

The Crimson Tide Pool of Death

By Papa

Copyright 2016 Billy J. Tidwell

Smashwords Edition

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# Chapter 1

The Pirate of the Gulf

_Boy, that boy is cute,_ Lyse thought as she lounged on the beach watching what waves there were roll in from the gulf. In a white, frilly shirt and khaki shorts, her long blond hair flowing freely, she stretched, hoping to catch his eye. But he was busy trying to scoot across the waves on a boogie board.

She couldn't go down there; her mother had mandated that she watch her two brothers, although the only thing on her mind right now was ... well, the boogie board boy.

When he fell, Lyse ducked her head and grinned. The boy looked in her direction and grinned back. At least he was aware of her; he'd talked to her earlier, but only for a moment, telling her his name was Jack.

Frowning, she turned and watched Carson pull up his black shorts for the fiftieth time. He had accessorized these with a pair of sky-blue water wings on his arms. In contrast to him, Ben had worn white shorts. She watched both boys--and both in need of a tan, Lyse noted--for all of thirty seconds, before she went back to watching the only boy she wanted to watch.

She hated being stuck out here on the beach with them. (The boy looked like more fun.) But her Mom and Dad were back at the condo getting some rest, having driven all night to get here in time for her Dad's interview tomorrow.

Lyse frowned again. This was a depressing Christmas vacation.

The news their parents had given them yesterday had saw to that.

"I know this is a terrible decision," their mother had told them, right before they packed for Galveston. "But as of right now, none of you are going to college because we're in saving mode. Last week, your Daddy lost his job at CRS--due to the economy, they said. They're moving all of their operations back to Germany, and well, your Daddy is not going with them. It has left us in financial limbo."

Immediately, every one of her kids started protesting, until their mother had held up her hands for silence. "As of right now, we can't afford to spend any money on your college funds. Lyse has a chance for a scholarship with her fast pitch softball but if she doesn't get her grades up, even that might not happen. That's why we're going to Texas. Your Dad is interviewing for a job down there. But I want you kids to understand that we're trying, it's just that--" And here her mother's voice choked. "We're trying is all." She wanted all of her kids to go to college and it broke her heart that all of them now might not.

Her mother was a teacher and they wouldn't starve with her pay but in today's world, most people needed two incomes to get ahead. Lyse knew that--Bell did too. Ben and Carson were beginning to realize that. But still, stuck here alone on the beach, Lyse could see all the possible pathways to her future fading before her eyes and that depressed her, cause with her grades, only a Christmas miracle would get her into college as things stood right now.

"Shark!" Ben yelled, struggling to drag his stocky body, and Carson, out of the water. He was pointing. "Look!"

Alarmed, Lyse jumped up, craning her neck to study the thing Ben was pointing at. _He'd better not be crying wolf,_ she thought--she would feed him to that shark if he did. She looked for Bell and found her, her loose white shirt flapping in the sea breeze as she ran towards them from the boy's direction. _And her too if she was flirting with Jack_.

Lyse kicked over the lounge chair as she marched to the edge of the water, where Bell, Ben and Carson now stood, staring intently towards a dark mass underneath the azure water.

The sun was setting over their shoulders and farther out, where the thing was running back and forth, the water was beginning to turn a deeper blue, almost purple. Lyse couldn't tell what it was, and for a moment, she doubted the effectiveness of the Lasik eye surgery she'd had last month.

"I don't think that's a shark," Lyse said.

"I don't see a fin," Bell added. She stood on her tiptoes, trying to get a better look at the fish, or whatever.

The animal came unhurriedly in their direction and all of the children but Carson stepped back from the lapping waves. Lyse pulled Carson back out of fear.

About fifty feet away, it committed a sharp right turn, perhaps sensing them and then rolled onto its belly in the water, emitting a shrill, warbling, "Eehk, eehk, eehk, eehk,eehk,eehk." Almost laughing at them, it seemed.

For some reason, the dolphin's screech caused Ben to see a flat rock skipping across water.

"A dolphin!" Bell cried. She jumped up and down in excitement. She had wanted to see something over this vacation and a dolphin was perfect.

Carson said, "She said hello. Something 's wrong with her...." He waggled his right arm.

Bell smiled," That's cute Carson, like you know."

He looked at her seriously, "Walter taught me."

Ben looked worried for a moment. "Carson you're spending too much time at Doctor Proctor's house. Walter has you believing you can talk to animals." Walter never worried Ben, but he did give him the creeps sometimes. All that hair made the doctor's adopted Neanderthal brother look like a Bigfoot, only a three-foot tall Bigfoot, and Walter knew things that most humans didn't. Yeah, creepy.

"Not talking," Carson said. "I just can understand them."

A confused look crossed Ben's wide face but then he shook his head. _No way._

"She's hurt but she's more exhausted. She can't swim that well" Carson added.

The dolphin slowly pirouetted in the water. It warbled again. They could plainly see the wire wrapped around its body and one fin, which had pulled it down close to its body.

Lyse put her hand over Carson's mouth. If he said anything about the fish talking, she would run off in a screaming fit. Not that Lyse hadn't seen a talking animal before; she just still wasn't used to them. Even their pet, Spanky, the Platypus unnerved her still.

Carson shook his head free and dashed out into the waves.

"Carson!" Lyse and Bell yelled. Bell waded into the water after him but stopped; he had a head start and she was wary of the dolphin. _It might be porpoise,_ she thought.

In seconds, Carson was in over his head, floating with the water wings, and within ten feet of the dolphin as it swam in lazy eights around him. Carson put out his hand and the dolphin swam under it, its fin brushing his fingertips. Carson whooped in delight.

He turned and looked at them, waiving them to him. "Salorna's friendly!" he yelled.

Ben whooped--he needed no more encouragement--and took off running towards his brother.

The dolphin swam around the two boys for maybe fifteen minutes, swooping in and out again, running closer to them each time, before it finally stopped. It regarded them out of big, dark eyes. Still floating, Carson eased up to the dolphin, and with Ben's help--Bell was still a little afraid of it and Lyse had never left the beach--they gently removed the single strand of wire from around its body and left fin. It had already cut into the dolphin's skin.

_Somebody's trash,_ Bell thought with disgust. _When are people gonna learn that we share this planet._

Free, the dolphin darted away, searching back and forth in the water, hunting. It caught two or three fish and returned to the boys. Once, it even jumped over them in the chest-high water. Then, as quick as it appeared, it flashed off into the depths of the ocean.

Back on the beach, they were excitedly jabbering about the dolphin, when Ben said, "Hey! Is that Johnny Depp?"

The strangely dressed man swaggered in their direction.

_He sure did walk like Johnny Depp,_ Lyse thought, touching her hair.

The man wore a pair of dark-blue pants; a red silk kerchief around his neck, a red silk shirt under a blue overcoat with the collar turned up and white ruffled cuffs. As he strolled towards them, his curled-top boots kicked up sand. From his hip, a sword dangled.

_Either someone going to a costume party or that man is a hipster,_ Lyse thought.

As he drew closer, they could see that he was a tad on the rugged side. In this case, rugged meaning dirty. His cowboy hat had a stylish flair on the right side with something glinting at its center. Beneath the man's thin, black moustache, lurked a slight smirk and his long dark hair almost hid the cruel look he gave them out of hazel eyes.

"Come on kids," Lyse said, herding the two smaller boys in front of her. Mama would kill her if she lost them. She left everything on the beach in her haste.

Bell gave the man, who was now about fifty feet from them, his eyes locked on them, one last look and then with a flip of her long, dark hair, hustled after Lyse and the boys.

They hurried up the beach, giving nervous glances to the man still following them. He never wavered, until they started edging towards the road that paralleled the beach. As soon as they did that, the man scrambled up the dunes, into the sea grass as if to block their way.

Lyse was upset. _What am I gonna do?_ She thought.

Bell took off running.

_Great!_ Lyse thought, _she's abandoning us!_ "Hurry up," Lyse said to the boys, edging now towards panic.

Both Ben and Carson now looked worried.

Ahead, they heard a loud crash and soon they saw Bell waiving them towards her. She stood in back of a squat building made of prefabricated panels of beige. The glass in the small window to the back door was scattered riotously about the entryway. An alarm started going off.

"Will ya'll hurry up!" she yelled over the alarm. When she glanced, the man still followed about fifty feet behind them.

They rushed into the building, none of them understanding Bell's plan until she grabbed a chain and wrapped it through the handles of the doors.

They ran down a hallway with nondescript single and double brown doors lining it.

"What? We hide?" Ben said. The man's cruel face now filled the window in the back door.

"Yeah, numbskull. Hide!" Bell said.

"What does he want?" Lyse said, her voice fluttering with fear.

"Ask cousin Itt's buddy here. He can read minds!"

Carson shrugged. "He's from a long way away and I don't understand people too good."

"Huh?" Lyse said. She had no idea what those two were babbling about.

They ran down another hallway.

"In here!" Bell said. She pushed through a set of double doors with the number 157 above it, into a large room with various machines lining the walls. They looked high tech, monitored by several computers that seemed to be running right now. To their left sat a large, plastic-looking ball, flat on the bottom, about the size of a small car, and down the far wall ran a tunnel.

_Where are the police?_ Bell thought. Her intent when she broke in was for the alarm to summon them here quickly.

They ducked in behind the machine, hovered there--Lyse in front, then Bell, then Ben, and last Carson.

When the door opened, they ducked farther behind it. The man's footsteps sounded on the tile floors, clack ... clack ... clack. He laughed, low and mean.

"If you geev me the boy, I weel let the rest of you leev," the man said. He had an accent but Bell couldn't place it. French maybe?

"I know you are in 'ere. I knew whair you would be." The man laughed again. "Sacre' Bleu!"*

*Translation--French expression of surprise.

The idea that the vodoun priestess could do this amazed the man. In no hurry, his steps slowly clacked down the middle of the room.

Bell looked up at the machine, trying to find something to use for a weapon. She just had to stall him.

Lyse was near weeping--something she fought--fearful, and yet realizing at the same time she was about to ruin her makeup.

Carson stooped behind Ben, who was looking up at the wall, for a window--or an escape route out of the building.

Ben sighed, coming to a decision. He didn't want to do it but someone had to do something. He stood up and stepped out into the room.

"I'm here," he said, solemnly. If the man would leave Carson and them alone, he'd go with the man.

"It's not you I want." The man pulled out a long-barreled flintlock pistol.

Confused, Ben said, "What I'm not good enough for you?" He spread his arms.

Bell read the label on the part of the machine nearest to her. "Temporal Accelerator should stay set at 186,000.1," a hand-made label read. _Couldn't somebody leave a big wrench lying around?_ Bell thought, frustrated by this.

The man raised the flintlock on Ben. "If 'ee does not come out, you weel die first."

Ben hit his knees. "Don't kill me! Please don't kill me! I'm not worth killing."

"Silence!" the man said. He rushed forward and grabbed Ben by his arm. He jerked the ten-year old boy to his feet and hustled down to where Lyse and Carson now hid.

Bell stepped back into a tunnel in the machine and found a passageway. Keeping low, she began shuffling through it, past large electromagnets. The tunnel came out at the ball on the other end. The heat from the machine caused her to sweat--either that or her deep, copious fear. _There has to be something,_ she thought as she scuttled through the machine.

"Come out!" the man ordered.

Lyse raised her hands, so did Carson, and they walked out from behind the machine.

"Why are your arms up?" the man asked. Then waived it away. "Non--ne-vair mind."

He waived the pistol at Carson. "You! Get over 'ere!" He motioned to his right.

Carson shrugged; his arms still raised, and walked over to the spot.

"And put your arms down," the man said, annoyed.

Carson shrugged and dropped his arms.

Lyse grabbed Ben and pulled him close to her. Breathing heavily, her fear threatened to overwhelm her. "Please don't take him, mister," she pleaded. "I've already lost him once this year. My Mama will kill me if I lose him again."

Ignoring her, the man looked around. "Whair is the o-thair one?" he said, leaning over and looking under and around the long machine and its parts.

Bell looked out of the tunnel at the man, thinking he might come after her but he didn't. In the pocket of his dark jacket, he carried a glass beaker full of crimson liquid. Bell only saw the top of it; the liquid sloshed in the beaker and caught her attention.

He scrutinized Carson. "You are who I need." He grabbed Carson by the arm and pulled him close. He tossed down a scrap of paper, turned and started for the door.

"Don't mister! Please!" Lyse still pleaded.

"Tell the leetle witch, she can 'ave 'im back when she gets thair."

Lyse screamed! He couldn't take Carson! He couldn't! "Noooo," she moaned.

Bell had found a wrench and she jumped out from behind the far side of the machine. She ran at the man, the wrench held high. She swung it!

The man sidestepped her attempt and kicked her in the seat of the pants. He laughed. "Clea-vair girl. Stick to your witch-airy." He pointed the flintlock at her and pulled the trigger.

He didn't even seem surprised when the gun sparked but didn't fire. The powder in it flared to life and sparks rained down onto his hand, burning it. With a growl, the man dropped the flintlock to the floor. It clattered across the floor in front of them.

The man pulled another flintlock. "Don't follow me, or the boy weel die." He backed out through the double doors.

Breathing heavily, Bell just sat on the floor in shock. She stared at the malfunctioning flintlock, then grabbed it. She tried to clean out the gunk in the hole--that's why it had sparked, a blocked hole. But it still had a bullet in it!

Then she noticed the burning piece of paper--on it was written July 7, 1818. Then it and the flintlock in her hands began to disappear. "What?" Bell dropped the pistol.

Lyse was on her knees, sobbing. Ben looked from one sister to the other.

"Will you two get up!" he yelled. "We have to go get Carson!"

Coming to grips with herself, Bell stood up. "Lyse!"

Lyse looked up at her, her eyes full of tears.

"Go find a phone and call---call everybody!"

"Come on Ben." With a firm grip on the wrench, Bell and Ben marched outside.

They ran up the hallway, looking for the man. "Go down that way!" Bell said.

Ben ran off, searching for the man.

Bell ran to the back entrance. She rushed outside into the twilight of the day. She scanned the area and saw in the distance a man and boy walking up the beach; they were a mile ahead of her.

At a dash, she took off after them.

As she ran, their silhouettes grew larger flowing into the sea. And no sooner than when she saw this, a round object appeared in front of them overshadowing their silhouettes.

Bell raced on. The silhouettes disappeared into the wavering object in less than two seconds.

Bell ran harder. And as she watched, the object grew indistinct. The light began to filter through it, as if it were made of glass. Then a second or two later, the object was not there.

Gone, with nothing around it for it to go to. Bell stopped running, stunned, confused and saddened. Breathing in ragged pants, she bent over and threw up.

And that's how Lyse lost Carson ... again.

# Chapter 2

Salorna, the Dolphin Finds Her Drive

The outborn towered in the sky side as Salorna watched them from the drift.

She swam as if born with a stunted limb, the limb in question damaged by this unknown hair wrapped around it. She remembered hair from the song her mother sang of her kind teeming cycles before the split, before they left the solid and came to live in the drift. Salorna sought help but fear of the outborn also made her wary. She eased around them in the drift, seeking something she sensed more than felt.

And then the one, calm, reassuring, sounded--no! Not sound. But sounded to her.

And from the drift, their eyes large, a sense of amazement, and their gangly limbs removing the hair--wire--the smallest outborn sounded to her--no! Not sound. But removing the wire all the same, saving her, for Salorna knew that without its removal, within days she would cease to sing forever.

The outborn charmed Salorna; since she'd left the family, she had found herself move closer to them. She found them strange; their blowholes earth side when they floated in the drift. _Surely, they will drown,_ she thought the first time she saw them enter the drift. That incident had made her curious although the songs advised she should keep her distance. The outborn had strange ways and the idea of learning more about them had driven Salorna from her family, who avoided the outborn like the song of a crocodile. Salorna grinned, happy now to be free--crocodiles didn't sing, they thumped. And occasionally ate dolphins in the south world.

And yet, some form of kinship she felt for the one--as if she shared a commonality with him.

Fish! I smell fish!

With a powerful flick of her following limb, Salorna darted towards the small being. Stunned and swallowed it complete. _Pleasure!_ She burst a pulse of joy. She had not eaten in days.

But the one outborn was not far with his unsound, she sensed. A will inside her, pushing her towards the smallest outborn. The smallest of his pod, no larger than a Guppergoo, she decided to call him Gup, since to a dolphin, they were the most-tastiest fish in the ocean. _Appropriate name for him,_ Salorna thought, then sensed from him his make, the male of the species.

_Surprise!_ His mind sought her out! Salorna did not know the outborn could do such things. _Surprise! He knows! He seeks! And, I, Salorna, have found him._

She flicked her following limb again, chasing the wisp of Gup's small song, his song of six, a small pod, unruly, disjointed, muddled with emotions, not a song at all, from what she sensed. A wisp, like an eel in a hole, of Gup's thoughts really.

Free of the wire, Salorna glided away, happy and free.

Later, and then Gup again, so distinct, his song slowly fading into the depths. But something else too disturbed the dolphin in a way only the inborn know.

Salorna zoomed through the underworld, through the drift, carefree in the way of her kin, but Gup, no longer with her, was with her. She must report this across the lanes; tell all of the inborn that an outborn had disturbed a force in the world. And of course, the outborn's fault lay not in their deliberate attempt, but in their inexperience.

She would go, even if just to return the gift. For in her world, a kindness must be repaid.

# Chapter 3

Bell of the Ball

It bothered Bell, not only the fact that the pirate had taken her little brother, but how he had done it too. The man had chased them as if he knew exactly where they were gonna end up.

She stood there as the police, paramedics, all of a serious demeanor, asked her, Lyse and Ben all manner of questions. She didn't remember any of them; she was too upset.

And none she could answer satisfactorily. No, the man had known their exact route when he chased them. But how?

Bell wandered around the reception area, (She had since learned that the building belonged to Applied Dynamics, a subsidiary of Google.) studying the pictures on the wall, the fake plants placed here and there but really thinking about how.

A man, who dressed like a college professor right down to the patches on his tweed jacket and pipe sticking out of his pocket, arrived about thirty minutes after the man took Carson. The professor was about forty, wore thick glasses, had a pocket protector in his white shirt, and wore his tan pants hitched too high to be comfortable on him.

"I'm Doctor Pinkney. What's the nature of the problem?" he asked the beat cop, who had corralled the kids in the front lobby of the building. The cop explained, nodding his head toward the children when his story called for it.

When the policeman had arrived, they had told him the truth: about the pirate, about his flintlock revolver, about it disappearing. As they spoke, the man had looked at them skeptically, mad for some reason, before he started scolding them for lying, telling them they were in serious trouble and should know better than to go snooping around places they had no business snooping.

