After a while...
The Luv Shuttle seems to be on auto-pilot. Rainbow, Space Hippie, Herb, and Starr sit together on inflatable chairs and beanbags, loudly slurping green tea and giggling.
Space Hippie asks, "So this was all the Space Agency's equipment?"
Rainbow nods. "Sort of. The bus was Herb's to begin with. We converted it after the Space Agency shut down."
"But they just let you keep this stuff when you left?"
Rainbow shrugs. "We bought it all cheap at the auction. We were the only ones who knew what most of it was for."
Starr stretches and yawns. "There's a bunch more back at home in our garage."
Chillz grunts a couple of times from under the dash. He's installing an electronic gizmo that has a small screen.
Space Hippie frowns. "But I don't get it. How could the Space Agency just shut down?"
Herb sighs. "Global warming ate it, man," he says sadly. "Global-obal-dobal."
Rainbow nods again. "All the science funds went to try to keep the climate stable."
Chillz's gizmo beeps. The screen lights up. "There. This should give us an idea of where he's at."
He messes with a keyboard and some buttons.
Space Hippie slides out of her inflatable chair. It makes a farting noise. Embarrassed, she peeks around to see if anybody noticed. She runs her fingers through her hair and begins to twist it nervously. "But how did you guys know about my father and me?"
Rainbow pours more tea. "Herb and I were already on a team to make contact with the Mystery Character. We were surprised when we saw him come in on radar."
Herb nods with emphasis. "Big weed! Big-iggle-giggle!"
Rainbow pats him fondly on the wrist. "Anyway, the Space Agency sent us in to hush everything up after the mess in the lab. We set up an alarm in case your father came back."
Herb stares at Space Hippie. "Hey, man, you look familiar."
"Uhm... You just met me."
"I mean from before..." While Herb thinks about that, Chillz starts freaking out and shaking the gizmo controls.
Starr sighs. "What's wrong now?"
He's practically in a panic. "There's some kind of interference!"
She sets down her teacup. "Stop freaking! Hold on a sec."
She grabs a handheld gizmo and starts searching around with it. She stops at Space Hippie. "Aha! You're interfering with our gadget."
Space Hippie's stunned. "Me? But how?"
"Not sure. I'll run some tests."
Chillz pounds the controls with his thumb. "Aargh!"
Starr rolls her eyes in exasperation. "Chill! It's okay. We know he was headed in this direction."
Rainbow nods in agreement. "We'll just stop on Beepbop and pick up some baffling equipment."
Space Hippie raises one eyebrow. "Beepbop?"
CHAPTER TWELVE
Beepbop
BEEPBOP
The planet Beepbop. Colorful, clean, and futuristic. City and nature in balance, with plenty of greenery between buildings.
Tiny personal shuttles zoom this way and that, trailing rainbows of light behind them, but making no noise or exhaust.
Aliens walk quietly on soft, green pathways. No humans.
The aliens' faces are lit in different colors from the inside. The colored lights seem to flash on and off randomly.
The hippies contract the bus to its normal size and park in a green parking area. As soon as the hippies get out, aliens stop, stare, and whisper.
Rainbow ignores them. "We'll get a snack first. The parts shop doesn't open for half an Earth hour."
The hippies saunter over to a nearby smoothie stand. A couple of aliens follow shyly.
SMOOTHIE SHOP
The hippies settle into an outdoor booth. A waitress comes.
She whips out an electronic pad and stylus.
"What can Bleema get its?" she asks in a tired voice.
Rainbow tells her, "The usual. Actually, add one more."
The waitress calls out the order to the cook in an alien language that sounds like beeping.
Chillz, sitting beside Space Hippie and making her very nervous, is uncharacteristically calm. "Don't worry, you'll like this," he says.
A tall plant close to their booth grows a little. A few alien creatures kind of like birds fly over and rest near the bottom, looking up at them.
The rest of the hippies stare at Space Hippie.
Starr is in awe. "Have you always done that?"
"Ever since I can remember."
