Part Three: Into the Deep

As the other-Christa moved towards the Killcruiser Na'Korremok, Commander Goddard and his remaining crew pulled back from the fight, watching both ships closely. The message from -apparently- Elmira had left most of them fairly shaken, especially Radu. Goddard was worried, though, that if something bad happened to the other-Christa, and Suzee didn't get away, he would be left without an engineer, until Catalina regained consciousness. "Commander," Rosie called out from her post, "I'm detecting an energy spike from the other Christa."

Connor maneuvred the ship a few degrees to port, hoping to get a clear shot at the Killcruiser's powerplant. He knew he only had one shot, and if he didn't destroy the Spung, both Christas would be disabled and boarded, the crews enslaved... Cat...

He couldn't let that happen.

"Connor," Suzee's anxious voice came in over the comm line, "the hyperdrive is powering itself up. Wh.. What's going on?"

"I guess the Christa's got a plan. Too late for that, now... Firing..."

He thumbed the fire control.

Goddard and the others watched a bolt of energy lance out from the other- Christa, and strike the Killcruiser. As the Spung ship broke apart, its reactor overloaded, and the other-Christa collided with the explosion in a brilliant flash of white light...

When the flash faded, it was just them and some debris.

The entire crew stood there, speechless. They had just lost one of their own, someone they cared about...

At that point, they all heard the soud of a jumptube in use, turning in unison, they saw the Earther-Catalina step onto the command post.

"Where's Connor?" She demanded.

Miss Davenport and Thelma were having a difficult time explaining what had happened to Catalina. Not the part about jumping realities, no, that was the easy part, but the part about the other-Christa being lost, with Connor and some girl Cat didn't even know aboard, that was the hard part. Catalina became quite angry, and obviously didn't feel that she needed to control herself around Miss Davenport.

"How could you let that blockheaded idiot try to fix the ship with only himself and some so-called 'engineering genius' who's never been on my ship before? Then that big ape had to go and destroy a Spung Killcruiser without any shields... Get himself and somebody else killed, and get me stuck in a reality I don't belong in... That big dummy..."

She trailed off, starting to cry.

"Now, dear," Miss Davenport began, "I am certain that it's not as bad as it seems... I guess that I'm just not sure how it couldn't be..."

Cat stopped crying for a second to look up at her, than started sobbing again.

"He's dead," she said, voice muffled by her hands, "face it. I've lost my best and only friend."

Thelma, as usual, had an expression of total unconcern.

The universe seemed to be composed entirely of light to her, in an instant that lasted an eternity... When the light and pain subsided, she found herself on a city street, in a vaguely familiar city. As her conscious mind pulled itself together from the incoherent mass that the flash had broken it into, she recognized where she was.

Home.

Home, at last.

Suzee picked herself up from the sidewalk, and took a look around her. Just about everyone on the street had noticed her, so she guessed that either everything that had happened to her on the Christa had been a dream, or else she had suddenly appeared here... But how?

Of course, she realized, the other-Christa had sent her away, the same way it had pulled itself into their reality!

More importantly, though, she was finally home.

Looking down at herself, she noticed that she was still wearing her uniform from the Christa, so it apparently hadn't been a dream. So where then, was Connor?

Her train of thought was derailed when she and someone in the passing crowd, which had lost interest in her and regained it in their daily business, recognized one another.

"Koan?" She asked, tentatively.

"Suzee?" He asked in return.

They stood, staring at one another for a few moments, and then ran forward to hug one another.

"It's so good to have you back, Suzee... I... We've all missed you, since you switched places with that girl, Catalina. And to think, we thought she was imaginary!" He laughed, shortly. "Come along, now... We've got to get you home, so you can see your family again!"

Home, she thought, family. This could work...

Now who was it I was worrying about before?

