MAZE By Scott Grildrig and Chelgi Part 4 "Miiikkeee....! What..... in.... He....." "Well you sent me down here to make it work didn't you?" "Butttt...." "You don't have any confidence in me? Little lady, when you send Mike to do something, it gets done! Now bring me that sandwich." and I laughed as I looked up and saw Molly standing at the open door looking down the stairs into the huge basement. "I... I... I don't have any sandwiches, will an MRE do?" "One of the new ones that are almost edible?" "Well, I can't promise you steak and apple pie, but at least it'll fill your empty belly." "And you?" "I've got a couple of mine left. But you know, just like the little ones for you, they're not very good. But they make..." "Never mind, I've heard it. Lets eat." "Can you get the lights on?" "What's the matter, afraid of the dark, little girl?" "OK, I'll admit its my turn. I don't have any problem tossing you up into the air, since that's not my problem. But down in a basement.....?" "Well, there ain't no way I can just pick you up and toss you down here, so its entirely your problem. All I can say is that this whole place is under the garden above and there's enough room under here for all of you gals to have a giantess reunion under here." "But the controls, are they Dabesi?" "No, apparently they're very old, and the Dabs stumbled on them some time ago. They've got a bastard rig connected to the original system, but it won't work very much. I can open a couple of doors, and with any luck I'll get some more of it working in a little while. The dabs couldn't work them, but then that may be because they were trying to use their codes, instead of learning the original codes, and it doesn't look like the original ones are that hard to learn, but that may be because they resemble our systems closer than they resemble the Dab's. I think that this is why the Dabesi were so concerned when we showed up. They didn't want us to find this." Molly laughed, "Yeah, and the funny part is, that if they had left us alone we'd have probably flown over, taken some pictures and left, and never have known that this was here. Instead they shoot us down and run us right in here. That's funny. Can we do anything with it? What is it?" "I don't have the answer to either of your questions. Right now, I can barely make a little bit of sense out of the system. I have no idea what it is, or what we can do with it. I do know that FTC would really like to learn about it and send a team of scientist to study it." "And just how are we gonna tell them about it?" "Molly, I don't even know if we can ever get home, much less tell the command about this." Molly laughed, "You mean I shouldn't have wiped out the entire Dabesi army?" "Well, we might have been able to surrender and let them trade us home." "With the Dabs, not likely. More like a shot in the back and left to rot." "Oh, you've dealt with them too?" and I laughed. Part 4 Standing at the foot of the stairs Molly looked all around the huge room, "What kind of power do they have here?" "I don't know, but it must be pretty damn good, it still works. The gate opened when I pushed the button, an when I got the right signal I got the door to open too." "Got any lights you can turn on?" "I don't know, let me try." and I walked over and picked my computer up again and started fiddling with it. Studying the weird hieroglyphics on the screen I looked up at Molly and said, "Let's try this, its either the lights or the whole place will blow sky high, if I've figured their hieroglyphics right. I pushed a couple of keys, then enter. Instantly the entire room was bright as day. "Eureka it works!" "God, this place is huge..." "Now that's a big place, when Molly says something like that." I laughed, "Like my little basement shop?" "What is this place?" "Molly, I've been in here less than an hour, I couldn't even tell you what all the machines were, if I knew what all of them were, and all I had to do was to name them. And I haven't the slightest idea what any of them are." "What's that big platform over there?" "Molly, give me a break. I just told you I haven't the slightest idea what any of them are. Look they're made for giants, you can see that. The garden and patio are your size, and just look at all these machines, they're your size too. Why don't you take a walk around the place and see if you can make any sense out of the machines by just looking. But, don't touch anything, particularly buttons or switches. After those booby traps on the way in here, there's no telling what's here. Don't blow us up, playing with switches." Molly looked down at me for a minute or two, "Now, you know, talking about the booby traps on the way in here, there's something weird." "What's that Mol?" "Well, think about it. The first one we encountered was just a tangler. Now a tangler is little more than an artificially enhanced vine made to wrap people or animals up and hold them. The next one, the trap was just spring loaded metal bars with a mechanical trip and a couple of tanglers. The last one was just spring loaded scythes with again a mechanical trip. And the gate here was just iron spear points sticking up, but it had an electric, I guess, opener. Other than that, nothing electrical, or electronic. Then down here is a basement, a huge basement filled with electronic machinery. And unless someone opened it for you, you'd never know it was here, just a nice comfortable garden patio. The only reason we even found it was that the Dabesi ship blew a hole in the floor when he hit. If h e hadn't we'd have never known it was here. But notice all the traps