"MRS. ALLBRIGHT, IT PAINS ME TO TELL YOU THIS, BUT I have reason to believe Rod may have a psychic link to his father."
Mom looked at her warily. "So?"
Madame Pong spread her arms, as if indicating this was all beyond her control. "Well, you must see what that means. Rod's presence on the Ferkel could spell the difference between success and failure in our long-term mission." She paused, then whispered for emphasis. "The difference between finding your husband or not."
My mother put her hand to her mouth, then collapsed, sagging against the couch like a balloon that had lost its air.
Given everything that had happened to her in the last couple of hours—my unexpected return, meeting a pair of miniature aliens, learning that the man she had married was also from outer space—I could see why Mom would accept this idea so easily. Oddly enough, I found myself wondering whether Madame Pong was actually telling the truth, or just spinning out a story in order to convince my mother to let me go.
I felt a little guilty keeping quiet about my suspicions. but I had to find my father, and one way or another I planned to be on the Ferkel when it left.
Besides, I had already received a message from Snout inside my head, so I knew that such a psychic link was possible. And I was part alien. So who could tell what weird abilities I might have? Maybe Madame Pong really was telling the truth.
After a long time my mother nodded. Her voice seeming to come from somewhere far away, she whispered, "If that's really the case, I guess Rod had better go with you."
Madame Pong smiled serenely. Then, seeing my stricken look on my other's face, she lifted a finger and said, "A moment, please." Turning to Grakker, she pulled him aside and whispered into his ear.
His face got tight. "Absolutely not!" he roared,
Madame Pong continued talking. Finally Grakker growled, "All right, all right. But it must be brief. Very brief!"
Madame Pong turned to my mother. "On behalf of the crew I would like to invite you and you . . . things . . . to take a brief tour of the Ferkel, so you can see where Rod will be living."
My mother looked at the tiny ship.
"We'll shrink you," said Madame Pong. "If we had more time, I would prefer going outdoors and enlarge the ship. That way you might feel less nervous about this. Alas, we do not have time to spare. But Captain Grakker has graciously agreed to let you aboard while we prepare for departure."
"Yes!" said my mother, suddenly, eagerly, as if her voice had been missing and just returned. "Of course."
All this happened so fast I nearly forgot one of the things I had meant to do when I came back. "Wait!" I cried. "I have to get something."
"Don't forget your toothbrush, Rod!" called my mother as I raced toward my room. "And pack some clean underw—"
"Mom!"
I heard Madame Pong begin to talk to Mom, and figured she was explaining how the ship would provide things like new clothes for me.
When I got to my room, I saw at once that Mom had cleaned it while I was gone. For some reason that really got to me. The place didn't look lived in anymore, and as I paused at the door, it suddenly hit me deep in the stomach that I might never see my home again. I actually staggered as a wave of fear and sorrow washed over me. My certainty that I had to go with the aliens began to dissolve.
Then Grakker came flying up, cranky and shouting for me to hurry, and I had no more time to hesitate. Scrambling through my stuff, I found the gifts the aliens had given me after our first adventure. One was a book called Secrets of the Mental Masters, which had come from snout.
The second was a ring from Madame Pong.
Once I had them, I hurried back to the living room.
The aliens had already shrunk my mother, the twins, and Elspeth. Mom and Elspeth were about two inches high, which made them incredibly cute—especially since they were running around in circles shouting, "I'm tiny! I'm tiny!"
I stepped into position so that I could be Shrunk, too. Then we all climbed the little ramp that led into the ship.
Tar Gibbons and Phil were in the control room when we entered. Even though we had told Mom about these two aliens, she seemed pretty startled when she actually saw them.
I could understand. The Tar is strange-looking characters. It's shaped like a lemon with legs—four legs, to be exact. It also has two arms, a long neck, and big goggly eyes. It is my teacher and I love it. but I'd be the first to admit that it's pretty weird to look at it.
Mom handled it pretty well. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Gibbons," she said, extending he hand.
Elspeth laughed. "It's not a mister, it's a tar."
Seeing Mom's confusion, Madame Pong added, "Roughly translated, Tar means 'Wise and beloved warriors who can kill me with his little finger if he should desire.' It is a title of great honor."
"How nice," said Mom uneasily.
"And this is Phillogenous esk Piemondum," I said quickly, pointing to the large potted plant floating next to the Tar.
"My, what a beautiful blossom you have," said Mom admiringly.
"Thank you,' replied Phil, who spoke by "burping" through air pods that grew close to his stem. He extended one of his leaves, and Mom politely put her hand out to shake it.
The leaf came off in her hand.
"oh, my God, I'm so sorry!" she cried. She started trying to hand it back to him.
"Do not worry, Mrs. Allbright," said Madame Pong, placing a gentle hand on my mothers shoulder. "Phil was done with that leaf. Giving it to you is a sign of great honor."
My mother swallowed hard, then seemed to collect herself. Nodding graciously, she said, "Thank you very much, Mr. Piemondum."
We had barely finished the greetings when a ball of purple fur bolted into the room and wrapped itself around my leg. "Eeee-e-e-eep!" it wailed. "Eeeep! Eeeep! Eeeep!"
