Standing Page 2

  “As for your sister, we put a pill in her mouth that caused her to pass out. It has no lasting effects. Then we put an oxygen dome on her so that she wouldn’t drown. It was the only way we could think of that would get you into the seawater without being conspicuous to the people around you. You did, then the seawater activated your powers and forced you to breathe the salt water, causing the change. We wiped Avery’s memory of the incident and returned her to her home.

  “This is a dire mission. We don’t have the ability to stop the catastrophe, and if you don’t try, then humanity will be destroyed, and Dellinia along with it. It is critical that you accept,” finished Indigo with a tear escaping down her cheek, which she quickly wiped away.

  Gale stared at Indigo and Kella. This is so much information to process. What if I can’t stop the disaster? I can feel the fear coming from Kella and Indigo.

  She took a deep breath and said, “I will do my best.”

  She was determined. If she could do something to help people, then she would do it.

  “We have a short time until the Continuance opens, but we do have time to explain a couple of things,” said Kella with a smile. “Force will be going with you, that way if something happens to one of you, the other may be able to complete the mission. He has the same powers as you, and is familiar with all of the ins and outs of time travel since he has lived here all of his life.”

  That’s amazing! I wonder what it would be like to live with mermaids for my whole life, thought Gale.

  “Kella and I need to go make preparations, would you show Gale around then take her to the Continuance opening site when it’s time?” asked Indigo, addressing Force.

  “Okay,” he replied with a smile.

  Kella and Indigo rose, then Kella said, “We will meet you again at the site of the opening. Until later, Gale.”

  They both smiled, tilted their heads towards Gale, and then quickly swam out of the room with purpose.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Come with me,” said Force as he gestured toward a silver door.

  She walked over to it. Why can I walk underwater? That and a million other questions flooded her mind. It opened to reveal a silvery, round elevator. They stepped into it, Force gave a command and it started to move.

  “You know my name and I know yours, but I don’t think that we have properly met yet. I’m Force, and I am very pleased to meet you.”

  He held out his hand and smiled lopsidedly while his blue eyes twinkled.

  Gale smiled back, “And I am Gale. I’m pleased to meet you also!” she reached out and shook his hand.

  She could feel his happiness and easy-going delight.

  “Force. That’s an interesting name, how did you get it?” she asked curiously.

  He looked straight ahead, smiled, and answered, “Many Delinians name their children after values, objects, or characteristics. When Kella and her husband adopted me, that was the name I ended up with. Personally, I take it to mean they thought I would be a force to be reckoned with.” He grinned and Gale smiled.

  “How far below the surface of the ocean are we? Can you see the sky from down here?” she asked curiously.

  “Twenty-thousand feet,” he replied, “and no you can’t.”

  Gale felt a sweep of longing for that light blue sky, for the pink and purple sunsets and sunrises, for the blackest black of nights with the stars scattered throughout the sky. Sky. Stars. She glanced over at him and said, “With this mission you will get to see plenty of sky.”

  He looked startled as he turned toward her and asked, “Am I that obvious?”

  She looked down at her feet.

  “No, I just...am good at reading people’s emotions.”

  More than that, I feel them. I always have been able to, I don’t understand why I always feel everyone’s emotions, but nobody else seems to have the same ability.

  “I have another question, why can we talk and hear each other so clearly?”

  “It’s one of the advantages of your ability. We’re here,” announced Force.

  Gale was amazed at what she saw as she stepped off of the elevator. She was surrounded by playful fish of all colors. She looked up and down and realized that the city was lighted by huge lamps, buried in the ground. You couldn’t even make out the fact that there was a sun down here!

  “I don’t envy the lack of sunlight,” Gale muttered.

  “I’ll take you to the library first, we have some time to spare,” said Force.

  They started off. Gale followed him down wide streets of glistening buildings.

  Force looked back at her, “So, where are you from?”

  “I thought you knew all about me,” she teased.

  “Only that you are five foot six, can time travel, and have brown hair,” he answered with a grin.

  “I’m from California,” she replied.

  “I think I’ve heard of that. It’s been awhile since I did modern world geography. It’s the country where they make silk and eat noodles, right?”

  Gale laughed, “What? That’s China! California is a state in The United States Of America. It’s full of beaches with sand and palm trees. It also has lots of cities, and farms for that matter. I live on a kind of mini farm. We grow crops there.”

  “Sounds...nice. I am more of a mover, an explorer. Even though I’ve lived in this place all of my life, I know that once I’m on my own I won’t stay in one place for too long.”

  “I think that there are nice aspects to both staying in one place and moving around. You want to explore, but sometimes you like to stay right where you are,” Gale answered.

  He smiled and stopped in front of a curving reddish building.

  He glanced back at Gale. “Here we are.”