By the time the officer had finished, the kids had figured out he didn't believe them and thought they were making up this story to cover up breaking into the building--until they had told him about Carson.

The man walked up to them. "Are you alright?" he asked, looking around at all of their nods. Assured, he nodded too.

Their parents arrived in a rush, still in blue jeans and t-shirts, blue for their mother, Chrissy, and green for Kris. Her mother looked horrified. "What do you mean someone stole my son?" she almost yelled when the policeman told her the story.

Kris and Chrissy rushed over to the other kids. "Are ya'll alright?" Chrissy asked.

"We're all alright," Lyse said. She stood there, looking glum, holding her right elbow with her left hand.

"The cop said this man was dressed like a pirate?"

"No, Mom," Bell said. "This man was a pirate. He had a type II, Springfield flintlock pistol, model year 1817 and a Henry, 1813 Navy model, made only for the war of 1812. Only 600 of the Springfield's were ever made. I saw the thing, it had Springfield 1815 stampeded right behind the hammer. I had to be real, cause now days they're rarer than hen's teeth." Bell wasn't sure if she should tell them that she saw it disappeared right before her eyes. Insisting the man was a pirate was pushing it with her parents.

"I don't care about any weapons. What happened to Carson?" Kris said. His face held only pain.

The children shrugged.

Lyse finally said, tears in her eyes. "He kidnapped him."

Their parents turned around and went back to the policeman, now beseeching him to find their son.

In the excitement, Bell eased out of the room and went back to the machine in room 157. Following a hunch, she quickly turned on the computer but found it password protected. She searched around in the desk drawer, then pulled out a side drawer and found the password taped on the inside wall. People were so predictable. And that thought made her stop and wonder for a minute. _Like he knew where we would be?_

She quickly opened the computer, clicking through files, until she found the one that confirmed all of her suspicions.

Before she could go farther, she heard someone coming down the hall! Bell closed the computer.

Back in the center of the room, she stood there staring at the machine when Mr. Pinkney walked into the room. He coughed.

Bell turned around and rubbed her face like she had been crying.

"They'll find your brother," he said, not very confidently.

Bell gave him a prim smile and nodded. "He's pretty special, but I don't know why anyone would want to take him. We're not rich or anything." _That's an understatement_ , she thought.

The man nodded but didn't say anything. He looked at the machine. "What do you think of it?"

Bell turned around and stared at the machine. "It's impressive. Sorry it doesn't work."

Surprised, Doctor Pinkney said, "How do you know it doesn't work?"

"I'm sort of a tinker. It's too clean, shows it hasn't been used."

Grinning, the doctor said, "That could just mean I've not completed it yet."

"It looks complete. Even the displacement converter looked right. But--" Bell stopped. She shrugged and frowned. "I don't know. It looked wrong." She had a thought, and if what occurred to her was correct, she might need this machine.

"You're right. It doesn't work. And I have no clue where the problem lies. I think I've reached the limits of my expertise," he said and sighed. "But then, splitting my time between the university and here might be a part of the problem."

"The man you're looking for," Bell said. "He took something else. A beaker full of crimson liquid."

"Yeah, we know about that. This might be industrial espionage. We have several labs in the building, all of them working on different projects. That particular one was a way to extract gold using genetically engineered bacteria. It may be a viable option for collecting gold from seawater. The ocean has a large concentration of gold dissolved in it and we have a strain of Delftia acidovorans--which uses a chemical metabolite to filter out the gold and shunt it outside the cell membrane and Cupriavidus metallidurans, which we hope will work in conjunction with Delftia acidovorans to filter the gold completely. We dyed it crimson as a safety measure, so we'd know if it leaked out anywhere--like into the ocean."

"Well, he took that too."

They stood there looking at the machine for a while before the man said, "Your parents want to take you home."

Bell nodded and without another word walked out of the room.

Later that night, after hours of her parents on their cell phones, talking to people: The local police, the FBI, and various relatives, Bell's worry eased enough for her to get some sleep.

She awoke about twelve-thirty, her eyes wide with the possibilities. She got up, quickly dressed and snuck down the stairs of the condo, but as she came around the bend in the stairs, she saw Ben and Lyse sitting at the table.

"What are you two doing up?" Bell whispered.

"Waiting on your sleepy butt," Ben said.

They were both dressed and ready to go, in khaki shorts and white t-shirts.

Bell looked from one to the other. "What do ya'll know?"

Ben grinned. Of the entire family, he was always the one most aware of the things around him. "I saw that look in your eyes. You know something no one else does."

"And we want in on it," Lyse finished for him.

"Well, let's get out of here then," Bell said. It wouldn't do to wake their parents.

Fifteen minutes later, the three children stood facing the back of the building again. Stooped low behind a dune, they watched lights move about inside.

"They put a guard in there," Bell whispered.

"Bell, he can't hear you. There's a door and some metal over the window. Now, how do we get in there?"

Bell was mystified. She hadn't told them what she was planning but they somehow sensed it. "I need to tell ya'll what I'm fixing to do."

"Come on," Ben said, scrambling up the side of the dune.

"Don't ya'll want to hear?"

"No, Bell," Lyse hissed back at her. "Get your butt up here."

Bell dutifully followed.

(Out in the dark of the sea, Salorna listened to the three outborns speak, comprehending completely. She'd finally found Gup and he was far away, almost as if he wasn't here.)

"Why is that ball at the end?" Lyse asked. They were in Room 157. And Bell believed she could get it to work.

"When you're going at right angles you don't want anything at right angles to you. I think."

That made no sense at all to Lyse. "Whatever," she said.

Ben peeked out the door, looking for the guard, who was nowhere in sight. "It's clear," he whispered back over his shoulder.

"Now, what do you want me to do?" Lyse said.

"I want you to take those nine components, especially those logic gates and solder them into those boards. Right where and right how I showed you two minutes ago."

_I hope this doesn't mess up my nails,_ Lyse thought as she began putting the components into the computer board and doing as Bell had instructed her. It didn't take her long, although the soldering raised a stink like burning candy.

Bell went behind the machine and began tinkering with things back there. From the drawing she'd seen of the machine, Doctor Pinkney was close to finishing it but he had overlooked some crucial components. He had considered the angular resistance, hence the bubble down at the end, but he hadn't considered how you opened up the space in between. Bell believed she could do that with a simple algorithm and a few changes.

And if she could, she could go and get Carson. He was only a moment away.

# Chapter 4

Mastodons from the Future

As she worked, Bell considered her thoughts. By helping Mr. Procter, a friend of hers who was a physicist, improve his universe machine which could see into other universes, Bell had learned a lot about the fundamental principles underlying the universe. In her work with him over the last six months, he had taught her all she knew of physics and physical properties. Bell had learned from Mr. Proctor that time and space were fundamentally linked.

Space existed as an omnipresent field, integral with the present and when you traveled close to the speed of light, you pushed against that field of space and time. Therefore, present space--as she understood it from Mr. Proctor's lessons--became compressed and forced time to slow down. Therefore, to manipulate time, you first had to manipulate space. And to manipulate space you either had to get real heavy like in a black hole or go real fast. That was simple enough.

Part of Doctor Proctor's machine used a similar principle. The doctor's universe machine wedged open--at Planck lengths which were the smallest bits of distance--the thin slices of dimensional space by means of creating a phase change in space-time itself. At that instant, he created a cosmic string that stretched out towards infinity. So why not use the accelerator Dr. Pinkney had cobbled together to move the string near the speed of light? And beyond.

She understood the principals for creating the string, well, two actually. And if she went at the correct angle along those strings, she could turn time into a flexible thing.

That's why the accelerator didn't seem right to her when she looked at its schematics. To her, Pinkney only had the equation half-right. Doctor Pinkney wasn't going heavy enough or fast enough to create the right conditions, it seemed to her. She couldn't explain it. It was more a feeling of what needed to be done for them to save Carson.

As she worked, Bell kept seeing space as a series of stop-motion photographs. One right after the other, each photograph advanced the movement of the picture one extremely tiny step at a time, similar to the illusion created by cells in a movie reel but all around you in a three-dimensional shell. Space was created when all of these photographic shells ran consecutively but cut those shells up and spread them out, and you had time. To her, under that principle, if she could run those cells across the strings like it did the light from the projector, then the string's strange gravity--the bulb in her mind--slowed time down to zero and if she looped the cells back upon themselves, then they kept going farther backwards into the past. Really simple, it seemed to Bell.

Bell was proud of herself. Put under that light, it left no room for misunderstanding. _Anyone could understand this,_ she thought excitedly.

When they stopped, she'd know the truth of her theory.

"He's coming," Ben hissed.

Bell hissed back, "I need more time. This is delicate work." That was something else Doctor Proctor had also taught her; work carefully and be sure you know what you're doing. Since she was dealing with such powerful forces, one slip-up might boil them completely away like a pan of water on a hot stove--pan, steam and all. And Bell really wasn't sure of what she was doing, working almost by how her theory felt more than from any calculation. She didn't have time to work out the math.

Ben walked out into the hallway. "Hey," he said to the guard. "Earlier today, I left something in here. I just came back to look for him."

The guard pulled a gun. "You stay right where you are boy!" he ordered Ben.

Ben grinned. "But I'm not through looking," he said, then spun around and streaked down the hallway.

The guard gave chase.

Five minutes later, Bell said, "I've got it!" She looked at Lyse. "Where's Ben?"

She shrugged. "He's playing with the guard. Led him off down the hallway."

Bell huffed. "Lyse!"

"Don't have a booger baby. He'll get back here in time."

"You don't have a booger baby. We're leaving now!"

"I'm here!" Ben said as he burst inside the room. He began pushing things up against the door. "I hope you're ready!" Outside the door, the guard began banging on it.

The sound of a loud voice over guard's radio said, "ETA. Five minutes."

"Cause we're out of time," Ben said, panting, bent over at the waist.

Bell laughed.

In a panic, Lyse said, "What so darn funny! We'll go to jail if that guard gets in here."

"Which will kill Lyse, cause there's no cute boys in jail," Ben said.

Lyse glared at him.

"Don't matter," Bell said. "Cause where we're going, we've got all the time in the world. Get in the bubble, now!"

Bell began the sequence on the computer--twenty seconds.

They crawled into the roomy bubble, which would easily hold three more people. They sat down in the plastic chairs bolted inside. The steel struts that crisscrossed the clear, plastic bubble, put there so the external forces wouldn't pull it apart, threw shadows across their faces as they braced for leaving.

Fifteen seconds.

Bell noticed the slot in the machine about a second later. "Oh, Goodness!"

"Oh, goodness what?" Lyse asked.

"I need a key! Stay here!"

"What happens if we don't have the key?"

"I don't know but the forces are building up. We might explode," Bell said nervously.

"Explode!" Lyse said.

Ten seconds.

"Yes, Lyse, explode. But it's the only way to get to Carson."

"By the way," Ben said through the door of the bubble. Bell was searching the Professor's desk. "Where exactly is Carson."

Five seconds.

_Here it is,_ she thought, holding up the blank, white card. "He's nowhere. It's when Carson is. And that's where we're going."

Four seconds.

The guard burst through the door. He looked around at all the lights blinking, at least a dozen humming electromagnets, the long, tube framework of something throbbing, and the steel struts on the bubble glowing red-hot.

Bell fumbled with the key. Put it in backwards.

Three seconds.

"Hurry up," Ben said. He held onto the door, to keep out the guard, who wasn't really coming towards them, but backing away instead.

Two seconds.

Bell slipped the card into the slot again. The light on it stayed red.

One second.

Inside the bubble, the temperature doubled. Ben started sweating; Bell and Lyse soon mimicked him.

"Here we go!" Bell yelled as she pushed the card in again. _I hope this works,_ she thought. The bubble emitted a deep, bass thrumming.

The computer engaged a release and in an instant, the bubble and everything in it froze!

Stopped dead, like a Mastodon locked in a block of ice. Only the ice was air, and the children weren't Mastodons, maybe Mastodons from the future.

# Chapter 5

Pirateland

Back in 1818, the pirate, Jean Lafitte, watched the boy he'd stolen play. The vodoun woman had found the boy--Jean didn't care how, only that she had.

Out the window, he watched Carson build sand sculptures: sandcastles, mermaids, and dolphins--which he insisted on calling Salorna for some reason--in the heat of the day.

"Are you sure this witch weel appear?" He asked the woman standing behind him. The room smelled musty but that might have been the July heat or all the powders and jars the woman had stored on the wooden shelves behind her.

"She weel be 'ere," Lexi Laveau said. At another window, she stared west across the inner bay, watching the sun begin to set. "Thair is no way she weel not come. He is 'er bru-thair." Her strange brogue added to her aura of mystery and dangerousness, although she spoke this last with mild disgust. She hated all of these people.

She pushed the red beaker across the wooden table to him. "And this is crimson, not red." Lexi Laveau said. "And not what I wanted."

Jean shrugged; he felt like an idiot and hated being made feel that way by this vodoun priestess. "Red is red," he said.

"Not when it is not what I asked you to get."

"It weel be no great loss to you--if you want to get 'ome." When she'd told him she needed a special boy, Jean had thought maybe one much closer to home. But she had wanted this boy, specifically. One with no special abilities, she'd told Jean Lafitte. But apparently, she had found one that was very special indeed.

"Do what you must. And I weel do what I must."

Out on the beach, Carson was laughing with Mathalsa Rango, the Trinidadian with family in Jamaica.

"Dat is ee very interesting ting, you say, little one," Mathalsa said. "Eet ees only a metal can?"

Carson nodded, putting more sand on the round object he had begun. His creations littered the beach: mermaids, whales and this new thing he was building--a snowman, he called it. "See? It won't melt," he had explained to the large, black man.

Lexi Laveau watched the boy as she strolled towards the beach. _This one is dangerous to my plans,_ Lexi thought. Halfway there, she stepped over to a rock outcropping and dropped the beaker into an isolated tide pool, a hole about ten feet deep that only stayed full from the splash of ocean water. This close to the beach, Lexi felt a longing for the water, from which she came, disgusted by her desire.

"I see you 'ave set-tled in?" she said to the boy. Mathalsa walked off, thinking about the thing the boy had described to him. A musical drum, hmmm. He knew where to find a piece of tin.

Carson looked sideways up at her from where he was building the sand snowman and said, "Crabs have small thoughts. Like yours, Miss Laveau."

"Oh, I 'ave small thoughts, do I?" She didn't know what to make of the boy.

He nodded. "You're whole body is full of small thoughts."

Lexi waited, wondering if the boy knew, but decided after several minutes, he didn't.

"Miss Laveau? How do Pirates celebrate Christmas?"

She thought about it and said, "By firing off can-nons and put-ting wreaths on buildings. They sometimes 'ave Mass if the men want such a thing."

Carson nodded. "You mean there's no Christmas trees, no carols, and--no presents!"

"Not een this time," she said.

"Well, that just won't do!" he said, determined about it.

"And what can a small boy like you do about it?" Despite herself, Lexi smiled. The boy's determination impressed her.

He stood up and dusted off his hands. He began rolling the small ball on top of the first, larger ball he had made. He grunted and when Lexi reached to help him, he motioned her away. "I've got it."

Lexi stepped back. She pushed her long dark tresses away from her narrow face holding an aura of green in it. This boy had spirit, but she knew that already. She could understand his future so much better now.

Once the ball was atop the other, Carson stepped back and studied his work. Carson did a short shimmy and dance. "This is so much fun! Lyse, my sister, wouldn't let me build them on the other beach. She thought I'd get dirty." He rolled his eyes and said, "What did she know."

Three burly pirates from Jean Lafitte's crew walked over, staring at the surprisingly good sculptures.

"Hey boy!" one dirty-haired pirate said through his thick blond beard. "What is that right there?" Curious pirates had wandered through this area since Carson's arrival at noon, watching the boy work.

Carson turned to the man. He put out his hand. "My name's Carson."

The pirate's blue, cruel-looking eyes studied the boy offering him a gentleman's handshake. "Ah, a sir are yee? Well, we don't coddle too much to gentlemen here," the man snarled.

"As my Daddy says," Carson replied. "I ain't no sir, I work for a living."

The pirate, his eyes becoming slits, threw back his head and laughed. "That I can respect my young friend."

He grabbed the boy and put him on his shoulder. "Now, you can inspect all of your work. And explain it to me." The three pirates loitering behind him laughed with the large man.

"Do ya'll know how to play volleyball?" Carson asked. Bell was good at volleyball and Carson thought it might be fun to play on the beach. He never got to at home.

"Never heard of it," the man said and the others nodded.

"Well, if we had a fishnet and an aired up water bag, we might could play. Would ya'll like to play?"

"What? With a flat water bag?" The pirate had no idea what aired up meant.

"No. You blow air into the bag."

"Let's go find you a bellows and we'll see, young Captain Carson."

As Lexi Laveau watched the boy being carried off by such mean and hard-hearted men, she couldn't help but think--this boy is fun! And despite her desire not to get involved with these people, she found herself liking the boy. _Oh, yeah, he was dangerous._

Lexi walked away from the men on the beach, already setting up a net for their game. Distantly, she heard the boy say, "Do ya'll know who Santa Claus is?"

The pirates and Carson talked some and then Carson yelled, "I love Pirateland." There was a roar of laughter, but Lexi didn't hear what they said after that.

She walked over to her broken machine; cracked now in two places, the gold strips covering it now long since stripped by the pirates who thought it was real gold. Her machine still worked but only for five seconds at a time--not long enough to get her out of this mess she found herself in. _Why had I ever come back here?_ She thought, but knew the answer. Her people had wanted to start a future that would give them the advantage later on, but for some reason, none of her plans was working out. She still searched for the origin.

She glanced back at the pirates, now numbering about fifteen men, three women, and about five boys and girls. They were all drinking out of these half-sized coconut cups, filling them with something, probably rum, and passing them around. Mathalsa had come back with something he'd made--a drum made of tin maybe? He began beating on it, making a lovely sound.

Soon, the pirates were dancing around as music--this with a little more of Captain Carson's directions--began issuing from the beach.

A very dangerous boy indeed. She might have to get rid of him earlier than planned.

# Chapter 6

Way Bach When

Outside the bubble lay only blackness, while inside the bubble the music was ancient. It sounded like 60's era Rock-N-Roll to Bell but she wasn't sure--one of the few things she wasn't sure of.

Bell sensed no movement as they traveled--if they were traveling. She still wasn't sure if her reworking of the machine had worked, and the wondering was killing her.

"What is this?' Lyse said. The music was bo-o-oring.

"It's Now or Never by Elvis," Ben said.