Connor felt the familiar sense of being pulled out of the fabric of space and time, of being pulled into another reality. He steeled himself against the painful flash in his eyes and mind, knowing it would come, but the force of his will was no help against it. It was like a star going supernova inside your mind, melting consciousness away, and exposing the deepest pains you had hidden away in your memory. As he put the universe back together, piece by piece, like an infinite jigsaw puzzle of perceptions, he quickly realized that he was not on the Christa, not by a long shot.

"What in the hey..." He wondered aloud.

He was standing on top of a plateau, overlooking an immense city, more advanced than any he had ever seen. There were so many lights, so many colours...

Every colour he had ever seen, and many more besides.

"Where am I?" He asked, disbelieving what he saw.

"You are on Yensid," came a voice from behind him, "my home..."

Connor turned around, and saw the most bizarre person he could recall seeing in his life. The creature stood barely as high as Connor's chest, and it stood in a hunched posture which reduced its height even more. It had reddish, rough skin on what could be seen of it, and its face was wrinkled and distorted, and framed by long, shaggy black hair. It was wrapped, all but its head and hands, by old furs and rags. Its eyes though, were truly bizarre. They were entirely blue, no whites or pupils at all. And they held a wisdom older than any living thing could possibly be.

"Who are you?" Connor asked, surprised.

"I am Trannik, the Hermit." It replied, "but... The real question is, who are you, I think..."

"I... I'm Connor... Connor Macfarlane," he said, extending a hand to shake.

"Ah," Trannik said, taking his hand and shaking it vigorously, "hello, Connor Connor Macfarlane..."

"Don't start that with me. It's just Connor Macfarlane. Or better yet, just call me Connor."

"Ah, ah... Yes... Yes... Connor..." The creature began mumbling, talking to itself.

"Well, Trannik, it's been nice meeting you, and all," Connor was edging his way towards the city, "but... I've got a friend I'm supposed to be meeting in the city, so..."

"Good. Good," Trannik interrupted him, "I need to go to the city also, so I shall accompany you."

"Great." Connor said halfheartedly.

Suzee was ecstatic. Here she was, back home in her own dimension, with all of her family and friends, even Catalina. The two girls had had to catch up on old times, and so they had decided to go to the Park after lunch with Suzee's family. Suzee was grateful, since this was the first home-cooked meal she'd had in years.

"So then," Suzee paused in her story; she was telling everyone about her adventures with the crew of the Christa since she had last been able to communicate with Cat, but she suddenly got the feeling she'd forgotten something, but she quickly dismissed it and went on, "we were able to get out of the cave, thanks to Rosie's heat powers. And that was the last interesting thing that happened to us, until now, anyway."

"Suzee," Catalina was getting impatient, "we've got to go now, or we'll miss the magician." Cat had wanted to see this stage magician for a month now; she'd been waiting, and waiting, and now she was going to be able to see it with her best friend. But only if they left now.

"I'm going, I'm going."

Connor and Trannik stopped for lunch near the Park; Connor had never been in a city like this one, he'd spent too much time in Orbital Stations, aboard ships, and in small domed colonies, and not enough on terraformed worlds, or even Earth, where he'd been born. Travelling from place to place, from habitat to habitat, as his parents were transferred or just wanted a change of scenery. No real friends except his foster sister, Catalina... No wonder he was so suited for the trials he faced aboard the Christa. No-one to miss, to care about, or to be missed by except another crewmate, one who had stuck with him, no matter what. And here he was, a reality away from her, and he missed her. He would bet anything that she missed him as well.

These thoughts were about the only thing that kept him from having to listen to Trannik's stories about the adventures he had had. It wasn't that Connor didn't care, really, it was just that there was only one story, and Connor had heard it well enough the first time.

Sitting down at a small table, they ordered something Connor had never heard of, but which Trannik insisted was good. Waiting for the food, Connor sat with his back to the wall, observing passers-by.

Back aboard the Christa, Radu was re-entering the ship via the airlock, where Commander Goddard stood, waiting.

"Find anything, Radu?"

