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(Jenny was delighted to see Burt step into the living room from the hallway where the gateway lay hidden from anyone without a key or infinity symbol around their neck.
“Honey, I’m home!” He called as he emerged. His hair was as wild as ever, and his eyes twinkled with the joy of seeing her.
“Reading the journals? I was wondering what you would do with all of the time you have on your hands for the next few weeks. Anything good in there? Have you gotten to me yet?”
“No, silly, I’m just at the beginning. At last, I’ll get to see what I missed out on. Lizzie has just started agent training in Sanglarka.”
“I’ll bet there’s more than a little culture shock going on then. I remember how it was with me, and we were a lot more advanced then than she would have been. Well, don’t mind me. I’m only stopping in to check on you, and I’m off again. Shall I bring you some lunch?” he asked, kissing her on the top of her short curls.
“Thank you, Burt! I’ll admit I’m feeling almost guilty about taking time off at this point, but it feels good to connect with Lizzie and what might have happened for me if things had been different.”
Burt knelt down to give her an enthusiastic hug then got up and rambled out to the kitchen whistling a merry, albeit unrecognizable tune. It was fun to hear him puttering around in their little kitchen. So many of the homes and facilities that housed gates were large and impressive, but Jenny loved her roomy little house on Infinity Loop with its large well-manicured back yard and welcoming living space. After having had it trashed by minions of the Fleistians, it had been not only restored but refurnished, and it looked and felt like home.
In short order, Burt popped back in with a little tray with a sandwich, a small salad and some lemonade, Jenny’s favorite lunch. He knelt again, kissed her thoroughly, and hopped up.
“Back to it,” he said. “I’ll be back in to check in on you in a day or so. I’m working with the planning team right now, prioritizing targets for liberating dimensions from the Fleistians. We have a little breathing space for now, but not much. We’ll all be glad when your little ‘vacation’ is over. Lolly wants you to know she will be happy to see you when you are better. She’s been hanging out with BaaGah, mostly at headquarters, helping Merv’s team to learn about ‘the spaces.’”
He chuckled. “All because I picked a fight with a bully. Goes to show, you never know where something will lead.”
And with that he headed back down the hallway and Jenny heard the door close behind him.
“Now where was I? Oh yes,” and she opened the journal again...)
Lizzie lay panting, looking up into Gustav’s brown eyes, which were crinkled in amusement. His face was haloed by the sun streaming from above him. “Are you okay, Lizzie?” he inquired, not all that sympathetically. “I don’t suppose you noticed the small pile of earth on that part of the trail. Gophers and other burrowers inhabit this wood, as is their right. Let’s take a look at your ankle.”
He squatted down beside her and gently unlaced her tennis shoe on the right foot. It hurt, but not as much as it had when she had stepped into the hole in the trail that had been hidden by a covering of snow. She winced as he carefully pulled the sock down and ran one hand along the ankle while supporting it with the other.
“Hmm, not broken, but it may smart for a while. Just a moment.” His eyes went unfocused. “Oak will be here in a few minutes to help you back to the lodge. This is a good lesson as we move on. I won’t fuss at you about it, but you will learn as you go to focus more on what is around you instead of all of the questions and possibilities running around in that brilliant mind of yours.”
He picked up a handful of snow and applied it to the ankle and chuckled as Lizzie winced. He was absolutely right. She had been thinking of all of the possibilities for the new tech Meta had showed her today. After nearly a week of study, each time she thought her brain would burst from it all, she found that she had only scratched the tiniest bit of the surface of all she needed to know and understand.
Oak arrived, and instead of the stretcher Lizzie had expected, he simply bent over and lifted her into his arms and immediately strode at a quick pace towards the lodge, his long legs eating up the distance so fast without actually running that within fifteen minutes they got back to the lodge. The trip out had taken them twice that.
Meanwhile, Gustav followed behind, arriving about five minutes after Oak had deposited her on one of the window seats in the lobby area. “I’ll be right back,” he sent to Lizzie and returned in a few minutes with a first aid kit. He double-checked the ankle and wrapped it carefully in an elastic bandage. In the meantime, Livia arrived with an ice pack and a set of crutches in her hands.
Lizzie was horribly embarrassed to be causing such a stir and said so.
“You wouldn’t be the first trainee and won’t be the last to sustain an unintended injury during training. You’ll need to stay off of the ankle for a few days and then you’ll be right back in the middle of all of the physical training. In the meantime, you needn’t slow your other training at all,” Livia said, her hands on her hips.
Lizzie winced again. It wasn’t fair that they were all being so nice and understanding when she felt she deserved more of a tongue lashing at the very least.
“Help her stand,” sent Gustav. “I need to adjust these. She’s a bit taller than the last person to use them.”
Livia helped Lizzie up, supporting her so she could stand on one leg while Gustav measured one crutch. “Sit her down and I’ll get her some of that medicinal tea to help with the inflammation and then apply the ice pack. It’s going to hurt more before it hurts less.”
