 
# The Gateway

### Steve Simons

### Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2008 Steve Simons

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### as an Audio Book from PodioBooks.com

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### ~~~~~~

### INDEX

Chapter 1 - From One Game to Another?

Chapter 2 - Painful Troubles

Chapter 3 - Where Does That Leave Us

Chapter 4 – Give And Take

Chapter 5 – Wake Up And Smell The War
Chapter 6 – From the floor the ceiling is a long way
Chapter 7 – I Can See Right Through You

Chapter 8 - Needs & Purpose

Chapter 9 – Nannybot

Chapter 10 – I Don't Want To Be Scanned

Chapter 11 – Stop Messing About

Chapter 12 – Don't Ask

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 1 - From One Game to Another?

Tom and Barry were playing around the old wrecked buildings, the ones that Tom's grandpa said had been reduced to rubble during the second world war. There just hadn't been the money to rebuild on the land, but Tom and Barry didn't mind that, it made a great play place for them. They played hid and seek, soldiers, demolition men and many more games here. Today was just like any other day, Tom and Barry were deeply involved in a game, this time it was a rescue. Tom had disappeared into what had once been a cellar, Barry had seen him enter it, so he knew where his target was. He heard the call on his walkie talkie, the call for "International Rescue"

Tom said he was trapped in a deep cave and needed urgent medical treatment.

Barry radioed back that the rescue team were on their way. He headed off to the entrance that he'd seen Tom go through.

The room was quite small but dark, there was just enough light to make out the corners of the room,

but there was no sign of Tom. Barry thought that Tom was really good at hiding, he reached into his jeans back pocket and pulled out his rather battered torch. It flickered as he turned it on and quickly died, it had never been the same since he dropped it when last playing hide and seek. Barry smacked the torch on the bottom and the light came on quite bright this time. He shined it everywhere, but Tom was nowhere to be seen.

Barry reached for his walkie talkie and pressed the transmit key, he asked Tom to let him know where he was. All that came back was silence and when he turned the squelch nob down, there was just a loud "Shhhhh" noise. Barry called again, with the same result.

Barry thought that maybe he'd been wrong and Tom hadn't come in this room after all, also the reception could be bad. As he headed towards the entrance, he thought he heard Toms voice, it was quite faint, but unmistakeably Tom's voice, it was coming from the walkie talkie.

Barry raised the walkie talkie to his ear and sure enough through the shhhhh noise, he could hear Tom describing some place that sounded nothing like the area round the wrecked buildings.

Tom said that there was a wooden stockade ahead of him, there appeared to be smoke coming from within it.

Barry wondered if Tom had hit his head on something and had become quite delirious.

No matter how much Barry tried to radio Tom back, he was either ignoring the calls or could not hear Barry.

Suddenly Barry tripped on some rubble on the floor, he found himself falling forward. Expecting to land on the hard rubble, instead he found himself in some tall grass. There was a strong smell of smoke and what sounded like crickets.

Barry picked himself up being somewhat taller than Tom, he could see over the tall grass. He could see what looked like a wooden stockade in the distance. He could also make out the outline of someone walking towards it. Then he heard Tom's voice coming clearly over the walkie talkie. He was saying that he had heard some rustling in the grass behind him. Then Tom said that he could see someone standing in the grass. Barry raised the walkie talkie and said, "Its me you Berk!"

Tom asked how Barry got there.

Barry suggested that it was probably the same way that Tom.....he added that he wondered where there actually was. Barry walked towards Tom and soon the two boys were side by side, looking at the wooden stockade.

Tom said that there must be sort of of entrance, but there was no sign of one.

Barry suggested that they move to the other side of the stockade, but use the shrubs and tall grass as cover. They are soon looking at the large impressive entrance, with towers and flags flying from them.

Sudden;y there is a lot of noise as something disturbs the shrubs and grass clumps to the right of the boys. There is the sound of a horn and the ground trembles.

Both boys hiding in the shrubs are astounded as something resembling a giant caterpillar covered in some sort of armoured covering that flapped up and down as the creature moved at incredible speed towards the stockade.

As the boys looked closer they could see that there appeared to be individuals perched on top of this giant caterpillar . They seemed to be spaced at regular intervals. They were carrying some form of weapon, it looked like a medieval lance, like those carried by knights of old.

A second horn could be heard, but this time coming from within the stockade and the entrance seemed to be dropping open. The flags were waving as if sending a message or being waved to celebrate the victory of the returning soldiers, if that was what they were.

Tom wanted to run out and introduce himself to the returning soldiers, but Barry advised caution, after all they didn't know if these were the "good guys or the bad guys." as Barry put it.

Tom headed Barry's advice and the two boys watched as the caterpillar creature approached the stockade entrance. As the creature got closer the boys could see their caution was wise as they copuld see the caterpillar was towing behind it a large ball made of branches. Inside which the boys could make out some other sort of creatures, that if they weren't dead when captured, certainly would be travelling by this means. The creatures were tumbling over and over, like a hamster in a ball kicked by a small child, or like washing tumbling in a drier.

As the caterpillar made its final approach to the gateway, it slowed up and the creature nearest its head was exchanging grunting and other similar noises with what must have been the gatekeeper.

The caterpillar went on relentlessly, into the stockade, not pausing or stopping, even when creatures from inside the stockade stepped into its path waving their weapons in celebration. It was amazing that they didn't get crushed, but they seemed to have amazing sense of timing. As the tail end was disappearing into the entrance way; Tom caught a glimpse of more of the riding creatures under the caterpillar's armour plating. It seemed as if they were riding in little cabins, which flapped up and down as the armour plates themselves flapped about.

There seemed to be no signs of life from the creatures in the large trailing ball.

The gate was quickly closed behind the ball as it crossed the entrance way.

Barry was first to ask, as peace settled down again, what Tom had made of all of that commotion.

Tom said it seemed to be some sort of returning war or hunting party.

Barry suggested that nothing could survive a ride in that ball like thing. Tom agreed and said he wouldn't want to travel in it to be sure!

It was Barry who first noticed that the light seemed to be rapidly fading. He said it was lucky. He said it was lucky he had his torch with him.

The boys decided that it might be too dangerous to try and get back to the grass area where they had first arrived, so they would settle down for the night. Tom said he had a hunk of cheese and some bread that he'd grabbed from his kitchen before coming out to play. The boys settled down for their meal, listening all the while to the sounds coming from within the stockade. There was the smell of meat being cooked over an open fire.

Barry held off turning on his torch until it got so dark that the boys could barely see each other. Soon after he did turn it on, there was a very powerful beam of light shining straight at them,

coming from the stockade. It swung in a narrow arc, as if it was hunting them down. This was followed by the familiar sounds of the horns and the gateway opening. Then in due course the ground started to rumble again as the giant caterpillar creature emerged from the gateway of the stockade and it headed straight for the boys.

Barry exclaimed, "I think its time we head for home!"

The two boys got to their feet quickly. Barry shone the torch at the ground and they started to run in the direction that they had originally come from.

The caterpillar creature was fast, very fast and was gaining on them.

Barry was first to trip on the root of a shrub that was quite exposed above the ground.

Tom overtook him, not daring to stop to help Barry. He could see that the caterpillar creature was nearly on top of them. As it was pitch black , apart from the occasional flash of the very strong light, coming from the top of the pursuing caterpillar itself; Tom didn't see the shrub root that brought him down. He saw Barry's torch flickering as he ran towards Tom. Before he knew it, he could feel Barry's hand reach out and grab his, as Barry said quick get up!

Pain seared through Tom's ankle as he tried to stand. Yet he knew he couldn't give in to the pain,

it was a case of suffer the pain or be caught by whatever these creatures in close pursuit were.

Tom kind of hopped, following Barry as closely as he could. He was painfully aware that he was slowing Barry down and that the caterpillar was gaining on them.

Almost sobbing, he barked at Barry, "Leave me, I'm holding you back we won't both make it..... go go !"

Barry paused for a moment as he decided what to do.

