Cloud Riders (31 page)

"Welcome to my world,” an unfamiliar male voice said. “Link Traver greeting you, boy speck. You aren't welcome here."

"Then why did you welcome me?” Paul shot back, looking around for him. “Show yourself."

"Mate, wait!” Will flew beside him. “I've been like waiting for you, don't you know. Where you been? This flying stuff is fun, kind of isn't it. Bet I've been here waiting for you for days. And then you came past me flying in on a wing coming out of a big old cup sort of, which is now small all sudden like. You see that thing spinning ahead?"

"Will, how'd you get here so fast?"

"Blanch threw me up here don't you know. How about this flying, mate? You any idea how we do it without Blanch or anything to ride on, I'm wondering? I just jumped and off I went."

Reshape the cup glided closer to Paul, staying out of the reach of Will. “Drink me."

Far ahead, the disk surface tilted toward them. Her planets, moons, asteroids and meteorites competed for space on her spinning flat surface, moving in circles; only her suns remained stationary.

"You ignore my welcome and orders to leave?” said the haughty and distinctly male voice.

"Drink me,” the cup insisted. “Now, please.” Reshape sounded urgent.

"Better do like he says, don't you know.” Will backed from the cup. “Unless you think it's poison like."

"Who does that other voice belong to?” Paul asked the cup.

"It belongs to me,” the voice said in an unpleasant tone. “You're quite dumb, aren't you? I already told you. I'm Link Traver."

"Drink me!” Reshape the cup implored.

"I am not your friend,” the voice warned.

"At least you're honest,” Paul said.

Harry Winsome's voice made a brief appearance in his memory. ‘
Better one honest foe than fifty dishonest friends.'

Reshape said, “All will become clear in a moment. Drink me."

The cup lifted to Paul's lips and emitted the fragrant odor of a strawberry milkshake, Paul's favorite treat. The smell intoxicated him as the cup lip inclined against Paul's mouth. A quick tip shot its liquid into Paul, the cup dissolving into fluid to follow its milkshake-fragranced beverage into Paul's stomach.

Everything there is, all that existed, all that didn't exist, became understandable. Mysteries and the unknown became information to play with, to form, to invent and see and hear. Every laugh, cry, future, and past, present, dimension and dimensionless became whole. Every danger and every love blended into one grand ballroom dance of experience. Every sound of music ever heard and yet to be heard, every singer and orchestra played within Paul's head. Birds swam and fish flew, flowers sprouted and weeds became things of beauty. Existence itself winked and blinked, became stable only to once again flicker. Irony and coincidence teamed up with coward-chasing braveness, helped by the helpless. Butterflies turned into dragons and liquids became solid waves in the sky.

Paul felt the boredom of total understanding and saw the need for diversions. He understood having to play with hazard and safety, joy and fury. Laughter filled his being and he opened his mouth to allow a little to siphon off. The joy spilled out, and it took on the hilarity of everything, the funniness of doom and gloom existing alongside beauty and splendor.

"Mate! Are you like still Paul, sort of?"

"You dare laugh at my welcome?” the perturbed wormhole said.

The wizard liquid inside him allowed Paul to think from the perspective of the wormhole. Paul became Link Traver and sensed the game Link played with the solar system called Vile Extinction. He could see himself, nothing but a small irritating pinpoint hovering inside his angry worm self. Paul's size, smaller than a grain of sand in the giantess of space and time. A second later he became Paul Winsome again. “Boy! Are you one big dark hole or what?"

"Takes one to know one,” Link said.

"So, Link. How do you move the solar system Vile Extinction? Or does she move herself?” He paused. “You suckered her in, right? I know she spins herself, but is coming at our Earth solar system her move or yours? It's creating a danger you might not be aware of.” Paul shook with the fright of someone about to die, while the Reshape part of him felt cool and intellectually in charge of the situation.

"No idea what you are talking about, boy speck."

"You can't be that stupid!” Paul flared.

"Mate, my head might be full of fug, but should you talk to it like that, sort of?"

"Once a worm always a worm,” Paul sort of explained.

"Yeah, I suppose,” Will said. “But we're inside him, don't you know."

"So what now, Reshape?” Paul asked his swallowed plan master.