Livia hurried off and Gustav finished adjusting the other crutch. “Now, take it easy on the ankle for the next few days and I’ll look in on you in the morning to rewrap it after you’ve given yourself a sponge bath and dressed. Livia will see to it that you have a chair in your bathroom to make that process a little easier.
“Oak will be your transport up and down the stairs, so don’t be surprised when he knocks at your door in the morning.”
“Thank you, Gustav. I promise to be more attentive to what I’m doing in the future. I haven’t had much of a need to pay attention when I’m outdoors in the past. I’m mostly used to sidewalks and paved streets, other than the beach. This whole outdoorsy thing is admittedly pretty new to me. I went camping when I was a kid, but I usually took a book or two and hung out under a tree somewhere while everyone else was exploring and things.”
“I am sure you are probably wondering why going out in the wilderness around the lodge is important, but you’ve just learned a great lesson. You will find yourself in many strange and unexpected environments as you complete your training in other dimensions and finally begin your work as an agent. If I could sum up for you one of the most crucial things you will learn from me, I would say, ‘Pay attention.’”
Lizzie didn’t reply, just bobbed her head, which also hurt since she had hit the ground pretty solidly when her foot had gone into the hole.
Livia arrived with the tea. Lizzie sniffed it and grimaced. It smelled as she had imagined a “medicinal tea” might smell.
“It has turmeric and willow bark in it, among a few other things that will help relax the muscles, reduce inflammation, and stay calm,” Livia remarked with a grin. “You will drink every drop before you leave this area. Then you will go to Randall for your communications lesson. There is nothing in the tea that will inhibit your ability to think.”
Lizzie drank it down as Livia applied the ice pack, trying not to make too much of a face. It was drinking temperature, not too hot. When she had sat for about twenty minutes under Livia’s attentive gaze, she grabbed her crutches and swung her way to the library room, where they had their communications lessons.
The library was more than just a large study lined with books. At the far end was a corner dedicated to various types of communications equipment ranging from short wave radio to some other things that at first were puzzling to Lizzie.
For one thing, there was a much larger version of the tablet Meta had given her and a qwerty keyboard, but not like any typewriter Lizzie had ever seen. Instead of actual keys you push down with your fingers, it was flat with the letters embossed on the flat surface. Simply touch a letter and it showed up on the writing area of the screen. But, wonder of wonders, you could simply talk to the screen, and it would type out what you said as fast as you could speak!
Randall called it a computer. Lizzie’s only reference for that word related to the Standards Western Automatic Computer, otherwise known as SWAC, she had heard of at a lecture by a professor from the Institute for Numerical Analysis at UCLA. But that device was huge, compared to this device that consisted only of a screen and a keyboard, and the SWAC could only calculate numbers, outputting results via a printer onto paper.
This device, on the other hand, with no vacuum tubes or even any discernable wires, could store more information than was contained in all of the books of most libraries, communicate with the Alliance into another dimension, and even create complex, three-dimensional visual models from a flat image at the touch of a button. It could do much more than that, according to Randall, but it was all so far beyond anything Lizzie had ever imagined.
Randall looked up as she entered on the crutches, and she could tell by the twist of his mouth he was trying really hard not to laugh, which irritated her all the more. She not only didn’t think it was something to laugh about, she was terribly embarrassed about the whole incident.
He didn’t laugh, however, but instead turned to the screen once she had awkwardly seated herself in the rolling office chair next to him.
“The good news is that there are no hidden potholes to deal with here,” he sent with a quiet chortle.
Lizzie rolled her eyes. It was clear she would not live this down anytime soon. “So, what are we doing today?” she asked, instead of acknowledging the jest any further.
“I thought we would discuss your MDP and its uses. By now you have learned how to store things in there and how to remove them. There are other features you should be aware of. For one, although no one besides yourself can currently get access to anything inside your MDP, there is an option to have it keyed to another person. In order to do that, you need to designate someone you trust to receive permission, and they need to have those permissions registered with the Alliance Council, a simple matter, but necessary.
“You can’t designate just any person or being to access your MDP. They must be either a registered agent, a guide, or a guardian to qualify. As you begin the internship part of your training, you will be assigned a mentor known as a “guide.” Guides are registered agents of the Alliance and are especially trained for that position after years of agent-level experience.
“It is traditional that this person will be the first person to have emergency access to your MDP. Later, as you become certified, you can change that by notifying the Alliance. You can also rescind those permissions as you need to by the command, ‘lock.’ The lock command means that no one besides yourself, under any circumstances, can get into your MDP. There is no override for this, unless you give the command, ‘unlock’ with your keyword. Clear?”
“Of course. Why would I want to give someone permission to enter my MDP?”
“One of the reasons would be to allow them to enable the emergency beacon. Every MDP is equipped with a beacon that can issue a continuous signal that can be picked up by the Alliance when they are in range. The beacon isn’t inter-dimensional, but most agents carry a device that can detect the MDP beacon as long as you are on or around the same planet as the beacon.
“If you were unconscious and you needed to be left where you were for some reason, your companion could activate your beacon and could go for help.”
“That’s pretty handy, but what is the likelihood I would find myself in such a situation?”