It was too late, there was a huge flash and both boys suddenly found themselves on the ground unable to move .... unable to feel a thing.... in Tom's case it was a bit of relief from the painful ankle, but it was very frightening. They could breathe and could see what was going on around them, but they were paralysed and unable to move.

~~~~~~~~

Chapter 2 - Painful Troubles

It was too late, there was a huge flash and both boys suddenly found themselves on the ground unable to move, unable to feel a thing, in Tom's case it was a bit of relief from the painful ankle,

but it was very frightening. They could breathe and could see what was going on around them,

but they were paralysed and unable to move.

The caterpillar had come to a halt and several of the creatures had climbed down and were surrounding the two boys. The creatures grunting and signing to each other, obviously deciding what to do with the boys. Several of them grabbed the boys and dragged them over to the caterpillar creature. It was during this activity that the boys realised that the creatures, whilst quite strong, were actually shorter than the boys.

The boys were hoisted up one at a time and fastened to the armoured plates. Tom could see and smell that the armour plating was made out of some form of really dense leather.

The creatures were soon back up on or in their riding positions and the caterpillar was making its way once more into the wooden stockade.

When they entered the stockade itself they could see that it had a large fire to one side, the remainder of the space around the sides was taken up by a collection of what looked like straw and twig huts. There were lots of the creatures busying themselves with various tasks.

The caterpillar settled itself down into some sort of depression in the ground that must have been it's nest. one of the creatures tossed some food, to the head of the caterpillar, it grunted in appreciation and set about chewing its meal.

A large pot was being dragged to the fire. Once in place, some bones were thrown in and

a stream of creatures made their way up to the pot, each throwing in what appeared to be some vegetables of some sort.

Barry thought to himself, "I wonder if we are destined for the pot? Or will they invite us to join them for supper"

A rather impressively dressed creature walks up to Tom and starts grunting at him,obviously expecting Tom to understand him. Tom neither understands nor is in a position to be able to reply,

being paralysed still by whatever the creatures had shot him with.

The creature starts poking Tom with one of the lances, at the same time grunting and waving his arms with much emotion.

Barry had feeling returning to his hands and it was gradually spreading up his arms. Whilst it was good news that the feeling was returning, it was also agony, just like that feeling you get if you lay awkwardly on your arm and then move it, you get that agonising "springy" feeling. The creature standing guard nearest to him, watches in fascination as Barry screws up his eyes in agony and

makes various faces as the pains travel up his arm.

The impressively dressed creature moves over to Barry, it had given up any hope of engaging Tom.

It looks at Barry with the same fascination as the guard, as Barry's face is still very contorted in agony. The creature seems to believe that Barry's face movements are an attempt to communicate.

It studies Barry for some time in silence, then suddenly starts grunting as it did at Tom.

Barry manages to find his voice and responds by saying, "Look, sorry I don't understand a word you are saying. We don't mean you any harm, we are strangers here."

The creature looks at the guard, who grunts and starts to wave its arms up and down.

The creature then calls to some more guards who are passing by. They stop and listen, then come over to Tom, one of them points its weapon at Tom. Barry panics, thinking that they are going to harm Tom, Barry shouts, "There's no need to harm us, just because we don't understand you!"

There's a click noise and Tom falls from the restraints. He slumps to the ground, still apparently lacking any muscle control.

Barry realises its his turn, as the guard turns his attention towards Barry, its weapon pointing towards Barry's head. Barry hears the click noise and braces himself for the fall. He has regained enough muscle control that he is able to land on his feet and remain upright.

Suddenly Barry feels a sharp prod in his back, thinking 'Oh no here we go again!' He is quite surprised to find that it was one of the other guards, that had simply prodded Barry with the end of his weapon. Barry understands the message behind the action, 'move!'. He looks at Tom and realises that the creatures are waiting for him to regain muscle control.

The creature behind Barry prods him again and grunts. Barry reluctantly starts walking forward. The creatures in front of him move out of the way. The creature behind, keeps prodding him in the left or right shoulder as it wants Barry to change direction.

Barry soon finds himself being pushed into one of the huts along the side of the stockade. After entering the door is slammed shut and secured somehow.

Barry wishes he could see what is happening to Tom, especially when he hears weapon fire and

a lot of excited grunts coming from the creatures outside.

Barry thinks, 'They must be torturing Tom. Taking advantage of the fact that he is defenceless.'

Suddenly there is weapon fire near the hut that Barry is in. He hears noises as something sounds as if it is attempting to unlock the door. There is much noise and more weapons fire. It sounds as if something is climbing the outside wall of the hut.

Then Barry hears Tom's voice saying, "Well are you coming out dorky, or do I have to take this lot on my own?"

Barry takes a chance that the door is unlocked, kicks it and darts into a corner in-case it is a trap and there are creatures waiting for him to emerge.

The door is wide open now and all he can see in the dim light of the fire, is a load of creatures laying on the ground.

"How the.....!" exclaims Barry as he emerges cautiously from the hut. He is taken by surprise as there's weapon fire nearby and he hears something fall off the roof. He fears that Tom has been hit until he hears Tom say, "Well watch out doofus, you're going to be hit and I don't fancy carrying you around."

Something flies past the door, Barry darts back inside just in time as one of the creatures rolls through the entrance, hitting the rear wall with a rather loud 'Thwack!'against the wall.

Just as Barry is about to cautiously emerge again another creature rolls in and joins it's friend in a painful 'Thwack!' against the same wall as the last creature had hit.

Suddenly a hand reaches in and drags Barry out of the hut.

"You going to stay in there all night?" asks Tom. Barry realises the hand was Tom's.

Both boys nervously look around, but there isn't any sign of movement. Barry take another opportunity to scan all the creatures lying around on the ground.

"How the..... did you defeat this lot?" asks Barry.

"Element of surprise" replies Tom, then continues, "Those self defence classes came in handy after all."

"But....but..... you were defenceless on the floor, still paralysed." replies Barry, still stunned.

"Ah that's where you and they were fooled. I came to about the same time as you, however you attracted their attention with all your contorted face movements. I managed to conceal the pains and only made small movements as feeling came back into my limbs."

Barry replies, "But I saw you collapse on the ground, you had no control of your muscles at all."

"All an illusion, which not only fooled you, but also...." Tom pointed around, "....them. So when they attempted to poke me, like they did you. They were not expecting the coiled spring reaction they got. I was knocking them over before they even had a chance to recover from their surprise and attempt to raise their weapons. By the time they went on the defence, I'd taken a fair few of them out. When they did start firing at me I was darting all over the place and confusing them left right and centre. A fair number of them hit their fellow creatures, actually helping me out."

Barry bend down and picked up one of the creatures weapons.

"Be careful" warned Tom, "We've no idea what those things are capable of."

Barry turned it over and over in his hand, but there was no sign of any buttons or indentations, the shaft of the weapon was completely smooth.

"How do they operate this thing, there are no controls!" asks Barry.

Tom replies, "Perhaps its some form of mind power control."

Barry drops the weapon and it suddenly goes off, causing a yelp from the caterpillar creature that had remained perfectly still whilst all the commotion was going on.

Tom suggests, "Why don't we grab some form of trophy that we can take back home with us as proof that we've been here."

"Well we sure aren't taking one of those weapon things, its too dangerous." replies Barry.

Both boys look around for anything small, yet unique that they can take back with them.

Barry spots it first, he sees a belt with a strange buckle laying by one of the creatures, it is has same strange writing on it.

"How about this?" asks Barry.

"Perfect.... and I'm sure they can't miss it. Well we'd best get out of here before this lot start waking up.

The boys set off back in the direction that they had originally came from. Barry's torch was a bit temperamental, it kept going dim, then with a quick whack, went bright again. They manage to get back to the tall grass again without tripping. Throughout the journey the boys expected to hear the thumping of the caterpillar creature.

Either the creatures were still knocked out, or had decided against pursuing these very dangerous boys.

"We arrived somewhere around here." says Barry.

The boys walked around and around, but nothing happens and they find nothing out of the usual, well at least for this place.

Suddenly Barry says, "Hey I just thought, when I tripped I had the walkie talkie on, perhaps it acts like some form of electronic key."

Both boys turn on their walkie talkies and walk around the grass patch, but still find nothing.

"Perhaps we have to be transmitting." suggests Tom, as he takes his walkie talkie off his belt and presses the transmit key. He carefully walks forward and Barry is astounded at what he sees, one minute Tom is in front of him then the next he's gone, just as if he stepped into fog.

Barry follows Tom's lead, presses the transmit key of his walkie talkie, carefully walks forward. Suddenly he notices that he is no longer walking through grass, but on rough ground.

He is about to take another step when he hears Tom call out, "Stop! or you'll fall over this..... uh!..... cliff."

Barry smacks his torch and is surprised to see Tom's hand gripping the edge of the rocks in front of him. Barry kneels down and carefully looks over the side of the cliff in front of him. He can see it is very steep and a long drop. Tom is supported only by the one hand. Barry suddenly remembers the belt he has in his hand. He unravels it and flicks it over the side.

Tom shouts, "Ow! What are you trying to do .... kill me?"

"Grab the end with your free hand!" exclaims Barry.

Tom swings his arm around searching for the belt, when suddenly he finds it and grabs it.

Barry pulls on the belt as hard as he can. Tom manages to rise up enough that one of his feet finds a rock. He attempts to lift himself up further, but unfortunately the rock crumbles and his leg swings free again. The sudden load on the belt slips through his hands, swinging down and slapping Tom on his right leg.

"Ow.... you're determined to make me suffer aren't you?" complains Tom as he swings around again supported only by the one hand.

Barry shines the torch around him in the vein hope of finding something else that he can help rescue Tom with. But he is frustrated, there is nothing.

Suddenly both boys hear a loud strange noise, as something with strong lights approaches, lighting up a large section of the cliff face.

Tom struggles to hold onto the cliff edge. He's tempted to turn around to see what is making the noise, but he knows it would be fatal to do so. He looks up at Barry's face, but there's no reassurance there, as Barry stares open mouthed at whatever is behind Tom. The pain build up in Tom's arm is too great, he can feel his grip loosening on the rock edge. He tries to re-establish his grip, but it is useless as his body tells him, in its own way that he has run out of strength and can no longer hold on.

Suddenly Tom feels himself falling, he hears Barry scream out his name.

~~~~~~~~

Chapter 3 - Where Does That Leave Us

As the cliff rushes rapidly past him, Tom struggles to see anything to grab onto. Suddenly he sees some sort of shrubby tree coming up. He reaches out in the hope that he can grab one of the branches. But he is just too far away from it. Thinking that he can't have much longer before he smacks on the ground, he suddenly comes to an abrupt yet soft stop. He looks around to see what he's landed on, he can see that he's still some considerable way off of the ground. To the left he sees some sort of metallic tube that looks somewhat like the flexible neck on his Dad's desk light at home.

Suddenly, Tom hears a rather echoy voice say, "Still you.... fall will you... save life you... still you."

Tom decides that before his luck runs out, he will heed the advice. Tom feels that he is rising again as if in a lift made of glass. Carefully he glances at the cliff face and his eyes confirm that he is rising back up to where Barry is. He can just make out Barry's terrified face.

As Tom reaches the top of the cliff, the voice can be heard again, "Away you keep....land will we...danger much you... away you keep."

Tom saw Barry nod in acceptance of the commands. Barry makes no attempt to get up,

but watches carefully as Tom and the craft pass him by and land a safe distance from the cliff edge.

Tom tries to stand up, but finds himself invisibly restrained. There is a sound as a door opens in the craft. After a short pause, Barry and Tom see something emerge, it has two arms, two legs and a head. It's carrying some sort of weapon and seems to be wearing some sort of futuristic military uniform, like a star wars trouper, totally matt black and very flexible. Another of these things emerges from the other side of the craft and Tom's not aware of his presence until he hears some scuffing sounds as it moves over the gravel to his right. Tom quickly looks round and sees that the thing is quite close to him. It is also carrying a weapon pointing straight at Tom. It speaks, "Throw over the cliff, you why?"

Tom totally confused asks, "What?"

The thing simply repeats the question., "Throw over the cliff, you why?"

Tom replies, "I didn't throw myself, I fell over the cliff, it was dark you see and I didn't know the cliff was there.

The thing then asks, "Doing Restricted land , you, what?"

Tom wasn't sure if they were some sort of robots or human beings from the future, anyway back to the question, he could see that the thing was getting rather agitated at his silence. Tom replies, "Sorry I... we .. didn't realise that this was restricted land"

The thing that had been asking the questions, looks at its partner and says, "Speak these intruders strangely? Make you out what it say?"

The partner shuffles around a bit as if trying to find a comfortable place to stand. Then it replies, "Say it think I not know it this restricted land, not notice it signs and beacon how? Not know I ask it."

Tom looks over to Barry and shrugs. Barry not knowing whether it is safe to move or speak, takes a chance that he wont get shot and says, "Tom I've got it, they can't understand why you don't speak like them and how we got onto this restricted land, or what we're doing here, tell them that we are travellers and came here by accident. Their way of speaking is to use doing words, followed by labels or peoples names and then some sort of description."

Tom replies, "If you understand it so well, you tell them, I'm still confused.

The first thing authoritatively says, "Not speak you without question."

Barry confidently replies, "Speak me for us." then he pauses to see if he gets any reaction, as he doesn't he decides to go on, "Travel us here by mistake." He pauses as he wonders what to say next, he remembers early episodes of Star Trek, "Come we in peace, no harm mean we to you."

The thing nearest Barry asks, "Know we how, not intruders you?"

Tom has a bright idea, "Ask them why an intruder would want to throw themselves off of a cliff if they meant these... these things any harm?"

Barry says, "Throw ourselves off cliff why, if mean to you harm, make this no sense?"

Tom can't contain his enthusiasm, "Hey you're good at this Barry, I'm impressed."

The thing closest to Tom says, "Make you sense with this statement, how get you on this land?"

"Travel and land here by mistake." replies Barry.

"Travel you how, no craft have you?" asks the thing nearest Barry.

Barry turns to Tom and asks, "How do we answer that one, when even we don't understand it?"

Tom replies, "We'll just have to tell them the truth that even we don't know how."

Barry replies to the things question with, "Not know us travel how we."

The thing nearest Tom says, "Take in these, suspect these lie." Then it says to Barry, "Take you in for questions, you further." Then Tom feels the end of the weapon touch his head as the thing says, "Move you now to the levicraft."

Tom replies, "I just want to get home safely, I'm fed up with being taken prisoner, it seems more fun when its a game, but no fun when its for real." Tom obediently stands up and finds that he's no longer restrained, but the end of the weapon is encouraging him to move.

The other thing says to Barry, "Move you also, fellow friend now."

They all climb into the levicraft and it takes off. The journey does not take long. The building they end up at is large and laid out in a rather complex way. It looks like a collection of cylinders joined together by smaller cylinders. There appear to be no colours to this building, but maybe this is because it is night time.