"I did, Commander," he said, pulling off the helmet, "I found some debris which was obviously part of the other Christa." His voice turned somber, "there were no signs of Connor or Suzee. They were probably vapourized in the explosion. They're dead, Commander."

There was nothing else to be said, as Radu left to change back into his uniform, and Goddard returned to the Command Post.

Trannik and Connor were eating something called rallumph, which was apparently some sort of bird served in a fruit sauce. Connor liked it, but he couldn't quite place the taste. His observations of people walking by had not helped him at all, the people here seemed to be just like people back home. Except for the hair, he thought to himself. Everyone here had coloured streaks in their hair at the temples and back of the head. And everyone had a different combination of colours.

"Sort of like Saturnians," he thought aloud.

"What?" Came the response from the Hermit.

Connor looked over at his new travelling companion, and popped another piece of rallumph in his mouth.

"In my reality, people from Titan, one of Saturn's moons, have a natural colouring to their hair which looks like a rainbow swirl. They also have a weird sonic scream power. I've never met one, myself. There were a bunch at the Academy back home, but not in any of my classes."

"Ah... ah... rainbow-haired, eh? Like the girl from Outside, then."

"What?" Now Connor was truly perplexed.

"Like her, yes? Over there," he said, pointing.

Connor followed the direction of the point, while putting another bit of rallumph into his mouth. When he saw the girl, he was surprised. When he saw who she was with, he nearly choked.

Suzee didn't know what to think. As she and Cat were leaving, Koan had insisted that he come along as well. She had looked to Cat for help, but the Saturnian had just rolled her eyes and given up. Suzee had followed suit. So now Koan was telling them all about his ideas for new uses of the Yensidian Mind-Jumping powers. All of them included ways to defeat the resistance most Yensidians had to the power.

"Of course," he would say, looking over at Cat, "that is only necessary when the target is Yensidian. Otherwise..."

They'd put up with twenty minutes of this. They were almost at the Park, and Suzee had a feeling that if Koan didn't shut up soon, Catalina would burst his eardrums, or maybe liquefy his brain. Of course, she thought, that would only be necessary if he had a brain. Otherwise...

She giggled.

"Is something funny, Suzee?" He asked, imperiously.

"No. No. Nothing at all." She looked over at Cat, smiling. Then they both started giggling.

Koan was about to say something, when someone called out after them.

"Suzee! Wait up!" It was Connor, running full tilt towards them, with a small, hunched creature following him. At first, Suzee didn't recognize him, but when she did, she realized something else.

"Who is he?" Koan asked, disdainfully.

"Yeah, Suzee. He's not dressed like a Yensidian. What, did you bring a new boyfriend with you from my dimension, and decided not to tell your parents yet? Moving across dimensions is a pretty serious commitment in a relationship."

"No, no... It's not like that at all!" She exclaimed, blushing.

When Connor reached the trio, he stopped dead in his tracks. He looked right at Catalina, recognition dawning on his face.

"Hey, wait a minute..."

Then, Trannik caught up.

"Ah, you see? It's the Rainbow-Haired Girl, yes? The Girl from Beyond, from another dimension."

"Yeah, but I'd swear it was Cat! Except... Well, she's a Saturnian. Hold it." He turned to Suzee. "Something was mentioned aboard the Christa about you and Cat switching..."

As he paused, there was an almost audible sound of two-and-two coming together in his mind.

"Oh..."

The Park was full of people of every age and description; Connor could barely see the stage where the magician was performing, but he could see Cat and Suzee as they moved their way through the crowd to get a better view. In the meantime, he was stuck with Koan and Trannik, at the back of the crowd. Koan didn't seem to like Connor very much, and the feeling was definitely mutual. There was just something about the Yensidian that made the hairs on the back of Connor's neck stand on end. The two were not talking at all, since Koan felt no need to impress this obviously inferior individual with his achievements, and Connor just had nothing to say. Trannik, however, was commenting on everything the illusionist did on stage, with the boundless wonder of a child. Apparently, whatever Trannik was, he had vision like a hawk.