“It isn’t an everyday occurrence, but it can happen.” Randall shook his head. “Not every mission you go on for the Alliance will necessarily be public to the area or a simple in-and-out situation. Sometimes you will encounter the unexpected, and it pays for us to prepare you in every way that is possible. However, much of your agent training will teach you how to handle difficult, challenging, or emergency situations effectively.”
“It seems like every time I think I have this all figured out, I find out something I didn’t count on in the beginning,” Lizzie sent with an audible sigh.
Randall puckered his brows in concern. “Are you having second thoughts then?”
“Oh, heavens no!” Lizzie replied sincerely. “It’s just so much to learn and assimilate. I certainly didn’t count on how physical this would all be. But I wouldn’t trade this experience for any amount of money.” She shifted her weight in the chair and winced as she inadvertently touched her foot to the floor. “I know I have a lot to learn, and I get impatient with myself sometimes. I understand my attitudes can be a bit off-putting.” And she shrugged her shoulders as if to say, “Nothing I can do about it.”
“Give yourself some time. None of us learned what we know in a few weeks or even a year. This is why we take all this in stages. We won’t be doing much beyond scratching the surface here at Sanglarka. Even after your more advanced agent training, you will still be a babe in the woods. Like any discipline, especially in the sciences, learning is a lifetime pursuit.
“You have a good mind, Lizzie, and in many circumstances your self-sufficient attitude and your craving for solving every mystery science can provide will stand you in good stead. But patience is probably the most desirable quality you can pursue along with everything else. Over time, if you don’t learn this, you will find you will move slower rather than faster, as many doors will remain closed to you.
“I don’t mean to lecture you, and you always get to choose your path, but as one of your instructors, it is my job to highlight the best possible path for you. Whether you take it or not, in the final analysis, will be completely in your own hands. One final caution, however. Although we each have the right to choose our paths and our actions, none of us get to choose the consequences of them.”
Lizzie nodded solemnly. “Thank you for your honesty, Randall. I know impatience is a failing of mine. And I tend to hammer at the things that stand in my way instead of learning to understand why the barrier is there so I can fix it, go around it, or maybe learn from it. I’ll continue to work on that.”
And so it went for the remainder of the six weeks she spent at Sanglarka. Her ankle healed fairly quickly with the ministrations of Livia and Gustav. She advanced in all of her classes to the satisfaction of her instructors, with no additional injuries worth thinking about.
She even found herself warming to the quarterstaff. It had begun to feel natural in her hand. Her balance and timing were improving, and she had mastered some of the more complex breathing and relaxation techniques.
She still felt in awe of the technology she had been exposed to and was having a difficult time imagining going back to where every telephone was attached to a wire and the smallest calculator took up an entire desk. The tiny black and white television screen in the big wooden box that dominated her parents’ living room seemed incredibly archaic, and yet it was the finest one on the market.
Her instructors had assured her that humankind was on a path that was rapidly taking them far beyond their current level of science and technology, but she could definitely understand why she was under such an obligation to see to it that none of this would leak out to the world in its current state. In the wrong hands at this time, it could cause some serious upheaval.
It was amazing to her how fast the time passed. Before she realized it, she was seated across from Livia at a special feast to celebrate her departure for her training at the Alliance Agent Training Unit on an alien world.
As she looked around at the faces that were now so familiar to her, she felt a bit sad and even a little afraid. She would miss them all. And now she was truly launching into the unknown.
She had been acquainted with the concept of alien life, and through Meta she had learned to be careful not to judge by sight alone. Meta and she had become not only teacher and student, but good friends, often spending time together outside of the formal classes. However, as she understood it, the majority of the beings she would be associating with in the next stage of her adventure would not be humanoid at all.
Grenheim stood at the end of the meal, and all heads turned towards him. “Lizzie, it has been a pleasure to have you here and watch your progress in your studies. But now you leave us. Not forever. You will find yourself returning regularly over time. The room you have occupied during your stay here will be reserved for you and will always be available at any time you come back to us.
“It is customary to give a parting gift to our students. Livia?”
Livia bent beneath the table and stood with a quarterstaff in her hands. Unlike the practice staves, it was metal shod on top and bottom, and the top of the staff had an “L” etched into it, with a tree embossed over the planet Earth.
“This is your staff of office,” Livia sent. “Many in the dimension recognize it as giving you some authority in the Alliance, not to mention its being a handy weapon when the need arises. It is my hope that it never does. That being said, it will be helpful to have your own, as your training in its use will continue over your time at the training unit.”
“Thank you,” Lizzie said, and for a moment her eyes teared up. “I will miss you all so much. I’ll send you a postcard.” And they all laughed. They knew she would have to do any messaging to them via her tablet. They had assured her that they would be apprised of her progress via the Alliance Council, but they would all enjoy getting an occasional personal message from her.
“It will be early morning when you arrive at Alliance headquarters, and their days are 32 hours long, so it will be a long day for you. Meta will escort you and see that you are properly introduced to the three high councilors and then conducted to the training unit. Install your staff into your MDP. Are you fully packed otherwise?”
“I am,” Lizzie returned, looking one last time into each face.