The craft landed at a marked area, obviously near an entrance.

~~~~ Later ~~~

It seemed as if Barry and Tom had been in this small locked room for hours. They knew there was no chance of escape, as they had seen the guards posted outside the door as they had walked down the corridor and there were no windows or other obvious escape routes. The air vent was too small to climb through and the ceiling looked like a single sheet of metal. The light panels in the walls were far too small to crawl through. There was nothing for it, but to wait for someone or some thing to take them out of this room and hope there would be an opportunity to make a dash for it. Although quite where 'it' was neither boy knew now, as it was rather dark when they were brought to this building . They didn't have a chance to get any bearings. It was a bit like being in one of those games where you are blindfolded spun around and by the time you stop you haven't a clue where you are or what you are supposed to be doing.

Barry and Tom discussed what had happened to them and whether the things that had captured them were robots or people, what was possibly going to happen to them and possible escape plans; all this in low whispers in-case the room was being bugged. Conversation exhausted, they sat in silence, staring at the walls waiting for their captors to make the next move. The time was passing so slowly, neither boy had a watch and it was impossible to judge the time.

Tom suddenly exclaims, "I must get watch for my next birthday."

Barry looks at Tom wondering where on earth that comment had come from. What prompted Tom to think it, let alone say it.

Suddenly the door opens, both boys stand, more out of shock more than anything else. The armed guards are standing either side of the open doorway.

"Move you out of the room." says one of the guards. Due to their face masks, ist impossible to tell which one of them had spoken.

The boys reluctantly obey. They are directed which way to walk by pokes in the back by a weapon.

Tom starts to ask, "Where are you...." and then remembers their strange way of speaking and then tries to remember what Barry had said, oh yes it was doing words, names and descriptions or something like that anyway. Tom tries again and asks, "Taking us where you?"

"Not speak you unless questioned. " replies the guard to the right, then continues, "Move you quickly."

They arrive at another door that starts to slide open as they approach it, "Go in you." Prompts the guard.

As they enter the room they see two things, one appears to be a person or another one of these robots, her face is clearly visible and she appears to be wearing almost normal clothes, although some what futuristic 1960s style, but none-the-less not military like the others the boys have seen. The other thing is a military dressed robot or person., the latter says "Sit you please." and it indicates a pair of chairs in front of the desk that is before the pair of them.

Tom mumbles, "First use of the word please that I've noticed in this place."

The thing nearest Tom laughs, it obviously heard Tom. It removes its helmet.

The boys are quite shocked to see that it also looks human. It asks, "Get here how you do?"

Barry replies, "Not know us exactly."

"Know you what then?" asks the military looking one.

"Travel us through some invisible gateway." replies Barry.

The female one asks, "How do you trigger the gateway."

"Think we these act as key." replies Barry holding up his walkie talkie.

Tom nudges Barry in the side and whispers, "Hey did you notice that she spoke English then?"

It was the ladies turn to laugh, then she says, "Yes we have met travellers like yourselves before. Although, none have grasped our language as well as you two have. I must admit, I am impressed."

Tom asks, "So you believe we are telling the truth then?"

"Yes." she replies, "Although you could have been in serious trouble, had it not been that others have visited before now. This what do you people call it, top secret military place. Normally we shoot on sight, but luckily our boundary people spotted that you were dressed strangely and suspected you were gateway travellers. That device that you held up just now, as being the key, is it a comms device?"

Tom and Barry look at each other, wondering what she meant, then Tom said, "Oh Walkie Talkie, yes it is a comms device."

She asks, "What mode does it operate?"

Barry replies, "I don't know." he unclips his walkie talkie and holds it out for inspection, "But you're welcome to look at it provided you don't break it."

She gets up and takes the walkie talkie and leaves the room, before Barry or Tom have a chance to react.

~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 4 – Give And Take

As the door closes Barry asks the man left in the room, "She will bring that back won't she?"

The man looks at Barry with an emotionless stare and in a calm voice says, "Look, KT, bring back, Aseer-Alc, State-in know not I." Then he sat back looking straight at Barry as if watching for his reaction, he seemed to be enjoying Barry's discomfort at having his only link to home being taken away.

Barry's chain of thought is broken as he hears Tom ask, "What did he say?"

Barry replies, "He didn't know what state the walkie talkie would be in if she does bring it back"

"What was that Asseer word about?" asks Tom.

"A name, probably the lady's." replies Tom.

They sit in silence, the man still staring at them without emotion, as if he were a robot devoid of power.

Suddenly Barry asks the man, "Tell me please your name?"

The man in turn asks, "Say you what?"

Barry points to himself and says, "Me Barry", then points to Tom and says, "Him Tom, tell me your name."

The man says, "Understand me now, me Dar-Reg."

"Got it!" exclaims Barry to Tom, "Its backwards."

Barry notes that the man's face adopts a curious look as Tom asks "What's backwards, the way they talk? We know that already."

"No, their names are backwards, the lady's name Aseer-Alc, that's Clarisa. and Dar-Reg is Gerrard." replies Barry excitedly.

Tom now equally excited, replies, "Oh yes so it is."

Dar-Reg suddenly interjects, "Mot." he points to Tom, then points to Barry as he says, "Yarab, got I friend, Mot."

"There you go." replies Barry, "He has a friend called Tom."

The door opens and the lady enters, but is without the walkie talkie. The boys look at each other, the fear in their eyes quite unmistakable.

"Where's my walkie talkie...er communications device?" asks Barry.

"Oh don't worry our Know Tech team are looking at it to see if they can work out how it triggers the gateway. So far they have not had much luck with ones they have seen before." replies Aseer-Alc.

"They won't break it will they?" asks Barry nervously.

"Oh no they did break one once, but they will be very carefull." replies Aseer-Alc.

Dar-Reg takes them all by surprise as he says to Aseer Alc, "This Mot name and this Yarab name, know they our names."

There is a pause as Aseer-Alc works out the names, then she says, "Tom and Barry, no?"

"Quite correct... er yes." replies Barry.

Aseer-Alc asks, "How many places have you been through, the gateway so far?"

Tom takes everyone by surprise as he answers the question, "Two so far, here and the first place we went to."

"What was the first place like?" asks Aseer-Alc.

"Rather strange, well the place wasn't, but the creatures were." says Tom.

"In what way strange?" asks Aseer-Alc

"Well there was this giant caterpiller for starters....that was their transport and the creatures themselves, they were shorter than us, but very strong. We think they had either just returned from some battle, or a hunting trip." replies Tom.

Aseer-Alcs eyes, go wide showing great interest as soon as Tom had mentioned battle. It is Dar-Reg who asks, "So had, they, weapons. What they like?"

Before Tom has a chance to reply, Barry says, "Just spears, nothing special."

Tom looked really surprised and is about to correct Barry, when Barry kicks him under the table. One look at Barry's face confirms that he should keep quiet, so he does.

However, Dar-Reg had spotted Tom's reaction and asks, "Say something, you, were about to?"

"Oh nothing really." replies Tom.

"No you, say please." prompts Dar-Reg.

"Well, I was only going to say that the spears were decorated with colourful feathers and the like. Replies Tom.

Dar-Reg still views Tom with suspicion, but his attention is diverted to Aseer-Alc as she asks, "And what about your world, what is that like?"

There's silence, as Barry and Tom look at each other, wondering who should speak and what they should say. Tom breaks the silence and says, "Well from what we have seen of your world so far, pretty much like this actually, except we dress and speak slightly differently as you can see."

Dar-Reg, ever the one to get straight to the point asks, "Weapons, you, have?"

Both boys look at each other again as if to say, "What is this guy's obsession with weapons?"

Barry shrugs his shoulders as if to say, "What do we tell him?"

After what seemed like a long pause, Tom replies, "Well we have some weapons, they look totally different from yours."

"Work they how?" asks Dar-Reg.

"We are only children, we don't know how they work." replies Barry.

It is Aseer-Alc's turn to give Dar-Reg a strange look.

"Know, they, might have." responds Dar-Reg Defensively.

"What sort of food do you eat?" asks Aseer-Alc, then seeing their questioning look, she continues, "Only you must be getting hungry and thirsty now."

Tom, without hesitation replies, "Well I don't like fish."

Aseer-Alc is most confused by this and asks, "What is this fish much?"

"Creatures that live in water." replies Tom.

"Does sound Yuck!" exclaims Aseer-Alc and her reaction and expression of feeling makes the boys laugh. It seems really out of character.

The boys are lead out of the room and down a corridor. They are followed by two security guards. They soon enter another room where there are several other people eating meals, they stop the instant the group enters.

Dar-Reg says, "Not harm you, safe they."

The boys are lead to the serving hatch by Aseer-Alc. It all looks like a school dinning hall, only considerably smaller and a heck of a lot quieter. The latter state does not last long, as really loud wailing noise deafens everyone in the room.

"Quick we must get to the shelter." says Aseer-Alc, as she heads back out of the room.

Above the noise of the alarm, Barry can hear Tom wistfully say, "Brunch, so temptingly near, yet snatched out of our reach."

There was an explosion and half of the wall was no longer there. Barry looks back over his shoulder and is shocked that Tom is no longer to be seen. He looks down to see Tom laying on the floor, half covered by a segment of wall and pieces of furniture.

Barry, Aseer-lc and Dar-Reg rush to Tom's side and immediately start to remove the things piled on top of Tom. There are no signs of life. Aseer-Alc calls out Tom's name and hurriedly check his body for life signs.

Barry and dar-Reg continue to remove what they can. Others have joined in the rescue. They all attempt to lift the segment of wall and at first it shows no sign of wanting to move. There are too many other things holding down the corners.

"Get us lifting gear we need." says a voice amongst the helpers.

"No time, lifting gear, building other side." replies another voice.

More help arrives and they remove the pieces of collapsed wall, pinning the larger segment down.

Soon they are even lifting the large segment off of Tom. Just as they are moving it away from Tom, it splits. Most of the parts missing Tom altogether.

Aseer-Alc rushes in to check Tom more carefully. After what seems like an eternity, she announces that there is a pulse and that he is breathing, although only shallow breaths. Two mean with some sort of stretcher arrive and carefully lift Tom onto it. Before Barry has a chance to blink they are heading through the door and away.

"Where are they taking Tom?" asks Barry rather frantically, "Is he OK?"

Aseer-Alc replies, "He is in a bad state and they are.... taking him to the medical unit to assess and treat him, I will take you there shortly."

Aseer-Alc can see that Barry is suffering from shock at what has just happened to his friend but also to himself. Aseer-Alc talks to one of the canteen staff, who dashes off to fetch something and soon returns with a cup, which Aseer-Alc hands to Barry and she says, "Drink this it will help you."

Barry rejects it at first, but Aseer-Alc assures him that the drink will help him. Barry can hardly keep his hands steady. He asks what the drink is. Aseer-Alc pauses for a moment to think how to describe it, she answers, "Plants that soothe and calm you. You have had quite a shock and need such as this. It is safe and will not harm you." Barry sniffs the drink and sure enough finds the smell quite comforting, he cautiously sips it and finds it actually tastes nice too.

Aseer-Alc continues, "You see, in our world, we are in a battle as you call it. We have been in this for some time. That is why Dar-Reg is interested in weapons in other places, for we need something more than we have, to stop this battle."

After a few minutes, Barry has stopped shaking so much and notices that the people moving around the room have changed and are mostly repair crew, trying to fix up the room again.

Aseer-Alc asks Barry, "Are you alright enough to go and see Tom now?"

Without hesitation Barry replies, "yes let's go straight away." He carefully places the now empty cup on the nearest undamaged table. There is a loud explosion, Barry and Aseer-Alc are thrown to the floor. Neither aware of the bits of wall and furniture piling up on top of them.

~~~~~~~

Chapter 5 – Wake Up And Smell The War

There is frantic activity as the rescue team and others rush to remove the all the debris off Aseer-Alc, Barry and the others affected by the blast. Soon the casualties are being taken to the medical unit.