were just mechanical, nothing electronic. Why?" "OK, its your question, you tell me." "Yeah, sure. I'm just the muscle, you're supposed to be the genius. Figure it out." "Yeah, nice muscle too." "Mike, get serious." "Molly, I can't tell you anything, lets get the computer working on it and see if it can tell us." "Well.....?" "OK, Ok," and I started punching buttons and watching the screen. Letting the computer work on the problem as I took one of the MREs that Molly handed me opened it and started eating. "Molly.. Molly!" I yelled excitedly. "What, Mike?" I held up the package of rations she had handed me, and made a terrible face. "This damn stuff tastes as bad as ever, carrying it around in your pocket for three days hasn't helped it a bit." and I laughed as Molly looked down at me with a shocked expression on her huge face that slowly turned into a grin. "Damn it Mike, someday you're going to get serious and I won't believe you. Maybe I should just have a little accident and enjoy you for the last time as I step on you." "OK, Molly, I'll be good. Don't step on me." and we both laughed. She stuck out her tremendous tongue and wiggled it as she too made a face, "Mine isn't any better, but it'll take care of being hungry." "Yeah, it'll take care of being hungry all right, the taste would ruin anybody's appetite." and just like any soldier from any war, I stuffed another bite into my mouth. At one time, what now seems ages ago, I had been a history buff and folk song collector, and as we grumbled about the food, a line from a song from America's ancient civil war popped into my mind and I sang it to Molly. "We rode our worn out horses and ate on dry corn meal.' Soldiers have always complained about the food. I'll bet even the Roman and Egyptian soldiers complained about the food." And I laughed, "Yeah, and just like us, I'll bet, they were lucky to even have any." I finished my meal, and took a swig of water. Molly finished hers and looked down at me. "You think that water out there's all right to drink?" "After that meal, most anything would be all right to drink." "Mike, I'm serious, I need something to drink." "Well, its not in the computer, but as near as I can see from what's here, that really is a waiting area for people that are using this machine. The water in the fountains is probably piped in from the mountains and all it is, is just water from the mountains. If it was from the original owners it'd be awfully old, and it looks all right." "What about the traps?" "Good question, could it be a trap? Yeah, it could be. But once we got in here, I think we're past all the traps. From what I've found in the computer, its just exactly what it appears to be, a waiting area with fresh water from the mountains for the visitors." "You sure?" "No, but how long can you go without water?" "OK, but if its not, you gotta carry me home." and she laughed. "Sure Molly, I'll just toss you over my shoulder and carry you home. And I'll walk every step of the way in penitence, just to show how sorry I am." Molly got up and walked up the stairs to the bench where she had been sitting before and looked at the bubbling basin of what appeared to be nice fresh water. Then she reached in her pocket, pulled out a collapsible cup and swishing it in the water as she opened it, rinsed it a moment, then lifted a cup of water to her lips and sipped slowly. "MMmmm... its good. Nice and cold, and tastes a little like some water I've had from springs up in the High Sierras." "Slow acting poison I guess." I immediately received a thumping shower of ice cold water over my entire body, drenching me completely, as Molly dumped her huge cup with the water from the basin over me. "Thanks for your reassurance." she said. "OH, God, that's cold." "Serves you right." and we both laughed. As Molly walked back down the stairs into the huge basement she stopped just before she got to the bottom. "Mike, look at this. These stairs seem to lead to that 'stage' or what ever it is over there. See the stairs lead down from the patio, and there's a clear area that leads right over to that little elevated area there, a stage or something like that." "Put me back on your shoulder and walk around here a bit. I want to get the feel for what it looks like to a giant like you, since it was obviously made for giants." Her hand came down and closed around me, "You're all wet." and she laughed. "Geeze, I wonder how that happened?" and as I strapped myself into my chair I wrung some water out of my jump suit and let it drip down onto Molly's shoulder. It was a mistake, she jerked her shoulder up as the cold water hit her and I bounced roughly around in my chair. I was glad I had already fastened the straps as she would have tossed me out of the chair if I hadn't. She giggled, "OK, even. Don't this look like these stairs lead right directly to that platform?" "Yep, sure do." and I looked around a bit. "And look there at that, console, or what ever it is, it faces right at the stage with controls all over it, and a big screen near the top, but set in such a way that it wouldn't block the vision of a person your size, sitting there, from seeing the stage. Go sit in the chair, Molly." Molly walked over and looked down at the chair. "It hasn't been used in a long time. What ever cushions were here are long gone." She reached down and brushed the crumbled remains of the cushion from the chair seat. "It looks strong enough." and she very cautiously sat in the chair. She wiggled as she tested the strength of the chair, and after a moment she was satisfied and looked out at the stage and the panel in