  The doors blended in so well that Gale didn’t see them until they automatically opened for entry. Gale was amazed when she stepped inside. The floor was made of blue stone and the shining walls were shelves for millions of books. There were bounteous strange curves and tunnels. Along every inch of the walls, inside the tunnels and out, were books.

  “Wow,” Gale whispered.

  “It’s pretty cool. This has always been my favorite place to go,” said Force.

  As they walked into the large room, they passed a Dellinian woman sitting at a desk with many screens on it.

  “Delone kaysha dale,” said Force to what Gale assumed to be the librarian.

  “Lora-tuusone,” she answered with a kind smile as she looked up from her desk.

  “What did you two say, and is that the Dellinian language?” Gale asked curiously.

  He smiled, “Yes, I said… Just a minute, let me translate...in English, what I said literally means ‘may all your computer terminals function properly’. It’s a standard greeting. She replied, ‘may yours as well’.”

  Gale laughed quietly, trying to respect the quietness of the library.

  What a strange way of saying hi!

  “So, what was your first language? How many languages do you know? And with your technology, couldn’t all of these books be digitized? Oh, and why aren’t the pages falling apart? Last time I heard, paper and water didn’t mix.”

  Gale could feel Force’s amusement.

  “No, I don’t usually ask this many questions, but seriously, I just got thrown into the middle of a mermaid society! Do you know how incredible that is?”

  Force’s smile widened, “Come on.”

  All of a sudden he started swimming up. Gale followed.

  It’s kind of like flying down here!

  He went into one of the curving passageways. As she entered, she was amazed at this tiny wonder. In the circular tunnel, up and down, to the right and to the left, were books. In between them tiny lights shone out like stars. When they could barely see the entrance to this tunnel, Force pressed a little button on the ceiling. Two chairs folded out. This was the perfect spot to read something. Gale had a feeling that this might be his favorite spot in Dellinia. They sat down.

/>   Force turned to her, “Now I will try to answer all of your questions and tell you all about Dellinia. Okay,” he took a deep breath, “all of the books are digitized, but we think it’s also nice to be able to pick up a book. The books don’t fall apart since we coat each page with a special formula that is flexible and protective. As far as languages go, my first one was Dellinian, and I know eleven.”

  “Wow. Mermaid language! You come right out of a fairy tale,” Gale said in wonder.

  She could feel Force’s heart beating just a little bit faster.

  He laughed, “As far as I’m concerned, this is normal and you’re the one who comes from a fairy tale. You’re the first other human that I’ve seen in real life. I dream about seeing how my kind lives. Anyway, Dellinia is populated by about twenty-thousand mermaids and one human. Throughout the centuries, Dellinians have disguised themselves in simpler clothing when they go to the shores or under boats to observe humans. They did and do that so they won’t alarm any humans who accidentally see them. They try to keep hidden during those missions, but occasionally humans see them. That’s where the tales of mermaids have come from. Sometimes they also go ashore disguised as humans to buy books, and to see where human technology is. That’s how they have learned all of the languages of people over the centuries. They even know the lost language of the Indus River Valley people.”

  “Whoa!” Her eyes widened, “That’s so amazing!”

  Force smiled, “Also, during your transformation, the song may have seemed familiar to you. That’s because when you’re first born your cells send a signal with the entire song to your brain in an instant. Its name is ‘Sarall’. Call it cell premonition or whatever you want, but they know that your metamorphosis is going to happen someday, so they leave you a marker so that you will know when it is taking place. Did I miss anything?” He looked over at her with a questioning look.

  “I think you got it all!” Gale laughed in shock, “You don’t know how crazy this is!”

  Force just smiled, “We’d better get to the Continuance opening.” He pushed the button and the chairs flipped back up into the ceiling.

  They swam down, then walked through the city to a seaweed patch.

  Force looked at a strange kind of watch on his wrist, “This is where it will happen, Kella and Indigo should be here any second now.”

  At that moment Gale heard a swish, she turned and saw that the mermaid twins were coming.

  “The Continuance will open in five minutes,” announced Kella. “You must step into it and in your mind picture the number of year that you want to go to, as well as the month. It will deposit you through the closest hole. In this case think, December 2212. Got that?”

  “Uh, I think so,” answered Gale. December 2212, December 2212, December 2212.

  “You will experience a swirling tunnel. You may feel slightly claustrophobic, some Dellinians do. Your mission is to discover the problem and stop it. We are all counting on you! Here,” Kella slipped a piece of paper into Gale’s hand, “this is the date, place and time of the opening that will get you back. Good luck! It is opening, both of you go!”

  A blue swirling circle with twisting shades of color had appeared right in front of their eyes!

  “Oh, Force, here’s the bag. Now, go!” Indigo’s black glove glittered in the water as she tossed a black bag to Force.