"Ah, ah! Very good. Yes! Quite the show, this is," he observed, more to himself than anyone else, "impressive. But, heh, not enough flash, yes?"

Connor was too busy following the movemens of the two girls.

I haven't seen Cat that happy in years, he thought, momentarily forgetting where he was, and which Catalina was here, not since...

Painful memories flooded his mind, memories of their voyage aboard the Christa. Betrayals, death, and great pain filled his consciousness, reminding him of the suffering he had caused, the suffering he had prevented... Faces of friends lost during their journeys, only to be found again, in a reality which was not his home... And, at the last, two faces. One, Catalina, his Catalina, lying unconscious and near death, the other, Suzee, this new person who he had dragged away from friends, into her home, or what seemed to be it, were she to be believed...

As consciousness slipped away, he wondered, what's going on, on the Christa, right now?

In the engine room of the Christa, Cat was securing the last of the salvaged hyperdrive parts into the protomix system.

"That should do it," she said to herself, disappointed when the system remained offline.

She looked around. Seeing no-one else in the engine room, she gave the hyperdrive a swift, hard kick, putting all of her anger and grief behind it. The hyperdrive flared to life.

"There," she said, adjusting her collar, "much better."

Commander Goddard had ordered everyone to turn out at the classroom in their full dress uniforms. He was planning on holding a memorial service for Connor and Suzee. They all stood there, uniforms clean and crisp, with looks of sadness on their faces. After they all had gathered, Goddard spoke.

"Today, two brave, young people have sacrificed themselves to save us. While neither of them were a part of our original crew, they both died so that we could go on, and get home. There can be no nobler end to a life than to save others, especially those you may not even know, from certain death... Or worse..."

There was grief in everyone's eyes. Most, he guessed, grieved for Suzee, not for someone they never knew. He knew, though, that Cat grieved for Connor, the only friend she'd had in this reality... She seemed fine, on the outside, but her eyes betrayed her, showing to the universe her sorrow. And now, she was stuck here, with them...

It was all too much to bear, for most of them... Each time they'd encountered another Lumanian ship, they lost someone they cared about... They had no alternative, though, but to go on.

He felt at peace, here. A peace he hadn't felt since he was a child, lying happily in his mother's arms. A long time ago, that had been. A time before he'd realised what the world was like. Cruel, harsh...

A cool, wet cloth touched his forehead, gently, and a soothing, familiar voice he couldn't quite place, was saying something to him. But he just couldn't tell what it was. He felt detatched from his body, but trapped by it, like air in a jar...

Suddenly, reality snapped back into place, jarring him from his reverie.

The cloth and voice were both Suzee's, and he had the sudden and disturbing revelation that he was no longer wearing his uniform...

His face took on a nice, red hue. Basics of Quantum Physics. The mere thought of its contents hurt his head.

"You passed out from fever," Suzee was saying to him, "you shouldn't have eaten that rallumph. You're allergic to it."

"Impossible," he tried to say, but no sound came out.

"You shouldn't try to do much of anything for about a week. You're too weak to even walk, and you obviously can't speak. The fever's broken, but you aren't going anywhere."

"Suzee," Catalina asked, "if he's going to be in here, and I'm in the guest room, where will you be?"

"On the couch, Cat."

As the two girls left the room, what passed for reasoning in Connor's mind at this point made what, for it, could only be called a leap of logic.

Hey, he thought, hazily, this must be Suzee's room.

He realised that he'd never seen inside a Yensidian house the entire time he'd been here. He then realised just how advanced all of the technology he'd seen around him today was. Further, he realised, giddily, that he was in Suzee's bed. He then realised that he had no business thinking along those lines. That nice, red hue he'd had before came back.

Just great. I should be thinking about a way to get myself and my Cat home, but here I am acting like some juvenile adolescent...

More revelation; he was an adolescent.

This just gets better and better, doesn't it?

End of Part Three: Into the Deep

Next- Part Four: here