Rainbow leans toward her excitedly. "Can you control it?"
"No. I mean, I never tried. It just happens."
A couple of teenage alien girls slowly make their way to the table, shoving each other, beeping and giggling.
The taller one taps Chillz on the shoulder. "Excuse Sheesha."
Chillz tries to play it cool. "Yah?"
She bounces up and down a little in her excitement. "Is it the human they call Chillz?"
Chillz nods. Herb and Starr grin.
The girls bust out in a fit of giggles. The taller one continues. "Can Sheesha have it autograph?"
"Of course," he says, his chest swelling. He signs her tentacle and the girls walk away, beeping and giggling. Their faces' lights flash more rapidly.
OUTER SPACE
Back to the happy green planet Petrol was heading towards.
It's now partially covered with his slowly spreading black ooze.
PARTS SHOP
The hippies enter a Beepbop parts shop. It's clean and colorful. Spaceship parts are hanging behind the counter.
Rainbow waves at the salesman as he enters the room. "Hi, Neen."
The salesman smiles and waves back. "May Neener help its?"
Rainbow hands him a list. "Can we put some more stuff on our account?"
Neener smiles, his face lighting up and flashing. "Of course. Anything for its."
He goes into a back room to fill their order.
Outside the window, a passerby stops and stares. She hesitates, then walks reluctantly away, still staring.
Chillz stands tall and seems to enjoy the attention. Herb doesn't notice, though. He's busy staring at Space Hippie. "I know you, man. I met you somewhere before..."
Rainbow stifles a laugh. "She was the little green girl from the lab, remember?" she explains patiently.
Herb snaps his fingers. "Oh! Fladdaddle..." and he pats Space Hippie sympathetically on the head.
Neener returns. "It needs to marks here."
Rainbow signs the electronic pad and waves. "Thanks."
They turn to leave.
Four aliens are outside staring at them with their glowing faces pressed against the glass.
OUTER SPACE
Petrol is recharged and zooming away from the planet he was on.
In the background, the planet is now more gray than green.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Celebrities
LUV SHUTTLE - OUTER SPACE
Herb's asleep in the driver's seat, cuddling with his pet rock like it's a teddy bear.
Chillz is back under the dash installing baffles.
Rainbow is typing noiselessly on a holographic keyboard, with no monitor or other device visible.
Starr is doing yoga to some New Age music. She's in the downward-facing dog pose.
Space Hippie tries to imitate her. "So why didn't you guys tell me you were celebrities?"
"Well, we're not," Starr answers casually. "At least, not on Earth."
Starr moves into cobra pose. Space Hippie follows. "But people know you way out here?! What are we, like, light years from home?"
"It's not really a big deal. They just know us from our work."
Chillz accidentally bangs his knuckles. He grumbles.
Starr and Space Hippie move into child's pose.
Space Hippie's still impressed. "What do you do, anyway?"
"
We're a band. We play some gigs out here. And some other stuff."
"Like?"
They sit cross-legged. Space Hippie reaches behind her neck and nervously twists her hair.
Chillz joins the conversation. "We locked up a couple of turds-"
"Putrid and Stench!" Herb chimes in.
"P-pardon me?" Asks Space Hippie, dropping her arm and sniffing her armpit.
Starr bursts out laughing. "Their names," she explains. "They were polluting things up all over the Risan System."
"So you're heroes, too?"
Starr shrugs. "Anyone can be a hero. You just have to believe in what you're doing."
Chillz sits up. "I think it's ready."
Later...
Green film coats the inside of the windows. Herb is attempting to clean the windshield with a spray bottle of cleaner and some paper towels.
Four teacups sit on the table.
Space Hippie is twisting her hair nervously again.
Rainbow, relaxing, leans over to rest against the window... And sits back up very quickly. She grabs a napkin to wipe slime out of her dreadlocks. "Uhm, Sweetie?" she addresses Space Hippie.
"Yah?"
"Is there any way you can, you know, stop making it grow? Can you turn it off or something?"