"And you like it?"

Ben shrugged and said, "Sure. It's got a beat." Another song came on.

"And that?" Lyse said. It didn't even have any singing in it.

"It's Bach," Ben said and then added. "From way Bach when." At ten, both girls couldn't understand how he'd learned this. Ben wasn't much of a reader, although he did spend a considerable amount of time on the web, looking up old rock. He loved old rock for some reason. Alice Cooper, The Moody Blues--in fact, he'd played "Knights in White Satin," so much for a week there, that it had driven Lyse crazy enough for her to threaten to break their Dad's laptop if he didn't stop. He must've moved on to Classical now.

"What are you a musical encyclopedia?"

"No, but I do watch a lot of YouTube."

"We should've brought a laptop with us," Lyse said. The boredom made her fell like sleeping, and in fact, she wondered if it was her naptime yet.

"No, we shouldn't have," Bell corrected her sister. "No telling what we might have changed in our future if we'd brought technology with us. Just the clothes we wear might start some chain reaction that will alter our future. No, bringing a laptop or cell phone would be bad."

Lyse stuck her tongue out at her.

None of the children said it but Lyse, Bell and Ben were worried about Carson. (Bell was also worried about her calculations.)

Finally, no longer able to fight her fear, Lyse said what was on all of their minds, "There's no telling what happened to Carson."

"He's fine," Ben said. "Besides, what are the dangers back then?"

Both Lyse and Ben looked at Bell, or as Ben sometimes called her Miss Wikipedia.

Bell shrugged but she welcomed the distraction. "Probably, everything is to an nine-year-old boy." She counted off on her fingers, her dark eyes looking upwards for some reason. "There are diseases like Typhoid, Yellow fever, Consumption--"

"What's that?" Ben asked.

"Tuberculosis. And Cholera, Montezuma's revenge--"

"Oh, yeah, Montezuma's revenge," Lyse said. She had no clue what it was but she didn't want Bell to think she was a idiot, so she'd developed this method to keep Bell from giving her that look she sometimes gave her when Lyse had no clue what Bell was talking about.

"And from the sea, there's sharks, jelly fish, giant squid, and on the beach, snakes in the grass, and Indians, pirates, of course, and cannon balls, cutlasses and bullets. The lack of proper medical care and facilities."

"We get it," Lyse said. "He's in a lot of danger."

"Well, yeah. Of all the dangers he faces, at least, we don't have to worry about Medical Resistant Staphylococcus," Bell said, trying to put a positive spin on things.

"That's comforting," Lyse said, sarcastically. Goodness, she couldn't keep her eyes open. "What time is it?" she asked.

Bell looked at the onboard clock. "The clock says three A.M. But really, time is relative when we're in the bubble. We're really outside of time right now, so when we get there, it might be later or earlier."

"Don't you know?" Ben said.

Bell shrugged. "I was guessing at all of this from the start."

"What?" Lyse said. "You risked our lives on a guess."

"I didn't ask you to come with me, Poo head."

"Poo face," Lyse said.

"Poo mouth," Bell said.

"Poo eyes!"

"Pooh Poo!"

"What?"

Bell shrugged again. "You know? Winnie the Pooh, poo."

"That don't work," Ben said. "It's got to be relative to reality and Pooh poo is probably stuffing," he said.

The thrum of the bubble changed. The struts, until now glowing red-hot, became a warm orange color and outside the sphere, the world faded into focus. The sun drove a star-shaped beam down through the bubble after a few more moments.

"I think we've arrived," Bell said. She looked around at the beach they had just left.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please keep your trays in an upright position as you exit the time bubble," Ben added.

"I hope Carson is alright," Lyse said and her face betrayed the worry, that until now, she had been masking for the sake of the other two. She was the oldest and was supposed be the most responsible but sometimes she feared that she lacked the ability to act responsible. And that scared her a little. She'd lost poor Carson twice in the last six months. What if she was just incompetent?

As they climbed out of the bubble, Lyse rejected that idea. She was too cute to be incompetent, although she needed to look up what incompetent meant.

# Chapter 7

Like Christmas in July

It was a hot day, more July than Christmas when Lyse, Bell and Ben walked over the small dune in front of them and surveyed the scene with disbelief all over their faces.

Spread out on the beach, clad in various types of shorts and t-shirts were long-haired, dirty Pirates, some playing volleyball, some line dancing to what sounded like Jamaican Christmas music, others setting up beach tents, and one trying to surf. Three women were lounging in beach chairs, in two-piece blue bathing suits no less--and cut from the same cloth it looked like--slathering oil on their bodies. A two-man and woman team of pirates still wearing their tricorn hats had the women on their shoulders and were water wresting. Children and dogs were racing up the beach, chasing Frisbees made of wooden plates and playing hacky-sac made from a small leather bag.

"Goodness," Lyse said. "Carson's changed ... everything!"

"Wow!" Ben said. "Everyone's having a good time and didn't invite us!" Before Bell could stop him, he raced down the dune into the midst of the pirate party.

"Hey," Lyse said, running off too. "It's Santa Claus!"

"Find Carson!" Bell yelled at her retreating sister. Lyse waived her hand at her.

Bell just shook her head at the sight. Off to the left of the scene, sat a fat, jolly white-bearded pirate in a red, dirty--well, it almost resembled a Santa's suit--with a child on his knee. He handed the delighted child a present wrapped in butcher paper. Behind him, adorned in handmade, colored balls and tin stars dangling from its limbs, stood a Christmas tree with a crude angel on top.

_Lord, Carson's invented Christmas,_ Bell thought, and then more alarmingly, _we may not have a future to go back to._

# Chapter 8

Often Infinities

Kris and Chrissy Wildermuss walked into the Applied Dynamics building with a sour look on both their faces. All of their children were missing now--not just Carson, but Lyse, Bell, and Ben too.

And they had to have Ben back by this Friday or his mother would pitch a fit. She loved Ben just as much as they did and when the news hit that he was missing, she would go mad with worry. And for some reason when Kris's ex-wife got upset, she made everybody upset.

But Professor Pinkney had called them, his voice sounding upset, and just from the sound of his voice, they knew it was important.

Struggling to keep his voice even, Kris said to the woman at the desk, "We're the Wildermusses, here to see Mr. Pinkney,"

Her eyes grew wide at the mention of their name. She knew what was going on. "Right this way."

She led them down a couple of hallways, until they reached a room that had Pinkney's name on the door. Porter Pinkney, it read.

"Really?" Chrissy said. "His parents named him that?" She was just nervous and needed something to complain about to bleed off her anxious energy.

"This is probably nothing," Kris said.

The Professor was seated at his desk when they entered. He straightened up, sitting erect as if his butt were on a hot plate.

"What's this about?" Chrissy said immediately. She had no time for beating around the bush. She needed to go find her children.

"Uh, Mr. and Mrs. Wildermuss, uh, I have, well, you see? I need to tell you--"

"Spit it out already. Are you sure you have a degree?"

He straightened his tie. "I-uh-do have a degree. And that's why I called you down here."

Not getting his meaning, Kris thought, _what is he fixing to do, show us his credentials?_

"I have a degree in both physics and applied mathematics and you see, I have done the math, and I uh, I don't know how to tell you this but, uh, your children."

"What about my children?" Chrissy said. She narrowed her eyes and got ready to set into the man, when he said--

"It seems I have your three children."

"What!" Kris said. He rose from his seat, angry now. Was this some kind of extortion or kidnapping thing? He had no idea. "If you've harmed one hair on any of their heads--"

"Well, uh, sir, it seems, they did it to themselves."

A horrified look came across Chrissy's face. "Have you hurt my children!" She stood up too.

"Uh, well, no--I don't think I have. It's just ..." Professor Pinkney's voice trailed off. He looked to be in pain himself. He took a deep breath. "Mr. and Mrs. Wildermuss, perhaps I should show you what we found this morning."

Immediately, Kris thought this might be something his children had done. Had they snuck in and trashed the place again? "Now, let's not get too hasty about this," he said. However, a second later, Kris rejected that thought; none of his children were mean-spirited, not even Ben. Ben was energetic, flighty, and argued a lot but well behaved, except to his brother and sisters.

The Professor rose now too. "Just let me show you and then I will explain as best I know how--but honestly. I don't know how to explain this."

That much was obvious to both parents.

They followed Pinkney down the hallway, anxious, worried, and cycling through other emotions because of their confusion.

When he led them into the time lab, all of that disappeared.

"What in the world?" Chrissy said. She looked at the sight before her the same way alien abduction victims first looked at the space ship before it landed.

Kris nodded, but the look on his face was one of weird wonder.

Lyse, Bell, and Ben sat in front of them, inside a large plastic bubble, it looked like, completely unmoving. Technicians in lab coats ran around the machine, making notations on clipboards; two sat at computers, typing furiously, bringing up screens and checking the status of various components.

"Do you see now?" Professor Pinkney said, relieved to have delivered the news.

"Get them out of there right now!" Chrissy demanded. It was strange seeing all the kids like this, half of the time they never sat down longer than two minutes--unless Lyse was sleeping.

"That, uh, is the problem, Mrs. Wildermuss. It seems I don't know exactly what we're dealing with here." The professor felt contrite, although none of this had been his fault. He still didn't know what the children had done to the machine--had they broken it, fixed it but made it do something it wasn't designed for, or had they found some new state of reality?

But there they sat inside the bubble, looking as if they were playing a game of statues, unmoving but alive. Well, besides being frozen in time, they looked all right.

A technician brought the Professor a printout but Pinkney didn't bother to look at it, his focus now on the parents of these children. He had children of his own and although a thoroughly confusing horror, it was a horror nonetheless. He sympathized--but he couldn't explain it.

Kris Wildermuss finally closed his mouth. "I don't understand--" And here he pointed at his children. "That at all."

"Well, uh, Mr. Wildermuss, it seems you children broke in here last night and engaged my machine. And something went terribly awry."

"What does it do?" Kris asked.

"It's a time machine," Pinkney said. "Uh, well, no it's not. It's a potential time machine. I have never been able to get it to function properly but one of your children seems to have last night."

With knowing looks on their faces, both Wildermusses said in unison, "Bell!"

"They seem okay, what we can test of them. Our instruments seem to bring back some strange readings, often infinities, but we have managed to ascertain that they are breathing."

"Well, that's good," Kris said. "Are they in pain?"

"We don't think so. We believe they're in stasis. They've somehow taken themselves out of the time line."

"And you don't know what to do?"

"No, Ma'am. The repair of the repair, I thought I repaired didn't repair it. I thought it might be the problem, but ...." He shrugged in helplessness.

"If it doesn't work, it's not a repair," Kris said.

"Don't you teach this stuff?" Chrissy asked.

The Professor nodded definitively. "Not this. This is years beyond what I teach."

"Will they ever come out of it?" Chrissy asked. She said it like they were in a coma or something but for her confused mind, it was the only frame of reference she had for this.

Pinkney glanced down at the paper and read what the technician had given him. His face lit up. He grinned. "Mr. and Mrs. Wildermuss," he said quickly. "I think I may have an idea of what your daughter did."

"Well, that's good news."

"I mean--it's not that certain because she seems to have come at this problem from a completely new direction. And believe me I had thought I had looked at all the angles, but your daughter, she's pulled off a brilliant piece of reconstruction on my machine." He was still looking at the paper, reading the math and a detailed plan of what Bell had changed. It was exciting stuff for him.

"Your daughter just might be a genius. A little eccentric--"

"What did you say about my daughter," Chrissy said.

"No, I mean, her way of thinking is eccentric--but that's a good thing because I think I understand the logic of her illogical logic. And I think I just might be able to repair it!"

"Oh, well, okay," Kris said. He had no clue what the nut-job was talking about. "Just don't repair it like you did the last time."

# Chapter 9

The Next to the Last Pirate of the Caribbean

Jean Lafitte was an insecure pirate. A pirate no less but very insecure about his place in this world he had made for himself.

He pushed back his rakish cowboy hat and paced in the halls of the mansion he'd taken from the previous owner. His dark eyebrows furrowed in thought.

He had vowed long ago to bow before no one; he was a pirate through and through, and took a certain amount of pride at being the last of his kind in the Caribbean, although Roberto Cofresi, that upstart Spaniard was also calling himself the last pirate of the Caribbean in dispute of Jean Lafitte's claim. But time would tell the truth to this.

Of course, at the moment, his insecurity made him want a little stability, which he'd found here in Spanish Texas. A small amount of peace, sure, but in a time where all two hundred of his cohorts questioned their place and the Karankawa Indians hated them being here, peace only came in small amounts.

And none of this helped his insecurity, which he blamed on Andrew Jackson. On February sixth of this year, Jackson himself had pardoned him and his brother, Pierre, but being a pirate through and through, Jean had gone and ruined that by taking up with the Spanish. (Being a pirate through and through now felt almost like a curse.) Which the United States didn't like either. They'd already raided his base in Louisiana, destroyed his fleet, and had been harassing him ever since.

He had been on the right side with Andrew Jackson and at that one time, Jean felt he should have kept on his good side. But he had to go and foul it up; had to be a fool at heart, had to go back to pirating.

He paced across the lavish room, his head bent in deep thought, ruing his impossible position.

Now because of the war, he was spying on the Mexican's for the Spaniards, while sailing his ship under the Mexican's flag as he was raiding the Americans ships, and above all of that, trying to change his life for the better; and all, Spaniard, Mexican and American alike, were grumbling about his actions--and no need to mention still be a pirate captain to his crew. It was just brutal trying to juggle all those problems at once.

And Jean Lafitte didn't like to micro-manage. He was more of a walking boss. Moving--well, he stayed moving so no one could get a bead on him and possibly shoot him--from his ship to the mansion, from the mansion to the ship, keeping the men's spirits up and disciplining them when the need arose, which wasn't that often--he had a good crew as far as pirate crews went--but all that moving was wearisome nonetheless.

_Maybe it is all the pacing I do,_ he thought, still pacing.

Jean Lafitte's present situation no longer made him happy with his world. He wanted out of it, in the worse possible of ways.

But he believed one thing could change that for him. If he could go back and change that one thing, he would have a better life. A safer life. Pirates didn't live too long. And the vodoun priestess, Lexi Laveau, said she could help him with that but he doubted her commitment--there was something inhuman about the woman--mainly that weird green tint to her skin, which shivered his timbers.

He removed his rakish hat and wiped his brow in torment.

_Yes, something definitely wrong with her._ Firstly, she didn't use chickens. You had to use chickens, if you wanted to practice vodou. Didn't you? And she didn't do any vodou rituals that he had noticed. You had to do the rituals; it was a requirement of all religions. Wasn't it?

Jean wasn't too up to date on the practices of Lexi's religion, or any religion. As a pirate, he needed to be egalitarian about them. His men practiced many religions and sometimes made them up on the spot, depending on who might have captured them at the time. He'd seen worse religions. All he had gleaned from Lexi was that some Christian Saints were also used as vodou Loa. He believed that what she called those beings, unseen of course, that interfered into men's lives on behalf of Big Daddy--no, it wasn't Big Daddy but Bondye--the good God. It was all so confusing and only increased his anxiety because he really didn't want to get on the bad side of anybody's Gods.

Jean didn't know, he was just trying to change his life before someone else, the Spaniards, most likely, or heaven forbid, Andrew Jackson--or whoever, he had so many enemies--changed his life for him permanently, change it into death.

The life of a pirate was hard work and he was tired of it. You had lazy men you had to pressure into working for you. You had to keep robbing ships to stay in their good graces, and sometimes, Jean doubted his ability to keep everyone happy ... and still stay alive. No, better to get out now.

That desire drove him to pace faster, think deeper, and rue more.

And on top of all this, he now had a ward named Carson. Well, he was looking after the boy. Being responsible for the boy bothered Jean as well. He was unsure about child rearing practices: should he be hard--like his father was, or easy on the boy--like his mother had been? He would love to have a son like Carson Wildermuss. The boy stirred feelings in him and feelings for a pirate captain were also deadly, which strengthened even more his desire to quit pirating.

That one thing that kept bothering him ... now had become two. _I need to get a wife and settle down,_ he thought. Because Carson Wildermuss made him want to be a father now.

And now, his longing to go back to that point in time and change it, or not change it, really, but go back and be an upright man again became an intense desire. That good feeling that one time was what he now craved.

Lexi Laveau said she would make that possible with her vodou. Jean didn't see how, but hey, what could it hurt?

One thing he was sure of--him and boy were staying on the ship until he sorted things out. He didn't trust Lexi Laveau at all.

"Randolph!" he yelled. "Get me a skiff!"

# Chapter 10

A Song of Traveling

It was an old song that Salorna sang now. One of will, only used for special circumstances as told to her by her mother--as all inborn are told these tales, the great song handed down from father to son and mother to daughter so that their nature didn't muddle the history by the retelling. It was said that the inborn were brothers with the great singers--at one time, they traced their kinship back many cycles to the first, the one singer shared by all of her great and varied kind. The song she sang now was his song, an innate song of skill, a song of traveling.

The inborn knew all of the songs in their hearts and sang them proudly. Most were about hunting fish; some covered other, different themes. That was why she was not carefree today. _Today, I cross the lanes to find Gup,_ she thought. The smallest of the pod didn't know, didn't understand the danger of his actions. Disturbing the lanes caused great distress in the fabric of the drift. It created a terrible down pouring of the drift from the sky side with waves too high for Gup to withstand. They would crush him.

She found his thoughts, flowing like seaweed, floating with the ease at which Gup took the sky side world. She sang her song, an ancient song--that of her mother's, mother's mother's, mother, as she moved across the lanes, back to an earlier cycle. She flowed into the drift, a much different drift than the one she understood. A drift where she had to sort the mingling of the fabric, turn it to her purpose.

No longer did she smell the smell of fish and small edibles here. The vibrations of the world rendered unsound, song abandoned her. And the drift felt cold and unwelcoming.

Salorna pushed harder, singing the unsound drift aside, turning in the lanes, seeking, as if she hunted the tastiest fish, as if the Cod were on her tongue, delicious and sweet, searching for Gup.

Her following limb propelled her forwards back to Gup and soon, since he came ashore not far across the lanes, she found his song again, strong and clear--and Jamaican for some reason.

And now, she used her far sight, to watch the sky side for Gup to come to her. She could not sing to him as she did her other kin. There was danger here for her as well as him.

Gup was in danger and it came from the sky side, the unsound drift side, and--strange sensation--from across the far side of the lanes.

# Chapter 11

Forwards to My Present

Lyse watched as the pirate man, the one that had stolen Carson in the first place, rowed him and Carson out towards the ship.