Dar-Reg is standing t the entrance to the canteen, looking over the damage. He mouths, "They will pay for this."

~~~~ Later ~~~~

A nurse checks readings on the monitors and is quite startled as Dar-Reg moves, his arms stretch outwards and he yawns. The nurse quietly says, "Disturb you sorry, to do, me not intend."

"That's OK sleep me too long anyway." replies Dar-Reg.

"Been here you many days?" asks the nurse.

"Er.... three or four, count I lose." answers Dar-Reg.

"Doing well, they are, waking signs two have." then she points at Aseer-Alc and Tom.

"At last!" says Dar-Reg and then realises that it sounded quite mercenary."

"These two your children?" asks the nurse.

"No, visitors they here, when explosion, they injured." replies Dar-Reg.

The nurse looks sympathetically at the boys, "Thought I, they too young to be here based."

Just then Aseer-Alc stirs and utters the predictable phrase, "Where am I?"

The nurse replies,"Safe you be in the medical unit."

"In here how long I be?" asks Aseer-Alc.

Dar-Reg takes up the conversation with, "About four days, fell on you bits of wall, after explosion cause."

"Another one?" asks Aseer-Alc, then she asks, "How boys, alright?"

Dar-Reg nods at the nurse, who takes over and says, "well doing, the boys, well." she points to their beds and bang on que there's a moaning coming from Tom.

"Get up can I?" asks Aseer-Alc.

"Why?" asks the nurse.

"Re-assure Tom, that he alright, must I" replies Aseer-Alc.

The nurse assures her, "Do that, I can."

Aseer-Alc replies, "Speak they, not the same as us though."

"Get I lead medic, check you over." says the nurse, then she heads off out the door.. She returns shortly afterwards with another woman, she looks at the readings on the monitor and asks Aseer-Alc and asks some questions. Then she gives Aseer-Alc the all clear to get up and attend to Tom.

Meanwhile, Tom appears to have one humdinger of a headache, judging by all the moaning that he's doing. The medic turns her attention to his monitor and then to Tom himself. She then confirms to Aseer-Alc that Tom has a headache and instructs the nurse to increase Tom's pain affectant. She turns back to Aseer-Alc and tells her that the headache should wear off quite quickly, but also warns her that because of Tom's injuries he was likely to have lost memories of the explosion and what lead up to it.

A few moments later, Tom opens his eyes and asks where he is and further asks if this is a hospital.

Aseer-Alc replies, "This is a medical centre in a military centre."

Tom asks, "Am I abroad? Why are they speaking strangely?" He nods towards the lead medic, then adds and why am I in a military place?"

"I do not know what abroad is." replies Aseer-Alc, then continues, "but you are in Eurosector and as for the military center, you came through the gateway and ended up on restricted land."

"Oh the gateway thingy, yes I remember the wooden stockade, then the escape and.... oh yes the cliff.... a helicopter thing, then its all hazy from that point." says Tom, then remembers Barry, "Where's Barry, is he alright?"

"Yes, he's right beside you, he is still not awake. You were both in an injury, an explosion." reassures Aseer-Alc.

The nurse takes Aseer-Alc to one side and whispers to her, "Warn you better had I, injury other boy, to arm, is quite serious , part of arm missing, repair him almost complete, still him must keep arm though; attached him, still is regen equipment."

Aseer-Alc thanks the nurse, then turns her attention back to Tom. She says, "Apparently Barry had bad injury to arm, but it is almost completely repairs. We have equipment that cause re-growth of bone, skin and things. Barry have one of these equipment on his arm, he must not move it until his arm fully repair finished."

Tom takes Aseer-Alc by surprise when he asks, "Whereabouts in Europe are we?"

"Eurosector, not this Yur rope that you speak of. Replies Aseer-Alc.

"Are we still in England?" Tom asks.

"I know not how this gateway works." replies Aseer-Alc, the continues, "whether you travel to exact same location, but in a parallel place or what. I suppose you could be in the place that you named, but in a different.... what would you call it?

Barry replies, "Parallel universe, and what was that about my arm?"

Aseer-Alc glad to hear that Barry sounds well, turns her attention to him and replies, "Your arm was damaged in the explosion, but is being repaired. You have not to move it, as you have equipment on it doing repair. And movement may....."

The lead medic interjects, "affect repair, move arm, you, then repair not good."

Barry asks, "Where are we Tom? Why am I hearing things backwards?"

Tom replies in quite a knowledgable tone, "Oh we're in a parallel universe and this is somewhere in Europe, possibly England and don't you remember, these people talk doing words, er... labels or names and then something else; can't remember what you said it was now."

"What I said? I don't remember ever saying any such nonsense. Why am I in hospital?" asks Barry.

"There was some sort of accident and we ended up here and you've got to keep your arm still as it is being repaired." replies Tom.

"It was an explosion." says Aseer-Alc.

Barry in a stern voice asks, "You haven't been playing with matches again Tom have you?"

Tom goes bright red and replies, "Of course not!"

Aseer-Alc comes to Tom's defence saying, "No no it was not Tom's doing. We are in the middle of a what did you call it, a battle in our universe and it was our enemy that caused the explosion. Tom had fallen over a cliff and was hanging on..."

Tom interrupts asking, "What was I doing hanging onto the side of a cliff?"

Aseer-Alc resumes, "You had just come through the gateway and in the darkness of night, fell over the cliff not knowing it was there. Our people saw Barry trying to rescue you and came to your aid, whilst also trying to investigate what you were doing on our restricted...... military land."

Tom asks, "Why did you leave the gateway open if you didn't want people on your land?"

Just then someone else walks in, and interrupts the conversation. He speaks directly to Aseer-Alc but his voice can be clearly heard by the boys as he reports, "Good news Mam we successfully replicated the comms device and two of our security people have successfully opened the gateway and gone through it. They have been gone for 14 hours now."

Aseer-Alc asks, "Do we know where they have gone?"

It is Barry who answers, "No.... there is no way of telling where they have gone, nor any guarantee that they will come back either. Were they armed?"

The man does not answer, but instead looks over at Dar-Reg as if seeking authority to speak.

Dar-Reg nods and the man replies, "Yes they took tactical weapons with them."

"Are they likely to use these in anger?" asks Barry

Both Dar-Reg and the man ask, "What you say?"

Aseer-Alc says, "Oh yes I see what you mean, are they likely to use the weapons without being fired upon first."

"That's right." replies Barry enthusiastically.

The man s somewhat thrown by Barry's response, so there are a few moments silence before Aseer-Alc prompts, "Do answer, you, the question, use weapons, they, without being fired upon?"

The man pauses before answering, "Possibly"

What brief, they, given?" asks Aseer-Alc.

The man somewhat awkwardly shuffles his feet before replying, "To secure weapons they were to do."

Barry exclaims, "Oh great, not content with starting a war on your own planet you've gone somewhere else, possibly even our home planet to start one there." He looks over at Tom and says, "Well we might get home, but goodness knows if there will be much left by the time we get there and these..... these.... people have finished with it!"

~~~~~~~~

Chapter 6 – From the floor the ceiling is a long way

"Oh great!" exclaims Barry, "Not content with having a war on your own planet, you want to start one elsewhere too.... possibly even our home planet!" Then he looks at Tom, "Well we might get home Tom, but I don't know if there will be anything left when these..... these..... people have finished with it."

Dar-Reg, who has so far remained quietly in the background asks, "Does your observation indicate, have not, your people sophisticated weapons and at mercy of our security people?"

Aseer-Alc turns towards Dar-Reg and with much anger says "Be quiet you, find we out soon enough what weapons have these people. Suffer enough these children without further questions and.... stupidity."

Dar-Reg, quite enraged now says, "Approach you would differently, after discovery ours of how to open gateway, we succeed?"

"Well I wouldn't go through the gateway with blazing weapons and apparent aggressive intent. If these children's people have sophisticated or powerful weapons we could have created yet another enemy, rather than an ally." replies Aseer-Alc.

Dar-Reg still seems pretty mad at Aseer-Alc's protest, but manages to suppress his anger as he says, "No attacks Gaganeyannes since explosion food servery damage."

"Bring you that news is good." Replies Aseer-Alc, then to Barry and Tom, she says, "The Gaganeyannes are our enemy and Dar-Reg has just told me that they have made no further attacks since our.... explosion."

"Perhaps they got wind of your success of travelling through the gateway and are planning what to do should your people bring back superior weaponry." suggests Barry somewhat sarcastically.

Actually, you may have a good point there replies Aseer-Alc, "But what is this wind they will have acquired?"

"I was joking actually, the wind part simply means, they have found out, as in sound carried by the wind." replies Barry.

There is a loud knock on the door, making them all jump. Dar-Reg responds, "Come in you."

The door opens and in walks one of the security people complete with face mask, but no weapon. he quickly takes off the face mask.

Dar-Reg asks, "Report you what?"

The new man replies somewhat breathlessly, "Return security team or at least one from Gateway." He had obviously run straight here to make this report.

Dar-Reg, somewhat shocked asks, "Happen what to other member of team?"

The man replies, "Eaten.... he was by large creature, size creature about four to five times height of us. Startled team and chased them, caught Yarag Notslleh and ate him. Escaped Di-Vad senoj."

"What happened?" Asks Barry totally confused.

Aseer-Alc reassures Barry, "It is OK..... one of the team that went through the gateway has been killed by a large creature, the other one has made his way back safely. Do you have any large creatures about 4 to 5 times the height of a man? In your place?"

"Only a giraffe, but I don't think even that is about four times the height of a man." replies Barry.

"They aren't that tall," interrupts Tom, "Sounds more like a dinosaur, perhaps its a parallel world where dinosaurs didn't die out, but continued to inherit the world."

"Hey I suppose that is feasible." remarks Barry, getting quite excited at the possibility. He had always been interested in dinosaurs and often wished he could see a real living one. then Barry says, "Hey that is fitting, you go in search of weapons and instead end up being the prey of a pretty unsophisticated monster creature, who's only weapons are its arms, legs and teeth."

"Good thing that creature did not come back through the gateway, we would have then had two enemies for sure!" replies Aseer-Alc. Then she turns to Dar-Reg and says, "Where is Barry's comms device?"

Dar-Reg somewhat confused replies, "In bedside lockers device is of these children, why you ask?"

"Make I sure these children assured of safety and way back they to their place." says Aseer-Alc.

"Why concern you of this now?" asks Dar-Reg.

"Do job I properly, go through gateway without war starting." replies Aseer-Alc.

"Take us children why not?" asks Dar-Reg.

"Safer they on their own probably. Instructions we must leave for their safe escort to gateway, when they well. Go us soon through gateway before another war like approach." says Aseer-Alc.

Tom says, "I managed to follow that, I will explain it to Barry for you."

"Good, hope we see you before you leave for your place. Once Barry's arm is fully repaired you are both free to go. I will make sure our people will take you safely back to the gateway." replies Aseer-Alc.

"Thanks." says Tom. Then he sets about explaining what has been said to Barry. Whilst Dar-Reg and Aseer-Alc leave to travel through the gateway.

<Break Music>

It is now day 3 since Dar-Reg and Aseer-Alc left to travel through the gateway. The boys have been watching these people's equivalent of television. Barry was used to the backwards speak now and coping really well. The boys had even taken part in some of the interactive programmes, without anyone suspecting they were aliens.

As the days progressed Barry was getting more uneasy about travelling through the gateway. He wants to go as soon as possible, he is worried about another attack on the centre. The medical staff, however want to make absolutely sure his arm is totally repaired. The machine had been removed two days ago, but apparently the repairs continue after the machine has finished its world. This does not help with Barry's sense of agitation.

Tom is immersed in a programme, when Barry unexpectedly speaks, taking Tom by surprise. Barry says, "The fact that at least one of these guys got back to their own universe and time, has got to mean that we stand a good chance of getting back to our own world this time."

Tom does not respond, so Barry prompts him with, "Doesn't it?"

Tom's brain has caught up with what Barry had said and he simply replies, "Yes I would have thought so."

Barry is not very pleased at Tom's reply, he was hoping that Tom would be much more positive. However, before he has a chance to pursue the discussion any further, the door opens and it is like a whirlwind has hit the place, as Aseer-Alc walks briskly in. She is alone and both boys wonder if Dar-Reg has suffered the same fate as that other poor soul who was eaten by a dinosaur or some such creature.

Aseer-Alc says, "You will not believe what has happened to us," then pauses as she realises, "Well you probably will come to think of it, having been through the gateway yourselves. It was like stepping from one room into another, we could not believe how painless it was."

Tom mutters, "Unless you fall off a cliff."

Aseer-Alc decides to ignore the comment and continues, "The people we met were pretty much like ourselves, but we found ourselves at some sort of freight and passenger space port. It was massive and noisy. We thought we were going to be arrested, when someone in a uniform approached us. But he thought we were lost and was very helpful, getting us 'back' into the passenger departure area, where he thought we had come from. We wondered about for a while taking in the sights, amazed at the things that were for sale in the shops. There were devices that, had we the money we could have purchased and brought back here and made an absolute fortune selling them. Anyway one of the staff at the space port got rather suspicious about us and cornered us, she was very clever and quickly found out that we were not only not from their world, but not from their time zone. We decided that we would abandon our attempt to try and blend in and admitted that we were from another time zone altogether. We were taken in 'custody' which they explained was more for our protection than anything else."

"Isn't that what most policemen say?" asks Barry somewhat sarcastically.

"Anyway," continues Aseer-Alc, ignoring Barry's outburst, "We were taken to some quite important people, who were most interested in our struggle against the Gaganeyannes. Apparently there was mention in their history of a similar struggle. They believed that we were travelers from their past. If they are us in the future though, I thought it strange that they talked more like you boys than the way we talk."

Barry seemed to have forgotten his sarcasm as he says, "Ah that happened in our case too, if we could travel back in time we would find that the way our ancestors talked was totally different from our speech today. We would probably have some difficulty understanding what they are saying."

Aseer-Alc still fired up by her visit agreed, "Yes they spoke in some sort of shorthand at times, cutting words down considerably. They even ran some words into each other or used the starting letters of several words as if it was a word on its own. We wondered what they were on about when they kept saying "Begets" , turns out it was "Better Get There Soon". Anyway they asked us loads of questions about our war and other things. Then we were treated to a rather posh reception, after which we were taken to some sort of manufacturing place and were given the plans to some of their weapons, which we were assured would rid us of our enemy, but we had to promise that we would not mis-use the weapons to turn on our own people. Well that was easy to agree to. so we have come back, hopefully with the solution to our problems."

Barry asks a somewhat embarrassing question, "Now you have these weapons and a means of travelling through the gateway, are you going to go charging through to other worlds conquering as many worlds that you can?"

~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 7 – I Can See Right Through You

Barry asks a somewhat embarrassing question, "Now you have these weapons and a means of travelling through the gateway, are you going to go charging through to other worlds conquering as many worlds that you can?"

Aseer-Alc is somewhat shocked by Barry's question and is speechless for a few seconds. Although she feels very angry at Barry's approach, she carefully thinks over what Barry has asked and what the boys have been through recently, before coming back with response. She says, "Actually you have a good point about future use of the gateway, we will need to be as peaceful as we can be otherwise we may create another enemy and be back to square one." Then Aseer-Alc takes both boys by surprise when she finishes by thanking Barry for the reminder.

Just then Dar-Reg enters the room and asks, "Ready boys are you to return to your place?"

"Well nothing like coming straight to the point" says Barry then continues, "Ready and willing as we will ever be, much as it has been nice staying here and getting to know more about your people and its culture."

The last part of Barry's statement kind of left Dar-Reg a bit cold, after all he didn't do 'culture'. Instead he looked around and said, well "Need we what to get you home?"

Aseer-Alc suddenly exclaims, "Remind me that did, forgot nearly I." and she darts off out of the door.

Barry and Tom collect their walkie talkies from their bedside lockers. Tom puts down the gaming unit that he had been playing with onto the locker, muttering, "Better not take this."

Dar-Reg smiles and says, "take it you please, have we plenty, miss two those we will not." Then he turns to Barry, "Take you yours too, do please you gift from us."