front of her. Fairly familiar looking knobs, and switches set just above what could have been a computer key board, but it was a completely different pattern than I had ever seen before. "I've never seen a key board like this." Molly laughed, "What'd you expect, an IBM qwerty key board?" "Uuhuh.... right!" and from Molly's shoulder I stared down at the desk or table, then back at the 'stage'. "Well, I don't have any idea what it does, but do you have any question that this is the control console for what ever it is?" Molly leaned back and forth a couple of times, then put her hands up on the 'control board'. "Molly, don't touch anything!" "I won't, just seeing what the board feels like. Who ever sat here was a little smaller than I am. The keys, and switches are a bit too small, and too close together for me, and I wouldn't need the cabinet quite this low. I can see the stage, or whatever, real good and the screen doesn't need to be this low." and she giggled, "and that's without a cushion." "Well, we can be sure it wasn't for the Dabesi then, they're my size and don't have any giants," I paused for a moment, "Or giantesses." "Uhhuu... yeh.. Look at this, Mike." and she reached up to the top area of the control panel, and pointed to what appeared to be a cover. What's that?" "How the hell would I know.... then I looked for a moment, a cover for a switch?" "Yeah, Should I?" and she put her fingers at the lower edge of the panel. "Just looks like a cover," I said, "The switch would be under it. Go ahead, I've opened doors and turned on lights, why not? Your turn to try and blow us up." She flipped the cover up. Just like we had speculated, nothing, just a big blue switch under it. Molly laughed, "See, this is what turns it on." and she put her fingers on the switch. "NO! Molly don't!" I shouted in panic. "Oh, Mike, you don't have any confidence in me. I know better. We'll wait till we know exactly what it does before I flip it on. Right?" "Right!" Then I realized that she had caught me. We'd never know what it does until we flipped the switch. "OK, you got me, but don't flip it yet, lets talk about it a minute first." She laughed, "Fine explorers, we don't even want to flip a switch till we know what it does." "Explorers that might live a little longer if we don't go too fast. Remember that little trap with the scythes? Should have just walked right on through, nothing could hurt my great big giant Molly. Right?" "OK, point for you." "Remember, this place is built for your size, I'm the little bug here that has to look out for insect traps. You have to watch for problems your size. So what does the switch do?" "Turns it on." "Turns what on?" "This machine." "What machine?" "This one." "And what does it do?" "UUhhhaaa.... I don't know." "Right, don't... flip... the switch!" "God, I hate a little bug like you, being right so often." "Well, Molly don't feel too bad, I spent five years as an officer in the navy, then ten years as a cop on the street and two more years on the force before I joined this elite scouting arm, then six months of training with you, and if you got some weird idea that I didn't screw up plenty, you're wrong." "Mike, we'll never know what it does if we don't turn it on." "OK, go ahead, it was nice knowing you." Molly turned her head and looked down at me sitting on the chair on her shoulder with my hands over my ears. "You nut!" and she flipped the switch. The console in front of us clicked, then clicked again, then buzzed. The buzz kept up for several long moments, then a light came on, on the screen, and expanded until we were looking at a bright white screen. It flickered, and changed colors, then a pattern came up and stayed for several seconds, then changed to symbols all over the screen. "Looks just like a computer coming on." Molly said. "Well, since I'm not floating around on a cloud with wings on, I guess you're right." Then the stage lit up. I couldn't see where the light was coming from, but there was plenty of area for hidden lights all around the 'stage'. "Look, the platform is all lit up." "And what's it doing?" "Nothing, just sitting there with the lights on." "And your control panel?" "Same as it was, same pattern" "Well, if you could read the screen, it probably tells you exactly what the condition of the stage is." I said. "Right! And I suppose you can read the screen since you're such a computer expert." "Well, not exactly, but let me check." and I opened my computer and turned it on, then started entering inquiries. "MMmmm, says the lights are all on and I left the door open." "You can tell that from the screen?" "No, silly, by looking around." "Mike, I'm going to make you into.... Uunhhuh..." The screen had changed. "OK, Molly, its your turn, you turned the machine on, now figure out what it does." "Sure," and she reached down to the board and turned one of the bigger knobs. "MOoooll...." and I stopped, there was a scene of a pasture on the screen with strange buildings in the background. "What's that?" The lighted area at the back of the stage had changed too. It looked almost like the screen. A wide pasture area with strange buildings in the back. and flickering light all over the stage area. Suddenly there was a strange odor, a clean outdoor smell like woods after a rain, and there seemed to be a slight, very gentle breeze blowing , actually more drifting rather than blowing, from the stage area. Molly laughed, "I guess that's the channel knob, I think I changed channels." "Maybe, but do you notice that the 'stage' has the same program on, complete with wind and smell." "Yeah, but its a kinda