"Darn it," she said. She ran back to tell Bell sitting on the backside of a dune.

"He's on his ship?"

"That's what I said," Lyse said.

"But what if he sails off? We'll never see Carson again!"

"That weel not be a problem for you," Lexi Laveau said as she walked up on the two girls. "Whair is the o-thair one?"

"Who? Carson?" Bell said. "And who are you?" The woman wore a flared black dress, simple shoes and her dark eyes considered the two girls with just a hint of distrust in them. Waiting on them, she flipped her dark hair off her shoulders as if it bothered her.

"I am the one that brought you 'ere. My name is Lexi Laveau. And I'm the one that weel get you out of 'ere if you listen to me."

Lyse got mad. She didn't care if the woman was taller and bigger, she was ready to throw down with her. "You stole my brother you crazy woman!"

Lexi Laveau stepped back from the girl, her hands up in surrender. "I 'ad no choice but to bring your bro-thair 'ere. O-thairwise, the Captain would 'ave keeled me."

That stopped Lyse's advance on the woman. "You better get him back, or--"

"Or what? You weel 'urt me? I am already in pain," Lexi said.

She waited for both girls to calm down, before she went on. "I 'ave a plan. It requires your machine. And I 'ave one request. You must take me 'ome, when you go."

Bell listened calmly, not as hotheaded as Lyse, who really wasn't hotheaded either. She was just upset over losing Carson again. "What do you propose? And it better not be anything illegal."

"First, I must tell you my story. For it is an unluck-ee one."

Ben ran up, he had a tricorn hat on his head. "Whew. Those pirates sure do have a good time. Guess what?" When no one replied, he went on. "I won the limbo contest!" He danced around, his hands thrown up in victory. "I didn't know I was that limber. I'm like a rubber band."

He looked around at the woman and the two girls, from one to the other. He squinted his eyes, trying to gauge exactly what he'd walked into. "What's going on here? And don't tell me it's none of my business either."

"Miss Laveau is gonna help us get Carson back," Bell explained.

"Alright, I'm ready."

With the situation normalized, Lexi Laveau got down to business. "As I see things, Jean Lafitte weel keep your leetle bru-thair on 'is ship until I give 'im what 'ee wants. And what does evairy pirate want? He wants gold, and lots of it. And until we give 'im what 'ee wants, 'ee weel keep your bru-thair whair 'ee can control 'im."

"Well, then," Ben said. "We'll just sneak out there tonight and steal him back. That's simple enough, right?" He looked around for support.

"And do you know whair 'ee weel keep Carson? His sheep is large."

"What?" Lyse said. She thought that maybe the pirate had a guard sheep, but that was just absurd.

"His sheep?"

Lyse shook her head.

"Sheep--'is boat?"

"Oh, okay," Lyse said, "We get the point. What's your plan?"

"I weel call Jean Lafitte back to the cabeen, and when 'ee enters, we weel jump 'im. We weel take Carson and then you weel take me 'ome in your time machine."

All the children reacted to this but Bell spoke first. "How did you know about our time machine?"

"Because, like you, I too am a time traveler. Only I come from the far future. And to get Carson you 'ave to take me 'ome first."

"Okay," Ben said. "And you can drop that phony accent. No one, and I mean no one, speaks that stupid in the future. I've seen all the movies, so I know."

Lexi shrugged, "Okay but you cannot let Jean Lafitte know about this. He thinks I'm a vodoun priestess and my accent helps him maintain that belief."

"And I still will only help you get Carson away from Jean, if you help me go forwards to my present."

"Fair enough," Bell said." Let's go see your cabeen--er--cabin."

# Chapter 12

Hot Monkey Cheese

Back at Lexi Laveau's cabin, Lyse kept putting her hand under her nose. It smelled horrible. And the creepy jars full of toads, bats and stuff didn't help the dismal atmosphere of the place. It could really use some tidying up. Maybe some curtains and air freshener?

Ben didn't seem to notice it, but Bell frowned at the smell a couple of times.

Lexi Laveau swept her hand towards the wooden table and chairs to their right. Still looking around the dark cabin, the children slumped down into the chairs.

Lexi walked to the back of the room, her dark dress swaying behind her, and came back with three tin cups of water in one hand and three wooden plates with stew meat on it in her other, like a waitress. She placed the food and drink before them.

"Is this cow?" Lyse said, she wasn't sure. She touched it with the knife Lexi had given her. It better be cow, cause the idea of the alternative, toads, bats and stuff horrified her. Oh, gag! What if the stuff in the jars were supplies? Lyse felt like she was gonna be sick.

"Oui-Yes. Slaughtered last week. It is all I have to eat. And you need to eat."

"Well, I'll pass," Lyse said. She didn't eat much anyways. Lyse stood up and walked over to the window of the cabin, hoping to get some fresh air. By the fire on the beach, stood a boy. _Hey,_ Lyse thought to herself. _A pirate boy!_

Bell looked at the meat and began eating.

"Bell!" Lyse protested when she glanced back and saw her.

Bell looked up with a piece of meat in her mouth. "What? I'm hungry."

Ben had already eaten his, and usually he was such a finicky eater. "Me too," he said. "Can I have some more?"

After the meal, Lexi sat down with them. She looked around at the kids and marveled that all of these extraordinary people were in her presence. She touched the plate in her pocket, remembering their histories. And she hated them all.

Lyse still stood at the window, getting air, but really checking out the boy, who'd finally noticed her.

He started walking in her direction.

"I am from the year 2290, nearly three hundred years in your future. I landed here three weeks ago but when I arrived, the pirates saw the gold trim on my machine and stripped it within an hour of my arrival. I thought they were about to kill me but I convinced them that I was a vodou priestess--and they are such superstitious beings. But it saved my life." The only thing Lexi kept from that encounter was the plate on her machine, her spare key. She'd carried it around like a talisman, although her people were not superstitious. It was a habit she had picked up from humankind.

"But I am more a researcher than an engineer. I do not know how to repair it."

"I merely came here to observe but I made a mistake in my calculations. The history is slightly wrong about this time." She shrugged, as if to say, "But what can I do?" The reason Lexi stopped in 1818 was to check on a clue, before she went on to 2015, because one theory of her people stated that they evolved later in that era. And the weapons she wanted were there also.

"As I have said, my machine was damaged upon my arrival, however it still worked. But only in a limited sense. It still allowed me to travel into any timeframe but only for five seconds--not enough time for me to remove the key and exit the craft before it whisks me back to this time, 1818."

"But knowing about you, Bell, I concocted this rescue plan. I _had_ to recruit Jean Lafitte to complete my plan, but when he realized what my machine could do, he took the key to my machine. To get your brother back, we might have to include Jean Lafitte--if you are opposed to dispatching him."

Lyse said from the window, "When you say, "dispatch," do you mean what I think you mean?"

"Yes. We must kill him." As much as Lexi hated that idea, she believed it had to be done.

"That's not what I meant at all," Lyse said, startled.

"Me too," Ben added.

Bell spoke up, "What's he asking of you?"

"I must take him to my future and help him load a chest full of gold bullion, then drop him in his past. Which is not asking much from me, and I can give this to him, since in my present we have machines that will replicate any metal in their database."

"Even gold?" Ben asked.

"Yes. Even gold."

"Hot monkey cheese!" he said. "With some gold, I could buy all the video games I want!"

"Hold on, Ben," Bell said. "There's a catch." She turned her glare on Lexi Laveau. "Ain't there?"

"Yes. Once he returns, the universe will normalize the time line."

Bell nodded knowingly. "Meaning it weel-- _will_ vanish like the pistol did."

"Oui--yes. It cannot exist out of the time line once it is closed."

"That's why we haven't disappeared yet. We are st-still connected to our future."

"Well, no, but you are correct."

Ben looked crestfallen. "Goodness, that would have bought a lot of fun for me."

"Sorry."

Ben shook it away. The strange green-tinted woman seemed sincere but he was getting an uneasy feeling about her. He just wasn't sure what that feeling was yet.

Bell found it unbelievable. "So that's it? We take you home, get the bullion and Jean Lafitte trades Carson for the chest full of gold. And he lets us go home?"

"Do you think he will let you go once he knows what you can do?" Lexi Laveau said.

All three children sadly shook their heads, "no."

"That is how I see it as well."

"Darn it! We're stuck here. Do they even have mirrors in this age?" Lyse said, angry and yet sad too. The boy waived to her just outside the window but didn't come any closer. He kept darting his eyes to the left, acting as if something prevented him from coming over.

Lyse blushed and tossed her hand at him.

Lexi Laveau smiled at the girl. She felt something for this one in particular and it was not because they shared a certain degree of vanity. No, it was something deeper, a fundamental kinship. As she explored her feelings, Lexi realized it was a feeling akin to being around her own kind. But she couldn't explain it. She looked from Lyse to Bell without effect, and then to Ben, the boy. With him, her feelings were the opposite of what she felt for Lyse and again, she could not explain it but it was there nonetheless. Strange, very strange.

The three kids looked around at each other, nodding and coming to an unspoken agreement.

"It is Carson," Ben said, frowning. And Lyse and Bell nodded to him.

# Chapter 13

The Danger and The Hope

Salorna sang a song of aid to the nearest dolphin in the area. Shortly, her call was answered by a sleek, long drink of water who sang his name as Slimsim.

Slimsim wasn't shy--Salorna understood that right away from his thoughts--he merely had a hard time getting other female dolphins to take him seriously. As Slimsim sang, "Just because I'm lighthearted that doesn't mean I'm not serious about it." Salorna also detected a desire for companionship in him.

He conveyed all of this to her in one simple song. Unlike the outborn, whose song traveled in circles, moving away from its topic and back again like hunting Orcas, dolphin song revealed all about the singer.

Salorna shivered at the thought of the Orcas. She had once seen their black and white bodies prey on one of her brothers, hunting him in their small, cruel pod until he no longer was able to flee. Listening carefully, since the thought of them disturbed her, Salorna sensed none nearby. And spouted into the air with relief.

When he swam up to her, Slimsim sang, "Hey there, pretty, pretty."

Salorna ignored him for a moment.

"You're not from around here are you?" he sang and in his song, she sensed that he thought he had another cold fish on the line.

"My name is Salorna," she replied. "I am on a mission of utmost importance. Do not distract me with your wiles. I have to return a gift."

For an inborn, returning a gift received the greatest respect. Dolphins did not like to be indebted to others, and indebtedness to an outborn felt worse, more compelling for Salorna. It had happened so few times in their history.

Before he answered, Slimsim thought, _I might have a shot with this beauty. If I don't let my sound melon overload my brain, that is._

Salorna would have grinned if not for the seriousness of her duty. She found his dialect stunted, as if he spent too many cycles with the outborn. That was a mistake that most inborn did not make. The outborn were unpredictable--some had traits they shared with Orcas.

With a quick flick of his following limb, Slimsim sidled up next to her and sounded a sweet song of Cod. "You know why the large songs sing so slowly?"

"No."

"You ever try getting sound through all that blubber."

Salorna sang back. "I have no desire for courtship at this time. There is grave danger for the world and we must stay focused or we will lose our way."

She now knew that Slimsim had spent most of his life in this area, what dolphins called a native and his accent, appropriate for the area, just happen to be what Gup called Texan. "Well, then, lead on pretty, pretty," he sang, and his song carried the pleasure he found in her.

She did not like that, and yet, she did. Such a strange feeling ... for one so new to her singular pod to affect her so oddly. He knew that; being so close to each other, her kind did not need to sing, their thoughts were open to each other at this distance.

Salorna swam away, keeping Gup within the range of her thoughts.

"Hey, I detect a distinct pattern in the world," Slimsim sang as he too now sensed the smallest of the pod.

"That is the danger and the hope. Please stay with me." With a quick flip of her following limb, Salorna swam in the direction of Gup.

"Hey did you notice those men--

"Men? What are men?" A word so foreign to her, she almost could not sing it.

"That is what the outborn call themselves. Men. Well, one pod of the men--the ones with tattoos and piercings--"

"Piercing? What are piercing?"

In frustration, Slimsim blew out a stream of water from his blowhole. "Do you know anything of men?"

"I have met three in my time, none were memorable. Not like Gup."

"Well, a piercing is where men make blowholes in their bodies for no reason. A tattoo is marking themselves like a squid touch on their skin."

"Why do they do such things?" A piercing _and_ a tattoo would bring pain, something no dolphin wanted.

"Did you hear me when I said for no reason? Well, this one pod of men is watching the other pod of the men--the ones that move across the drift in their boats--"

"Boats?" Another strange sounding.

Slimsim stopped singing to her. He grinned and moved right next to her, thinking, _don't be alarmed,_ although Salorna could not help but sense his thrill at being so close to her.

She sensed his pleasure and for the tiniest of moments, Salorna lost focus as he showed her the images that he knew so well and suddenly her knowledge of the world of men grew broader.

They were so much more than she had assumed.

"And you learned this from merely living in one cove?"

"Yes," Slimsim sang. "Pretty, pretty."

Though these thoughts intrigued her, and Salorna could not wait to learn more, she sang, "No. I have no time for such things."

"Well, the need obliges you, pretty, pretty, cause I sense trouble brewing."

# Chapter 14

A Copy of a Positive Is a Negative

"I believe I have a plan for you--but it will not involve me," Lexi Laveau said.

"We're listening," Bell said. She was beginning to dislike this woman. There was something shifty about her that Bell couldn't put her finger on.

"We take Jean Lafitte to the future with us and we leave him there. If that does not work, then you must try to escape from him when you return here." She looked around at the children, wondering if they would agree. Although the children had grown on her, especially the small boy, Carson, and Lyse, leaving them to their fate with Jean Lafitte would only mildly upset her. Besides, if what she understood of their history, there might be a better than even chance that they would get away from him. Besides, there would be nothing she could do; she would be locked in the future.

"I don't see any other way to do this," Lyse said. "Do you have anything there that might help us to fight him?"

"No. In my present, weapons are outlawed and very hard to acquire," Lexi Laveau lied. She did have weapons though; they just weren't for the children. With the weapons she had amassed back in this time frame, her rebel alliance would destroy the red insurrection for the last time. And she had no love for these humans anyways ... well, maybe a little.

"But we need to take my machine with us."

"How?" Bell asked.

"It is simple. I will tether my machine to yours. When you go into the future, you will bring me and my machine back with you. It is only a small machine, a one-person module." And inside her machine would be the weapons she had put in there and therefore, not subjected to the time normalization of their machine.

Ben spoke--he had long felt the green-tinted Lexi wasn't being forthright with them, and now he became the first voice of dissent. "Why--if it doesn't work?"

Lexi was ready for this question. She had thought out her plan carefully and had prepared a lie for her doubters. "Would you want to leave such a dangerous thing in the hands of a Pirate? In your machine, Jean Lafitte may not be able to steal what he wants but in mine he will as well as possibly kill anyone in any timeframe and alter the past or the future. No, we must take it with us."

This sounded plausible to Bell, but Ben had already put the little whispers in her head and now she noticed something that Lexi had said. A slip up perhaps?

"You said that he can't steal anything? Then you know that the gold he steals weel--er, will disappear when we get back here with him. I'm still not sure about all this time travel stuff, could you please explain it to me again."

"Aw, come on, Bell. Let's just get the heck out of here. I want to shampoo!" Lyse said.

Ben shushed his sister, who shushed him back, but it was enough to halt her protests.

Lexi sighed. She hadn't expected these children to be so--so untrusting. Oh well ...

"Very well," she said. "I will explain."

"Punching through the space-time frame takes you to a different time and therefore a different space--the space of the future or past. What you Bell invented was a facsimile version of this, a way to split the self and send a negative copy of it through time. Like an electron through a double-slit, the laws allow all possible Bells but only if you become all possible Bells. What you did was split into two possibilities--and send the negative energy signature through time before the wave function collapsed. You left behind your positive version in a stasis, frozen outside of the time line, for now. In the right context--the present--they recombine--but as soon as you split the negative copy, the universe began to right itself, balance the equation with a positive symmetry--a positive and negative version--and in the right time and space when those versions meet, they remerge with each other and balance things again, but if they don't, the copies draw energy from the surrounding space and that unbalances the entire universe. Your facsimile copy bypasses the spatial requirements by not being a part of present space then or now. But it is more dangerous for everyone in existence because of this balancing. Who knows what is happening right now back in your timeframe?"

"So why didn't Carson go into stasis when you pulled him back to 1818," Bell said. She believed she had her.

"Well, sometime between your time and mine, someone solved this problem."

"Really how?"

Lexi shook her head. "I can't tell you that, I don't know. Do you understand?"

"Nope," Lyse said.

"Nope," Ben said. "Except one thing. You mean we faxed ourselves?"

"Then you do understand. When you children traveled, you left a positive copy of yourselves back in your present, stuck in time."

"Nope. Not getting it again," Ben said.

With a frustrated sighed Lexi explained ... again. "Under Bell's method, if you send yourself back in time, you are sending a facsimile, a negative copy of yourself, since a copy of a positive is a negative. You the person stays right where you are, frozen in time, because you are out of the natural flow of time. Now if you annihilate the negative copy or it doesn't come back, then you just don't remember what happened for that time--you suffer from blocked out memories--memory and time loss. But if you encounter your negative copy in another space, or another time frame, say you faxed yourself to a time when you are still living--and you touched--well, then you might annihilate each other like virtual protons and antiprotons. You cancel each other out and you both violently implode and your copy stuck wherever it is in time will come out of stasis with no memory of it. But if you don't cancel or remerge the copies, so to speak, you stay stuck in time and that creates imbalances in the physical world."

"Wait," Lyse said. "Why hasn't Carson disappeared? Like the gun did?"

"I pre-normalized him before we left--my machine has a safety feature for that. He's physically here."

"So that means if we'd have stalled long enough then Jean would have disappeared too," Bell said

"Yes, since I didn't pre-normalize us the first time in case something happened."

"Then how did you bring an 1818 copy of the pirate back?" Bell asked. "When you returned. you pre-normalized him?"

"I wasn't a copy the second time. I was neutral. And I brought the positive copy of Jean Lafitte forward with me and he remerged then. I don't really know, I'm not a scientist."

"No annihilation?"

"No--I don't know the physics of it."

"Shouldn't there be two copies of you running around?" Ben asked.

"I don't know. I don't think so."

"So even if we take Carson back with us, we'll remain either negative and remerge or neutral copies and remerge, while Carson will just return home?"

"Yes, and you will know. He'll either implode or disappear after a time. But the time varies; it might take five minutes or five hours before that happens. The longest I have lasted before normalization is a week. It saved my life. But why? No one knows? Or knows why the time varies--at least, I haven't read of it."