Barry is most touched by this kindness and asks, "Really, we can keep them? That is most kind of you."

Dar-Reg laughs and says, "Sell you the know tech and make lots of money you eh?"

Tom says, "Not a bad idea eh Barry?"

Aseer-Alc walks in with a big smile on her face and holds out two devices that are quite small and sort of oval in shape. She says, "Our know tech people had the idea that you may be able to contact us and let us know that you have arrived safely back in your place, or if you run into trouble we can possibly come and lend our help. These devices similar to your comms devices, but these are binarital, a bit complicated to explain, but apparently converts sound and other information into numbers before transfer."

"Oh yes we've got something like that called, digital" says Barry.

Aseer-Alc shows the boys how the devices work and finishes by saying, "Well actually they do far more than that, but you will probably never need the other things. Here are the instructions, in-case you need them. Dar-Reg smiles and nods at Barry, "Sell you those too eh?"

Barry and Dar-Reg laugh. Then the whole party set off for the waiting transport, another of those helicopter type craft.

They arrive at the location of the gateway.

"Well it is goodbye, perhaps we will meet again one day and don't worry I will keep in mind what you said Barry." says Aseer-Alc as she gives both boys a hug. Tom and Barry wave to Aseer-Alc and Dar-Reg and are about to step through the gateway, when Dar-Reg says, "Forgot me nearly give me these our Know Tech people, say they batteries you walkie talkies run out soon, these last much longer." He hands each boy what looks like a smaller version of a 9 volt battery.

Both boys thank Dar-Reg, pocket the batteries and switch on their walkie talkies then step through the gateway.

Tom steps to one side as he catches sight of something approaching at speed, if he had not moved, he would have been injured for sure.

"You ok?" Asks Barry, walking towards Tom.

"Yeah, just a bit of a shock.... you'd have thought that whatever it was would have steered away from me." replies Tom.

"I expect it was as shocked as you were, after all it's not everyday that someone just appears out of thin air." suggests Barry.

"Did you see that thing? It was like a small vehicle, completely see through, but there didn't seem to be any passengers. Nor a driver come to that." says Tom.

"Perhaps it is some sort of automated goods transport device." replies Barry.

"Whatever it is, it is very fast, look it's all the way over there now." says Tom pointing in the direction that the machine had travelled. It was then that both boys noticed that there were several of these things moving in all directions and in the background were some sort of buildings. Then another of these things passes quite close to the boys, stops, changes direction, approaches the boys and stops immediately in front of the boys. They notice that it is shorter than they are, reaching only as high as their shoulders. The boys can see each of the components within the device, including some sort of array of lights that is flashing.

Tom waves a hand at the device, in the hope that it recognises the action as peaceful. The device does nothing apart from flash its lights at Tom. Wanting to establish contact, Tom says, "We come in peace and mean you no harm." There is still no reaction apart from the flashing lights.

Barry says, "It doesn't appear to understand you."

Suddenly another of these things arrives and stops beside the other one, They flash lights at each other, but nothing else.

Tom reaches into his pocket and fishes out the communications device that Aseer-Alc had given him, "Better see if we can contact our friends." says Tom.

"But nothing to report as yet." says Barry.

"What about these things? Surely they are worth mentioning, anyway Aseer-Alc will probably be worried bout us." Tom replies as he fires up the comms device. After a short silence the comms device comes into life. At first the boys thought it was Aseer-Alc and Dar-Reg trying to contact them, then the boys realise it is the devices standing before them communicating between themselves.

The devices are heard to say, "...not any form of diagnostic methodology... no indication of function method nor source of power. How do these things create motion? Are they self motivational or driven? No way to tell as we can not see any way to access the interior beneath the external covering. There is no method of communication, so probably no intelligence. Although motions would indicate some form of patterns of motivation of sorts. Would there be some sort of access plate to see below the covering?"

"Hey that's funny," says Barry, "sounds like they are analysing us, whilst we are doing the same about them. By the sounds of it they have a hang up about the fact that we are both NOT see through."

Tom asks, "I wonder if there is a way to talk back to these creatures with this communicator?"

"Why not try it?" suggests Barry.

Tom operates the communicator as Aseer-Alc had shown him. There is a hazy cloud where the gateway was. Tom raises the communicator to his mouth and says, "Hello, we are human and the reason you can not see through us is that we are made up of living cells in various forms."

A faint but quite recognisable female voice can be heard, "Is that you Tom? This is Aseer-Alc."

Tom replies, "Yes it is, these things actually work!"

Aseer-Alc says, "Of course they do, we are good at what we do." jokes Aseer-Alc, she laughs then continues, "Well I must admit it is as much of a surprise to me as it is to you. I think it works only because we are both within close range of the gateway."

Barry says, "That would explain the hazy appearance around the gateway, that communicator must be opening the gateway long enough to transmit a signal, then closes the gateway again."

Aseer-Alc replies, "Yes that's about the way our know tech people explained it. Presumably you are safe, did you get to your place alright?"

Tom replies, "Actually, no, we have ended up at some sort of planet with see through transporters on it, they are about three quarters our height and totally transparent, no obvious life form driving them and we can't make out what they are transporting, if anything."

Dar-Reg asks, "Have they threatened you at all?"

Tom replies, "No but they appear to be curious at the fact that they can't see through us."