dull program, wanna try another channel?" and she reached down and turned the knob again, this time very slowly. The screen flickered, and the scene changed as she moved the knob, just like flipping past channels on the visor. It would be blank for a few seconds then another picture would pop up. Molly stopped on another picture. This one looked almost like the lobby of a hotel, but you could see out an open door and see some more buildings across a clear area. Again a very few moments after Molly stopped moving the knob, the same picture appeared on the 'stage'. This time there was a very definite chill breeze blowing from the 'stage' and instead of the clean air of the previous "picture" there was an odor of city streets. I was on the streets long enough as a cop to know a city street odor when I smell it. "Wait a minute, Molly, change it again, this one's making it cold in here." "Yeah, kinda nice isn't it?" But she reached down and slowly twisted the knob again. Pictures appeared and then disappeared on the computer screen, but the 'stage' was just blank until Molly stopped again. This time we were looking at a broad view of towering mountains in the background, but there was no odor or feeling of breeze from the 'stage'. Then we realized that the breeze was going from us toward the 'stage'. "Can you get the first one back again?" "Dunno, I'll try." and she turned the knob back to where she had stopped it the first time. The screen was blank, then she moved it back and forth very slowly until there was the pasture and the strange buildings in the background again, and she stopped. A moment later the same scene came up on the 'stage'. "Molly, don't move anything till we figure out what's happening." Molly laughed lightly, "We may be here a while, if I wait that long." Sure enough there was the slight, "fresh" breeze drifting from the 'stage'. Suddenly something appeared in the middle of the 'stage' dropping and fluttering as it fell. It looked almost like a leaf, then it drifted off the stage, with the slight breeze still falling until there was a leaf lying on the floor a few feet this side of the 'stage'. "Molly, what's that?" "Looks like a leaf." "Get it." "Suddenly, I'm your slave?" "Molly...." "OK, Lil' bug, I'll get it. Just hang on." She got up and walked over almost to the stage and bending over picked up the leaf. I almost panicked as she bent over. Her shoulders bent forward and I was hanging from my seat straps staring straight at the floor almost a hundred feet down. "Molly....!" I screamed in panic. "Sorry, Mike, I forgot. Look at this, it really is a green leaf, almost like the ones from the tree outside, but its different. Look." and she held the leaf up in front of me for my inspection as she straightened up again. My heart was almost in fibrillation, I couldn't let go of the seat my hands were clenched so tightly on the arms and my MRE meal was just about to return. I had been so interested in what was happening I had almost forgoten about my little problem with heights. But looking straight down at the floor from Molly's shoulder when she bent over, sure brought it back in a hurry. It took me several minutes to even focus on the leaf that Molly was holding up in front of me in her fingers, and a couple of more to get my mind back functioning. It was nothing more than a tree leaf, but it was almost a yard across. A leaf on Molly's size scale. I took several deep breaths and swallowed my MRE again, before I could even think of talking. "Molly, does the tree outside in the patio have leaves like this?" "Well, they're not exactly like this. They're a different shape." "Molly, I mean this size." "Yeah, I think so." "Huge leaves on your scale?" "Yeah, I think so, I didn't really notice. It was just a big tree. I really didn't notice how big the leaves were." "Go look." "What?" "Let's look, I need to know?" "You need to know how big the leaves are on the tree in the patio?" "Yes." "Then run up and look." "Molly...." "I know, you're too little to run up the stairs. Poor little thing. OK, I'll go." Molly got out of the chair and started up the stairs. I clung to my chair for dear life. I had thought it was bad when Molly jogged? I had never felt her run up a flight of stairs before. I screamed, "Molly... please... stop... please.." She stopped. "What's the matter?" "You're killing me." "What the matter, are you all right." "No, don't run up the stairs with me. Every time you take a step its like I fell off a two story building." "Oops sorry, I didn't mean to be so rough. I'm sorry. But look, here's one of the leaves from the tree in the patio. See its about the same size, but look, the leaf is a different pattern." and she held up another giant leaf for my inspection. Molly walked back to the control panel and put the leaf from the patio on the console panel beside the one from the 'stage'. The one from the 'stage' was very roughly shaped with three main lobes with points all around, slightly smaller than the one from the patio. The one from the patio was a long smooth oval with the upper side dark and shiny. Definitely two different type trees, but both with leaves in Molly's scale. "Molly, you know where that Dabesi ship blew the hole in the floor?" "Yeah..." "Lets go over there and get some little rocks for you to throw." "Little rocks for me to throw?" "Yeah, well little to you, I know, boulders to me." "OK, why?" "We're gonna try something with that 'stage'." "What's that?" "You're gonna throw rocks at it." "I'm gonna throw rocks at it?" "Well across it." "What do you mean?" "You saw the leaf come drifting off the