You die now!
Vile Extinction's exceedingly nasty voice assailed Paul's head, trying to twist his stomach into knots. He waited for Kid Badd's attack, his lesson on ducking firmly in mind.

Link Traver barked, “Shut up, Vile!"

No attack from Kid Badd came, nor any Vile Extinction response.

"Must you go on and on?” the wormhole said to Vile, obviously irritated. His attention returned to Paul. “Who is that black boy speck who does so much talking? You think I didn't notice him talking and talking, like Vile does sometimes?"

"Who do you think you are?” Vile Extinction said from her spinning disk self, aggravated and brimming with readiness for a fight. “I am a solar system, and you? You're a hole!"

"That's too bad, Vile! I may be a hole to you, but I'm a lot more to me. Think back to your beginnings. Who tried to resist coming into me? Who tried to fight me and demand I loan you part of my third dimension? Who allowed you in and moved you along toward the Earth solar system, where you could fulfill your desire for a third dimension? Who told you that you needed a third dimension? Oh, I allowed your Kid Badd boy to pass through me to the Earth solar system and allowed him to become three dimensional.

"Who has forgotten this service I perform for you? Who is such an ingrate she spins through me without memory of me, the only one who can guide you to this growth you desire? You call me a hole. I'm much more than a hole! I am your salvation! I alone! You dare talk to
me
that way? I who helped you every step of the way?” Link Traver shouted until Paul's ears rang.

Will stuck a finger into each ear. “Yeah."

"You say you did all this? I have no memory of it. You flatter yourself, Hole,” Vile Extinction said in insulted spinning disk anger. “Look at me. I'm almost there! I'm almost through to this Earth solar system of yours. My son tells me about shadows and how it is not so easy to exist there. Soon I'll see shadows for myself and become fully grown. But you allowed in this boy speck, Paul Winsome, who the whisperings tell me can banish me from my dimension cure. You allowed him in, not I! You!"

"It was I who gave you passage.” Link argued. “You tried to resist. Are you not glad I sucked you in? Can you not see the illogic of your female thought pattern?"

Paul still had his fingers in his ears, but the voices came through easily. “Reshape, am I supposed to interrupt this?"

Reshape's voice became Maken Fairchild's and came through with clarity and strength even through the argument noise. “Vile Extinction and Link Traver have a history of disagreement. To understand this history is your next step."

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The all-knowing wizard juice inside Paul immersed him deep into a dreamlike cognition. Maken Fairchild's voice bore into Paul's mind like a lighthouse beacon during a dark night storm.

"See it there. A dwarf universe. It is known as the Shadow Gobbler Universe, so named because of its total lack of shadows."

"How can that be?” Paul's inner voice asked. “A universe with no shadows?"

Maken didn't answer as Paul searched for a shadow, although he figured a whole universe might take some time to explore, even the dwarf one now projected inside his head. So many solar systems, so little time. But in less than a blink of altered time he saw the whole universe in a single glance. Astonished over his new all-seeing ability and perplexed he couldn't find even a hint of a shadow, left him awestruck.

"Your experience has been within your Milky Way Universe,” Maken counseled. “You are now within the Shadow Gobbler Universe.” Maken paused long enough for the thought to penetrate. “I direct your attention to that rotating flat disk, the one with the two blazing suns staring at you."

"Where is our universe?” Paul asked. “You know, are we really inside the Gobbler Universe, or seeing it from the Earth's solar system?"

"Shadow Gobbler Universe, Paul. However, that was a very astute question."

Paul waited for his answer, but knew he would probably have to wade through some wizard play before his curiosity would be addressed. The game subtleties became apparent—as if he sat in the bleachers watching himself on the playing field, both spectator and player. “Okay. Shadow Gobbler Universe."

"You are within my memory, uncountable light years away from your super-sized Milky Way Universe, where you and I take shadows for granted. Shadow Gobbler Universe takes her lack of shadows as a given. In other words, normal."

"Dad said normal comes from the perspective of the viewer. Is that what you're saying here?"

"If they knew about shadows, Shadow Gobbler's solar systems would believe it is their birthright to be shadow-less, just as our Milky Way Universe's solar systems consider it normal to have shadows. As you watch, I promise you will learn why this solar system, Vile Extinction, wants to kill you."

