Shelby and Shauna Kitt and the Dimensional Holes. P. H. C. Marchesi
bag and waving away the heat. “Try some – if mirians eat, that is.”
“It is our planet that runs on energy,” said Lendox, eagerly getting a handful of popcorn. “I run on food, just as you do.”
Marina and Charlie watched, shocked, as Lendox munched noisily, and then quickly grabbed another handful from the bag.
“A little hard on the teeth,” he said, chuckling, “but very good indeed.”
Marina could not figure out if it was Lendox’s good mood, or the smell of popcorn, that made her and Charlie crave popcorn all of a sudden. As the three of them ravenously finished the contents of the bag, Lendox carefully collected all the unpopped kernels from the bottom of the bag, and popped them right on his palm.
“Can all mirians manipulate energy like that?” asked Marina, impressed.
“Not exactly,” said Lendox. “You will see for yourself when you go to Miriax.”
Marina stared at Lendox. Had she heard right?
“If you agree to be our aerospace engineer, that is,” he quickly added. “We need someone to help us build some very special planes.”
“You guys can travel all the way here, but you need my help to build planes?”
“They are more like spaceships, as a matter of fact.”
“Why me, though?” insisted Marina. “There are a ton of great engineers out there.”
“You are not great,” said Lendox. “You are the best.”
“Well, I always thought so,” said Marina, flattered.
“At only twenty six years of age, you created the most technologically advanced aerospace designs to date. You called them the MG planes, after your own name. Your ideas were so brilliant, in fact, that your army hired you to work on their planes.”
“Yeah, and then I got fired,” replied Marina, embarrassedly. “I bet you didn’t know that.”
“I did.”
“And you still want me?” asked Marina. “I hate to say this, but no one’s been interested in my work for years now.”
“I think you will find that is about to change,” said Lendox, pleasantly. “The Consul of Miriax is talking to your president about you at this very moment.”
The Consul of Miriax? Talking to the president about her? This was almost more amazing to Marina than the idea that she was talking to an alien who liked popcorn. Before she could formulate any kind of reply, the phone rang loudly, startling both her and Charlie.
“I believe it is your president,” remarked Lendox.
Marina rushed towards the ringing sound, and fumbled through several piles of paper before she finally found the receiver.
“H-hello,” she stammered. “Gibbs Observatory. Marina Gibbs speaking.”
Charlie and Lendox watched intently as the buzz of a male voice echoed through the receiver.
“Y-yes, hello, Mr. President,” said Marina, glancing at them and nodding slowly to indicate that it really was the president on the other end. Charlie rushed to where she stood, and placed his good ear as close to the receiver as he could.
“I’m honored to talk to you as well,” continued Marina, trying unsuccessfully to push Charlie away. “Yes, he’s here,” she added, glancing at Lendox. “He did tell me. Uh-huh. I am interested, but I’d like to know more before I – a meeting? Now? We can get there that fast?”
Lendox nodded, as if reaching the White House within minutes were the easiest thing in the world. Then he spied a decrepit coffee-maker, and eagerly went to examine it.
“All right,” continued Marina. “We’ll be there shortly. Ok, sir. Good-bye.”
Marina put the receiver down, and took a deep breath. The whole thing was real, after all. Lendox, however, seemed completely unaware of her monumental realization: he had touched the coffee-maker, and looked nearly hypnotized by the gurgling sound it produced.
“I can’t believe you just talked to the president, Marina!” cried Charlie. “That’s harder than talking to an alien! Are you going to meet him?”
“Right now,” she said. “I guess I’ll have to squeeze into that roomix thing.”
“Hold on,” said Charlie, worriedly. “How do you know it’s safe?”
Marina looked at the old security guard. The thought had not even occurred to her.
“Is it safe to go into the roomix, Lendox?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, finally turning away from the coffee-maker. “It is also very comfortable. It has thirty-seven different kinds of pillows inside.”
“There you go, Charlie,” she said, smiling. “It can’t be dangerous if there are pillows in there.”
“I don’t like you going alone with him,” Charlie insisted, in the kind of whisper that is louder than just about anything else. “He could be taking advantage of that to kidnap you!”
“Charlie,” began Marina, somewhat impatiently now, “if he wanted to kidnap me, don’t you think he could have done so already – and without calling the president first?”
“I guess,” he said, with a hint of embarrassment in his voice. “But who is going to take care of this place if you take off with him? It’s your observatory.”
“No, it’s yours,” said Marina, affectionately. “You’ve always taken care of it. I only came here because I had nowhere else to go.”
Charlie’s eyes nearly filled with tears as Marina gave him an affectionate hug, and it struck Marina that she was in danger of crying also.
“We better go,” she said, turning quickly to Lendox. “Where’s that ship of yours?”
The mirian vice consul tapped his ear for a moment, and then turned to Charlie.
“Do not be frightened by what you see,” he said. “You will be perfectly safe, and so will we.”
Charlie nodded, looking thoroughly alarmed. Marina briefly wondered what Lendox might be talking about, but she was just too eager to get to the White House to bother with any more questions just then.
“So how do we get in the roomix?” she asked.
“It reads my energy signature, and whatever is attached to me. Here,” he said, stretching out his hand, “if you hold on to me, you will be able to get in. Are you ready?”
It occurred to Marina that she had been ready her whole life, and yet no one had ever asked her that. With a growing smile on her face, she gave Lendox her hand. Everything around her immediately began to melt away, and she felt extremely dizzy as the shapes in the room became unrecognizable, and then disappeared completely under a soft, blue light.
“Here we are,” Lendox said, firmly holding her hand. “It is a disorienting experience the first time, but one soon gets used to it.”
After a few moments of leaning against the vice consul, Marina found that she was able to focus again. She saw that she was in a curved space made of something that looked like blue glass. There were no seats, but the floor had pillows of different shapes and sizes all around. In fact, there seemed to be nothing in there but pillows and space.
“I guess you weren’t kidding about the pillows,” she said, laughing. “This is like a lounge area, but without any furniture. I’d never guess it’s a ship.”
“It is not a ship, though perhaps it resembles one to you,” he said. “This is actually the most advanced roomix model we have.”
Marina noticed that Lendox’s eyes looked intensely blue under the light