"So I need a way to pre-normalize our ship," Bell said and thought about it, then said, shaking her head. "The only way to do that is to look at your ship."

"Okay."

"What about messing with history?"

"History says you found the algorithm for pre-normalizing immediately upon learning about the time stasis problem. I just told you about it, so maybe that was the reason? We can never know for sure and therefore, it doesn't matter."

"I wonder if you go as a fax, does the memory of an idea vanish when the time normalizes?"

No one could answer that.

"Wait a minute," Bell said, thinking furiously as her brain worked out the implications. "That's means, I can turn this into a way for space travel!" She jumped in the air. "I invented space travel too!"

Lyse whispered to Ben. "Now we'll never be able to tell her nothing. She thinks she's a genius."

Ben nodded. "Don't worry. She still can't drive a car."

"There is that," Lyse said conspiratorially.

"That you do too," Lexi said to Bell. She would enjoy being rid of this little know it all, although, she would feel "sad" for the eldest one, Lyse. Lexi felt something for the girl, a familiar feeling as if they were cells recently split off from each other.

"Salorna makes more sense than you do Miss Laveau," Carson said.

Everyone jumped and turned at the sound of Carson's voice, but the man holding the huge flintlock in his hand kept them from running to their brother.

"Quite the leetle 'omecoming we 'ave 'ere," Jean Lafitte said. "Too bad you weel not get to enjoy it." He fired the pistol at Lexi Laveau!

The ball only pierced the outer part of her right shoulder. Jean Lafitte said, "That leetle wound is for deceiving me. I weel do much worse next time."

Lexi tried to cover the wound with her hand but everyone could see that the blood she should be leaking out, _should not_ be green.

# Chapter 15

The Proof of Me

Everyone, including Jean Lafitte stared a Lexi's wound. "You vodoun priestess' don't bleed like a normal person, I see."

"Jean Lafitte," Lexi said, her accent had returned. Her pain-skewed face held something else, a lost look, one of remorse, it seemed. "I can explain."

Jean Lafitte gently pushed Carson into the room. "Don't. I 'eard enough of your blathair to know what you are planning. Good thing I 'ad Jack Demount keep an eye out for these kids. And you of course, witch."

Bell nervously glanced around at Lyse and Ben. The noise of the flintlock still rang in her ears, the stink of its power burned in her nose. They too were on edge; their eyes wide, they were panting from fright.

Lyse didn't like the look the man gave her. She felt like crying.

Ben was looking around for a way out but the pirate blocked the only exit he could see.

Jean Lafitte walked up to Bell. "You are the one she said holds the key?"

"What key?' Bell said, mildly alarmed, and thoroughly confused.

"The card," Lexi said.

"Oh!"

"Geev it to me now."

"And if I do, you'll kill us all."

"I weel keel you if you don't."

"Well, you got a point," Bell said. She started searching herself for the key. Finally, she dragged it out of her back pocket. "There you go, you black cur."

Jean Lafitte laughed and said, "Relax. I need you for our leetle trip tomorrow. Until then, you weel be kept in this cabeen under guard by my men. Adieu."

He pushed Carson into the room, gave him an encouraging nod and closed the door behind him as he left. Carson waived goodbye.

Everyone sat stock still for about five seconds and then everyone erupted into talk.

"What are you?" Bell said to Lexi Laveau--"Are we stuck here?" Ben said to anyone who would listen--"I can explain this," Lexi Laveau said to all of them--"I'm hungry," Carson said to Lyse, who shrugged and went for some of the meat in the fireplace at the back of the cabin.

When Lyse returned she yelled above the din. "Shut Up!"

The group turned to stare at her.

Then went back to asking questions no one was answering.

Lyse shrugged and yelled again, "Shut up! We'll get nowhere with y'all jabbering like a gaggle of turkeys! Now sit down, shut up and come up with something to get us out of this mess!"

She dropped the plate of stew meat in front of Carson, who took up a knife and dug in.

When Bell looked at her, Lyse gave her a withering glare. "Talk like normal people--although I know you're not normal Miss Laveau. And you really need to explain--" She waggled a finger at the green-seeping wound. "That!"

To Bell that seemed a perfect place to start. She turned to the woman. And when Lexi Laveau didn't say anything, her eyes downcast, Bell said, "Well?"

Lexi Laveau didn't know what to say--telling these children the truth would sound unbelievable. But what else could she do?

"Very well," she said. "I am not human."

"I'd say you're not even close to human," Ben said. He leaned forward and glared at her. "What are you from?"

Straightening up, sitting erect, Lexi Laveau said. "That doesn't mean I don't live in a human world. I do. I live in your world, and am a legal citizen of the United States of the World."

"What?" everyone said--except Carson who had a mouth full of stew meat.

"This is good," he said, chewing heartily.

"Yes. Your world is my world. Although the human word for "people" does not describe my species, humans considered us as people." _How do I tell them the truth and not screw up the future--my future, my life--completely, irrevocably?_ There was no way Lexi could tell them the truth and know that she hadn't altered something in the past enough to harm her future--unless she ceased to exist in the next few moments. _I tried, Mana, I tried,_ she thought.

"My real name is Mixel Platz. I am a Bacterian, a sentient earth bacterium, recognized by the world congress as a free member of that society. And I need you to help me stop a war. For if I don't return with a way to defend my people, the red algae will surely kill all of my kind."

Lyse, Bell and Ben's mouths fell open. They started to ask her questions but she held up her hand and stopped them. "Wait. Hear me out and then you may decide my fate. Harming my kind is not that hard. In fact, I may already be dying." She glanced down at the small, green puddle pooling beneath the wooden chair. The symbiosis had already begun to break down.

"We are a congress of parts, not unlike the human body, only ours are the same cells and we specialize by choice. We choose to look human because it is less offensive to humans. That is the only reason we look like you do--although we can't seem to remove the green tint from our skin. My "people" if you choose to call us that, evolved from green algae. We are in a protracted war with the red alga, also sentient beings, just like you. And three hundred years from now, we will live alongside of humans-- although some of us hate that--who accepted us along with our petition to the Earth Congress to be recognized as sentient beings, like you. My time has six recognized races in my world: The Green and Red Bacterians, Humans, the A.I.s, the Cetas, the Pongi, and the Grundy.

"The Grundy?'

"Oui. True aliens. There are only about 8000 Grundy on earth. The rest live on Pluto, which is not important. What is important is that one faction of red algae wants to eliminate my green kin, along with humans, and I am here to prevent that from happening. We believe this natural hatred springs from our mutual origins, which we, at first, believed started in this time frame--I was sent back to find their origin and maybe find a way to prevent it or understand why this natural hostility exists between my people and the red algae. But I am now certain that we evolved at a later date--though no one knows where we began--we trace our history to around the year 2045, where the first of my kind began remembering our past."

"Your future is my present. The same place only later. I live in a completely automated world; robots do every menial task for us and computers of advanced intelligence run the affairs of men--except for a few weeks off for Robot Christmas. And except for a few rebels--the red algae--we are a world at peace. And since I have not found their origin, I must take back weapons for my people to fight."

When Lexi finished, the kids looked almost apologetic, although they had grown up not apologizing to each other over their myriad offenses to one another.

"Why don't you just make them in your time?" Bell said.

"My world is automated. Citizens do not make things--robots do. And the robot laws will not let one being hurt another, not if they can prevent it. They are smart enough to prevent it, most times, but the red algae have poisoned six of my people's highest members in the last year. They plan to kill more. And as you can see, one simple gunshot wound almost destroys my kind."

"What do I have to lose now? You know everything about me. You have seen the proof of me."

"I don't know ..." Bell said in doubt.

"I think I know," Ben said. Until this time, Carson had sat quietly, listening to them talk, now Ben finally turned to his brother.

"Carson can you see her thoughts?"

Carson squinted his eyes at her. "She's a strange one but yeah, I can see them." He tilted his head and said, "I cain't wait to tell Walter about her."

"Me neither," Ben said. "But look at her thoughts and tell us if she's telling the truth."

Carson stopped squinting. "Oh, that's easy. She's telling you the truth."

Ben looked at his little brother and nodded. He said to Bell and Lyse," If It's good enough for Carson, it's good enough for me."

Still unconvinced, Bell said, "Okay, maybe."

Lyse added. "I for one am keeping an eye on you."

Lexi smiled, the little one had saved her, but that wasn't why she was smiling. This girl, Lyse, she reminded her of her sister cells, so feisty and quick to set things right.

"Then here is my new plan for this thing. I think Lyse should garner the trust of the boy she has been flirting with in the window, convince him to let us out of here." It was a lousy plan.

When she finished Lyse said, "Why do I have to convince him?"

"Cause he is a boy and you are a girl," Lexi said.

"Then how do I convince him?"

"Use your feminine wiles."

"I don't have any feminine wiles."

"Then smile and ask him questions. Men don't care as long as you pay attention to them," Lexi said.

"You should be writing this down," Ben said to Lyse.

Sensing a close to their problems, Bell said, "Well, then, come tonight, how about I drop you off at your house? That is if we can escape."

"It seems so simple now," Lexi Laveau said. "That I could just tell you and you would believe me."

Bell said, "Yep, just asking works best sometimes."

# Chapter 16

Goodbye 1818, Hello 2290

Lyse tried to get the pirate boy to help them but he refused. He didn't even speak English to begin with so that made things difficult. She didn't convince him to come see her in the morning either, wiles or no wiles.

As the night wore on, Lexi looked worse and worse each minute--what plan there was, in the end turned out to be no plan at all.

Early that next morning, Jean Lafitte arrived with two of his henchmen and roused the children awake. They were sleeping on mats Lexi had made from quilts and such.

Lyse woke, shrugging off sleep. "Lordy, I'm stiff," she said. The rest woke in similar fashion.

"Come, come. We must go." He tossed his head towards the two man and they went outside and came back carrying a large oak chest, riveted with steel plates around its edges.

"Now whair is this thing you 'ave?"

"It's over behind a dune about a mile from here," Bell said.

He pushed her forward with the flintlock. "Now, remember, if anyone gets crafty, the leetle witch weel die." He looked at the wilting Lexi Laveau. "'elp 'er" he said to another henchman.

The group marched over the hills, past a deep, red pool of water. At first, Bell thought it was blood but then she remembered the crimson beaker the pirate had been carrying in his pocket. Was this what they used it for? And for what reason? A little farther on and soon the group stood in front of the plastic bubble.

Jena Lafitte stared at it admiringly. "Thees weel make me a rich man. It looks like a machine."

"It is," Ben said. He didn't add you moron, but he wanted to.

"Then let's get aboard. And leetle witch, don't be cunning."

Bell looked at Lexi. "Mr. Lafitte, I have a request."

"No, no requests. Get into the machine."

"We can't. With your chest, there's no room for Lexi. We must put her in the other bubble. She's injured and ... leaking--she might screw up something and kill us. The Loa, you see, are very particular." As Lexi had explained earlier, she had to go back in her machine or she would be stuck here in time in theirs.

Lexi Laveau clutched the plate in her pocket, hoping, nervous that he would comply. The spare key would let her pre-normalize her ship.

From the look on the pirate man's face, he wasn't buying her bull, Bell believed.

Jean Lafitte looked at the injured woman, her weakened state and finally nodded. "Okay. Into the o-thair craft," he ordered Lexi Laveau.

"You need to bring it here," Bell said.

With a few words, Jean ordered the burly henchmen to retrieve Lexi's ship and drop it beside the other ship.

"We need to connect them," Bell said. Without waiting for his reply, she grabbed Lexi's arm and led her to her ship. While there she studied the algorithm for pre-normalization.

"Oh," she said. "I see where I went wrong now." She returned to her ship.

The group, sans the three burly men, for whom there was no room inside the bubble, climbed in and sat down in the chairs. Jean Lafitte sat closest to the door, his feet propped up on the chest with the flintlock placed across his lap.

"Let's go!" he said impatiently.

Bell started the machine and punched in the coordinates for Lexi's time. She looked around the space, at Lyse, Ben and Carson, and finally through the clear plastic at Lexi, all who appeared nervous as she. Bell put the card into the slot and punched the button.

The drum humming started up, increasing. The struts around the clear plastic turned a bright orange color, as if heating coils. The three men outside backed up, frightened. A few seconds later, the world winked out of existence.

# Chapter 17

The Solution is No Solution

Professor Pinkney diligently studied the print outs before him. Tired, he'd been here all day, doing calculations, trying to find a way to free the children from their present state. He now believed they were stuck outside the time line, moving so slowly as if at the speed of light, without moving at all.

But that still didn't explain things. Nothing did really, and it frustrated him. He knew what the girl, Bell, had done to his machine but he had no clue why she had done it or why it had done what it did.

And he needed to go home and change clothes; still in the same jacket and pants he'd worn yesterday, he probably stank by now. Of course, he wore the same clothes every day, just like Einstein. In his arrogance, Pinkney had thought himself as brilliant as that great man. Now he knew otherwise. Maybe that was why no one had noticed? Not his brilliance, his clothes.

The Wildermusses had looked like he did this morning. Still in the same green and blue T-shirts too, worried, looking like they hadn't slept all night when they'd came in today.

Everything he had tried-- of course, being nervous about irrevocably altering something, especially the children, had made him hesitated with each attempt--had failed. Every solution seemed to be no solution.

He told the Wildermusses that exact same thing earlier today. "My solution to Bell's solution was no solution."

"Well, then it's not a solution," her father had replied.

And he was right. This seemed an intractable problem, a problem so difficult it was beyond his ability to solve it ... and yet, a fifteen-year-old girl had done it!

It sure put a damper on his ego.

Pinkney very much wanted to solve this problem, if only for his own enlightenment.

A fifteen-year-old girl! What had she seen that he had not? He wanted to pull his hair out--what was left of it. His father had gone bald early too.

_Has my brain calcified?_ He thought. _Am I over the hill in physics? I really would like a cheese sandwich._

When the machine began flickering in and out of existence, Pinkney stood there stupefied as he watched. Unlike a light flickering, this resembled more a void in space opening up for a millisecond and then returning.

He watched it go on for about ten minutes, before it stopped and stabilized again.

He bit into his hand in fright--only vanity prevented him from pulling out what was left of his hair.

What had she done? If he ever got her back, he would ask her.

# Chapter 18

The Fairy Algaemother

Lexi could not believe how exceptional these human children were. They exemplified something greater than the sum of their human parts. That they would risk their lives for her touched her even more. Yes, she despised most humans but not out of any racial hatred. She despised humans for how some treated her kind. She had forgotten that there was another side to the human animal, and that side was noble and courageous.

The desire to return some small favor to the children compelled Lexi to begin to love them in the way her people loved. _I need to give them something,_ she thought. Some form of hope since she now believed they were all going die at the hands of Jean Lafitte.

As soon as they winked back into existence, Lexi used all of her strength to rush towards the bubble and block the door. Seeing her, Jean Lafitte leveled the flintlock on her.

"What do you want witch?" he snarled.

"I must tell the children something," she said, trying to bring sincerity to her heart. Her people didn't feel emotions as did humans and as such as they were, they consisted mostly of mild loyalty. And she felt it mildly intense right now.

"Get out of my way or I weel shoot you."

Dispensing with her ruse since Jean Lafitte cared for nothing now but his gold, Lexi said, "I am dying Jean Lafitte. If you shoot me, you will hasten that. If you want your gold, you will allow me this indulgence."

Frowning, he nodded his okay. He stepped outside, walked around to the near side of her craft and began kicking it as if testing the tires of a car.

But Lexi knew she was dying--not in the sense that humans died--but in a way that the congress of her cells were absolving themselves of the contract between them. Like a sinking ship, it was now every rat for itself. And she knew this.

"I must tell you something," she began again. "You four will save the world twice. Once--soon. And Carson under extreme hardship."

"What about me? Will I be famous?" Lyse asked.

"You will be famous--but not for what you think. And, you, Ben will be one of the most respected men in the world and Carson will be one of the most admired."

As she talked, Mixel Platz felt her body leavening itself from her most frustrating desires.

"And what of me?" Bell asked.

"You don't know? Bell you not only invented the time travel. You made the world we live in." Lexi had kept it like a talisman ever since the pirates had destroyed her ship. She kept it with her and she pulled it out now. She gave Bell the plate.

"This is a plate from my machine."

Bell stared down at the plate in disbelief--the label read: Google, a subsidiary of Bell Co.

# Chapter 19

Across the Lanes of Time

Her new companion annoyed Salorna as no dolphin had done before. When he sang, the structure of his songs was loose, his meaning vague at times, and he sang constantly.

He annoyed her, and right now as she swam across the lanes, Salorna needed to focus on Gup. She needed to keep him in her sights, to insure his safety. But for Slimsim, who heard Gup's thoughts as well, she would have tracked him easily.

To shut him up, she sang, "Your breath smells like fish." For it is with insults that dolphins forced their children to treat problems seriously.

Slimsim sang back to her, lashing his following limb against the drift and darting into the sky side. "That's because I am a great seeker of fish. Have you ever tried sushi? I know this perfect spot--"

"Please," she sang a begging song. "I need to concentrate on Gup. Something grave is happening, something important."

With her keen eyesight, Salorna watched the third largest of the pod run off. He disappeared across the solid. She ignored him; his closed thoughts offered her no clue to his intentions. "Hurry," she sang. "You swim like a turtle."

# Chapter 20

A Wink to the Future

A few minutes later, Jean Lafitte returned.

Outside of the bubble, the children's first look at the future didn't impress them--the beach, for one, looked deserted, though a lot cleaner.

Seeing the landscape lacking of people, or buildings, or roads, Ben said sadly, "Wow, the future ain't what it used to be." He believed he was quoting someone but didn't know who.

The first to get out, Ben walked to the far side of the bubble. He stood there studying the pirate, thinking ....

Jean Lafitte narrowed his cold, hazel eyes and looked around at the beach. It wasn't an evil look in itself, he just needed glasses. "Is this some kind of trick?" He raised the flintlock.

"No!" Lexi protested, which halted Jean Lafitte's hand.

"This is an uninhabited place in my world," Lexi quickly explained. She didn't want this crazy human killing anybody in her world. There had not been a human killing in more than a hundred years on any continent on the planet. This was a safe world, a non-violent world, and bringing Jean Lafitte into it felt like an affront to its existence. Only her kind had been murdered on this world and back in this frame of reference, the red algae crimes made her understand and feel the sadistic violence within their acts. It only renewed her vow to stop them.

"The future!" Ben said as the implications too fell upon him.

"Don't you go wrecking the future," Lyse warned him.

Ben looked back at Lyse and Bell and then with a grin, sprinted across the sand.