Then the communications device relays another communication from one of the see through things standing next to the boys. It says, "Perhaps we can examine these things without actually taking the covers off." Then there's some sort of reply, although it is not obvious that the two communications are from different sources as the voice continues in the same tone. The second communication says,"How can that be done." The first source replies, "Magnetic Resonance Monitoring, something new that we picked up from Deflajini six." The conversation continued for a bit further. Tom interrupted the flow by talking to Dar-Reg and Aseer-Alc, he says, "Looks like they are so curious about our insides that they want to scan us with some new technology that they have got their hands on."

~~~~~~~~

Chapter 8 - Needs & Purpose

The communications device relays another communication from one of the see through things standing next to the boys. It says, "Perhaps we can examine these things without actually taking the covers off." Then there's some sort of reply, although it is not obvious that the two communications are from different sources as the voice continues in the same tone. The second communication says,"How can that be done." The first source replies, "Magnetic Resonance Monitoring, something new that we picked up from Deflajini six." The conversation continued for a bit further. Tom interrupted the flow by talking to Dar-Reg and Aseer-Alc, he says, "Looks like they are so curious about our insides that they want to scan us with some new technology that they have got their hands on," Then he asks, "How can we get this communications thing to talk back to them? It is translating their communications into voice but I have found no way to talk back."

Aseer-Alc instructs Tom how to get the communications device to go into translate 2-way conversation mode.

Tom nervously looks to Barry for guidance, "What shall I say to these things?"

Barry says, "Well don't look at me, I'm no expert on this sort of situation."

Tom follows Aseer-Alc's instructions, then speaks into the comms device, "We mean you no harm and...... have arrived here by ....... accident."

There is a flurry of communication not only between the two things before them, but others appear to be joining in. Then Tom notices that not content with just joining in with the conversation, some of the units stop whatever they were doing and come over to join the two things before Barry and Tom.

A flurry of questions are thrown at Tom; he attempts to answer them, "Where do we come from, now that is difficult to answer, I suppose the best way to explain it is... a different dimension to yours. Why did we travel here, it was by accident, we have been through two other dimensions and are trying to get back to our own... Destruction devices, we have none, as we travel in peace, we do no harm... Why can't we be accessed, I suppose you mean why can you not see through us? If so that is just because that is the way we are made. Generally we are self healing, so only occasionally need repairing by specialists called surgeons... What is our primary function, now that is a very difficult question that has puzzled our species or type ever since we first existed... No I am not trying to avoid the question, we genuinely do not know the answer our type have many answers but we do not know for sure which one is right... Yes it does make things awkward, although we tend to just follow our own version of the answer and hope we have got it right... conflict between groups, yes there certainly can be be and it has resulted in many struggles and wars... what are wars? Well it is when one group wants to impose its beliefs and values on others or they just simply want to take over the land and things that the others own. What is own? Well individuals or groups can claim that they have the rights to do with things like land or individual things, like this communicator, what they wish to do with it... share things for the mutual good?.... yes there is some of that where we come from too... you see no point in owning... I suppose there isn't much apart from the fact that it give the right for individuals to make decisions about what can be done with things and who has the right to use them... What is the benefit to the group as a whole?... Mmm that's a tricky one." There is a silence for a while as Tom mulls over the last question. Tom turns to Barry, can you help me out here?

Barry, shrugs his shoulders and says, "I dunno the answer to that one, apart from its nice to know what is yours so you know what things you have some say over what happens to it and how its used, like a house and how it is decorated to your liking."

Tom says, "Hey good answer Barry." However, it does not seem to have been good enough for these things before them as there are loads of other questions but Tom decide to leave it there otherwise he may have to spend the rest of his life answering them. Tom tells these things that he is sorry but he is tiring of the barrage of questions and wonders if he can ask some in return.

Suddenly the questions and communications cease as some form of leading, whatever these things are, instructs them all to stop. Again there is silence for a while. Then the leading thing speaks again, "This mass questioning is not achieving the greater good and is tiring our visitors, the greater good must continue again and our guests must be properly dealt with, to that end I allocate 27 82 16 to look after the guests needs and ensure they come to no harm as the greater good is resumed. All further communication with the guests will be through 27 82 16."

It was strange, as all but one of the things that had collected round Barry and Tom, went off in all directions disappearing back to get on with whatever they were doing before.

Suddenly the thing before them speaks through Tom's communicator and says, "I am 27 82 16 and have been allocated to see to your needs and protect you from harm. Do you have any immediate needs?"

Tom looks at Barry, as if he were in need of instruction himself. Barry, unhelpfully, just shrugs his shoulders. Tom determined to satisfy this thing with an answer of some kind, replies, "Well it would be nice to sit down somewhere."

27 82 16 asks, "What is to sit down somewhere?"

Tom looks at Barry and asks, "How do I explain that one?"

Barry says, "We humans have this need to take the weight off of our legs or movement devices as they grow tired with prolonged use. We usually bend the legs and sit upon something that can support our weight through our bottom, or we lie down horizontally if we are really tired."

27 82 16 responds, "Strange thing to do. If our energy is low or we need computational time we simply stop where we are and conduct maintenance. Which type of tired are you?"

Barry is confused by the question at first, the realises that 27 82 16 is referring to horizontal or vertical rest, without thinking about his answer much he replies, "Vertical."

27 82 16 pauses for a moment, the lights flashing at rapid rate within the top part of its body. Then 27 82 16 responds, "I have measured your position of bend, assumed 90 degree bend is permissible and propose a cube of appropriate height, does this meet?"

Barry puzzles over the meet part of the question, then realises that 27 82 16 means meet with their requirement and approval. He is about to reply, when Tom asks, "That should be good eh Barry?".

Barry, somewhat taken aback by Tom's question replies in a somewhat dazed manner, "Er, yes, yes that.... meets."

27 82 16 responds, "I have issued the instruction which will be complied with shortly, anything else to meet?"

"No, unless..." Barry says as he looks over to Tom, to see if he needs anything.

Tom replies, "No that is all."

The boys note that there is one of these, these things approaching them from one of the nearby buildings or structures.

27 82 16 says, "Your need is on its way. May I ask if we can expect any more of your type to join you?"

Tom replies, "Well we are not expecting anyone else. Why do you ask?"

27 82 16 replies, "We can construct more of the vertical rest units in preparation."

Barry says, "That shouldn't be necessary, we are grateful by the way that you have made the one that is on its way now."

27 82 16 asks, "What is grateful meaning?"

Barry replies, "We thank you, we are pleased."

27 82 16 says, "I do not understand."

Tom says, "Our need will be met and we will be rested, so we thank you."

27 82 16 replies, "I understand thank you."

Tom can't contain any curiosity any longer and asks, "What do you do?"

27 82 16 responds, "I do not understand."

Tom continues, "You asked me, er us, what our purpose was, I was wondering if you had an answer to the same question for your, er species or type."

Without hesitation 27 82 16 replies, "To serve the common good."

Tom asks, "But what is that common good?"

27 82 16 starts to answer, "I do not understand, the common good is the common good." Then as if it had been corrected by some unheard voice, 27 82 16 continues, "The common good is the benefit and survival of the realbots."

Barry interrupts with the question, "Who or what are the realbots?"

27 82 16 responds, "I am a realbot, part of the species as you call it."

Tom asks, "Are you native from this planet?"

27 82 16 responds, "I do not understand."

"Do you come from here or have you come from another planet?" asks Tom.

27 82 16 responds, "Realbots are from here. We have travelled to other places and do trade with other types of realbots and some other types of species. This is our place, although there is in our history talk that it has not always been so, before us can the Cree- Ators, but they have long left us, we have some records of the species but much was lost when the Cree Ators left us."

"I've got it!" exclaims Barry, "These are robots made by another species, possibly like humans, they were left here on this planet for some reason and the humans have not returned."

27 82 16 corrects Barry, saying, "We are realbots not these robots that you speak of. The Cree Ators may have been these humans you speak of, but they were not like you, they had access."

"Oh I see they were transparent like you?" asks Barry.

27 82 16 confirms, "They had access, yes."

Just then the other realbot arrives with the specially constructed cube. The boys note that the cube is floating off of the ground by about a centimetre of two. There is a short exchange of flashing lights between the two realbots. Then 27 82 16 asks, "27 46 89 wants to know where you would like the rest device?"

Tom replies, "Where it currently is, would do fine thanks."

Again the exchange of flashing lights takes place and 27 46 89 heads off back where it has come from, presumably pleased that it had fulfilled the needs of these strange visitors.

Tom and Barry walk over to the cube and sit on it, 27 82 16 had done a good job with its measurements, it was exactly the right height and whilst hard, it was nice to be able to sit down.

27 82 16 asks, "The need is being met?"

Tom replies, "Yes thanks."

~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 9 - Nannybot

Tom and Barry walk over to the cube and sit on it, 27 82 16 had done a good job with its measurements, it was exactly the right height and whilst hard, it was nice to be able to sit down.

27 82 16 asks, "The need is being met?"

Tom replies, "Yes thanks."

Barry asks, "The Cre Ators who made you, what do you know about them,?"

27 82 16 replies, "We have some information about them, but not a lot and most of it does not make sense as it is incomplete."

Tom asks, "Would it be possible to see the information you have?"

There is a long pause, 27 82 16's lights flash quite vigorously, but nothing comes out of Tom's communicator. It is as if 27 82 16 is thinking or communicating with another realbot on another channel. It must have been the latter, as 27 82 16 suddenly says, "I am permitted to take you the Biblio-T-Cener where the information is kept. You are privileged, most realbots are not usually permitted inside the Biblio-T-Cener, let alone access the information about the Cree Ators. Have you recharged enough to go now or do you need longer?"

Whilst Barry and Tom could do with a longer rest, they are both really keen to find out more about the Realbots and Cre Ators. They both answer, "We are ready."

27 82 16 says, "Follow me then, it is not far." They head off towards the buildings that the sitting cube had come from. 27 82 16 moves quite quickly, but is clearly checking every so often to see if Barry and Tom are able to keep up, as it stops every so often.

They soon find themselves passing a large dark entrance into the building where the cube had come from. It must be some form of factory or workshop as through the gloomy light, the boys could just make out that other things are being made. Every so often there are flashes of light and the boys can see large sheets of metal rising into the air, totally unsupported. One such sheet is fed into a machine that cuts it using lasers and then bends the flat sheet into a quite complex shape.

Suddenly a sheet of metal rises quite close to the entrance and Tom finds himself rising up into the air.

27 82 16 asks what Tom is doing. Tom replies with some considerable fear in his voice that he is not doing anything and cannot understand what is happening. 27 82 16's lights flash and Tom finds himself tumbling towards the ground again, stopping just before crunching on the hard surface. He gently drops the last few centimetres. 27 82 16 reports, that there was another realbot near the entrance creating a motion control field that was causing the metal sheet to rise, but the field was too strong and took Tom into its lifting area.

Tom says, "That explains how you can move things yet you don't have any arms."

27 82 16 asks what arms are and Tom waves his around, saying, "These are arms. we use them to lift and move things around in the same way as your motion fields.

27 82 16 remarks, "Most limiting I suspect."

Tom, who had never really thought about it before, agrees that it can be quite limiting, especially when it comes to heavy or large things. He remembered when his family moved into their current house, his dad wished he had greater strength and more arms, especially when things were dropping.

They continue to walk round the factory building, as they move around the back, a new but considerably different building comes into view. The new building is made of what appears to be stone and what is more it has been damaged and is incomplete. There is some letters above the rather impressive looking entrance. Sure enough it reads, BIBLIOT then some missing letters, then CEN a missing letter and then ER. Barry suddenly exclaims "oh I recognise this!"

27 82 16 asks, "You have been here before?"

"No I meant I recognise the words, it should read, Bibliothèque Center, meaning library, centre of books or information." says Barry.

"Isn't that biblio word foreign?" asks Tom.

"Well actually it is French, but the strange part is 'center' is the American spelling. Perhaps they were Canadians they use French and English words.

27 82 16 remains silent as it cannot understand what the two boys are talking about and decides not to interfere.

Soon they enter the building itself, whilst dark and gloomy, the entrance way is quite impressive, reminding the boys of older buildings from the town where they live. The ceiling is very high up and impressively decorated with carvings depicting some scene or other, but as it was so gloomy it was impossible to make it all out.

Tom asks if there is a light switch. 27 82 16 responds saying that it does not understand the question. Tom simplifies the question with, "Is there a light?"

27 82 16 asks, "You have a luminance adjustment problem?"

Tom replies, "Er suppose so, its very difficult to see in here. Isn't it?"

27 82 16 replies, "Not for us, we can use very low light levels, but I can help." Instantly the entrance hall is flooded by light coming from a source within 27 82 16. The carvings could now be seen much more clearly and there were very impressive colours, although time has not been kind to this building, large chunks of the ceiling and walls have fallen down, making the decorations incomplete.

Barry says, "This would be an archaeologist's dream come true."

Tom replies, "I suppose it would." Then continues, "Presumably these images depict the Cree Ators, I note they look similar to us, but their proportions are somewhat different, their legs being much shorter than their body."

27 82 16 still remains silent, but leads the way through a door to the left. As they pass by the doorway on the right they can see right through the partly open door to the outside, obviously a damaged part of the building. The door to the left opens as if by magic, presumably opened by 27 82 16's motion control field. The room within is pitch black and looks about as inviting as a cold dark cave housing a grizzly bear or some such other grumpy animal. As the door opens wider, 27 82 16's light seeps inside highlighting small details, like coloured tiles on the floors. There are various small items scattered on the floor. It looks very much as if the owners had departed in a hurry and just dropped whatever they were carrying at the time.

Tom remarks, "Shame there aren't more lights, it is quite frustrating only seeing parts of the room at a time."

As if in answer to Tom's prayer, the room is suddenly illuminated by a dull glow at first, but it gradually gets brighter and brighter.

27 82 16 suddenly takes the boys by surprise as he speaks and at the same time switches off its internal light source. "The lights used to be much faster responding, but as time has passed they take longer to come on and get brighter.

There are rows and rows of what look like desks with inbuilt screens and most desks had their own chair.

27 82 16 says, "Only some of the displays work now. We have tried to repair the others but the technology is so old we do not know where to get some of the materials now. You will see cubes on the storage units, they are simply placed in the coloured indentations in the display stations, if the station still works it should start to read and display the information straight way. You will find some cubes already sitting on working stations, they will have been left by the realbot who last used it. We started to check every cube in sequence, but most were so damaged that they don't even display the index page. We also found many cubes were copies of others that we had viewed."

Tom finds a station that has several cubes on it, sure enough he sees the square indentation. He carefully places a cube in the indentation. Instantly the screen bursts into life. There is some music and the sort of introduction that you would see on some sort of documentary programme. There is a voice, but quite what it is saying is difficult to make out as it is somewhat distorted. Then the screen shows a city, which must have been the area around where they are now standing, it looks really new and impressive on the screen, the view gradually changes as the camera pans across the city, the voice is still carrying out some form of dialogue, presumably about the city, but it is still considerably distorted. Suddenly what seems like a naked but totally see through man appears on the right hand side of the screen.

Tom asks 27 82 16, "Is this one of the Cree-Ators?" and points to the screen.

27 82 16 replies, "That information I do not hold, but I could make the assumption that it must be as these things belonged to the Cree-Ators."

Suddenly Barry, Tom and 27 82 16 are taken by surprise as the Cree-Ator's voice can be heard much more clearly. It says, "The citadel has developed much of later years as the population and its needs have grown. Food production has through know tech increased greatly, meaning that more of our citizens can be supported and fed. Although living standards have improved vastly, death has almost become a thing of the past and our energy needs are starting to be served by the new know tech of solid fuel absorption."

The image has changed to that of some sort of factory or energy plant, this fades into some form of diagram which is demonstrating how the energy is being generated. Unfortunately the sound track becomes distorted again, so making the description impossible to follow.

Then the image changes to show realbots moving containers around at the energy plant. Whilst the sound track is impossible to follow it is clear that the narrator is describing the important part that the realbots are playing in this brave new future.

27 82 16 says, "This is the first record that we have found of ourselves existing in the records and world of the Cree-Ators."

The screen suddenly goes blank and the sound ceases altogether.

Tom asks if that is the end of the information in the cube.

27 82 16 says, "I do not know, this is the first time I have viewed it like yourself."

Tom lifts the cube out of the indentation and sees another cube sitting on the desk beside him, so he inserts that cube and once again the screen automatically springs into life. The same voice can be heard after the same starting sequence as the last cube. The screen was showing a large building, but it was difficult to work out merely from the picture what the function of the building was.

The voice said, "The situation is becoming critical, no-one could predict that a situation like this would happen, we were all assured that the new solid fuel energy system was perfectly safe. The first few months went well, energy production and the standard of life was improving so vastly, it seemed like nothing could go wrong. Then the numbers of citizens falling mysteriously ill started to climb at an alarming rate. After a few more months the death rate grew to unbelievable numbers. The medics were totally mystified, until a mathematician analysed the places where the most people were falling ill. It turns out that the largest numbers were around the new power plants. An emergency meeting was held last month at the place of administration and it was decided to shut down most of the power plants to see if it affected the numbers falling ill. Just last week, there was a report that the number of survivors could be counted only in the hundreds. We are making this record in-case there are no survivors and so that anyone who comes along after us is warned about the danger of this type of energy production. On a personal level I am already showing symptoms of the illness and doubt if I will be around much longer."

~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 10 – I Don't Want To Be Scanned

The narrator on the cube video finished the recording by saying, "We are making this record in-case there are no survivors and so that anyone who comes along after us is warned about the danger of this type of energy production. On a personal level I am already showing symptoms of the illness and doubt if I will be around much longer."

Barry looks at Tom and says, "Crikey they killed themselves by simply making the wrong choice about how to produce their power."

27 82 16 takes the boys by surprise as it says, "I do not understand what killed means and what happened to the Cree Ators."

Tom Replies, "The Cree Ators must have been similar to us" he points to himself and Barry, then continues, "The had living cells and these were poisoned by the stuff that they were making their energy from."

27 82 16 asks, "What is poisoned?"

Barry replies, "Their structure was destroyed by the material that they were getting their energy from."

27 82 16 says, "I see what you mean, but surely they being the Cree Ators and all powerful makers of the Realbots could have predicted that this material was so destructive."

Barry replies, "Obviously not, it probably only became destructive when they started making energy from it. We have something similar where we come from. In small amounts uranium and similar materials is reasonably harmless, but as soon as you start to make energy from it, it becomes deadly.... er .... destructive."

27 82 16 asks, "Could they not have repaired themselves?"

Tom replies, "No, the destruction must have been so bad that there was nothing left worth repairing."

27 82 16 remarks, "How absolutely terrible. No way to avoid the destruction. Even though all of the energy production places were shut down it was too late. We could not understand why the Cree Ators had left us, now I see that they had no choice in the matter, they just ceased to exist."

Tom replies, "Absolutely right."

27 82 16 goes silent for a while, although Tom notices that its lights are flashing quite rapidly, nothing comes out of the communicator in Tom's hand. Then suddenly 27 82 16 says, "We are ready to scan you now."

Both boys are completely taken by surprise at this revelation, Tom says, "But we don't want to be..... scanned.... for what purpose is this... scanning?"

27 82 16 says, "After what you have just discovered I would have thought it was even more important than ever to be scanned, to make sure you have not suffered from any damage."

Tom asks, "But the very process of scanning us could cause damage and it might hurt us."

Again 27 82 16 goes silent for a while, its lights flashing quite rapidly. Then it replies, "The Realbots can assure you that there will be no .... what did you call it?...... pain... as for damage, there should be none."

Barry says to Tom, "I don't like the sound of "There should be no damage."

"Me neither" replies Tom, then he asks 27 82 16, "What if we refused to be scanned?"

27 82 16 says, "I do not understand, why would you want to refuse? The Realbots want to ensure your safety."

Barry utters, "More like satisfy your curiosity about the fact that we aren't transparent and you'd like to know what our insides are like."

27 82 16 replies, "I do not understand."

Tom turns to Barry and suggests that they contact Aseer Alc and Dar Reg to see what they advise. Barry agrees. Tom contacts Aseer Alc and tells her what has happened.

There is a pause as Aseer Alc considers the matter. Then she replies, "I understand where the Realbots are coming from regards checking that you have not been damaged by the energy source, but they have no baseline information about your physiological structure to compare their scan with, so it would be a bit pointless."

Tom simply replies, "I didn't understand a word of that."

Aseer Alc apologises for confusing him and simply says, "Apart from satisfying their own curiosity about your insides, there's no point in the scan, so you have the right to refuse."

Tom asks, "But what if they get nasty about it"

Aseer Alc replies, "They have shown no signs of aggression so far have they?"

Tom hesitantly says, "No..... but they could turn nasty."

Aseer Alc says, "I somehow doubt from what you have told us so far, that they will, they seem to be peaceful in nature." You have seen no evidence of any form of weapons so far

have you?"

Tom replies, "No but they can move things without touching them, one of these things accidentally lifted me into the air."

Aseer Alc says, "If you just do not want to be scanned, refuse and if necessary make a run for the gateway. You are still near it aren't you?"

Tom replies, "Well sort of, within running distance anyway, we are actually in a building away from the gateway at the moment."

Aseer Alc says, "Just tell them you don't want to be scanned. If they insist, tell them it is pointless as they have no baseline information to compare the scan against. Got that?"

Tom repeated the phrase back and Aseer Alc confirmed he had it right.

Tom then spoke to 27 82 16, putting the argument to it.

27 82 16 does not reply for a while, but the usual flashing of lights takes place and even those cease for a considerable time.

Tom turns to Barry and asks, "What do you suppose is going on?"

Barry replies, "Either they are considering the matter carefully, or we've upset them."

Tom says, "What's to consider, our argument is quite logical, if Aseer Alc has got her baseline thing right?"

There are noises by the entrance, another Realbot enters the library and moves rapidly towards Barry, Tom and 27 82 16, as it gets closer, suddenly without any warning Barry and Tom find themselves being lifted off of the ground, presumably by the two Realbots' movement fields. The Realbots set off at quite a decent speed, heading out of the library and back over to the collection of buildings that they had passed by on their way out to the library.

Barry and Tom struggle to release themselves, but without effect. They protest at the tops of their voices, but the Realbots seem to be ignoring their protests. They pass by the entrance to the factory area that the seat had emerged from, they change direction and head further along the exterior of the building complex. Barry and Tom are still protesting and struggling, but it has no effect on the determination of the Realbots.

They are now approaching a different style of building and head straight for the impressive looking entrance. The doors open as they approach and the Realbots head off down a corridor, again the door at the end of this corridor opens before they reach it. Inside there is a large machine, with lots of coils and coloured wires going in all directions. One Realbot heads off to a corner, the other heads straight for the machine. It carefully aligns Tom with some sort of standing platform. Tom feels himself released from the Realbot's movement field and microseconds afterwards grabbed by some sort of physical restraints. Tom doesn't even have time to think about taking advantage of being released from the Realbot's field. He feels the radio that Aseer Alc had given him was being snatched out of his hand. Tom protests and suddenly finds yet another strap under his chin, preventing him from speaking any further.

The Realbot retreats to the same corner as Barry and the other Realbot are occupying. The machine suddenly starts to move, some of the coils rotating by the side of Tom. There is a low hum being emitted from the machine, then there are a series of clicks and other coils start to move around Tom. This presumably was the scanner device that the 27 82 16 had referred to. Tom expected to have strange feelings, but instead felt nothing out of the usual, apart that is from the restraining straps, which were quite tight and made any form of movement impossible. Tom thought he'd try to mess up the scan by wriggling, but he found he just could not move. So after a considerable struggle he resigned himself to the fact that the scan was happening and there was nothing he could do about it. He became fascinated by the scanning mechanism, Watching the coils as they changed direction.

The scan seemed to take an eternity and it didn't take Tom long to get bored watching the spinning coils. Tom found his mind wandering back to the first place that they had visited and that giant caterpillar. He found himself wondering how those creatures had first captured and tamed the caterpillar, or was it tame from the off and didn't mind all that armour and the carriers that the creatures travelled in?

Tom breathed a sigh of relief when the machinery came to a standstill and he felt himself being release from the restraining straps , the Realbot that had carried him to this place, was back in front of him, poised ready to recapture Tom.

Barry finds himself replacing Tom, Tom manages to reassure Barry that he wouldn't feel anything apart from the restraining straps. The machine soon resumes it's spinning motions.

When Barry's scan has finished, both boys are released from the fields restraining them. Tom's radio is suspended just before him, and is within easy grasp. He reaches out and grabs it. Momentarily, he is unable to move the radio, then it moves easily.

27 82 16 says, "We can confirm that you appear not to have suffered any damage. We are confused at the fact that you appear to contain many other creatures within your frame."

Tom looks confused and asks Barry, "What do you think it means?"

Barry thinks for a while, then suggests, "Maybe it is because they think of things like out heart and stomach, as being separate creatures rather than a part of us."

Tom holds out his radio and asks, "Can you explain it to them?"

Barry sets about explaining how the human body works and just manages to confuse the Realbots even further.

Tom surprises Barry as he says to 27 82 16, "As you have found no damage has happened to us, can we go back to our home?"

27 82 16 replies, "You can go if you wish to, we do not want to keep you here any longer than necessary. Can you travel from this point or do you need to return to the point where you first appeared?"

Tom replies, "We need to get back to the gateway, where we first appeared."

27 82 16 says, "Follow me." and it leads the boys back to the gateway.

Tom tests that the gateway is still working by contacting Aseer Alc and puts her in the picture about the scanning. Aseer Alc sounds quite annoyed that the boys were force ably scanned against their wishes, but she knows that there is nothing that she or Dar Reg could have done. Tom tells her that they are leaving this place and hope that their next destination will be their home. Aseer Alc and Dar Reg wish them well.

Whilst Tom was talking the haze could just about be seen around the gateway.

Tom says good by to 27 82 16. Then reaches for his walkie talkie and indicates that Barry does the same. Tom switches on the walkie talkie and presses transmit. The gateway is a bit clearer now. Tom steps into it and disappears. Tom follows shortly afterwards.

