A.R.: Beyond the Universe
Chapter 15 - Costly Peace

When the three reappear back at the Complex, they expected to find it as they had left it. The sisters immediately revert to being human. They had been gone for three days. But what they find is chaos. They reappeared on Level 3, in front of Alex’s place, to find a lot of debris and most of the suspended ceiling on the floor. There are huge cracks in the walls, the ceiling slab above them, and in the floor. Fires can be seen in many places, and the smoke is so thick that they are having trouble breathing.

Alex tries to open the door to his place, but it is not working. He travels inside to see if MacGuyver is OK. He is nowhere to be found. He does a quick scan and locates the dog 150 levels above them. He zips back to the corridor to tell the sisters that he has located MacGuyver on another level and that he is headed up there to check on him. Sara and Kate quickly head in different directions, anxious to find out what had happened to cause damage like this and to see what they can do to help.

Alex appears on the level, close to the location where he had sensed MacGuyver and changes to his human form. Lilly is sitting on the floor in the room, holding tight to the little dog. It is MacGuyver who sees his master first. He tries to wiggle out of her arms to get to Alex, but Lilly has not yet seen the dog’s master. She holds on tighter; trying to make sure the dog doesn’t get away.

Alex walks over to the pair and taps her on the shoulder.

“Mr. Rogers!” she screams. “We’ve all been so worried about you, so has MacGuyver. I think he missed you. Are you OK? Did you do what you needed to do? Where are Sara and Kate?”

“They are fine, Lilly. What happened here? We were just on Level 3? It’s a mess down there.”

“I don’t know. Yesterday I was at your place playing with MacGuyver. Then someone pounds on the door and a man yells at me to take MacGuyver and head for this level. When I get to the hall, it is all filled with smoke. I had to hold onto MacGuyver very tight; he was getting scared and tried to get loose. I almost lost him when a woman came running from behind me and ran into me. I came close to falling forward while holding MacGuyver. I caught myself, stood back up, ran for the chute and pressed the numbers for level 150. As I was getting off the chute, I felt the whole place shake hard, maybe four or five times. Then I saw a lot of smoke come up the chute and into the hall. That’s when I picked a room and sat on the floor. I was getting a little scared, but I was going to make sure MacGuyver didn’t try to go looking for you. My parents found me and have been with me since. They just left to see if they can help out.”

“Lilly, I need to see if I can help down there. Will you continue to watch MacGuyver for me? I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Alex tells her.

“OK. Please be careful,” Lilly asks him. “I heard someone say that something big had exploded. Don’t worry about us though. I’ll make sure he’s safe. We’ll be OK. Right, MacGuyver?”

The little dog seems to understand the girl. He licks her nose and sends his tail swishing back and forth. Alex kisses the girl on the forehead, thanks her, and bends down to his companion.

“MacGuyver, you take good care of Lilly. I’ll be back in a little while. Then we’ll go for a long walk. OK?” Alex tells the dog.

Once again, the Sheltie gives his OK by a lick on the nose of his master. Alex stands up and runs into the corridor, out of Lilly’s sight. He does not want to scare her by vanishing in front of her. As soon as he is out of eyesight, he changes to a Traveler, vanishes and travels back to the third level to see if he can help.

The place has even more smoke than it had when he first left it to find MacGuyver. He does a quick scan and locates several injured people in the next room. There are many dead or dying just down the hall. There are injured people from Level 2 to level 6. He travels to each of the wounded and sends them up to the hospital on Level 12. Some are trapped beneath heavy steel girders or beams that had been used to retrofit the place. Alex wills anything out of his way to get to and transport the injured. His scans show that Level 1 has molten lava on it, and it is quickly rising towards Level 2. There are no survivors to be found on Level One.

He travels down to Level 1 to see lava everywhere. It is about 3 feet deep and quickly rising. Alex scans the level and finds where the lava is coming from. It is entering through a large crack in the floor next to one of the massive power rods that goes deep into the earth. Alex wills the molten lava solid, temporarily closing the large gap. He’ll have to fix it later. Then he senses that Sara is in trouble.

He scans and locates her. She is on Level 2, trapped with an injured man between two crumbling walls. Alex travels to her and wills back the walls until she can drag the man to a safer place. Then Alex moves them both to the hospital level.

“Alex.” Sara beings to say something, but she had been on the smoke-filled level too long and is having trouble breathing.

She finally catches her breath. “Kate is still down there.”

Before Sara can finish her words, Alex vanishes, having already located Kate. He finds her dragging two injured men. Even with a broken leg, she is determined to get them to safety.

As a Traveler, he can do a lot of things, but making repairs to living tissue is not one of them. He grabs Kate and the two injured men and then travels back to the hospital level, bringing them back with him. There he sees a relieved but angry Sara, fussing at Kate for getting herself a broken leg.

But Sara’s anger quickly turns to a smile. “After what we just went through at the barrier, I almost thought you were invincible. Guess I was wrong, huh?”

Sara turns back to Alex, and she gives him the tightest hug and the longest kiss he has ever received.

“Wow!” was Alex’s only thought. Kate’s also.

“Sara, I really want to ask you something, but I still need to help out down there,” Alex tells Sara.

Then he looks at Kate, who is leaning on Sara’s shoulder.

“Kate, I know that you’re injured. But I have to know: do you still have any on that stuff left inside of you from making the barrier?”

Perplexed, Kate responds, “Sure, not enough to make another barrier, but I’ve still got plenty left. What do you need it for?”