The words hit Paul like a hammer trying to pound his brain out of his skull. Kill him? The concept had bounced across his mind leaving little nightmare-tracks since his first encounter with Vile Extinction's acid words. He attempted to keep his horror from coloring his voice. “Sir, do I have to watch this?"

"You do if you want to save Earth solar system. You are here to witness the beginnings of the threat which could be the doom of Earth's solar system. Only you can save yourself and all the others."

"What about you?"

"Oh, I can move on and find another solar system to survive in,” Maken said in an almost too-bored voice. “Home is where a wizard hangs his or her thoughts."

"You got to be kidding."

"Note, Vile Extinction cannot sleep, one of the great disadvantages of being a solar system. We are in the past, long-long ago, in another age. Her interior always swirls and turns around her stationary suns without the luxury of rest. Sadly, she finds herself separated from her neighbor solar systems, backed into a distant corner of Shadow Gobbler Universe. She has isolated herself because of a birth defect."

Paul studied the Vile Extinction solar system. Vile's suns blazed in duel dazzling energy eruptions, spectacular cosmic jewels upon which all else inside her body depended. These gems smiled upon her celestial bodies, giving them precious light, warmth, all with no shadows. Moons revolved around her planets. Paul thought they played a game of follow-the-leader and catch-me-if-you-can.

Then he heard the closest solar system whisper to her. “You're not like us, honey. Surely you realize... a certain lack of depth?"

"So I lack depth. So what?” Vile sneered.

"You're flat. All the rest of us are round. Haven't you noticed?"

"Of course I've noticed! Don't you think I can hear you solar systems gossiping? Well! I only wanted to be your friend. You can kiss that goodbye.” Vile snorted and dipped her edge toward her neighbor.

"You can disappear all you want, honey. I know you're there,” Vile's neighbor complained. “I can still hear you spinning, dear. Being flat doesn't hide your noise."

"You only want to taunt me. You think I'm stupid as well as flat. Well, I don't need you. Don't need anybody. Someday I'll become well-rounded and then you'll see. I'll be bigger than you. I'll dominate. So, go talk to your friends. See if I care."

"Of course,” Maken interrupted Paul's hypnotic solar systems observation, “Vile whispers this to herself because she has decided she and her neighbor were not on speaking terms. Instead of accepting her limitation and living with a purposeful happiness, watch Vile develop mood problems. Watch time fly and how she endures loneliness unimaginable to the rest of the well-rounded solar systems.

"And now we see a super-stupendous cosmic wormhole catch sight of Vile Extinction. There! See it. That bully big cyclone shape there. Watch it apply its airbrakes and skid to a sky-shuddering stop. Listen, Paul. The wormhole speaks."

"Whoa! I never noticed you before! Hey, little babe, been there long?"

Paul couldn't help himself; a twinge of sympathy for Vile crept in.

Vile's voice contained that special acid quality Paul's insides were so familiar with, and any sympathetic twinge evaporated as she spoke to the wormhole. “I beg your pardon? Babe? You talking to me?"

"I must have been by several thousand times before now. I must be doing something right; babe, I've been around for such a long time. I continue to grow and I might even become a black hole some day,” the wormhole boasted. “My name is Link Traver. You have a name, sweetie?"

Maken intruded. “I might point out wormholes do not become black holes, not even in the Shadow Gobbler Universe."

"Why not?” Paul asked.

"A black hole is the result of a collapsed star. Its blackness comes from an extreme gravitational field which swallows light. Sorry to interrupt. Direct your attention to the conversation between Vile Extinction and Link Traver, for this is what you must witness to save Earth solar system."

Vile's words left no doubt as to how insulted she felt. “My name isn't Babe, Hole. My name is Vile Extinction.” She seemed to consider the matter of their meeting finished and appeared to consciously ignore Link Traver. She talked to herself. “Why would I want to talk to a wormhole? To anyone? After all, everyone thinks I have a defect.” Vile turned her edge toward Link to disappear from his view.

"Where'd you go?” Link said, its massive outer lip quivering as if to shrug, which would be impossible because of being a wormhole. “You still there? Hey, babe! Talk to me now!"