  Gale looked at her newfound friend as they stepped in. Suddenly, Gale had a feeling like she was flying. She couldn’t see Dellinia behind her. She fixed December 2212 in her head. Then she looked around. It was all colors! Swirling and dancing, and almost singing! Everything had a bluish tint still, though.

  What is in that bag? she suddenly wondered.

  She closed her eyes. A wind that she could just hear whipped her braid around her face. She opened her eyes and glanced around for Force.

  Where is he?

  She gasped and looked around again.

  Don’t worry, maybe they just forgot to tell you about this part.

  She took a deep breath and concentrated on the date. Her mouth tilted slightly upward. This is crazy. Mermaids that have advanced technology, a time travel tunnel! This seems like a dream. But is isn’t. This is real!

  The exhilaration of that moment was astonishing. She floated and soared for a period when she couldn’t measure time. Literally, her internal clock wouldn’t even give her an estimate of how much time had passed. It could have been seconds, it could have been years.

  Suddenly she blinked and she was on her back. Snow surrounded her and snowflakes were falling onto her eyelashes. The blue sky glared harshly overhead, the feeling of euphoria completely gone. She struggled as she stood up. As soon as she had, she felt herself plunge into the freezing snow. Gale gave a little yelp. She was now standing in four feet of snow, it was up to her middle. She heard a laugh ring out behind her. She struggled to turn around. Force was forcing his way through the snow toward her with a grin on his face.

  I’m freezing! she thought as she shivered.

  Gale was still dressed in her light blue semi long-sleeved shirt and white capri pants.

  “So, what do you think?” asked Force, grinning as he worked his way toward her through the deep snow.

  “It was amazing! I felt like I was flying. I didn’t get a claustrophobic feeling though, did you? And what’s in the bag?”

  He reached her and said, “No, I didn’t. Some basic supplies, and I don’t know if there is anything else in it.”

  “Where are we?”

  “You’re so full of questions today aren’t you?” he said jokingly.

  “Force! Tell me! That is one important detail that you left out. But first, could you help me out of this snowbank? It’s so cold!”

  He looked at her and said, “We may find a couple of things to help us in here. Let’s go through the bag first,” he set it on the snow and opened it. “Here is what I think we need!” he said as he pulled out a pair of snowshoes.

  “Perfect!” Gale replied as she smiled.

  Force put the snowshoes up on the snow and struggled out of the snow pit he was in. He put them on, stood up, and this time he didn’t sink into the snow.

  He reached down for Gale’s hand, then he helped her up.

  He looked at her teasingly and said, “Alright, alright we are in California of the United States. But right now you had better put these on before you become an iceberg. They use special technology to produce heat, that’s why they are so thin.”

  Gale laughed and realized that her teeth were chattering very hard as Force handed her a dark blue bundle. She unrolled it, then started to slip on the thick, dark blue jacket and a long, hooded cape of the same color, which she desperately needed. After she put them on, she rubbed her arms vigorously, trying to get at least semi-warm.

  “Thanks! It is so frigid here! How could it be California? There must be at least three feet of snow!”

  He shrugged, “Maybe the polar caps reversed, or maybe global warming took its toll here in California of the United States.”

  Gale smiled and laughed softly.

  “What?” He asked.

  “How can you know about human issues, but not know about the basic countries of the world?” she asked, knowing somehow that it would not offend him.

  He smiled as he took a small shovel out of the bag and started digging out a hole to shield them from the icy wind. She grabbed one and started helping him.

  Finally he answered, “The Dellinians told me the issues that they believed might have affected the future. That way, I might be able to understand our surroundings. I also know most of what they know about modern-day humanity. That’s not very much, though. So I don’t know very much about modern culture or way of life. Every now and then I will hear about an invention that was recently created. See, the Dellinians occasionally purchase a newspaper or a history book, but there is no history book for the present, since they haven’t been able to hook up to human internet yet. The Dellinians are good compa
ny, but sometimes I want to see others like me. I want to see the stars every night. Now I finally get to do that,” he paused and looked up at the sky.

  Gale smiled, “Yes, you do. I personally think that you will love humanity!”

  He smiled and replied, “From what I have seen, I will.”

  They continued digging until they had a nice-sized bit of muddy ground on which to set up camp. Force and Gale jumped down into it. Force pulled a piece of fabric out of the bag, it was kind of like what a tent is made of, so it helped the muddiness of the situation when they laid it down.

  Gale plopped down and asked, “What now? I haven’t really camped a lot. Do we need to make a fire and put a top over this shelter of ours?”

  Force smiled. “Close!”

  He took out something that looked like a penny without the pictures. He slightly squeezed it, then set it down. Suddenly a translucent bluish ball appeared, warmth radiating from it.

  “That’s better!”

  She thought that the warmth ball was neat, but it didn’t surprise her that much. Gale reached into the bag and pulled out another tarp and some poles. She stood up and figured out how to configure them so that the tarp was above their heads.