Before Jean Lafitte could take aim, Ben was over the backside of the dune. He had disappeared.

"You little rat!" Lyse yelled after him. Bell put her hand on her sister and shook her head "no."

"Well--he's abandoning us, " Lyse said and stomped away.

Jean Lafitte took the key card from Bell and prodded the group out into the open beach. He was not worried about the boy--what could he do?

"This is 'ow we are doing this. You--" he pointed at Lyse. "And you--" he pointed at Carson. "Are staying 'ere. I weel take the leetle witch with me. And Lexi weel escort us to 'er gold source. When I 'ave enough, I weel return, and we weel return. Any 'eroics and I shoot the girl. Are we in accordance?"

Everyone nodded.

His point taken, Jean Lafitte prodded Lexi forward and she stumbled across the sand, holding her leaking shoulder, getting weaker by the moment. As she walked, she left droplets of green sludge in her footprints.

With dread in their hearts, Lyse and Carson watched Lexi and Bell walk away. Carson waived goodbye to Bell.

# Chapter 21

Tears for a Robot

Ben, on the other hand, had a plan all his own. He ran as fast as he could until when he looked back, he saw no sign of the pirate or his siblings. He then turned from the beach and went in search of help.

It didn't take him long before he ran into what he was looking for--well, it found him.

"What can I do for you, young master?" the robot bicycle said to him as it stopped.

"You're a bicycle?" Ben asked.

"That I am. Do you want to ride me?"

"Do I have to peddle?"

"Not at all. I am fully automated bicycle, well charged, and in excellent service. Where would you like to go?"

"Take me to a police station?"

"I have no reference for such a place. What purpose does it serve?"

"You know," Ben said, rolling his hands, as if that would get his meaning across. "They wear blue uniforms, carry guns and can't outrun the camera man on "Cops."

"I'm sorry. Please rephrase the sentence."

"Huh?" Ben said. "Will you please restate your question?" He had no idea what this crazy bicycle robot was talking about.

"Very well. Are you in need of assistance?"

Now they were getting somewhere. "Yes. I need a police station."

I'm sorry. I have no reference for such a place. Can you describe it for me?"

Ben tossed up his hands in frustration. He tried one last time. "Is there any way you can get me to a person?"

"Of course, young master. May I have his or her name?"

"I don't know anyone here you stupid robot."

"There's no need to be rude. My logic dictates that I have either a destination or the name of a person before I can carry you to them. Does this not make sense?"

"Perfectly," Ben said. "Take me to the President of the World."

"I'm sorry, but I cannot comply with that request."

"Why in the world not?"

"Because such a person is kept under tight security in a vault deep underneath the mountains of Appalachia, a chain of mountains in the Eastern section of North America and to get access to it, I would have to be upgraded for security, legal acumen, and protocol. At the moment, I have none of these upgrades. Would you like to go somewhere else?"

Ben studied the bicycle robot, thinking hard, trying to figure out the crazy logic of this machine. His eyes lit up, and he said, "Take me to the nearest McDonalds."

"I'm sorry," the robot said. "But due to parental restrictions, you must be accompanied by an adult before I am allowed to place an underage being in jeopardy."

"Going to McDonald's puts me in jeopardy?"

"Not immediately, but the high caloric content of its edible foodstuffs will increase your obesity, increase your cholesterol levels, which will ultimately put you in jeopardy. And I cannot harm a human."

Ben stood there still arguing with the robot bicycle when another bicycle came rolling down the hard, glass road. He jumped on the bike. "Follow that bicycle!"

"I'm sorry. But due to the risk that you may intend harm to the participants of the other vehicle, I cannot comply with your request."

"What do you mean, the risk that I may harm them. You stupid bucket of bolts," Ben got off and kicked the robot in the tire.

"I'm sorry, but violence of any kind will not be tolerated. I demand an apology."

"A what?" Ben said. He never apologized; to apologize was to show weakness in his family. And he wasn't about to let some stupid robot tell him what to do.

"Noncompliance with my request will result in report of noncompliance with the noncompliance department of human affairs, located in Washington DC, area code--"

"Okay!" Ben yelled at the robot.

"I'm sorry. I don't think that tone of voice is appropriate in polite society. I must report your anger management issues with the anger management department, located in Washington, DC, area code ...."

One hour later, the robot had Ben on his knees saying sorry for everything he'd ever done in his life and some he had not. And it was sincere remorse too.

# Chapter 22

The Cheeky Oven

Lexi led the small group of travelers down the beach before she turned onto a glass-covered road. She flagged down an automated taxi and gave it her address, which was only about five kilometers from where they were now.

"Very well, mistress," the robot said and drove away.

The cab stopped at a tall building covered in green panels, not unlike those used for solar cells, which was what they were, only a hundred times more efficient than in use in the children's time.

They whooshed into a tube filled with air, Bell supposed, and within seconds, they stood outside her apartment.

When they opened the door, a robot greeted them.

"Good morning, Mistress Platz. I trust you had a relaxing vacation?" The robot was dressed in a neat, two-piece suit of gray wool, and his features were that of a human being's. It was almost uncanny how close the resemblance was---he could almost pass for a living, breathing person--except for his eyes. They were gray lights.

"Alright, Mis-stur," Jean Lafitte said. "Don't geev me any trouble or your mistress weel get it."

"Get what exactly, sir?"

"Uh--er." Jean Lafitte scratched his head with his flintlock. "I weel shoot her?" he said, with a smile. He had bad teeth.

"Shoot her? As in photographically--"

"Ailfred?" Lexi said and the robot turned to her. "Just go back to your power station and wait for any orders I may give."

"Very well, madam." The robot promptly turned and disappeared into the hallway of the apartment. A moment later, they heard a door close.

"Hey, whair is 'ee going?"

"Don't worry about him Jean Lafitte. He is harmless."

"So 'ee is not dangerous?"

"Not dangerous." As they stood there waiting, Lexi still dripped green fluid onto the tile floors. A small floating machine came out from beneath the cabinet and began mopping up the green fluid.

Scratching his head again with the flintlock, he said, "Yeah, well, 'ee better be. Show me to the gold source."

Lexi lead them to their left and they entered a normal-looking kitchen. It had a refrigerator, only you could see through it, and an oven, a microwave, and other appliances that would not be too out of place three hundred years earlier. The refrigerator said to Lexi as they entered. "Madam, I am sorry to inform you that your yeast infusion has gone past its sell by date. I would have ordered more but I had no information about your return."

The oven said, cheekily, "Welcome home, Madam. It's good to see you back. I was beginning to believe I would never get hot again."

"Silence," Lexi said, and the can opener and the dishwasher, who were about to get into a philosophical argument, shut up.

She sagged against the marble counter in the kitchen and looked at Jean. "Well, Jean, this is where it is."

Jean Lafitte looked around the room, not recognizing anything in it, and said, "And which one is this infernal device?" He pointed the flintlock at her.

Bell on the other hand felt weak. "Can these make me something to eat?" As soon as she said it, Bell was starving.

"Oui--I mean yes," Lexi said. "Microwave. Popcorn."

Bell said, "Well, yeah that might hit the spot, but--" The microwave dinging interrupted her.

Lexi reached into the microwave and pulled out a bag of popcorn. She handed it to Bell.

Surprised, Bell said, "Uh, thanks." And as soon as she smelled the popcorn, she said, "That is so cool!" But Bell shut up when Jean pointed the flintlock at her.

"Whair?" Jean said to Lexi.

Lexi turned to a small alcove in her kitchen. "Light," she said and the alcove lit up. "Automake, I would like 5000 kilograms of 99% pure gold, please."

"As you wish madam, but I must inform you that this device will only support the weight of less than half the order. I suggest you make this in three smaller orders."

"Very well," Lexi said.

"Your order is being processed."

The machine dinged and said, " Sixty credits have been deducted from your account for the use of the premolecules."

"That's it?" Bell asked. "Did it cost you much?" Bell shoved popcorn in her mouth.

Lexi glanced down at her wound and said, "All of me." She smiled wanly at the girl and it withered on her face.

Jean Lafitte laughed and pushed Lexi out of the way. He stood in front of the machine and watched as if by magic--and to him it was magic--the gold began to slowly appear inside the alcove, building from a thin layer, layer upon layer.

Lexi pulled Bell away from the pirate, crinkling her popcorn bag. "You're only chance is if your siblings save you. Once Jean has his gold, he will murder you without thought. I suggest you run now."

Bell looked from the pirate to woman--or whatever--who was giving up her life to save hers.

She shook her head. "Whatever it takes, I won't have your death on my hands. There must be a way to save you."

Again, that tired smile. "The only thing that can save me now is an infusion of my original cells and those are not here. He will shoot me after he gets his gold anyways."

Jean turned around, holding two bars of bullion. He laughed cruelly. "I can't shoot the leetle girl--she must get me 'ome. But you I weel surely shoot when you outlive your usefulness."

Bell stepped up. "If you shoot her, I won't help you get home."

"Then you weel die," the pirate said plainly. "The o-thair girl weel then surely 'elp me."

_Darn it,_ Bell thought. She could see no way out of this mess--not without one of her brother's or sister's help.

# Chapter 23

Tossing Cod

On the beach with Lyse, Carson sensed Salorna and another dolphin with her. Slimsim seemed entirely different from Salorna, who was serious and gentle. This other dolphin seemed almost exuberant in his contentedness.

Slimsim, sensing the tiny pod member, sent his greeting to him. "Hey, there podner." He had picked up way too much from the sky siders living in the area but since he was friendly with them, he couldn't help but learn their accent.

"I need your help. A bad man is coming here and he wants to hurt my family. I need you to do something."

"Anything," Salorna sent her thoughts, along with a short sounding to Gup. "But we are limited to what we have."

"Can you throw things at him?" Carson asked.

"Yes!" Slimsim interjected. "With my following limb, I can project fish high into the air. Would you like to see?"

"Not now! Fish breathe," Salorna said. "I owe Gup. We must help him."

"Oh, don't worry your pretty pretty snout over it little darling. I can throw those babies over the length of a humpback. And if a small Cod hits you, it will about knock you out of the water. So, don't worry."

"That's great!" Carson thought to them. "Now you must go back across the lanes." Carson wasn't sure what the dolphins meant by lanes but that is what Salorna called it and so was he.

"But we can't leave you," Salorna sent him. "You are --"and here she struggled for a meaning that both would understand. "You are drift to me. Necessary."

On the beach, Carson smiled. "I feel the same way but the bad man can't stay here. He has to go back with us."

"Very well," Salorna sounded and her thoughts rode along with it.

Slimsim said, "Don't worry little pod member. Slimsim won't let you down. I'm courting this one here and whatever she needs, I'm here to give it to her."

"This one is not courting me. He just tagged along when I asked for help."

"Oh, I'm courting her alright. She just hasn't realized it yet."

"You are not."

"Yes, I am."

"You are more bothersome than a tangle of seaweed!"

"That's because I'm easy going and going easy, dark eyes. Now where was that lane back to where we started ...?"

Their thoughts trailed off as they swam away.

As Lyse watched her brother, she noticed that he left the world around him. Trancelike at moments, when he ... did whatever he did. Lyse looked from Carson to the two dolphins out in the water, almost as if Carson was communicating with them. She almost believed it.

"Carson, we need to do something."

Carson smiled up at his sister and said, "Oh, I've got something that might help us, but we need to wait until we return to Pirateland."

"Pirateland?"

"Yes, Pirateland. The beach. All that's there are pirates and those Indians that are keeping an eye on them. And the Indians are maaad. Boy are they mad."

# Chapter 24

A.I.L.F.R.E.D.

Ben still hadn't convinced the robot to take him anywhere but finally in a bit of creative thinking, he said, "If I was injured, where would you take me?"

"To the medical center located just four kilometers from here. But you appear in excellent condition, no visible injuries are present."

"But I'm not the one injured." Ben said smugly. He recalled that the Bacterian had been shot and since he couldn't explain that to the robot, Ben decided to see if he could get medical attention for her and when Jean Lafitte, that dirty dog, started shooting at them, the police would come.

"My friend, Mixel Platz is injured."

"I have thirteen Mixel Platz, all Bacterians, in my database. Would you like Mixel Platz the actor, Mixel Platz, the biologist, Mixel Platz, the bum--?"

Mixel Platz, the female," Ben interrupted.

"Technically, Bacterians have no such distinctions; they just adopt gender for the sake of presentation. As I was saying, there's Mixel Platz the aviator, Mixel Platz, the historian, Mixel Platz ..."

Ben remembered something the woman had said--something about coming back to do research. "The historian!" he proclaimed.

"Very well, please give me your thumb for credit verification."

"I don't have any money!" Ben said.

"Then how did you expect to pay for your transportation?"

"This is an emergency robot. Didn't you say that you couldn't harm a human?"

"Yes, but I don't see how that relates to you being a dead beat?"

"By your inaction," and for a moment Ben affected the robots voice for some reason. "You are putting in danger the life of Mixel Platz, the historian."

"Oh, very well. I will contact her and see if she is all right. But I will not take you there until I am paid or evidence indicates that she is in trouble."

"Boy, you robots are tough."

"On the contrary--"

"Just do it!" Ben said. He hated wasting time and was always eager to get on with things simply because, well, he hated wasting time.

"Alright, I am contacting the proper authorities now."

"What's your name, robot," Ben said. He figured if the thing was so smart it could do two things at one time.

"A.I.L.F.R.E.D." it replied.

"Okay, so what--"

"Excuse me, I am not finished. It is an acronym for Artificial Intelligence, Legal, Fire Readiness, Education and Defense."

"Well, pleased to meet you Ailfred."

"Despite your rebelliousness, likewise I'm sure."

# Chapter 25

Medical Resistance

At Mixel Platz's apartment, the computer chimed and said, "You have an incoming emergency message."

Lexi looked confused and then at Jean Lafitte. "I have to take this. If I don't respond in person, they send emergency robots here."

Lafitte shrugged and waived the flintlock at her. "Don't get any ideas. I weel be watching you."

"Oui?" Lexi said, her voice now weak.

"Madam, I have a report that you are injured and in need of medical assistance."

"I'm fine," Lexi said, although it took all she had to stand upright.

"Very well. Should you need assistance, please ring, Medical assistance, area code--"

"I know it," Mixel said. "Thank you."

# Chapter 26

Legally Burning Rubber

The robot told Ben. "Please climb aboard. You may possess relevant information in the rescue of your friend."

"Is she alright!" Ben said and jumped into the seat.

"Apparently, she is injured and being held against her will."

"Really? How do you know that?"

"Monitoring of her homeostasis both physically and mentally indicates this."

"Well, then burn rubber, dude!" he yelled.

"I'm sorry, but the burning of rubber and any other pollutants is strictly forbidden. I will have to report you to the air pollution bureau in Washington DC, area code--"

"I know," Ben said. "It's just a way of saying hurry."

As they speed down the glass road, taking curves at speeds well beyond the bikes around them, the robot said, "Well, that's most colorful then."

# Chapter 27

Dumb A.I.

Bell whispered Lexi. "Why can't your robot protect us?"

"I think it's a code violation. To attack Jean is to harm him. I'm also not sure Ailfred realizes that the flintlock is a weapon. We have had no kind of weapons in over a hundred years or more, since we discontinued making them for obvious reasons. If Jean Laffite were to attack me, Ailfred would protect me, but Jean hasn't. His method of menace is too subtle for Ailfred's intelligence."

"But I thought they were AI's."

"They are but even computers can be tricked in some cases. They are a hundred times smarter than us but dumb when it comes to human emotions and motivations--come to think of it--Bacterians are too."

"Smarter or dumber?"

"Both," Lexi whispered back. "Don't worry. I think help is on the way."

Jean finished packing his bullion into the chest he'd brought. He realized then that it would be heavy and five kilometers was a long way to carry a chest full of gold. "I am going to need your 'elp, leetle witch," he said to Bell.

"I ain't helping you with nothing," she said with a sneer. A small piece of popcorn flew out of her mouth. She held the bag in a tight fist--it was still half-full.

Jean Lafitte rushed up to her, dropping the two bars in his hands. They left a chip in the tile floor. He grabbed her arm and snarled. "I don't mind getting rid of you after we return. You remember that leetle witch."

"Or I weel leave you 'ere, with this ... woman," he said this last as if in revulsion.

Ten minutes later, Jean and Bell grabbed the heavy chest full of gold and began lugging it towards the door.

Before they stepped outside, Jean turned on Mixel Platz. He pointed the flintlock at her. "This is whair we part witch." He aimed the flintlock.

By now, Mixel Platz didn't have the energy or the necessary cells to defend herself. She slumped down on the white chair in her living room and tossed her hand up. Her head drooped to her chest. "It doesn't matter," she said, her voice weak. She sat there awaiting her fate.

But something stayed Jean Lafitte's hand. He was this close to getting what he wanted. His dream now so close, Jean Lafitte believed that he could attain it and he had to start his reformation somewhere. Maybe not killing this woman was his way to redemption? But then, being a pirate through and through, he thought, _Non. She deceived me._

He raised the flintlock, and said, "Goodbye Lexi Laveau, vodou priestess."

# Chapter 28

Inhuman Awful

The sound of sirens appeared in the distance as Ben arrived at Mixel Platz's apartment. "Aren't you coming?" he said to the robot bicycle.

"I'm sorry--"

"Yeah, you really are sorry," Ben said and ran off. He stood in front of her building until he found Mixel's address, studied the tube for maybe five seconds and went to the appropriate spot.

Just as Jean Lafitte was about to pull the trigger, Ben stepped out into the hallway to Lexi's apartment.

Ben walked up and stood beside Bell. Still holding the popcorn bag, she had a horrified look on her face, enwrapped in the deadly drama unfolding before her. He tapped her on the shoulder and pointed at the bag. She offered it to him over her shoulder.

Jean Lafitte said, still holding the flintlock on Mixel Platz. "I 'ad 'ope to pop you like a puf-fer feesh, you green glob of inhuman offal."

"Did he say awful?" Ben whispered, still eating the popcorn. If he waited another five minutes, help would be here. That was his plan, anyways.

"No, like guts and stuff," Bell said. She started eating it too, but then handed him the bag. "I don't think I want anymore."

"Oh! You sure? We're just getting to the good part," Ben said. He had no sympathy for the woman, not really; however, he didn't want Jean Lafitte to kill her. He just needed a few more minutes.

At the sound of Ben's voice, Jean Lafitte turned the weapon on them. "No!" Ben screamed, seeing Bell standing there, horror stricken and Jean Lafitte with his weapon raised.

Holding up his hands, Ben said hastily. "Help will be here in minutes. Those sirens are for her--Mixel--the lady. You need to leave right now or they will capture you."