~~~~~~~~

Chapter 11 – Stop Messing About

Tom says goodbye to 27 82 16. Then reaches for his walkie talkie and indicates that Barry does the same. Tom switches on the walkie talkie and presses transmit. The gateway is a bit clearer now. Tom steps into it and disappears. Tom follows shortly afterwards.

As tom steps into the Gateway, he immediately notices two things, it is dark and the ground that he has stepped into is somewhat softer than the Realbot's world. It reminded him of the woods or forest. Sure enough as he takes his next step he can hear the "crack" of a twig on the ground. Tom just hopes this is the woods near where they live. He suddenly feels something pushing into his back, it is Barry. He knows it is Barry as he hears him grumble, "Well get a move on then."

Then Barry remembers the cliff that Tom had fallen off of, so stops immediately, in-case there is a cliff in front of Tom. However there isn't so Tom moves carefully forward, not knowing whether to get his torch out or not. If this is not home, but some other place, he may attract attention that they don't really want to.

Suddenly it is Barry's turn to be surprised as something "slams" into his back. Instinctively he dives sideways, to get out of the way, after a controlled shout of "Watch out Tom."

Tom likewise dives to one side without question. Something hurtles past him, coming to an abrupt stop as it hits a tree.

Closer examination shows that the thing that had tried to plough through the boys, is in fact a Realbot that has come through the Gateway in error. The boys get up and go over to the Realbot, to see if it Is OK. There are some lights flashing, so presumably it is still functioning.

"See if you can talk to it with your walkie talkie thingy that Aseer Alc gave you." suggests Barry in a whisper.

Tom swaps his own walkie talkie for the one that Aseer Alc gave him. He sets it up to translate, luckily it has a display that lights up and also illuminates the control buttons, otherwise Tom would have been stuck. Soon Tom is holding a conversation with the Realbot, it is confused as to what had happened to it. One moment it had been busy travelling between "constructs" as it called the buildings, the next it was plunged into darkness and here with the boys.

Tom tells the Realbot that they will return it to its world. Barry reaches for his walkie talkie and presses the transmit key, however, it is so dark that he cannot see where the Gateway is. He works out roughly where they came through the Gateway and says to Tom, "send it through there."

Tom explains to the Realbot what it must do, it attempts to move in the indicated direction, but because of the woodland ground, the Realbot finds it cannot get sufficient grip to be able to move. It decides to use it's movement field go raise itself off the ground and move forward. The Realbot heads in the direction that Barry has indicated. But after a few seconds, the boys hear a "Clung!" noise as the Realbot collides with yet another tree. The process is repeated several times, in the hope that the Realbot can find the Gateway, but without success.

The Realbot, 34 28 88, is quite relieved when Tom suggests that it give up blindly searching for the gateway. It wasn't sure if it could take any more damage to its casing.

Tom tries to find the Gateway with his torch, but without success. He also tries to contact Aseer Alc, but there is no response.

Tom suggests that they sit tight and wait until the morning light. They all settle down for the night, not knowing how long they will need to wait.

<Break Music>

< collection of electronic instruments – representing the creatures>

It was difficult to tell just how much time had passed since they settled down in this spot. It was starting to get lighter, so details of the surrounding trees and vegetation were becoming clearer. Whilst the trees in terms of their shapes, looked very much like those back home, the other vegetation was totally different, difficult for me to describe sitting here writing this story down, you really had to see it to appreciate it fully. Some looked very much like it was cut out of a very thick cardboard, all oddly shaped, with blobs sticking out occasionally, almost as if they were making a bid to form plants in their own right, but still being firmly attached to the main plant. As for colours, still difficult to make out in the low light levels, although leaning very much towards the blue and violet ends of the spectrum of colours, not like the familiar green plants that we are used to. They were also not single colours, more like splodges of colours that merged into each other where they met. The whole scene looked very dis-organised, it was difficult to see now how the boys and Realbot had actually managed to walk to the spot that they were now occupying. There was no obvious pathway and the plants seemed at least at ground level to merge into each other.

There were various noises emanating from deeper into this kind of woodland landscape. It very much had the sort of collective sound that you'd find in a jungle. Each creature competing against the next, to get their voice or song heard above the rest. Although the sound was much more like an collection of electronic instruments than the productions of living creatures.

Barry whispered to Tom, "It sounds like we have entered some sort of world of electronic creatures, but not one as well organised and orderly like that of the Realbots."

Suddenly there is the sound of breaking twig and it came from somewhere close to where the boys and 34 28 88 are sheltering.

<Musical sounds – as creatures nearby communicate>

Barry and Tom carefully look all around themselves in the hope that they can spot whatever had broken the twig. But it is difficult to tell where the sound had come from let alone see anything apart from the trees and vegetation surrounding them.

Tom's communicator device suddenly comes to life and the boys can hear an appeal for help from 34 28 88, when they look round to where the Realbot had been standing, they find the spot is bare, with no sign as to where the Realbot has gone. The boys listen out for any rustling of vegetation or other tell tale sounds that would give a clue as to where the Realbot was being taken. All they can hear is 34 28 88's repeated calls of, "Help I am being taken away by two creatures.!"

Tom lifts the communicator to his mouth and in a quiet voice asks 34 28 88, "Can you still see where we are?"

34 28 88 answers, "No, I have completely lost my bearings, the things around me all look much the same."

Tom replies, "Do you mean the plants?"

34 28 88 replies, "The tall and short things that are irregular in shape?"

Tom says, "Yes those are the plants. Can you see what is carrying or dragging you?"

34 28 88 replies, "No, whatever is taking me away is below me and out of view."

Tom suggests, "Could you put on your internal light, so we could see where you are?"

34 28 88 replies, "What a good suggestion, I will do that now."

There's suddenly a bright glow coming from behind where Tom is standing, it is so bright, that even though Tom has his back to it, he can still see the light at the edges of his field of vision."

Barry suddenly points and says, "Over there!" He gets up and starts walking in the direction he is pointing, Tom follows him.

At first the plants seem like an impassable barrier, but when the boys attempt to walk through them, they separate easily, almost like a collection of blades of grass.

The boys soon find that they are gaining on whoever or whatever is carrying 34 28 88. When they get almost close enough to 34 28 88, to touch it, the Realbot suddenly descends below the level of the plants and is no longer visible.

Tom's communicator emits the sound of 34 28 88 protesting at being suddenly dropped.

As the boys push through the next row of plants, they suddenly find themselves standing before 34 28 88. The Realbot exclaims, "Ah there you are, did not take you long to find me. Shall I turn off my light now?"