"Sorry. But it seems like the more stressed out I am, the more it happens."
Chillz spits his tea out. "Dude!"
Starr wrinkles her forehead at him. "What's wrong now?"
"Look!" He shows her his cup. A green mat of something slimy floats on his tea.
Starr checks her own cup. "Oh! Mine too!"
She stumbles over to the trash can and vomits.
"Look, man, it's green!" laughs Herb. "Vomma-momma-momma!"
Space hippie slumps down in her inflatable seat, cheeks bright red, twisting her hair faster than ever.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Problem
LUV SHUTTLE - OUTER SPACE
A bag of candied ginger and some wheatgrass sit on a seat.
A hand-crank juicer and five shots of wheatgrass juice sit on the edge of the table.
Chillz and Starr are arm-wrestling near the other edge. Herb loudly pounds a seat with his fist and cheers for Starr.
Starr wins, slamming Chillz' fist down to the table. The wheatgrass shots bounce but don't spill.
"Dagdernit!" spits Chillz. "Not again!"
Herb claps Space Hippie on the back. "Hah hah! Toldja!"
"Pay up!" Grinning from ear to ear, Starr hands a wheatgrass shot to Chillz.
Space Hippie looks embarrassed, but she's clearly having fun. She and Chillz each down a shot of wheatgrass juice.
Herb whispers loudly to Space Hippie, "It's the yoga, man. She's got the strongest arm of anyone I know. I swear she can throw a baseball half a mile."
Space Hippie looks skeptical.
He crosses his heart. "Honest, man. I saw her do it one time."
Chillz squats behind Space Hippie and leans forward, briefly placing his chin on her shoulder. She freezes.
"It's true. I saw it, too." His breath sends chills down her spine. He smells like wheatgrass and ginger.
Rainbow whistles loudly from the driver's seat. "Okay everybody, listen up!"
The band members immediately quiet down.
"I just received confirmation from Micanopy Outpost. They see Petrol coming on their scanners, too..."
They wait, holding their breath...
"And Mystery Character just passed through there a couple of hours ago."
Moans and gasps from everyone else.
Starr asks the question they're all wondering, "But- how does he know where he's at?"
"No idea."
Chillz doubtfully says, "It's gotta be a coincidence?"
"It's no coincidence," says Rainbow firmly. "He's been shadowing him at every turn."
Space Hippie looks Herb and Rainbow's devastated faces, not quite understanding. "But what's he going to do if he finds him?"
"I think he intends to harvest him," Rainbow begins slowly. "Remember that big machine in the lab? Well..."
Two minutes later...
Space Hippie twists her hair. "So that's what all that lab stuff was for."
"So what's the big deal?" asks Chillz as he grabs some more ginger. "It's just a plant, right?"
Rainbow and Herb exchange looks. Herb starts to open his mouth.
Rainbow gives him a warning look. "No."
"They should know."
"No!"
"Shazbasm, Bow! They're adults!"
Rainbow grits her teeth and looks away.
Herb looks down sadly. "You kids don't know this, but, one time, I talked to Mystery Character."
Starr and Chillz exchange a confused look.
"What do you mean?" asks Chillz, chewing his ginger more slowly. "I thought he couldn't speak."
"He can't, man," answers Herb. "Not with words. But a long time ago..."
HERB'S FLASHBACK
"I was just out of grad school, man."
--Young hippie Herb sits outdoors chanting with six other hippies in a drum circle around a fire at night. In the background, on the porch, potted plants abound.
"The Space Agency hired me. Plants were my thing."
--Young Herb in a cheap suit shakes hands with a serious-looking man in a much better suit.
"They put me on the team to talk to Mystery Character. That's where I met Bow."
--Young Herb and young Rainbow in astronaut suits work side by side in a tiny lab. He's hooking a music keyboard up to a big computer.
"We found a way to understand him with music, man. Well, I did."
--Young Herb watches the keyboard keys light up in rhythm while they play music. He begins to glow slightly green. His eyes roll back into his head. He looks ecstatic.
