“OK, we’ll go Alice. We were willing to die for the sake of freedom here on Earth. We’ll take a chance on Athena. We have no reason not to,” said James.
***
“I can see you have no baggage to bring along, and you aren’t likely to go back for anything, so this really will be a new birth for you both,” said Alice. “It won’t matter. We have anything you might need both on Earth and when you arrive on Athena. And since you will be working, you will be paid. I can’t tell you how pleased I am to have you aboard!”
“We have to wait for a ride back to our facility. It’s about 50 miles out in that mountain range there in a rather obscure looking building.” Alice rooted around in her big bag and got out a device rather like an old-fashioned smart phone and made a quick call.
“Our ride isn’t that far away right now though. It’ll be here in a few minutes. I told him I already had some possible recruits,” Alice added.
“You might be interested to know that you won’t have to wear those uniforms anymore. How about that? In fact, life is going to very different from anything you have ever known before.”
James and Martha sat on the bench again. They looked like they were thinking, but excited too.
In about half an hour a dusty white vehicle like a rather large van pulled silently up to the bus stop. A wide flexible door in the side rolled up into the roof. Inside was a U-shaped arrangement of seats. Behind the driver’s seat was a sort of cupboard containing various bottles and packages of products unfamiliar to the recruits. The driver turned toward the doorway, throwing his arm over his seat, and grinned at them. He was a forty-ish looking fellow with a black beard and a head of tight black curls.
“This guy is Schmuel, kids. He will take care of us today. I will ride with you. I won’t leave you alone until you don’t need me,” said Alice, picking up her big bag and standing.
James waited while Martha and then Alice stepped into the van, then he hopped in too. It looked like there was seating for about nine people so there was lots of room. The seats were soft but plain. The door rolled down and soft lights came on. There were no windows to expose the passengers.
“There is a small bathroom in back,” said Alice, realizing that they had been out there talking and waiting for quite a while. “Also, we carry snacks for just such an occasion as this.”
“Thanks Alice, I am hungry,” said Martha. They still had the multi-colored food bars from the pod but hadn’t touched them and didn’t intend to. In fact, since there was a waste receptacle in the van, James emptied his pockets into it. He grinned. “There, except for our clothes, that’s our last tie with the place we came from.” Then they explored the contents of the snack cupboard. There were pleasant fizzy drinks, water, various crispy things, cheese and chocolates.
The big white van rolled silently down the empty highway heading further and further away from everything James and Martha had ever known. They could see out of the driver’s windows up in front. They passed empty suburban areas full of abandoned houses, then some small farms, some of which still seemed to be in operation.
Soon they were up in the foothills of the nearby mountain range. Neither of them had seen landscape like this. Hills, trees, rivers! It was fascinating and incredibly lovely to Martha and to James too. She kept exclaiming over it. Her face became beautiful when she smiled.
Soon Schmuel turned to the left off of the main road into a small side road and then from there down a tree-lined driveway. There was no indication what sort of a place the driveway led to, but at the end of the driveway was a grassy slope covered with wildflowers, in addition to the long grass. Set into the hillside were a couple of large green doors. They were adequate to admit the van which paused before them. Alice made another call and the doors opened, admitting the van, and then closing behind it. Schmuel parked the van near the double doors. Everyone climbed out.
They had entered a large white room. There were four desks with some rather relaxed-looking guys sitting at them. There was also a sofa and a couple of armchairs off to the side. The men got up to greet the newcomers and Alice. Names were exchanged and congratulations offered. They seemed honestly excited to see the new recruits. The head man was named David Leffler.
David said, “why don’t we all sit over here, and I’ll explain.”
“This is all going to sound strange to you but hang in there and I think it will end up making sense to you both. What it boils down to is this; several years ago, we were approached by some off-planet researchers who offered to teach us some new technologies. We thought that was a great idea. Therefore, they taught us how to move through space and time by means of something we call a Slip Chute. Basically, it is a surface gate to surface gate between planets. It's almost like an airlock in a way.
“They also knew that we had been looking, in our limited way for an earth-like planet and they knew of this one. So, we, with their help, built this gate and they built the one on Athena where you will land. It takes some nerve the first time you use the Slip Chute. But it works really well, and it won’t even mess your hair up when you jump in! By the way, you can slip together if you are snugged up tight together, if that helps.”
He paused and smiled at James and Martha who were quietly trying to understand what they had landed in the middle of.
David said, “I don’t really truly understand all of the physics of the thing either. The math is beyond me. But I know it works. Both Alice and I have slipped many many times. In fact, when we go home at night we go to Athena!”
At the very back of the large white room was an expanse of wall with a sort of circular opening set into it. Six large petals closed over the opening. A diffuse white glow showed from behind the petals.
David said, “to set your minds at ease, at much as possible, I will demonstrate slipping to Athena and then coming back. Come on over by the Chute.”
Alice, with her bag, James, and Martha with nothing but themselves and David stood before the Chute. “This is how you do it,” said David.
Standing right in from of the petals, he said “Athena.” The petals withdrew into the wall all around the Chute leaving a pearlescent lighted circle exposed. It looked a little like fog in there, but shiny fog.
David stepped into the fog and vanished.
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