Alex explains what he saw and did on Level 1. He tells Kate and Sara that he needs Kate to send a narrow blast of energy to the cracked floor, welding the damaged hard material which encases the Complex.

“If you’ll let me, I can change you to the same form you used while in space. This way you will not be susceptible to the heat or deadly gasses down there, but we need to hurry,” he tells them both.

“But Alex, she has a broken leg. She needs to get it set,” Sara tells him.

“I can’t fix her leg, but she can,” informs Alex to them.

“I can do what?” Kate asks.

“You can fix your leg. I will help you to change into your other form. You two can help down there and then come back here, where I’ll help you change back. When I do, you can simply rearrange yourself to fix the injury.”

“I can do what?” Kate asks.

“Wait a minute. Earlier, you said something about me losing those extra few pounds. Is that how it’s done?” Kate asks him.

“Yep. All you have to do is want it hard enough and will it so,” Alex tells her.

“Well, if that’s the case, then we still have some work to do,” Sara tells them.

Alex looks at them. All three begin to glow, change back to their previous forms and vanish. Alex travels back to Level 1, bringing them with him.

The plan is simple. Sara will use her control to help Kate send a narrow beam of energy to the damaged rod, welding the damaged side closed. They will then send another beam through the lava to weld shut the crack in the floor, closing it permanently. A third beam will close the gap between the rod and the floor, completely sealing off the lava.

After handling what they did at the barrier’s formation, it proves to be a very quick task. Soon, the levels and the Complex are in no danger. Had they not sealed the cracks, pressure inside the Complex would have eventually built up enough to seriously damage it.

With the Complex and Kate safe, Alex and Sara set forth to determine what had happened. It takes several weeks of searching and asking questions before the whole story comes to light.

When Alex sent the command to the defense and control units to transmit their energy to Kate, a flaw in one of the deep-core power rods beneath the Complex caused several explosions as the massive amounts of energy flowed through it. A large explosion caused the crack in the floor, allowing the molten lava to seep into the Complex.

It would be several months before the lower levels were in any shape to be used. Level One is considered a total loss. Alex did what he could to help while trying to not let them see him in his Traveler form.

While doing a search for bodies, Alex and Sara are saddened to learn that one of the casualties is Doc. He was on the first level when the first explosion occurred. Even though Kate was considerably older than him, Doc seemed to fill the void left after her father died.

As a final tribute to him, Alex grants Doc the one wish he had asked Alex. With Kate and Sara at his side, Alex travels with Doc’s body to a distant planet, where life is just beginning. Doc had once said to Alex that he wished that he could have visited another planet, just once.

Now Doc is the only human to have done so. And there he will lie, forever protected, encased in the same permanent energy used to create the barrier.

The following spring, we find Sara and Kate standing on a long beach covered with black sand. Sara is in a long, white gown; Kate is wearing slightly less formal dress. There are several tents set up, and a light breeze is making the tent flaps move in long, soft waves. There are several hundred-people sitting in chairs set up in many rows, all seemingly waiting for something.

Inside one of the tents, a nervous Alex paces back and forth.

“Alex, would you please calm down? You’re making even MacGuyver nervous” Dale tells him. “You can become a Traveler and do almost anything. Why would something like this get you so worried?”

“I don’t know…I can move planets at will, but I can’t make these butterflies in my stomach calm down.”

A sound of formal music can be heard in the breeze.

“Looks like it’s time, old man” Dale tells him. “Still want to go through with it?”

Alex looks at Dale and then MacGuyver. He thinks about it for about three seconds and grins.

“Absolutely.”

Dale walks to the tent, opens the flap and walks out, followed by Alex and MacGuyver. They soon separate, with Alex stopping when he is standing between the seated crowd of people and a man in a dark suit, who is standing formal and straight. As the music changes, everyone seated stands and turns their head to look behind them.

There, walking beneath a simple arch is Lilly, tossing out rose petals on the sand as she walks down an aisle between the people, heading for Alex. Walking behind her is Kate, followed by Sara, with her arm wrapped around Dale’s arm. They walk slowly until they reach Alex. Dale gives Sara a small kiss and hands her to Alex. Dale moves and takes his position on the other side of Alex. Sara and Alex both turn to face the man in black and hold hands. He speaks…

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered this day to join these two in holy matrimony…”

After the wedding reception, Dale leads Alex and Sara into a separate tent, where they see Kate and MacGuyver standing there. Kate asks the newly married couple where they plan to go on their honeymoon.

Sara looks at Alex and then back at Kate.

“Don’t look at me,” Kate says. “He’s been closed lipped about it ever since you two got engaged. All I could get out of him was a sneaky-looking grin,” Kate informs her.

Sara turns to her husband. “So, where are we going on our honeymoon?”

Alex grins and kisses his wife. “You’ll see.”

With that, he looks at her. Sara is holding his hand. She looks down to see that his hand is now glowing, so is hers.

“Alex, what are you up to? Alex…A L E X…”

Kate, MacGuyver, and Dale watch as Alex and a very surprised but smiling Sara glow, then fade from sight, leaving them alone in the room.

Kate turns to Dale. “Well, that’s one down,” she tells him. She then kisses him and walks toward the door, with MacGuyver closely following her.

“Hey, just what did you mean by ‘that’s one down?’” he asks her.

Kate turns to him, smiles, and walks out the door, leaving Dale standing in the room, wondering what just happened.

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