"A kitty-critter!" cried Little Thing One. She tried to pry it off my leg, but this only caused the ball fur to cling more tightly. "I want it, Roddie!"
"No, I want it!" said Little Thing Two, latching on as well. "Let me have it!"
"I take it this is chibling you told us about?" asked my mother, somehow managing to separate the kids from my legs as she spoke.
I nodded. I knew then little creature would let go of me in a few minutes. It had bonded with me in The Old Lobby, and it got upset whenever I had to leave it alone. Like Elspeth, it was kind of annoying, but not so bad once you get used to it.
The tour was a great success, at least as far as the twins were concerned. They must have said " Wow!" and "Coolie-dookers!" a hundred times. Of course, what impressed them were simple things like flashing lights and things that made noise.
What impressed my mother was Phil's explanation of how the Ferkel managed to cover interstellar distances by taking shortcuts through other dimensions.
Not everyone enjoyed the tour. Grakker muttered and grumbled the whole time, crossing and uncrossing his arms and generally acting cranky and impatient. He kept contracting Phil to see if the ship was ready to go, and mumbling about "interfering earthlings," as if we were somehow slowing down the preparations.
"I really must requisition a new patience module for him," Madame Pong whispered to me. "He's shot-circuited his way through the entire inventory."
Elspeth was almost as bad. She complained so much about the fact that I got to go with the aliens while she was stuck on Earth that finally even my mother got fed up. "Oh, for heaven's sake, Elspeth," she snapped. "Stop whining!"
As for me, I got a big charge out of showing off the ship. The Ferkel was pretty cool. Each of the aliens had a room designed to suit his, her, or its specific needs, so there was a lot of variety. My favorite was Tar Gibbon's room, which contained a small, mist-shrouded pond.
Mom preferred Madame Pong's chamber, which was filled with gauzy, multicolored hangings that made it look as if a rainbow cloud had settled inside.
Phil's room was something like a jungle; if he had been there, it would have been hard to tell him from the nonintelligent plants. (Or maybe they were all intelligent. Who could tell?)
What really turned on the twins was the recreation room, which had the most fabulous games you could imagine.
Since I was the junior member of the crew, my own cabin was fairly small. But I did have a computer hookup (and what a computer!), my own bathroom, and an antigravity bed. I really loved this idea. A lot of mattress companies promise that using their bed will be like sleeping on air. I really would be! Only I hadn't actually had a chance to try it out yet, because we had come straight home from The Old Lobby, and I had yet to spend my first night—or sleep period, since there was no real day and night in space—on the ship.
Mom approved of my room, and did seem to feel better for knowing where I was going to live. What made her feel even better was the discovery that the ship had a chapel. At least, that was the best word the aliens' language program could come up for it. Madame Pong said its use was actually somewhat more complicated than that word would indicate.
Anyway, it was a small room, quiet and dimly lit, that was reserved for contemplating matters of spirit.
"I do not know why you are surprised that we have such a place, Mrs. Allbright," said Madame Pong. "Such things are universal concerns."
The one thing I noticed that Madame Pong didn't show Mom an the twins—and I certainly suggest it—was the room at the bottom of the ship where we were holding Smorkus Flinders in suspended animation. I was pretty sure if my Mother actually saw the horrible monster I had been forced to battle, she would really wig out.
All too soon Phil announced that the ship was ready to go.
"Time is up!" snapped Grakker. He bowed stiffly to my mother and said, "I'm sorry Mrs. Allbright, but we have to leave now! Madame Pong, I will be in the conference room. As soon as we cross dimensions, gather the crew for a meeting."
He turned and stalked away.
My mother was silent, but the look on her face was like an arrow through my heart.
"Roddie!" cried the twins, attaching themselves to my legs like a pair of chiblings. "Don't go, Roddie!"
I felt as if I might as well just rip my heart out of my chest and cut it in two. If only I could be two people: one who stayed home with the family, and one who went off into the world to have adventures. But the fact was, there was only one of me. Whether I stayed with Mom and the twins or went off to look for Dad, half my heart would be hurting.
Things moved fast after that, with Phil sounding an alarm and announcing that all visitors had to leave the ship at once.
When Mom hugged me good-bye at the door I could feel her tears falling onto my face. Looking past me to Madame Pong, she said fiercely, "You take good care of him, do you hear? I want you to bring him home safe, and his father with him. I want my man back!"
Madame Pong bowed respectfully.
"I honor the mother spirit within you," said Tar Gibbons, blinking its enormous eyes, and said firmly, "Make me proud of you."
Taking the twins by the hands, she turned and walked from the ship with great dignity and pride. As soon as they were off the ramp, we gave them a dose of the enlarging ray.
Then we shot up from the coffee table and sailed through the window.
Watching through the viewscreen, I saw my mother waving frantically for us to come back. The sight tore at my heart. But there was no turning back now. Less than a minute later I felt the little jolt that indicated the ship was shifting dimensions, and I knew we were truly on our way.
It wasn't until later that night that I realized exactly why Mom had been signaling us to come back.