“Tar’gn’ja has discovered a Rip in the fabric of the universe.”
“An anomaly? A dis-continuity? Can’t be!”
“It is. And you knew it was coming, just as I did. The stars have been wrong for months.”
“Yes. Water does not flow like it should.”
“Directional instincts have been off.”
“Few females are mating. They sense something’s wrong.”
“It’s as if our world ended, and we didn’t notice, when we moved out of the collapsed cavern and into this one.”
“Tell us about the Rip, Shun’gsh’ta!”
“Tar’gn’ja says a huge boulder floats, and he can move it with one claw. He only peeked beyond for a moment, then became frightened. He mutters about small, glowing eyes in the dark that do not move, but sometimes change color.”
“Spirits?”
“Demons?”
“Maybe both, I don’t know!”
“We must activate the Guard.”
“The Guard? It has not been used in our lifetime!”
“It must be used now. I am one, as are you.”
“True, but in name only. We know nothing of the old skills. After we destroyed our enemies, one and all, there was no purpose to the old training.”
“There is purpose now. We must find out where we are, and how we can return to the world we knew. This . . . tear in the fabric of the universe . . .
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may be our only chance.”
“I am with you, although I wish my grandfather was here to lead, or at least advise us.”
“So do I, my friend. So do I.”
“There are seven of us,” Shun’gsh’ta declared as he looked over his fellow reptiles.
Five males and one stout female looked back, all wearing the jewelry of the Guard, long an honorary order without training or duties.
“I cannot tell you what we will find when we go through the Rip.”
“Is it another dimension?”
“A time portal that will take us to the past or future?”
“The demon-filled Underworld?”
“I don’t know!” Shun’gsh’ta snapped. “It is the unknown. Are you willing to go, knowing that if even one of us returns alive, with information that will lead us back to the world we knew, it will be worth the sacrifice?”
Silence filled the cave for a long moment. The female was the first to raise a claw. After that, none of the males dared show cowardice, and six claws were quickly held aloft.
“I am proud of you. I, too, tremble at the thought of stepping through the Rip. My scales rattle and my claws shake. But we all know that something is wrong, deeply wrong, with our world. We must find out what before all the females refuse to mate and we are doomed.”
The
others
nodded.
“Because we know nothing about what lies beyond, we are all scouts.
Explore for an hour at the most, always marking the way. Return to tell your tale. I can say no more.”
The seven members of the Guard, with their hearts in their throats, crept to the mysterious boulder that opened into . . . they knew not what. The others gasped as Shun’gsh’ta easily swung it open to reveal a dark tunnel going in two directions. They stared at the strange symbols on the other side of the floating boulder, but only shrugged.
Finally, not knowing what else to do, four of them went to the left and three to the right, trembling as they paused at each nook that offered any
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 151
cover or protection.
Small blue presences followed in both directions.
Deep Learning Notes
If you and your community were transported into a simulated environment in which everything, at a glance, looked right, what signs might you notice that you were no longer on Earth? What signs might you miss? Some possibilities:
- The orbiting of our moon causes ocean tides.
- Water circles a drain clockwise in the southern hemisphere, counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere.
- Many plants and animals, in their life cycles, respond to the seasons of the year, and without those seasonal cues, their life cycles are disrupted.
- In most places, the prevailing winds are primarily caused by the rotation of the Earth. In the middle latitudes where the author lives (around 45° north latitude), the prevailing wind is from the west, for example.
There are many honorary orders, offices, and institutions in our world that once had purpose, and have been continued out of respect for tradition, but whose members no longer receive any meaningful training, nor have any serious responsibilities. For example, there is an official “Poet Laureate” in the USA. Have you listened to his or her poems recently? Have they been on TV, or recited at school?
If you and your friends found a “rip in the fabric of the universe,” would you explore it for fun? Would you explore it if the world was in a dangerous situation (war, energy crisis, economic depression) and needed help? If you were the leader of the expedition, what would you advise your friends to look for, or avoid?
Why do you think the small blue lights didn’t do anything to stop the escaping retiles?