheap penny whistle. After discussing every aspect of Jenny and the program, none of them could think of any reason Jenny wouldn’t be accepted.
Finally, Ashley was called into the examining room, so she tucked the pamphlet into her book and slapped hands with Ilika, who was just coming out.
The crew of the Manessa Kwi decided it was time to do more than look and listen. They decided it was time to ask questions. It sounded pretty easy.
Sata sat down on one end of a bench. The middle-aged lady at the other end squirmed with discomfort, even though the bench was eight feet long.
Sata took a breath for courage, then spoke. “May I ask you a question?”
“Are you lost, little girl?”
Sata smiled. “No. I was wondering if you know of anyone who needs . . .”
“Where’s your mother? You shouldn’t be wandering around without your parents.”
Sata sighed, thanked the lady for her time, and went to find Sister Rebecca, who explained that communication was only possible with most people if all social customs and rituals were handled first.
Kibi tried a different method, approaching some young people about her age throwing a ball through a metal hoop in the recreation center. “Teach me how?”
“Sure!” a tall, lanky boy replied with admiring eyes.
After half an hour of instruction and practice, Kibi showed no signs of skill at basketball, but was laughing and having fun.
“Let’s take a break,” the tall boy announced, and when Kibi sat down on the bench with the others, her admirer sat down close beside her.
Kibi sensed his interest, felt the heat of his body, smelled his delicious male aroma, and silently promised herself that she wouldn’t let things get out of hand. “I’m looking for someone, someone important who needs . . .”
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“That would be me,” he replied firmly. “I haven’t held anyone tight for . . .
at least a week!”
His friends laughed.
Kibi swallowed. “I’m looking for someone who’s important to the universe
. . .”
The boy stood up, bounced the ball, and looked at her. “What are you, some kind of freak?”
Kibi managed to hold in her tears until she found Sister Rachael, who helped her understand her mistakes.
By that afternoon, Sata was ready. With clipboard in hand, she approached a couple in the heliport lobby. “Hello, I’m taking a survey for a school project. Do you have a minute?”
“Yes,” the man said, “our flight doesn’t leave for ten minutes.”
“If you had the power to save one important person or thing, that would be lost otherwise, what would it be?”
“George Samson, coach of the Lions. He went into retirement last year, and they’re gonna lose the championships without him. He needs to coach one more season.”
Sata was pretty sure this wasn’t their mission, but she made some notes.
“Instant Cake Decorator,” his wife asserted. “I lost one of my attachments, and they don’t make them anymore. My mother used Instant Cake Decorator.
There should be a law about it.”
Sata made more notes.
“What language is that? ” the man asked, looking down at Sata’s clipboard.
She smiled. “Secret school code.”
That evening after dinner, as the evaluation group surveyed the storeroom full of camping equipment, everyone wanted to sleep under the stars, with a large tarp along just in case of rain.
Only a month before, Shawn would have been completely lost, not having any idea what to pack. A few days in the railroad yard of his home town had brought him much wisdom about camping. He soon had his own gear packed, and several shanks of rope to help with the tarps.
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When they emerged from the storeroom and announced to Sister Joan that they were ready to go, she said nothing, but only held out a large envelope. Sapphire opened it. As she examined the papers within, a smile grew on her face.
“What is it?” several others asked, all gathering around to see.
“Maps. It’s a treasure hunt! I haven’t done one of these in ages. The treasure is a campsite with our evening snack, breakfast, and a pile of firewood.”
Ashley and Liberty sparkled with interest. The entire group spread out the maps on a table for examination.
“Okay, here’s the zoo, but what’s this?”
“Looks like a spider!”
“How many legs does it have?” Liberty asked, unable to see at the moment.
Sapphire looked. “Six.”
“Then I bet it’s the residence halls. There are six clusters, connected by covered walkways.”
“Excellent deduction, Liberty,” Ilika said.
She smiled at him.
“I think this foot print is a unit of measure,” Dario said. “And we can determine its value if we can find two known points.”
“Isn’t this a fountain?” asked Sapphire.
“Yeah, the one in the Eastern Garden, I bet,” Dario speculated. “That’s seven foot prints from the zoo. I’ll go pace off that distance,” he said and dashed out the door.
“I think I know where this stream is,” Shawn said. “I’ve seen it in the woods.”