"Weedeedle speak-eakle."
--Young astronaut Herb shakes violently and collapses. Young Rainbow rushes to his side.
LUV SHUTTLE
Rainbow adds delicately, "And the experience... Uhm... Changed Herb." She glances nervously at him, but he doesn't look offended, and he hugs her.
Expectant silence.
More silence.
Chillz becomes impatient. "So what did he say to you?"
"He told me," says Herb, chewing on some wheatgrass, "what he was."
He spits the wheatgrass out.
More silence.
Chillz is getting frustrated. "Well?!"
Herb takes a wheatgrass shot. Looks Chillz right in the eyes. "He said he ain't nothing but you and me, man. Weebee-weedee."
Rainbow and Starr exchange glances. Chillz grinds his teeth. "Spit it out!"
"I did, man. Spiddiddit. "
"Not the wheatgrass!"
Starr wedges herself protectively in between Chillz and Herb. "He doesn't understand what you mean. None of us do."
Rainbow sighs. Very quietly, she says, "Mystery Character is us."
Space Hippie, Starr, and Chillz look at each other, more confused than before.
"Look, it's like this..." She plops down a piece of paper and begins to draw a bunch of circles. "See these circles? They're like cells. They're alive."
She draws many more until they start to stack together into a stick figure. "Just like the cells of your body are alive."
She completes the figure with a face. "They're alive, but they make up you, and you're alive, too."
She draws an x over the figure. "But if you die, your cells all die, right?"
She starts to x out every little circle. "Well..."
X, X, X, X. "We're like cells to the Mystery Character."
She scribbles everything out.
Understanding dawns first with Space Hippie. "Wait... So you mean..."
Chillz is next. "That he's made of us? He's made of everybody?"
Rainbow points at him. "Bingo."
"But..." Space Hippie twists her hair.
"That means..."
Starr gasps and drops her wheatgrass juice. "If he dies, we all do!"
The wheatgrass juice spreads across the floor.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Slimed
LUV SHUTTLE - OUTER SPACE
Herb's driving. His shirt is on backward and his shorts are inside out.
Starr is quietly laughing at him and braiding Space Hippie's hair.
Chillz is showing off, keeping a footbag (a tiny beanbag) up in the air remarkably well using just his feet and knees. He's also watching the girls out of the corner of his eye.
Rainbow hunches over, studying some green slime under a microscope. She looks at Space Hippie, then back at the slime. "I think I've got something."
She has their full attention. "I think I know what happened in the lab."
She continues dramatically, "He was in the lab the whole time."
"My dad?" asks Space Hippie.
"Yes," answers Rainbow. "Was that your first time in there since the accident?"
"Yah..."
"I bet you made him grow. He must have fallen into the hopper accidentally."
Looks of confusion.
"Back when we did the investigation, right after your dad disappeared, I saw the blood, but I assumed it was from his experiments," she explains. "There was no body. We just figured he took off. But apparently, he didn't. He fell in the hopper. The machine turned him into that black stuff. And then, when you came back, you made it grow. Accidentally, of course."
"But if he fell into the hopper, then he must have died!" objects Space Hippie.
"Definitely."
"But... But I can't bring things back to life! That's just crazy!"
"I'm not sure about that. See this?" She slides a sealed Petri dish full of green slimy water to the middle of the table.
"So?"
"There was nothing living in this water when we left Earth. I sterilized and sealed it myself."
"So... I... Brought... I brought him back to life?"
Silence as the horror of the truth sinks in. Space Hippie twists her braided hair. "Oh, God. Oh, God..."
Starr puts her hand on Space Hippie's back to comfort her. "Spacey..."
Space Hippie jerks away from her. "My fault."
"No."
Space Hippie's eyes fill with tears.
"Oh, Sweetie, no."
Chillz drops the footbag and comes over to her. "You couldn't help it, Spacester."
No answer.
"Space?" Starr's concerned, but she doesn't try to touch her again.