Tom says, "Probably best to turn it off, after all we don't really want to advertise the fact that we're here."

Barry suggests, "Unless it was an accidental discovery, I think whoever or whatever lives here, already knows we are around. Seems strange that whatever carried 34 28 88 off through the..... woods, was sufficiently scared of us to drop him."

Tom replies, "Yes, mind you whatever it was couldn't have been very tall, so perhaps it was frightened by the sheer size of us boys and decided to quit whilst it was ahead."

There are musical sounds, as the creatures nearby communicate with each other.

Barry suggests, "It sounds like whatever carried our friend 34 28 88, is reporting back to its friends that it was not successful in its kidnap attempt. Perhaps they are planning a fresh attempt, probably best if we get away from here."

Tom replies, "We don't want to get too far away though, otherwise we may not be able to find the gateway again."

34 28 88 says, "Can anyone tell me what is going on? Or are we just going to stay here and wait for these things to come back in numbers to take me away again."

Tom tells 34 28 88 what he and Barry have discussed. Then 34 28 88 replies, "Well perhaps we could get away from this spot and at the same time try and find the gateway that you speak of."

This became the agreed action as the three of them head back where they had been sheltering through the night. The noises continue around them, as if they are being closely followed.

Soon they find themselves back in the area where the gateway was. The three friends discuss how they are going to find the gateway itself. For a short while there was debate as to whether they would be able to see the gateway in daylight. Then 34 28 88 suggested that they were just wasting time and that surely the best solution was to just keep trying to open and spot the gateway.

Barry gets his walkie talkie out and sets about pressing the transmit key whilst also looking around for any signs of the gateway.

Suddenly the group hears some form of cry for help.

"It came from over there!" exclaims Tom and he points in the direction he was looking. The three of them move in the direction that Tom had indicated. When suddenly they are taken completely by surprise as something comes hurtling towards them..... its another Realbot!

"At this rate we'll end up with the whole Realbot race in this place if they keep sliding through the gateway like this." says Barry.

34 28 88 explains to its confused and totally bewildered colleague 42 61 25, what had happened to him.

Tom says, "Presumably that earlier cry was from local inhabitant of this place falling through the gateway into the Realbot's world."

Barry suggests, "Well at least we know we are close to the gateway now."

Tom asks, "Which way did our latest Realbot approach us from?"

Barry points towards a group of trees. As they look closer they can see marks in what must pass for soil in this place. The marks go between the trees but actually stop abruptly between the trees themselves.

"Ah ha there is the gateway!" announces Tom.

Barry says, "Now all we have to do is send these Realbots back to their own world and travel back through the gateway ourselves."

Tom replies, "That is assuming that the gateway is still pointing to the Realbots' world."

Barry says, "But the second Realbot came from the Realbots' world, and that was only a few moments ago, so it must be."

Tom asks, "What choice have we got, but to try it out?

"None really." replies Barry."

Tom sets about explaining their plan to the two Realbots, who become quite excited at the prospect of returning home."

Barry keys up the walkie talkie and sure enough the gateway appears as it has done before, all hazy round the edges.

34 28 88 moves forward and disappears through the gateway. 42 61 25 follows on closely behind and also disappears.

"Right your turn." Barry says to Tom.

~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 12 – Don't Ask

Barry keys up the walkie talkie and sure enough the gateway appears as it has done before, all hazy round the edges.

34 28 88 moves forward and disappears through the gateway. 42 61 25 follows on closely behind and also disappears.

"Right your turn." Barry says to Tom.

Tom steps forward after hesitating a moment, he didn't fancy ploughing into the back of the last Realbot, those things are pretty hard. As Tom walks between the two trees, he is most surprised to find himself walking on into the woods, he had expected himself to travel through the gateway. He checks his walkie talkie and finds sure enough it is on and he was still pressing hard on the transmit key. The thought crosses his mind that the batteries may be flat, but then the light would not be on or at least it would be dim, whereas it was in fact quite bright.

Barry asks, "What did you forget...." he is interrupted by Tom as he responds, "No I remembered and it looks like the batteries are OK."

There's a pause as both boys try and figure out what went wrong. Barry suggests that Tom try the gateway again. Tom releases his finger from the transmit key and presses it again. The all too familiar hazy edge of the gateway does not appear.

Tom suggests that Barry have a go. Try as he might, Barry cannot get a response from the gateway either.

Tom gets the communicator device out that Aseer-Alc had given him, but finds that appears to no longer be triggering the gateway either.

Barry, with obvious fear in his voice, asks, "What are we going to do if we can't activate the gateway?"

Tom replies, "We'll have to stay here. It is probably just a temporary problem and the gateway will open again later. "

Barry says, "I hope you are right. I also hope those Realbots got back to their planet OK before the gateway collapsed."

Suddenly an old man appears between the trees, at exactly the location of the gateway.

Tom runs back to stand beside Barry. The man looks straight at the two boys and exclaims, "Ah there you are, been looking for you two!"

Barry sounding more like an owl than a boy responds, "Who... who... who... are you?"

"I once heard a song that had that line in it, can not remember where I heard it or who the assemblage were. Anyway, onto business at hand. You two have been causing me so much work trying to track you down. I had notification of your unauthorised entry into the guardianship corridors some days ago, not that time is much of a measure in these matters. What do you think you are doing charging around within our network without so much of a please or thank you? Spreading contaminates around wherever your wanderings, care to take your fancy, or was it unplanned idiocy and chance that traversed you through?"

There was an embarrassing silence, which clearly the boys were expected to fill with some form of explanation, but as they were totally confused as to what this man was waffling on about, they were dumbfounded.

"I see, playing the we are innocent card eh?" asks the old man, as he slowly walks towards the boys.

Tom speaks, "We are s...s...sorry, that we c...c...caused you, s...s...so much trouble."

The man replies, "Trouble, trouble, that isn't the end of the tale, nor is it the beginning, there is a lot of unravelling to do and there is no doubting that."

There is another embarrassing silence.

Then the man smiles and says, "But where are my manners?" He pauses just long enough to fetch a small but tattered book from the right sleeve of his garment. Then he opens the book and appears to be thumbing through it as if looking for a particular page. He stops on a particular page and exclaims, "Ah here we are.....good day to you young sirs and how fair be the day to ye both?"

Barry and Tom look at each other in disbelief, is this character for real? He appears to be reading some sort of script from earth's historic past.

The man looks up from the book and prompts, "Well?"

The boys just do not know how to respond, so there is another embarrassing silence. The man again takes up prompting the boys with, "You are supposed to say, It fairs well kind sir, or..... it has been a roight bugger until now and sets fair to get worst still by the seems of it."

The boys are really shocked at what the man has just said.

It is Tom who again summons up the courage to reply, "But that is not how we talk."

"How doest thee talk then young sir?" asks the old man with a strange smile upon his face, that leads the boys to think that he is just being mischievous and that he knew all along how the boys talked and what they are doing here.

Tom, with much more confidence now says, "My name is Tom and this is Barry, we stumbled upon the gateway or corridors, as you call them, by accident whilst playing on our home planet."

The man now curious, drops his superior air and asks, "How did you manage to enter the corridors?"

Barry raises an arm and holds out his walkie talkie, "With these."

"Interesting, may I take a closer look?" asks the man.

Barry somewhat hesitantly, says "Y... Yes."

The man gently takes the offered walkie talkie, turns it over in his hand and asks, "How do you effect this device?"

Barry walks forward and points to the transmit key on the side and tells the man that it should be pressed into the casing. The man appears to be listening for something. Then exclaims, "Interesting, an accidental harmonic side band spike of just the right tone and repeat frequency to open the gateway as you called it. Was this device made deliberately to open the gateway or was it, as you say, an accidental discovery? Tell the truth now young sir, I shall find it out."

Tom replies, "It was, as I said, an accident that we opened the gateway on the first occasion, but after that we were attempting to get ourselves back home."

"Quite so, quite so." says the man. He turns away from the boys for a moment as if he has some purpose in the action, then he turns back to face them, "I suppose I had best get you back to your place of origin, before sorting out this latest mis-hap."

Barry responds quite enthusiastically to the suggestion, "Oh yes please, we are so longing to get home."

"I should think so too, by the way how is that arm of yours?" asks the man.

Barry is quite surprised at the man's question, he had quite forgotten the damage to his arm and the fact that it had to be reconstructed by a machine. Barry replies, "Quite well, thanks, but how did you...."

The man interrupts him as he asks Tom, "Any more of those headaches?"

"Only when there are too many things worrying me." replies Tom.

"So almost permanently there then." says the man laughing after he finishes his observation. Then he says, "Well let us be off and way into the corridors of fate, misery and joy."

Both boys look at each other in a strange way. This man before them is rather strange and they cannot make out when he is serious and when he is having a bit of a joke at their expense. There is however, something quite likeable about him, you could get used to his manner, if you wanted to. That is if you didn't have so many worries pressing down upon you.

The boys suddenly without warning, find themselves in a dark place, at least the immediate area where they were standing is dark , there is a patch of light coming from somewhere behind where the man is standing. They know that he is still standing in front of them as they can see his shadowy outline.

The man says, "You may notice a few changes as you have been away for a while. Please do not attempt to use the corridors again and certainly do not look for me, as I am extremely busy and haven't got the time to look after two young sirs like yourselves." He reaches towards Barry and hands back his walkie talkie.

Tom asks , "Just who are you and what are the corridors all about?"

"Now what did I just say young sir?" asks the man, but he presses on not waiting for a reply, almost as if he didn't actually expect an answer to his question. He says, "I said, do not look for me. Did I not? Questions like the one you asked, count as seeking me and my identity out and as for questions about the corridors, that is as bad as entering them. Take heed I shall not be so amenable, should you cross my path again by way of your own efforts or actions. Now kind sirs, I must bid you farewell, I have much work to do, to undo."

Barry says, "Thank you for bringing us back home and sorry we caused you so much trouble, we didn't mean to."

The man replies, "It is my duty to return you to the place from whence you originated, after all on this occasion your entry into the corridors was but a mere accident of the accidental kind. Just heed my words of warning and fare thee well kind sirs."

With that, his shape and form just disappear into thin air, as if they had never existed.

"What a strange man!" exclaims Tom.

"What a strange adventure altogether." replies Barry, then continues, "Well lets go home, I wonder what the changes are likely to be, that the man mentioned?"

"Let's go and find out eh?" suggests Tom.

Both boys walk toward the light patch. It is twilight, that state of light that exists between the daylight and the night sky. They find that they are on the demolition site and have just emerged from the building that they were first playing in when this whole adventure started.

"Let's go to my house first, its nearest." suggests Barry.

The boys set off for Barry's and soon reach the back door. There are no lights on and all the curtains are pulled. Barry tries the door handle and finds it is locked. He knocks on the door and calls out, "Mum, its me Barry."

There is no response. Barry knocks and calls out again, but still no response, not even from the houses either side.

Barry suggests, "Shall we try yours then?"

"OK, perhaps yours are just out somewhere." suggests Tom..

The boys are soon at Tom's house,. At least there are lights on and they can make out shapes of peolple as they move behind the curtains. Tom tries the door and to his surprise finds it is unlocked. The two boys enter. There are voices coming from the front room. Barry recognises his Dad's laugh.

"Hey sounds like my lot are round your house." says Barry.

As the boys get to the lounge door they are not prepared for the noise and fuss that happens. There is a massive out pour of emotion as the boys are bombarded with you're safe and sound, where have you been? We've been worried about you. And similar questions and sentiments. The boys are hugged and passed from adult to adult as they assure themselves that the boys are really alive and well.

Tom asks, "What's with the tree?"

There's a sudden silence and then laughter as Tom's mother says, "Its Christmas you dopey animal."

Barry asks, "Just how long have we been away?"

Barry's dad appears to be counting on his fingers, just before he replies, "Four months, two weeks and six days." then he looks over to Tom's dad for confirmation and sees a reassuring nod.

Tom says, "Blimey I missed my birthday!"

"Where have you two been anyway?" asks Tom's Mum.

"We're not sure really, we were playing on the old demolition site when we fell through a hole in the wall." Tom pauses and looks at Barry as if asking whether he should tell the truth or not.

Barry just shrugs his shoulders.

Typical of Barry to be indecisive, thinks Tom to himself. He his prompted to resume his story when his Mum asks, "And?"

"We fell through a hole in the wall and ...." again he pauses, looking again at Barry for advice, but a blank look meets his gaze, so he has to decide for himself whether to tell the truth or make something up.

<The End>

If you enjoyed this book, could we suggest that you check out this author's other books, for example "The Sphere of...." (TSOT) series, or maybe "Loner in Space", check out Smashwords.com to see if they are available here or check out the author's own website to see what the latest books are: www.SciFiStories.co.uk