“That’s definitely one of our references,” Sapphire said. “Could you find it again?”
“I think so.”
“But we’re gonna need this distance, and this one too,” Ashley said.
“But what’s this?” Sapphire asked, pointing to an oval with a five-pointed asterisk at one end.
“A helicopter?” Liberty wondered aloud.
“So if that’s the heliport, we can triangulate using this distance here,” Ilika
NEBADOR Book Seven: The Local Universe 147
suggested.
“I don’t think so,” Shawn said. “That part of the forest is thick and almost impossible to walk through.”
Dario dashed back in. “A foot print is a hundred yards!”
Ten minutes later they all felt ready to begin the hunt. After shouldering packs and helping each other to adjust straps, Shawn was in charge of the first leg of the journey, attempting to find the path and stream.
They walked behind the residence halls, beyond the petting zoo, and past the pantry and laundry buildings. The first trail they tried took them to a huge gas tank inside a fence, but no farther.
Retracing their steps, they tried another.
“Yes!” Shawn declared. “I clearly remember this gnarled old tree root!”
Ten minutes later they came to a tiny trickle of a stream passing under a little bridge.
Suddenly Liberty faintly heard the distinct sound of jet engines starting.
“A helicopter getting ready to take off!”
“We need a direction to the heliport . . .” Ilika began.
“But to do that, someone will have to get up in a tall tree so they can see the chopper leave,” Dario said.
Ashley raised her hand.
“Our gymnast!” Sapphire said with admiration.
Ashley looked around, and selected a tall spruce with plenty of branches.
“I’ll need a boost to the first branch.”
“You’ve got it,” Ilika said.
“How long do I have, Lib?”
“Two or three minutes.”
Ilika lifted Ashley up, she took hold of the first branches, and began a rapid but careful climb upward.
“Relate the direction to a nearby tree,” Dario suggested.
Ashley absorbed the message as she climbed.
“Rotor just started,” Liberty called. “They’ll be airborne in about a minute!”
Ashley climbed. The main trunk was down to a foot in diameter.
“Be careful!” Sapphire called.
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Ashley
silently
promised. She was beginning to feel the tree sway slightly as she climbed.
“There goes the helicopter!” she faintly heard Liberty yell.
Ashley stopped climbing and looked up. She was just barely high enough, but she managed to glimpse, through the many tree branches around her, the helicopter’s ascent. She quickly looked down and lined it up with a tree less than a hundred feet away. Then she closed her eyes and listened to her heart throbbing softly inside her. It was a strong heart, she knew, conditioned by more than six years of gymnastics training.
When Ashley’s heart had slowed and her mind had cleared, she began the long, careful climb back down.
Ilika caught her and lowered her to the ground. She immediately found her reference tree, not far off in the woods. The group again gathered around the maps.
Sapphire pointed to the map. “So that puts our goal not down the stream, but somewhat east of the stream.”
Dario blinked a few times. “But we still have to follow the stream to get the right distance from the trail.”
“True, but at least we now know which way to go from there.”
The next part of the journey was led by Dario, who had to pace off eleven hundred yards, and do so along a twisting little stream. They soon discovered a faint path along one side, and Liberty even found a recent shoe print.
Soon Dario stopped. “This is the place, plus or minus one percent”
“That’s eleven yards. That ought to get us close enough,” Sapphire said.
Shawn poked around on the far side of the stream from the rest of the group. “A tire track!”
Everyone quickly gathered to see.
“Motorcycle?”
“Lighter. Just a wheelbarrow, I think,” Dario said.
Ashley laughed. “For the firewood!”
They only had to follow the wheelbarrow track about two hundred yards east, and they found the campsite, complete with ice chest, firewood, and campfire pit.
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Around a cheery blaze, after sharing recent memories and speculating about the remaining day of evaluations, everyone talked about what they would be doing if they didn’t join Lyceum. Sapphire and Dario had jobs they would return to. Liberty said something about a school, but didn’t want to elaborate. Shawn intended to get a job, and probably do some volunteer work. Ilika would go back to being the captain of a small ship. Ashley knew she would be returning to a town where she could get no further gymnastics training.
Marshmallows toasted on the ends of sticks and laughter occasionally filled the air as six hopeful hearts shared their dreams and fears in that secluded little campsite, somewhere at a place called Lyceum.