stage, didn't you?" "Yeah, so." "I want to see what happens to something when we throw it onto the 'stage'." "Whatever." Molly walked over to the floor under where the Dabesi had exploded and picked up a bunch of rocks, boulders to me. Then walked back to the 'stage'. "Don't step on the 'stage', Molly, just stand out here and toss a rock onto the stage." Molly tossed a rock onto the stage. It fell to the stage with a clunk and lay there. We watched it for a few moments and nothing happened. "Throw the next one at the back of the stage." "What do you mean at the 'back' of the stage?" "Well see where it looks almost like a screen with the same picture as is on the computer?" "Yeah," "Well try to throw the rock into the screen." Molly pitched a little rock across the stage, it sailed in a long arc toward the back of the 'stage' and about half way across it disappeared. A second later it reappeared at the back of the 'stage' and sailed out toward the pasture, falling out of our sight. We heard a definite clunk as it hit the ground, then another little bump then what sounded like a rock rolling across a hard floor. "Try it again, Molly. A little harder this time." This time Molly picked a little bigger rock and gave it a real heave across the 'stage' at the screen. Again half way across it simply disappeared, and then it came flying out of the back area and flew out a way before falling out of sight, again the sound of a rock hitting on a hard ground and rolling. Molly said, "That's weird. Maybe we just don't have good lighting and can't see it part way till it gets to the other side." "Well, let's walk around and look at the other side." Molly turned and walked around the 'stage' when we got to the other side there was no sign of the rocks and when we looked at the 'stage' the scene had changed to look almost like the same room we were in, but the desk console and the furniture looked like it was reasonably new and in good shape instead of old and neglected. Molly took another rock and threw it through the 'stage' again from this side. Again it sailed across the stage, but this time instead of disappearing it merely flickered and then we could see it hit the floor on the other side and bounce right up to the control console where we had been sitting. "OK, lets go look." and Molly walked back around the 'stage' again. When we got to the console it looked old and neglected again and there was no sign of the rock where it had landed. "This weird." Molly looked from the console to the 'stage' and back at the console. "Wait a minute, let's set something up here so that we could see it from the back and then go back and look." "Sounds reasonable, what have we got?" "Let me get a big rock from over there where the Dab blew up." "OK, Let's try it." Molly walked over to the hole in the roof and found a chunk of the wall almost twenty feet across. "Here's something we can sure see from the back." "Molly that's too big, its gotta weigh fifty tons." "To you maybe, its a six inch rock that weighs maybe ten pounds to me, and that's giving it a lot of leeway. Probably closer to five pounds." and she picked the rock up in one hand as easily as I'd pick up a shoe. I took a deep whistling breath; as I said before, even though I've been with her a year and a half, her tremendous strength never fails to amaze me and it sends shivers down my back when I watch her pick up several tons as though it was nothing. She walked over to the console and put the rock on top of the console, setting it so that it would be visible from the other end of the 'stage'. Then we walked around to the other end. Just before we went behind the 'stage' she stopped and turned so that we could both look back and see the rock. It was sitting just where Molly had left it. She stepped behind the stage and looked, there was the newer console with no rock. She stepped back to the corner of the 'stage'. The rock was right where she had set it. She turned her head very slowly and looked down at me sitting on her shoulder and looking at her the same way she was looking at me. Totally shocked, what was happening? Two steps back, new console, no rock. After four or five tries it was always the same. Through the 'stage' new console, no rock, around the 'stage' old console, with rock on top. "OK, Hero, lets hear you explain this one." "Do you read?" "Naw, I'm just an ignorant girl. They don't teach girls to read." "Right, and they don't have space ships and women two hundred foot tall either. How much science fiction have you read?" "I don't read that garbage. That's for kids and dreamers." "Well, you better start dreaming, cause what we're seeing can't be happening." Molly giggled, "I'll bet that's what that Dabesi tank commander said when I stepped on his tank, too." and she laughed, "Well, what are we seeing, Mr. Science Fiction Genius? And this better be good too." "Time travel? Teleport station? Interstellar gateway? I don't know, but those are all old Sci Fi ideas, or gadgets, that nobody has ever been able to build." I said. Molly looked pointedly back at the 'stage'. "You're sure no body has ever built any of them?" "Tell you what, Molly, I'll wait here on the console while you run jump on the 'stage' and take a look and see what's happening. Then you can come back and tell me." "Little man, if I get on that stage, you're gonna be with me, you can bet your life on that one. In fact I've got an even better idea, how about if I just throw you like I did the rocks." "Uh-Uh, they didn't come back. And I don't like being thrown anyway." "Well then, you can take a running jump..." "Molly, be nice... be