Deciding quickly--having experience with getting what he wanted and getting out fast--Jean Lafitte nodded. "Grab the o-thair side!" he ordered the boy.

Through the door, he said to Mixel Platz. "The boy saved your life witch."

The tube carried them down easily, even with the gold and they made the street side in moments.

A cab pulled up and Ben said, "Uh oh."

The robot got out and put the chest in the trunk of his car. "Where to, Sirs, Ma'am?"

"Take us to the beach!" Jean Lafitte ordered.

"I'm sorry, you must first enter your thumbprint into the device directly in front of you."

"I told you," Ben said, shaking his head in remorse. He didn't want to go through another hour of this argument.

Bell put her thumb to the reader.

"Ah, a celebrity! Where to Miss Wildermuss?"

"Take us back to our previous location on the beach."

"Very well, scanning previous trip. Ah, yes, very well," the cab said and took off.

Ben looked from the robot to Bell. "Hey! How did you?"

Bell shrugged. "Beats me?"

As they rode down the glass road, emergency robot vehicles arrived at Mixel Platz's apartment building and rushed inside.

_I hope she's all right,_ Bell thought, watching the robots out of the back window. But then a new fear appeared. They were now four kids against a grown pirate. There was not much they could do against this man and even less when he returned to his camp on the beach. Yet, she couldn't stay here. Back in 1818, they would be at his mercy and his mercy was nonexistent to say the worse--not to mention all of his henchmen.

Ben and Jean Lafitte struggled with the chest down the beach, clambering over dunes until finally they reached their destination.

"Bell! Ben!" Carson cried and ran up and hugged them.

Jean Lafitte smiled down at the boy as he pushed the chest full of gold into the bubble. He really liked this boy; he would be remorseful when he left. _When the little witch has taken me where I need to go,_ he thought, _I will keep this boy as my son--after I hide this treasure, of course._

Inside, he handed Bell the card and the group sat down. Bell pushed a button and they returned to 1818.

# Chapter 29

The Landing of the Fish

At the beach, Jean Lafitte reached a fateful decision. He did not need any of these children. He had watched the little witch and now knew how to put the numbers into her infernal machine.

Once he buried his treasure, he would put them in the hole with it, and keep Carson, the little boy, then return to that one moment.

He marched the children down the beach until he came to the Tortuga beds that every spring the turtles came back to. "Dig 'ere!" he commanded, steadily aiming the flintlock at them. He had another in his belt.

The kids dug a five-foot hole, sweating in the heat, and when they came out, covered in dirt and sand, he lined them in front of the hole they had dug.

That's when a piece of fish landed near him. He looked at it and then up into the sky. A bigger fish thudded nearby. The one that hit Jean Lafitte right in the neck caused him to stumble forward. The flintlock went off!

Outside the camp, Jean Lafitte's men came outside at the sound of the flintlock. Their weapons drawn, cutlasses glinted in the sunlight as they searched for the source of trouble.

"Thairg, they are!" a small pirate said and fired.

Waiting for this, the Karankawa attacked!

# Chapter 30

The Battle of the Lyses. Bells, Bens, and Carsons.

The Karankawa had been watching these men for some time from the surrounding dunes and upon seeing Soaring Hawk fall, the entire tribe gave a fierce war whoop, and like devils, in full force attacked the pirates. With shells adorning their brown bodies, tattoo covered and pierced by cane slivers sticking from their chests and noses, they made a frightful sight as they came pouring over the hills like invading army ants, carrying clubs and tomahawks in a larger number than the pirates had believed possible.

Seeing their chance, all of the kids rushed Jean Lafitte. He was reloading his flintlock when each child seized a limb--and still trying to reload it as more Indians came down from the dunes. Waving war clubs and shooting arrows at everyone, Bell noticed the fight was between them and their time machine. To get home they would have to wade through a war.

The children pushed Jean Lafitte down onto the hole they'd dug. His legs kicked up in the air. Just before he went into the hole, Ben reached inside his coat and came up grinning, waiving the white key and the spare flintlock in the air. "See him shoot somebody with this!" he said.

Bullets whizzed past their heads as they headed straight into the battle. Sand kicked up near their feet as they raced across the encampment towards the far dunes.

Salorna "eked" at them as they ran past her.

"Now, where were we pretty, pretty?" Slimsim said, sidling up next to her.

Carson waved and thought; we're going back across the lanes--which eased Salorna's worries. She had enough to worry about with the boy but Slimsim was starting wear her down. "Stay focused for a little while longer," she sounded affectionately to the dolphin.

His war club held high, a Karankawan rushed down the dun the children were going up. When he saw the children, he whooped and ran straight for them. Out of nowhere, a thirty-pound tuna knocked him out cold.

With the sounds of Indian cries and flintlocks going off behind them, the children made it to the bubble.

A shot rang out! Several inches from her, sand kicked up at Lyse's feet.

Angry, she snatched the pistol from Ben's hand. "I'll teach you to shoot at people!"

She aimed and fired. A hundred and fifty yards away, Jean Lafitte went to his knees.

"Way to go Annie Oakley," Ben said. Then, "Uh oh!" as Jean Lafitte got back on his feet.

"Get in, get in, get in," Bell said. She pushed everyone into the bubble.

Jean Lafitte walked slowly down the beach, limping and reloading his flintlock.

Bell set the coordinates. She powered up the machine.

Jean Lafitte extended his arm.

Not sure she had the algorithm right, Bell punched the button anyways.

Jean Lafitte fired!

The bullet whizzed through the open door and the bubble violently shuddered. Suddenly they were in the middle of the battle, moving through space and time, suddenly they were in the middle of the battle, moving through space and time, next to another bubble, suddenly they were in the middle of the battle, moving through space and time, next to two bubbles. The children watched as ten, and then fifty, and then a hundred, and then two hundred perfect replicas of themselves appeared within a football field-sized spot.

In the original bubble, Bell frantically tried to rewire the wires that the bullet had severed. She clumsily put wires together, getting shocked once.

When they stopped, Ben said, "Holy cow! Look!"

As the children got out of the bubble, so did two hundred other versions of Lyse, Bell, Ben and Carson.

Bell started counting.

"Don't," Lyse said. "There are a lot of them."

"Two hundred by my quick count," Bell said. She stared in wonder at all the versions of them, also getting out of their bubbles and looking around in wonder.

Seeing this strange phenomenon, all of the Karankawa stopped fighting. All the pirates stopped fighting. All the dolphins stopped flirting and all stared in wonder.

Jean Lafitte stood there in mid-reload, turned around to take in this sight. He looked confused, startled. _Vodou magic,_ he thought angrily. He tried to grab one of the Carson's but the boy dodged him and bumped into another Carson. With a loud "pop" both boys imploded; the implosion of space pulled Jean Lafitte off his feet and across the area of the implosion, as if a vacuum had sucked him towards it, which it did.

_A copy of a negative is a positive,_ Bell thought and knew instantly what was happening. "Get in the bubble, get in the bubble." She grabbed Ben just as he was about to dart away. "No, Ben! If you touch any of those other kids, you'll implode!"

"Oh, okay," he said and got into the bubble. All the other Bens failed to heed this and ran instead, which upon implosion, panicked all of the other Lyses, Bells and Carsons. Copies of the children ran amok in wild panic.

Bell slipped the key into the slot as outside, Indians went back to fighting Pirates and children went back to imploding. It was mayhem on an epic scale. As he tried to make his way to them, imploding children tossed Jean Lafitte off his feet several times. Two Lyses imploded next to a pirate just as he was firing his flintlock. The man looked like he was shooting a roman candle in reverse as he flew across the area of the implosion. Children were imploding everywhere; Pirates and Indians were flying in every direction, colliding as implosions drew bodies inwards towards each other. Many heads were knocked together.

Jean Lafitte, reluctant to be a pirate to begin with, gave up his profession right then and there. This vodou magic was too unnerving for him. He just couldn't take it anymore. He started running back towards the encampment, passing the fallen and injured, and once even jumping over another pirate. Scores of people lay about, injured, stunned or out cold. Pirates and Indians littered the beach like the morning after a Daytona Beach spring break party. No one was left standing or in existence.

Just as the last version of the children imploded, Bell cried. "Got it!" Bell punched the button.

As they were riding back through time, Bell asked, "What would you call two hundred identical siblings?

"Well, one hundred twins work for me," Ben replied.

Lyse sat there with a serious look on her face before she spoke. "Why didn't we become frozen in time? Like Lexi said we did?"

"Maybe the time was too short but I don't really know why. The bullet did something to the wiring. And the algorithm solved the facsimile problem," Bell said. "No, that's not right. We imploded so they must have been copies. You see, when we were traveling in that time loop, through the conservation of information and symmetry, our negatives made copies and a copy of a negative is a positive and vice versa and thus, when they touched each other, the children imploded. So that's not it." Bell shook her head. "I don't know?"

Before she could ponder it more, they arrived.

# Chapter 31

Applied Dynamics

The bubble didn't land right back in the Applied Dynamics lab, like Bell had hoped. They were maybe a hundred feet from the loading dock though. They didn't know it but when they returned, the bubble in the room 157 became insubstantial and merged with them at their location.

Above them as they got out of the bubble, the sky was a mass of dark, angry clouds. A storm was coming in off the ocean and it looked to be a nasty one.

The wind was blowing hard and Bell had to yell for her siblings to understand her.

"We need to get it into the building before this storm rolls it a hundred miles away!" she yelled at them. Luckily, the bubble was light or they might have had to leave it there.

Again Bell--well, she allowed Ben who wanted to set off the alarm this time--had to break a window to get inside the building. Inside, the building was empty of people. In every room they looked in, things had been stored away and covered, as in preparation for something--moving perhaps?

They grunted and pushed the ball into the loading dock and found only one problem when they reached room 157--the door was almost too small for them to push the bubble inside. Struggling and with a hard bump from Ben, they squeezed it through the double doors.

Once inside, sweating from the effort, sitting around resting, Ben said, "Why didn't we just jump it in here?"

Bell shrugged. "I'm not too sure how to drive this thing just yet."

They sat there as the wind outside picked up and the building shook from the force.

"What I wonder is how we weren't frozen when we looped back in time. I think maybe the signal pathway is what Mixel Platz--or whoever--solves in the future. That means ...." Bell let the thought trial off. Her eyes grew wide in fear. "Lord, I hope we didn't alter the present so much that Mom and Dad don't recognize us. Or worse, we may not even be their kids now!"

Carson looked worried for a second, and then said, "Nope. We'll always be their kids."

Before anyone else could speak, Lyse said, "Come on, ya'll. We need to get to the condo. Mom and Dad are gonna be either gone--since that thang outside looks like a hurricane--or they're waiting on us. And boy are they gonna be mad."

# Chapter 32

Who We Are?

The kids rushed into the condo and found their Mom and Dad sitting at the kitchen table, looking in terrible shape. Both of their parents were in bathrobes, not having bothered to get dressed. Chrissy's hair was a rat's nest, and she hadn't put on makeup. Kris looked like he hadn't shaved in two days. They were sitting at the table, bags under their eyes, circled by dark rings, eating dry from a box of Captain Crunch.

The two Wildermusses had been through three days of hell and worry. And Chrissy had about given up hope. "We don't even know ya'll anymore." She said tiredly and very disappointed as the children entered the room.

The smiles on the all their faces wilted. Bell looked alarmed.

"We've changed the future. Our parents aren't our parents anymore!" Bell cried.

Ben looked shocked and Lyse looked sleepy, but also shocked.

Her mother looked at Bell like she'd lost her mind. "What?"

"You really don't know who we are?" Lyse asked.

"What?" Kris said. He was running on two hours of sleep per night. He wanted to sleep worse than Lyse did.

"We've got to change it back," Carson said. "I can't get used to another Daddy."

"What? Wait a minute," Kris said. Chrissy just rubbed her eyes; tears were flowing down her cheeks, slow as if they too were tired.

"You're not our parents anymore?" Ben asked.

"No," Kris said. "We're still your parents. Where in the world did you get such a crazy notion?"

Everyone turned a hard stare on Bell, who shrugged and said, "Well, how was I supposed to know?"

Soon though, with everything straightened out, their parents, who hadn't packed anything, urged them to get some things--they were leaving now.

Starving, Ben headed straight for the refrigerator. He was eating from a bowl of something when Bell passed him.

"Man, this is so good. I've never had this before."

"What?" Bell said, a small suitcase in her hand. "Leftovers?" In a house full of kids, that was no joke.

In the background, the TV played through its top two stories of the day--the Hurricane about to hit Galveston and the missing boy in the sailboat.

"Hey, Lyse!" Ben said as he carried the bowl to the TV. "Isn't that your boyfriend?"

"You got a boyfriend?" her Mom said.

"Yeah, and he's missing," Ben said.

His Dad came down the stairs. He had a bag in his hand. "Get your stuff, Ben. Now!"

Upstairs, Carson stopped packing his bags, and kinda stared at the wall in deep thought. Salorna's thoughts passed through his head and he could see the boy.

Calmly, Carson walked down the stairs. He pushed open the back door and walked out. No one saw him as everyone was preoccupied with leaving.

Ben caught a glimpse of Carson black shorts as he turned right on the walkway, heading for the beach. The winds were up to forty miles an hour and Carson had to struggle to walk.

Ben walked outside, the wind blowing his brown hair around.

He ran after Carson.

# Chapter 33

The Symphony

Ben caught up with Carson and they fought their way down the pathway towards the beach.

"What's up?" Ben asked. He had seen that look on Carson's face before--this had something to do with Carson's friends, the dolphins.

"Salorna and Slimsim say that the boy is about two-somethings--out that way." Carson pointed towards the sea. "They said his sailboat is turned over and he's on top of it but very weak."

"So what can we do? It's not like we have a boat?"

Carson smiled sadly at his brother. "We have to help him."

"Why does he need our help? We're little boys."

"Lyse needs a boyfriend. We have another week down here."

"And what's this got to do with Lyse needing a boyfriend?

Carson shrugged. "She's sad for losing me again. This will cheer her up."

"Well that's good enough for me. But I sure do think we need more help."

"Salorna said she'd ask for help too."

Bent into the wind, both boys struggled to make their way to the beach.

When they tramped up to the beach, in front of them bobbing on the waves floated about fifty dolphins, porpoises, some small whales and one great blue whale, as if about the beach themselves but only waiting for their turn, awaiting Carson and Ben.

"No way!" Ben said. The sight before him mystified Ben, that his little brother could do this was a wonder to behold.

"Yes! Watch!" Carson said. He raised his arms and moved them to the left. Out in the sea, all fifty or so animals moved to the left. They began a chorus of "eehkings." Carson moved his arms to the right and the animals responded.

For a few moments, Ben saw an avalanche of rocks. He shook his head, clearing it. "You didn't have to show me a dolphin symphony, show-off," Ben said dryly.

"I want you to believe me."

But on further thought, Ben said, "You should take that to Sea World."

"That is a sea world," Carson said.

"How do you do that?"

"All you have to do is ask politely," Carson said. "And squint your eyes up real tight. That's so you can see their thoughts."

"I believe you, I do," Ben said. "Now what?"

"I don't know."

# Chapter 34

Finding Carson and Ben

Lyse's boyfriend was on the news again. The TV flashed a picture of him smiling, his blonde hair neatly combed and those dark, blue eyes of his twinkling. _Boy, that boy is cute,_ she thought. It looked like it came from a high school yearbook.

_He's so darn cute,_ Lyse thought, then frowned, saddened that he was lost at sea.

Bell walked up. She said, "Is that your last bag? Cause they're waiting in the car."

Lyse nodded, her eyes still on the lost boy. "I hope he's alright."

Bell could only shrug at her sister's pain.

"I'm sure he is, sis," she said softly. Bell had a boyfriend and he was safe back in Tennessee, but she understood.

"It said he went sailing right before this storm hit," Lyse said.

The newscaster on the TV said, "Missing for two days now, rescuers have given up searching for him as this freak hurricane has popped up out of nowhere."

The TV cut to the meteorologist, who was standing in a yellow rain coat and fighting the wind. He held onto a street sign that was jerking back and forth so much it made you dizzy. "That's right folks! We can only call this storm freakish. No one--and I mean no one--tracked this storm coming in from the Atlantic. Everyone can only say 'oops'. That's why we've named it hurricane Huh." He laughed at his error. "The national weather service says this fast-moving storm should hit Galveston bay in the next two to three hours with winds topping 110 miles an hour as it moves inland."

"Where's Carson?" Bell asked. Her parents had sent her in here to find him and Ben. They were waiting in the car.

Lyse shrugged. "Upstairs, I guess."

Bell turned around and called, "Carson! Ben! We need to leave right now! Mom says the shelter is a thirty-minute trip from here. So come on!"

Silence was all that replied.

Bell ran up the stairs and began searching the rooms. Carson and Ben were nowhere inside.

She ran to the top of the stairs. "Look out back and see if they're doing something stupid out there," she said to Lyse.

Lyse walked outside, fighting the wind that forced itself into the room, looked around, and just caught a glimpse of Carson and Ben's black and white shorts as they descend over the coastal road to the beach.

She ran back inside. "They've gone to the beach!"

"What?" Bell said and she rushed down the stairs.

As if it were unbelievable, Lyse said, "Yeah. I saw them heading towards the beach." She gasped. "We can't tell Mom and Dad, just yet. I just lost him two days ago. They'll freak! And Dad will have an aneurysm."

"Imagine if you don't find them and _you_ disappear," Bell said, but she couldn't get it through Lyse's thick skull. She looked around for her I-phone. She grabbed it when she found it.

"Why are you getting that?" Lyse asked her as Bell met her at the door.

"Cause I want Mama and 'em to know it wasn't our fault this time."

Both girls raced outside, their long hair flying like pony tails behind them in the strong wind. The storm clouds covered the sky, but rain was only falling in spattered drops. What raindrops there were stung their faces as they ran down the pathway.

They reached the beach; Bell filming it as they came down to the water's edge, both girls glancing left, right for the boys.

Finally, Lyse said," There!" She pointed.

Far out at sea, riding on what looked like a piece of fencing, Ben and Carson bobbed across the growing waves and ahead of them tethered to three yellow, nylon ropes raced a bunch of dolphins.

_They might be porpoises,_ Bell thought as she filmed this.

"Oh no!" Lyse cried. "I've now lost Carson and Ben both!"

# Chapter 35

A Dolphin Speedboat

The waves beat against the planking that Ben and Carson clung to and threatened to rip it to pieces. Lucky for them, the fence had blown down the beach, cart wheeling in front of them before they'd grabbed it and found a bedraggled tent someone had left behind to use for the ropes.

