Chapter 11. Friends at Last
The next few days were a whirl of activity. Jupiter whisked Angelica away to his work chamber where he experimented with her talent. Each evening he would delightedly report to Astrid that it was even stronger than he had hoped. Angelica herself became a lot nicer to Kate and Phoebe. The arrogant look disappeared as she grew more confident of her abilities and Kate realised that the arrogance had been a mask for Angelica’s feelings of incompetence.
‘I guess I did that too,’ she reflected. ‘I thought that Dad couldn’t love me as much when he married Anna and I took it out on Phoebe.’
Celeste and her family were busy stitching robes for the two girls, and sewing in charms for protection against everything they could think of. Phoebe and Kate were not neglected during all this. The Master himself asked to see them for special studies. They girls went along with quaking hearts but were hugely relieved to find that all he wanted to do was to ply them with questions. They had to describe the solar system as best they could and he wanted to know about their way of life and about all the plants and animals as well.
‘My brain is wrung out,’ complained Phoebe as they walked back to their apartments one evening. ‘It’s like a history and geography quiz at the same time.’
Kate agreed. ‘He wants to know everything we’ve ever known, all in a few days. It’s exhausting. I’ll never complain about school again.’
They were given some free time to recover and spent it flying in the Gravidome or swimming in a salty spurl in one of the recreation areas.
‘The robes are finished,’ Celeste told them excitedly one evening. She threw out her arms and gestured. ‘There. What do you think of those?’
She was beaming with pride, and with good cause. The robes hung at one side of the living space. They were a deep rose colour and shimmered and sparkled in the light. Each sparkle made the robes appear a different shade from the deepest burgundy through to a pale dawn pink.
‘They are fantastic,’ breathed Phoebe.
‘Can we try them on?’ asked Kate in awe.
‘Better not to,’ warned Stella, a slight frown creasing her face. ‘We’ve stitched really strong charms into them and I think it would be best if you only put them on at the last minute so you don’t dilute their strength.’
‘I’ll pack them away carefully,’ said Celeste’s mother with a smile. ‘You are to go to the transducer site straight after breakfast.
Kate felt fizzy with excitement as she walked back to Angelica’s apartment. She was looking forward to going home but she was nervous as well. She had a long shower and made the most of her last evening by changing the view from her portholes to all different kinds of scenes. Her favourite was the Vardish scene, where the little frog creatures delighted in bumping each other off the leaves but expressing great hurt and astonishment when it was done to them.
‘I wish I’d been able to go moon gliding,’ Kate thought. ‘That would have been one thing worth staying here for. But this System they live in is just too full of rules for my liking.’
She woke early the next morning and could barely eat her breakfast. Angelica and Jupiter had an air of suppressed excitement and even the normally calm Astrid was affected. She ordered two breakfasts for Angelica by mistake.
‘Gemini!’ she said crossly. ‘I’ll have to be more careful.’
‘Never mind,’ Angelica said. ‘The Master is going to have a special food machine constructed for me so I’ll be able to do it all myself soon without my Memory Talent ruining it.’
‘I do wish you’d told us about these problems when they first started,’ Jupiter said to his daughter. ‘We could have helped you to develop your talent slowly instead of having to rush it like this.’
‘Why are you rushing it?’ Astrid asked. ‘Surely Kate and Phoebe could stay for the Glory Walk and you could work on sending them home after that.’
Jupiter shook his head. ‘No, no. We have to do it as soon as possible. Otherwise the planetary positions would make it hard for even Angelica’s powers to facilitate.’
Astrid nodded but Kate was sure she understood it even less than she did herself.
‘No one is going to believe us when we tell them we’ve travelled to the future,’ Kate grinned.
‘I’m afraid you won’t remember it when you get back,’ Jupiter said regretfully.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Part of the process of reversing the transducer will wipe your memories of what happened out of your own time. Otherwise it would create too many anomalies.’
‘That means you might change the future somehow, either accidentally or on purpose,’ Astrid said, seeing Kate’s puzzled look.
‘But don’t look so downcast,’ Jupiter added. You won’t know that you have forgotten anything. Life will go on the same as usual for you.’
Finally it was time to go. They crowded into a hoverpad and skimmed up to the transducer site. Another hoverpad with Phoebe, Celeste and Stella arrived soon after, and the Master stepped out of an archway to greet them. Quite a crowd of astrographers was grouped behind him as he led the girls into the centre of the receptor plate. Stella and Celeste helped them to put their robes on over their jeans and T-shirts and arranged them so they were covered from top to toe, apart from their faces.
‘Now be sure to stand perfectly still,’ boomed the Master. ‘Jupiter, it’s over to you now.’
‘Farewell,’ chorused Celeste and Stella. Angelica was standing by the column with a white set face. She was too nervous to say anything.
‘What if it doesn’t work?’ Kate asked Phoebe in sudden terror.
‘We won’t know anything about it,’ Phoebe replied, trying to sound confident. ‘If we go up in a puff of smoke it will happen instantly.’
‘That’s not a very comforting thought,’ croaked Kate. She reached out and gripped Phoebe’s hand as Jupiter turned dials and gave last minute instructions to Angelica.
‘Right this is it. Go, Angelica!’ shouted Jupiter.
Angelica pushed the master switch and a greenish glow lit up the panel beside her. Her white face was the last thing the girls saw before a tremendous jerk tossed them off their feet and a blinding light surrounded them. There was a brief feeling of suffocation then silence.
‘Is there a better view from here?’ asked Phoebe, turning to Kate in the middle of the observation plate.
Kate looked at Phoebe. She began to frown at Phoebe then shook her head in bewilderment. For a moment there she had seen an image of a shimmering robe wrapped around Phoebe. She drew breath to shout at her to go away, then changed it to a smile instead. Phoebe smiled back.
‘She’s not so bad after all,’ thought Kate. ‘We could probably be really good friends if we tried a bit harder. It’s not her fault she’s been shoved into my bedroom. She didn’t choose it any more than I did.’ She waved her arms around. ‘You can see for miles,’ she said.
‘What are these?’ Phoebe looked at the arrows at the edge of the observation plate.
‘It shows the distance to different places,’ explained Kate. ‘When I was little I used to stand in the middle and spin around with my eyes closed then walk over and pretend I was in whatever country I was pointing to.’
‘You mean like this?’ Phoebe stood in the centre of the plate and held her arms out.
‘I’ll spin you round,’ said Kate. She turned Phoebe by the shoulders then called, ‘stop. Now walk forward four steps and open your eyes,’
Phoebe did as she was bid, then both girls looked at the edge to see which arrow she was closest to.
‘Oh good, South America,’ called Kate. ‘Bags I be the bull.’
Phoebe spun an imaginary cape as Kate thundered past her, tossing her head and pawing at the ground.
‘There,’ Anna said to her husband as they stepped up to the lookout area. ‘I told you a family picnic was just what we all needed.’
‘It certainly looks as if the girls have decided to be frien
ds at last,’ agreed Phillip, as Anna began to unwrap the sandwiches and set out the thermos and cups. They watched in amusement as Kate called to Phoebe, ‘my turn to choose a country now.’
Kate ran breathlessly to the centre while a giggling Phoebe followed her.
‘This is fun,’ she said. ‘What do you call this game?’
Kate looked at her blankly, then was struck by sudden inspiration. ‘I call it the Glory Walk’ she shouted, as Phoebe spun her around.
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