nice. Act like a lady." "Look, Mike, that rock I tossed onto the 'stage' is still there. Nothing has happened to it. Maybe nothing happens till you get to a certain point. You know that's where all the rocks have disappeared, about half way across before they get to the back screen." "Good point, Molly, have we got a long stick?" "I can get one from that tree up in the patio." "Got any string left?" "Oh, Yeah, I get you, I'll try tossing the limb and then try pulling it back, right?" "Right," I said, "After all we're supposed to be explorers. We have to take a few chances now and again." "Like just being here isn't taking chances?" "Molly, I don't remember making any choices, except dodging them Dabesi ships." "I'll get the limb." and Molly went up the stairs again as I sat on top of the console and stared at the controls. Molly came back in a couple of seconds with a long broken off limb in her hand, ripping off the leaves as she walked. When she had all the leaves off she broke off the secondary limbs and reaching in her voluminous pocket and came out with the length of rope, (she calls it string) that she had used to lower me into the hole. Tying it around the limb at about the middle she stretched it back and tied it again on the thin limb so that she could pull it back toward us in a line, more or less. "Yeah, Mol, that looks good give it a toss onto the 'stage' just on the stage, don't try for a long shot yet, then pull it back. Let's see if your idea works." She stepped up to the edge of the 'stage' and tossed it easily out toward the rock that was lying inertly on the floor. The limb hit with a crash, and then just lay there like the rock had. Then Molly pulled. The limb twisted slightly as it lined up with the 'string/rope' then started back toward us. Molly pulled and the limb came back and fell off the stage. She picked it up and looked it up and down. "Looks all right." "OK, a little further this time. Right next to that "place where the rocks disappear." "OK, I'll try." and she rolled the string up and holding it in one hand tossed the limb to where the base just barely hit the "disappearing point" on the 'stage'. "Mike, look, can you see that?" "What's that Molly?" "The end is gone." "What?" "The end is gone, look, the limb stops, the end is gone. Look!" and she reached back to her shoulder and pinched me between her huge fingers. I reached down as fast as I could and unsnapped my belts. I knew that if Molly pulled with my belts on, either they would break, or she'd rip me in half. Molly was going to lift me, and something was going to give, and it wouldn't be her. Holding me in her fingers, she lifted me and reached out and up with her arm so that I could see the limb better. I could see the limb lying on the floor of the 'stage'. She was right, the end of the limb stopped sharply at the edge of the "half way point". "I see it, you're right, it looks like its been sliced off with a really sharp knife." "Yeah, that's what I wanted you to see." "Pull it, Molly, pull it." "What?" "Pull the string, let's see what happens." Molly pulled, the end of the limb reappeared. She put me back onto her shoulder and pulled the limb all the way back to us. She picked the limb up and held it up so that we could both see it. "Look, right there is where it was cut off, but there's nothing there. It doesn't look like anything ever happened to it. No sign of a cut or anything." She ran her fingers across the end of the limb several times. "Uh-uh, nothing." "Try it again, Molly, a little further this time." "OK," and the limb flew out into the 'stage' to where the "disappearing point" was, this time more than half of the long limb disappeared. And then I saw it. At the back edge of the 'stage' at the bottom of the "Screen" was the other end of the limb. "Molly, look right at the bottom of edge of the "screen" the rest of the limb." We just stood there looking at the severed limb lying inertly on the stage where Molly had thrown it, and at the other end ten, make that a couple hundred feet away, maybe ten of Molly's feet. In this giant place, I was starting to even think in her terms and sizes. "Pull it back." Molly pulled, the other end of the limb disappeared and our end of the limb reappeared. It was just like before, no sign of having been cut, no scars, no seams nothing. This time Molly just took the limb and holding it by the thin end pushed it out onto the 'stage' while she held it. Nothing! She stepped up till her legs were right against the edge of the 'stage' and shoved the limb out. Nothing! "Molly, do you realize that half your arm was on the stage?" "I didn't notice. I didn't feel anything." "Well, we've got to see sometime, hold me in your hand and reach out on the 'stage' again." "You're sure its safe?" "Absolutely..... not! But we've got to try it sometime, we can only find out so much by waving this limb around and playing with it." "But, Mike..." "Molly, either it'll be all right or it won't." Then I laughed, "Besides if I'm in your hand and disappear, they'll be calling you 'lefty'." "Mike, don't! I don't even want to think of things like that." "Come on, lets try it, hold the limb in your hand too so that if something starts to happen to the limb you can let go of the limb and jerk your hand back, and hopefully me with it." Molly reached down and picked up the limb then reached up by her shoulder and I jumped into her waiting hand. This high in the air, my brain was still screaming every time I moved around up here so high, but with what were doing, I sure as hell wasn't going to let Molly see that I was scared..." I started to sit on the limb where Molly held it in her hand, then thought better of it, if she had to let go of the limb, I could stay with her hand and let the limb go too. If I was sitting on it I was going with the limb. Then I had an even better idea. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a sticky and a short length of rope, I reached around and stuck the sticky on the back of her index finger, then tied myself to it. If something happened I'd be with Molly's hand no matter what, like I said, if I disappeared, they'd be calling her 'lefty'. "OK, Mol, go for it." She reached out and pushed her hand up onto the 'stage' with the limb out in front of me. Nothing happened, I looked down and I was well out over the 'stage' and nothing had changed I was still in the room, I could see everything like I had a minute ago. "OK, Molly, its fine, a little further." and Molly leaned in and pushed her hand further out, nothing changed. "seems fine, Molly, want to try stepping up on the 'stage' floor." I could feel the slight breeze blowing from the "screen" but it seemed the same as always. Molly stepped up onto the 'stage' floor. Nothing, she stood all the way onto the 'stage' still waving the limb out in front of her, with me in her extended hand. "Still fine, Molly," She turned around and looked out at the room, it was exactly as we had left it. In fact we could still see the huge bolder that Molly had put on the console. "Mike, I'm worried." "Mol, you think you're worried, I'm scared S...ss but move on nearer the screen and stick the end of the limb into the screen." "You sure, Mike?" "Molly, I haven't been sure of anything since I got into training a year and a half ago. In fact with all those elaborate exercises they put us through, are you sure this isn't one of their weird scenarios?" Molly laughed for the first time in what seemed like hours, it broke the tension, I felt better just hearing her booming laugh. I hadn't realized how much I missed her thunderous laugh. And that she was always laughing at something or the other. I really hadn't realized how much she laughed, until I realized how much I missed it, when she hadn't for a while. She stepped up to the screen and deliberately stuck the end of the limb into the screen. It disappeared. And there two hundred feet away was the cut off missing end. She waved the end back and forth across the screen. It disappeared and reappeared as she waved it, it was just like she was stirring water, where the stick stuck into the screen it disappeared, where she pulled it out it reappeared. And exactly the same thing happened in re verse at the other end, the chopped off end appeared and disappeared exactly opposite as it did here. "Molly, put the stick down on the floor and push it in real slowly." She did and as she did I came closer and closer to the "screen". I yelled "Close enough Mol." and she stopped pushing. I was close enough that the "screen" was only a couple of yards from me. I waved my hand in front of the screen. Everything felt as normal as it ever had. I could still feel the gentle breeze from the "screen" but nothing else. "Be real careful Molly, but push me a little closer." She pushed and the screen moved closer, it was now close enough I could reach out and touch it. I leaned up on the limb and reached out with my hand. A foot from the sliced off end of the limb all I could see was the distant scene of the pasture and the odd buildings in the back, and the other end of the limb two hundred feet away. There wasn't any cold, heat, no electrical charge feeling, nothing. I reached within a couple of inches, nothing. An inch, nothing. I held my breath and touched the screen with the tip of one finger. Nothing. The tip of my finger was cut off as clean as the end of the limb, but I felt nothing. I pulled my hand back and my finger was the same as ever. No cut, no scar nothing, just like the limb. I heard a noise that startled me, then I realized that it was Molly exhaling, she had been holding her breath as I put my hand against the screen. I turned around and showed her my hand, "As good as new, well, its not that good, it was kinda scared up before we got this far." and I laughed. I turned around and slowly pushed more of my finger into the screen. Nothing! I pulled it back and it looked the same as it had before I pushed it in. I felt it with the other hand, nothing. I turned and shoved my whole hand into the screen. Again, nothing, but there two hundred feet away was my hand. Only this time it was chopped off at this end, and I could see my bones, and the meat of my severed hand. It was too far away to see many details, but the white bones showed vividly. When I pulled it out, nothing. It was the same as it had always been. Again I leaned forward and put my hand out toward the "screen" but this time I slid my hand along the limb. My hand disappeared at the same point that the limb did, but I could still feel the limb in my hand, which I could only see at the far edg e of the screen with my hand rubbing the limb just as I was doing. I moved my hand, if I closed my eyes I couldn't tell anything was different than it had ever been. I could feel the rough limb, the shape of it, everything felt normal. I reached in with my other hand and reached down and grabbed my hand on the limb. Normal, nothing was unusual, except that both my hands were sliced off cleanly half way from the wrist to the elbow, but there they were two hundred feet distant. I pulled my hands out and turned around and looked up at Molly, "OK, Molly, I'm going in, remember I love you." and I stood up along