And lucky again for them, the dolphins--and here Ben took Carson's word for this--said that the boy was not far off the shoreline. They would be there in a matter of ten minutes, if this make-shift rigging they had wrapped around Salorna, Slimsim, and another of Carson's friends, named Copprado, held up to the beating the waves were giving it.

Ben held onto the points on the pickets of the fence, his eyes squinted as salty water splashed into his face.

_Why couldn't a boat come by?_ Ben thought dolefully. The saltwater was burning his nose.

For Ben, they were moving far too slow, but soon, though not soon enough, something appeared in the distance.

It grew through the squints in his eyes until a rainbow-colored cloth could be seen floating in the water. Then a few seconds later, Ben saw the brown bottom of the capsized boat beneath it.

They found the boy seconds later, clinging to the boat. He looked in terrible shape. His lips were cracked and his head bobbed groggily as if he barely had the strength to look up at them.

"Wha?" he said. His dark eyes looked around at all the animals surrounding him. The blue whale surfaced with a spout from its blowhole right beneath the boy's feet. He braced his foot against the whale and wobbled upright. Gaining strength from the sight, the boy stood there and marveled. The winds were now reaching forty-five miles an hour and increasing with each moment they wasted.

"Come on!" Ben yelled over the wind. "Get on!" The three dolphins towed Ben and Carson right alongside the overturned boat, and those behind guided it in closer as if they were tugboats positioning a docking ship.

The boy slipped once but stayed on his feet, as the wind took advantage of his weakened condition and nearly forced him into the water.

Ben and Carson put out their hands and lead the boy in blue swim trunks onto the fence.

"This ain't a boat," he said, mystified by all of it.

"Yeah, well you ain't a sailor either," Ben said. "Get on!"

He wanted to be out of this place, out of the water and some place where the wind didn't try to rip the breath out of your mouth.

The dolphins turned towards the beach.

The way back was more fun, with the waves and the dolphins pulling them, it was like riding in a speedboat, a dolphin speedboat.

# Chapter 36

Gurgle, Gurgle, Grugle

Lyse and Bell stood on the beach maybe thirty minutes when their parents finally came running down the dunes behind them. Bell filmed them as they came.

"Have all of my children gone crazy," Chrissy Wildermuss asked no one in particular, although she directed it towards the two girls standing on the beach. She glanced up at the dark sky.

"Carson and Ben are out there!" Lyse said.

Kris Wildermuss gave her a stern look. "What did you do this time?"

"It wasn't her fault," Bell interjected. "They just took off and we don't know why?"

All four of what was left of the Wildermuss clan stood on the beach, seven-foot waves now beginning to pound on it, and watched expectantly out towards the angry sea.

And they waited... their Mom fretting, worried; their Dad angry because worry made him mad, Lyse worried--about her brothers and that cute boy--and Bell worried and trying to figure a way to get out of this mess, cause it looked like the storm was gonna hit shore in just a little while.

Chrissy Wildermuss leaned into the strong wind, afraid she was gonna have to make a decision that would haunt the rest of her life. But then she rejected it; the storm would be easier on her than abandoning her two sons. She would not leave the beach without them.

The seconds ticked by and every one of them let the small voice of doubt creep into their hearts. What if they didn't come back?

"There!" Lyse said and her words were a relief to everyone. The Wildermusses stared far out at sea, searching for their two sons but could not see them

"I don't see them," Chrissy said.

The rain started, huge fat drops that stung when they hit. The loud plops of it left small craters in the sand.

Finally, as Lyse had said, the boys appeared--well, it looked like a flying board appeared on the horizon of the sea, but they were hanging onto it. The rain fell harder.

"There! See?" Lyse said.

The waves grew as the boys neared the beach and crashed down with a tremendous force on the board they were riding. A plank flew off and up into the air, carried by the strong wind, flipping like the wheel of a paddleboat.

Another plank flew up into the air.

Then another!

"It's falling apart!" Lyse declared. "They're not gonna make it!"

The Wildermusses stood frozen in fear, and their worst nightmare turned real as a wave hit the fence and sent pieces of it exploding into the air. The three boys disappeared under the waves.

Kris yelled, "No!" He raced down to the beach and dove into the water.

"Dad! No!" Lyse and Bell yelled.

Chrissy raced too, to the water's edge, searching desperately for her two sons. "Please don't let this beast take them," she prayed.

Kris appeared, fighting against the waves, but made no headway. The waves were beating on him with the force of a small car, a Smart car maybe, surely nothing bigger than a Mini Cooper. He struggled now, sucking in water. "I'll save gurgle, gurgle, grugle," he said as he too disappeared beneath the waves.

Chrissy, Lyse and Bell gasp as soon as they realized what they'd lost.

# Chapter 37

Beach Landing

Beneath the incessant force of the water, Carson called out. He didn't want to die and for once in the last few days, a sliver of doubt crept into his thoughts. _No_ , he thought more forcefully.

Seconds later, he felt something push up against his stomach and he was above the waves, sailing through the water. _Alright! I'm not gonna die!_ He thought.

Salorna sounded to him. "I would never let that happen to you, Gup."

"You call me Gup. But what does that mean."

"It means you are sweet-tasting."

"She said she loves me!" Carson yelled to Ben, happy despite the danger amassing around them.

Soon, Slimsim had Ben riding on his back and the boy they'd saved was riding Copprado. Slimsim sounded to Ben, although he didn't understand him, "That don't mean I love you. Okay?"

Though weak, even the boy smiled as they sailed through the water, towards the fast-approaching beach.

"Hey, Dad!" Carson said as Kris appeared in front of him, also on a dolphin.

"Carson! This is so cool!" Ben yelled as they flew towards the beach.

On the beach, the Wildermuss girls clapped and laughed as the boys sailed through the water. Bell filmed it all.

The dolphins quickly deposited the group on the beach and then turned and left just as quickly. Ben and his Dad dragged the boy, now weak upon to the beach.

"Look what we found," Ben said, one hand under the arm of the boy.

Lyse ran forward as they laid the exhausted blond-haired boy down on the sand.

She bent over him, "You're gonna be alright. I have to give you mouth to mouth," she yelled.

"I think he's gonna be alright," Kris said.

"I think she knows that," Chrissy said, smiling as Carson ran into her arms. "We need to get out of this storms way. Right now!"

Lyse gave the boy another breath of life. She was so happy. She was saving his life.

The boy pushed her away. "Hey, cutie," he said.

He held Lyse's hand as all around them waves pounded, the wind increased, the rain fell harder, and they didn't even notice it--until a flying plank almost took off his head.

"We need to get out of here now!" Lyse said.

"Just waiting on you," her mother replied, her look a little chastising towards her daughter.

"We'll never make it to the shelter," Bell said. The rain and the wind beat on them now as the storm took its first tentative stomp to landfall.

They were out of time and had nowhere to run.

# Chapter 38

Finding No Place Safe

Bell yelled. "I think I have an idea!"

"I hope it ain't like the last one," Ben yelled back.

Both of her parents looked at her; Chrissy had no plan, flustered from the trauma she'd endured the last few days and Kris wanted to make a run for the building up behind them. Needless to say, no one had a better idea, having never gone through a hurricane before.

"Bye Salorna. Get someplace safe. I'll see you around," Carson called to his friend.

"And podner, look me and Salorna up when you're back down this way," Slimsim sounded.

"Don't worry about me, Gup. Storms rarely affect us in the drift." With a powerful stroke of her following limb, she disappeared under the waves.

Her last thought came. "And I am not gonna be here, floating around with you all that time."

"Oh, yes you will, pretty, pretty."

As a last sensing, he felt Salorna think, "Well, you are a little funny."

As they hustled after Bell up the beach, Ben said to Carson. "You know we're probably gonna be grounded for this."

"That's okay. I like the ground," Carson said, holding onto to Lyse's hand.

Bell led them up the dunes to the Applied Dynamics building. The alarm was off; probably its battery had died.

She led them inside the building.

# Chapter 39

The Scene of the Crime

The wind coming through the open door of the building swept down the hallways of Applied Dynamics like a wind tunnel on steroids. The sound reminded Chrissy of a Didgeridoo.

Ben turned when a gust of wind slammed the door wide open; he had no inkling of Bell's plans but he didn't want the wind to blow the building down, so closing the doors seemed like a good idea.

He jogged back to the doors, fighting the wind and pushed them closed.

His hand slipped and the wind-driven door slammed into his face. He flew backwards and hit the floor, sliding across the rain-slick surface. Wobbling, Ben stood up, trying to recall what he was doing. Remembering, he struggled against the wind to the doors, pushed them closed and then using an electrical pipe pushed it through the two door handles. The door flopped a little but it would stay closed.

Not aware that he had a concussion; Ben stumbled down the hallway after his family.

His eyesight a little blurred, Ben turned down a hallway--one he thought led to the where Bell and 'em had went.

Lyse helped the boy, Jack she remembered, into the time lab. She was talking excitedly the whole time.

"You're gonna love this. Bell invented a time machine."

The boy knew he was in bad shape but this day just kept getting weirder and weirder. "Wha?" he said.

"She--" Lyse looked down the hallway and thought she saw Ben go straight towards the front of the building. "Dad, take Jack," she said.

She turned to go find Ben but then said, "Take _real_ good care of him." She gave her father an earnest look. He just grinned and pulled the boy in Bell's direction.

Lyse ran down the hallway in time to spy Ben take a left at the next hallway. Applied Dynamics wasn't large but large enough to turn you around if you weren't paying close attention.

She caught Ben stumbling now, as he entered a room with a sign over it that said "Genetics Lab."

Inside the room, Ben looked around for people. Still groggy, he stumbled forward and stopped about ten feet inside the door. Obviously, he was in the wrong room, but his mind wouldn't focus right now.

He moved over to a stainless-steel table and leaned against it, staring down at discs of red and green algae on the table. Separated by levels, the upper tier held red algae and the bottom tier held green. There were dates in front of the Petri dishes and a grow light above each tier.

His arm gave out and Ben reached out to steady himself. He grabbed the red algae dishes instead. The shelf collapsed and Petri dishes rained down on the table. Still too groggy to stand, Ben looked down and saw his hand bleeding.

Lyse walked into the room, aware now that something was wrong with Ben.

"Ben?" she said tentatively. She walked up to him. His eyes unfocused and he wobbled on his feet.

When she saw the blood, she rushed forward and grabbed him under his arms.

At that moment, Ben collapsed. Lyse tried to support him but she couldn't and as she reached up to find a handhold she raked down the green algae from the tier.

She and Ben collapsed to the floor as Lyse began yelling "Help! Help!"

In her failed attempt to help her brother, Lyse scrapped her forearm down the edge of the table; her blood ran down the slightly center-declined floor into the drain. She didn't notice it. She just kept yelling for help.

# Chapter 40

Anywhen

Someone, her Dad, finally heard Lyse's yells for help, when he came out to check on her in the hallway.

He raced down the hallway and finally found her and Ben still on the floor.

"He collapsed," Lyse explained meekly. Tears were in her eyes.

Her father grabbed Ben, lifted him up and ran back down the hallway, Lyse right on his heels.

He pushed through the double doors and laid Ben on the floor.

Bell looked up from her preparations at her brother.

Kris, now with Chrissy and Carson beside him, tapped Ben's face, trying to get him to wake up.

"He has a concussion," Chrissy said. "Just get him up and moving. We'll keep him moving after that."

Her mother turned back to Bell. "Whatever you're gonna do? Do it now!"

Bell nodded grimly, unsure if she could pull this off but she had to try.

Five minutes later, she told everyone. "Get into the bubble. I've got it set, rewired and we need to leave now."

"Where are we going," her mother asked.

Bell laughed. "Just wait. You won't believe me if I tell you."

"Yes, I will young lady. I stood in here for days, watching you three sit in that--that machine like in some kind of Star Trek force field or something. So I can take what you're about to do. So tell me!" Chrissy was a little scared but if her kids survive it, so could she.

"We're gonna go forward in time a few days after the storm! Now, everyone, get into the time machine!" A phrase Bell thought she would never utter in her life.

"Time machine," Jack squeaked, like a mouse, only meeker.

Ben stood up, shaking his head as if it would straighten out the tilting. "The door hit me" he explained, "When I tried to close it."

His father helped him into the machine.

"Cool. We're going on another trip," But there was no enthusiasm in Ben's voice.

"Yeah," Lyse said. She had her arm through Jack's. "You're not afraid are you, Jack?"

"No!" he squeaked again, like a mouse, only meeker.

Then Lyse realized ... she grabbed Bell's arm. "Wait a minute. We can't do this! We'll still be right here when that storm hits!"

"No we won't. I think I fixed it when I rewired it after the bullet. Otherwise, we couldn't bring Carson back with us," Bell said.

"You better had," Lyse warned. "If you kill us and I lose another boyfriend, I'll kill _you_!"

Bell grinned, "You know that makes no sense."

"It does to me."

"Where again did you say we're going?" Chrissy asked her daughter. She still didn't trust the machine. Seeing them frozen in time was an unnerving sight, spooky almost, like the Twilight Zone, come to think of it.

"Anywhen we want," Bell said and punched the button.

When they arrived that next day, Jack didn't scream long.

# Chapter 41

The Crimson Tide Pool of Death

To Bell, the tide pool looked crimson alright. She wasn't a chemist and therefore wasn't sure what it held. It might be red algae; it might be something else. That something else is what Bell was counting on. If what she suspected was right, her family just might get that Christmas miracle after all.

"We're here for Jean Lafitte's treasure, ain't we?" Ben said. Bell had asked them all to come with her on this, their last day in Texas; she had a surprise for them.

Right before they left for down here, Mama had sat them down and explained why they had to leave Tennessee. It was a terrible day for them. They had all thought they were on vacation but in reality, Kris was down here looking for a job. Since he'd lost his last one when the company he worked for moved back to Germany.

Bell said, "Jean Lafitte never buried this treasure. He thought he buried the treasure but sometimes treasure disappears. I know, because I went by the Tortuga beds yesterday. I remembered the spot. Jean Lafitte's treasure isn't there."

"Then why are we out here?" Ben said, annoyed they weren't gonna find any treasure.

"I'm getting to that. Besides, the gold would have disappeared once the time line normalized."

"That's why Carson, with all the stuff he did on this beach--only earlier--didn't affect anything. The universe righted itself," Lyse said.

"No, it just wasn't its time," Bell said. She paused for dramatic effect, but also she considered Carson's idea of Christmas. It would be all wrong.

"But Jean Lafitte did leave something buried--on this beach. It just wasn't noticeable. And since everyone thought it was deadly, they left it alone." She looked down at the red algae in the tide pool.

_Lord, I hope I'm right about this,_ she thought. "But there's only one way we can know for sure, someone needs to get in that water. I don't think I have the nerve."

"That's cause he poured the treasure instead of burying it," Carson said.

Amazed at her brother, Bell said, "That's right, Carson. He poured the treasure. And it wouldn't disappear because the bacteria were physically here in the normal time line. That's what I think anyways."

"Get on with it Bell," Lyse said. She too was getting impatient with all the talking.

"I am, I am. I just want ya'll to understand."

"Now, after a two hundred years of working in this one deep tide pool, the microbes or whatever have been making gold and depositing it in the bottom of this hole in the bedrock. Each year, year after year, making it and depositing it in the bottom, covering it in gold flakes."

"The problem is ... I don't know for sure if this is what I say it is. It might be red algae, like red tide. This stuff may be toxic. And to find out, one of us has to go down into the well and see. It shouldn't take long but you will be submerged in it."

"And what are the dangers?" Ben asked, his arms crossed. He was nobody's fool, or so he seemed to think.

"Well, eye and nose irritation, sore throat, coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Not really bad--unless you're allergic to it. Then it will be worse."

"And how do we know if we're allergic to it?" Carson said, his arms were crossed too.

"Enough," Lyse said. "I'll jump down there and see."

"Really?" Bell said. She hadn't expected Lyse to volunteer. She expected Carson. With Lyse, she might think it would blemish her skin or something.

"I'll just hold my breath. That should solve the problem."

Bell nodded soberly. "Okay, but you tell Mama I warned you."

"If I'm alive to tell on you," Lyse said and gave her a fake smile.

After three deep breathes, Lyse held her nose and jumped into the well.

The kids waited, worried a little. Ten seconds went by and still no Lyse.

Bell fidgeted and stared over into it but the color prohibited her from seeing more than an inch down.

Twenty seconds went by.

"She's been down long enough to check," Ben said, worried a bit too.

After thirty seconds, Bell began removing her long sleeved shirt. The wind off the water was breezy and chilled her. That was the main reason she didn't want to get into the water.

Just before Bell dove in, Lyse surfaced with something all in her hair when she came back up.

Bell put it down to her roiling the sediment. Lyse climbed out of the water, pulling her hair from her eyes and rubbing the water from her face.

"Lyse, you're glowing," Ben said.

"Why thank you, Ben. I think it's all that sunshine."

"No, I mean it, you're glowing."

Thinking the worse, a worried look fell upon Lyse's face. She started jumping around, shaking her arms. "Get it off. Get it off of me!"

"Hold still!" Bell ordered her. She scraped off some the particles from Lyse's back into her hand.

"Oh, my goodness!" Bell said.

"What is it?" Lyse felt like crying.

"It's--it's gold!"

Then Lyse opened her hand. It was full of golden sand.

# Chapter 42

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

Back in Tennessee, Lyse walked into the principal's office and saw Bell sitting there. "What are you in here for?"

"For lying on my essay."

"You too? Was it 'How I Spent My Christmas Vacation?'"

"Yeah," she said glumly. Bell was never sent to the principal's office. "But I told the truth." She looked at her sister conspiratorially. "Did you?"

"Of course!"

"Even the part about kissing the boy?" Bell asked.

"But I had to save his life!" Lyse said, grinning.

"Yeah," Bell said. "You were giving him mouth to tongue resuscitation."

"I'm not saying it didn't slip in there once ... or twice." She grinned and then frowned right after that. "You know, Mrs. Jones didn't even believe the miracle part," Lyse said.

"Well, it is kind of farfetched."

# #####

Writing these books has been a great joy for me. I hope you, dear reader, received as much pleasure out of reading them as I did writing them. I plan many more of these books, and have already written six of them to date. Finding the time to publish them is the only drawback I have found, but with your encouragement and a little free time I will continue to delight you with the children's stories. I promise you, I have some good ones coming up.

If you did like this book, please leave me a review with your retailer. I would love to hear your comments.

Thanks!

Papa

Other titles by Papa:

The Looming Giants

Monsters of the Mind

