Through the Looking Glass Ch. 08

Lisa checked her watch and saw that it was almost time for the gateway to appear, and she and Mitch gathered their things in preparation. The Krellin let Lisa take one last picture of the six of them standing in front of their craft, saying, "Nobody's ever going to believe this." In the last few minutes, they said their goodbyes.

"It will take us many of your years to go through all of the data we've collected and the information you have provided for us," said Demm, offering his hand to Mitch, "Thank you."

Mitch took his hand in friendship, "Just do one thing for us: treat this world well; treat it better than what we did and appreciate all it has to offer."

Demm smiled and gripped his hand, "Done."

Mitch then wrapped his arms around Luna and hugged her warmly.

"We will miss you both," she said.

Lisa hugged Demm and kissed his cheek, "And we'll miss you. Thank you for a wonderful experience we'll never forget."

As they said goodbye to the others, Lisa's watch beeped its one minute warning and the scientists readied themselves for their departure, standing more or less near where their laboratory should be in the next dimension.

"Good luck," said Mitch, waving to the Krellin, "I hope your explorations go well."

"Safe journey to you, my friends," Demm smiled back, "Farewell."

The energies welled up inside their bodies, and the swirling portal leaped out in front of the travelers. With one last wave, even though the Krellin and everything around them was frozen in time, Mitch and Lisa stepped into the shimmering mirror of the gateway and disappeared into the quantum light...

* * *

Demm turned to Luna after watching Mitch and Lisa leave, hitting a switch on his belt that made a yellow light flash around his body for a split second, the others doing the same, "Are the samples intact?"

"Yes," she replied, switching off her own portable field, "Lisa's reproductive egg sacs are preserved," she pointed to a metal arm apparatus that deposited a viscous fluid into a dish through a smooth banana shaped protrusion. Luna walked over to her work table and finished packing a device with a thin tube, "and Mitchell's sperm cells are alive and in stasis."

"Excellent," said Demm.

"Will we be allowed to repopulate this world?"

"That's for the Alliance Council to decide, but I will make the argument in favor of it. This was a promising species, and it can be so again. It would be a shame to let it pass into oblivion."

Luna sighed, "I feel bad about how we obtained their genetic reproductive material; we should have asked them instead of just taking it while they slept."

"You're right, we should have," Demm answered with regret, "But we are doing this for the greater good. With their arrival, we now have a chance to renew this species instead of just creating a colony for us. With that much at stake, we couldn't take the chance of them saying 'no'."

"It still doesn't make me feel better about it."

Demm hugged his beloved life mate and soothed her, "We've done this before on other worlds, and the results have been promising. Do not feel guilty about this. These humans deserve a chance to live again; we owe them that chance, and maybe... this time, they'll do it the right way."

Luna cuddled against him, "I hope so."

* * *

...and leaped out onto the sidewalk near the laboratory. The scientists breathed a sigh of relief seeing familiar surroundings, Lisa automatically resetting her watch, but their breaths caught when they examined them more closely.

Cars were all about in the parking lot, but every one of them had the look of being 'out of date'. The models they saw were straight out of the late sixties/early seventies, from big boat size, gas guzzling sedans to small bug-like compacts.

Mitch was about to say something, but stopped himself when he saw Lisa and what she was wearing.

She had on a light pink mini dress, complete with matching and sensible heels, a pillbox hat and mesh, and even white gloves. Lisa was just as confused upon seeing Mitch's no nonsense dark gray business suit topped off with a felt fedora of the same color. Checking around the lot, they saw other people making their way through the maze of cars dressed somewhat the same.

"What the Hell is this?" he asked, checking over his appearance, "We look like something out of an old black-and-white TV show. What is all this? Events moved slower here than in our universe?"

He looked at Lisa for her response, but instead saw her staring at something overhead and looked where she was looking.

Perched atop a light post sat a strange shape. It almost looked like a large egg about the size of a recliner, made of dark metal and bisected length wise by a thin trench-like band. It swiveled about, clicking and buzzing slightly, as if scanning its surroundings.

"What the Hell is that?" asked Lisa after finding her voice.

"Never mind that," mumbled Mitch in complete astonishment, "what the Hell are they?"

Lisa turned towards whatever Mitch was staring at... and her face dropped in shock.

Mulling around the pedestrians heading for the lab and perusing them with science-like curiosity... were two things that looked like sea creatures, only human sized.

Mitch could only stare at the weird crustaceans coming towards them and muttered, "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

...to be continued.