side the limb and walked into the screen. I could see everything. I stood on a platform that looked out through an open door and there was another room much like the one I had left all around the 'stage' I looked back and there was the platform I had just left, except there was Molly, with her end of the limb, and beyond the 'stage' was the old chair and the console with the rock on top. I walked back to the screen and stepped through. Molly was staring at me. She gasp and reached for me. "Mike!" thundered over me, almost shattering my ear drums. I was snatched up in her giant hand and whirled up to her face. I was pressed against her cheek, then kissed with her tremendous wet lips again and again. "OH, Mike, you're all right. Oh, God, I'm so glad." and I got drenched again in another of her huge wet, slurppy kisses. "Molly.... Molly... Stop it! We're supposed to be professionals. Don't..." Her voice almost shattered my eardrums from so close, "Who says that professionals can't feel for one another?" and I got another big sloppy kiss. "I sure am glad that this jump suit don't shrink, between your little dousing in cold water, and your messy kisses, I been wet all day." "Oh, you, little.... " and her gargantuan tongue came out and she licked me from head to toe. If I hadn't been wet before I sure was now. "Mike I worry about you. And when you went into that..... that.... what is it?" "I don't know." "But you've been through it, or what ever." "Well, when I stepped through where the limb was cut off, I was at the other end looking back at you standing here." "But where were you?" "There", and I pointed at the scene on the 'stage'. "But where is it?" "I don't have any idea. I don't know if its another planet, this one years ago, or this one in the future, I have no idea. Or, hell, maybe somebody's imagination, just a realistic screen play. I mean we've come from paintings on a cave wall, to moving pictures, and to our present holographic visions. Maybe someone else has invented a screen play you can just walk into and it all feels real. I don't have any idea." "Did you see anybody?" "No.. I was all alone, just standing there on the edge of the room looking down on the valley we can see from here." "But....?" "Want to try it, it don't hurt, you're just there, you can still come back here." "But what would happen if you couldn't?" "Would we be any worse off? Our ship is all wrecked, we have no radio, only the Dabs know where we are, and I'd just as soon not let them catch us. They might be a little irritated at you. Lets see your score card, you shot down two of their ships, ripped their troop ship to pieces and stomped it into scrap, flattened three tanks and three weapons carriers, and stomped several hundred of their men into paste. Naw... I can't see any reason why they wouldn't just give us a lift home." "Well, our ships could come and rescue us." "Molly, unless the Dabesi tell them where we are, which isn't real likely, they have no idea where we are. All they know is that we went in the general direction of what they thought might be the Dabesi home world. There's a lot of area and planets out in this direction from the last time we had contact with our base. Hell, for all we know that place there," and I pointed to the open pasture showing on the screen, "Is a lot closer to home than we are here, and they might even know our people and give us that little ride home." "But you said it might be time travel and still be here." "Molly, I don't have any faintest idea what it is. But it looks like the best bet we have right now. I can't believe that the Dabesi won't try to come back and do us in." "But I got them all, even their troop ship. I didn't leave any of them to tell anyone we were here." "Good, that means that 'NO BODY' has any idea where we are." "But.... Uhhh...." and she just looked down at me, "What are we gonna do?" I couldn't believe it, there was my giant Molly, looking lost. My giantess who had shot two Dabesi ships down with her pistol, torn up their troop ship with her bare hands, had a ball crushing their entire army under her feet, and ripped the steel bars of a giant cage apart with her bare hands. Now she was looking at me like a lost little girl, looking at me for help, as I sat like a little bug in her giant hand. What had happened to my 'Unsinkable Molly Brown'? "Molly, I went through and came back without any problems, and its certainly big enough for you. It looks like it was built for people of your size in the first place. Want to try it. We sure as hell wouldn't be any worse off. I mean how long can you live on the few cans of MREs that you have left, and do you really want to?" "Mike, could we go through, find out what's out there, and come back here?" "I did... I'll admit I didn't go very far from where I was when I got there, but it looks like we could just walk back to here any time we wanted to. Lets try it. I don't know if its a time machine, or teleport gateway, or what, but what difference does it make?" Molly took a deep breath, and looked down at me, "Sure, why not? Hell we're supposed to be explorers anyway." Then she grinned down at me and said, "Lets go." and I had my 'unstoppable' Molly back again. She started to lift me to her shoulder, then stopped and brought me up to her vast beautiful face again and gave another big sloppy wet kiss, all over my body with her giant lips, drenching me again. "Good luck, Mike." and she stepped up on the 'stage' and walked toward the "screen" as I strapped into my seat on her shoulder. "Good luck to you too, Molly. I love you! Let's go join your giant people."