<meta name="LineWrap" content="true"><TITLE>SR_Bk1 0154</TITLE><A HREF="SR_Bk1-0155.txt">Next (Page 155)</A><BR>"<P><P>The enormous vehicle rounded a corner and crashed over a small fence, out onto a dock.<P><P>"Prince..." Treyess said, as they sped toward the end of the dock.<P><P>Ferrajalt looked over at Treyess for a moment.<P><P>"No problem," he said, smiling.<P><P>Treyess raised her eyebrows and wore a frown of puzzlement, nodding and grabbing the arms of her seat.<P><P>In a moment, the Warhome flew off the edge of the dock and then slammed onto the frozen river an instant later. Ferrajalt gently braked, and the huge thing quickly skidded to a halt.<P><P>The two surveyed the glassy, ultrasmooth surface of the frozen river, lit in the eerie glow of the giant streetlights that lined its banks.<P><P>"Now this is more like it," Treyess said.<P><P>"Yeah..." Ferrajalt said. "But which way to the waterfall?"<P><P>"You think I know after all the twists and turns we had to take to get here? Doesn't your little viewscreen tell you?"<P><P>Ferrajalt checked the vector display.<P><P>"No."<P><P>"Huh. Well everything is so changed anyway, I don't know if--"<P><P>"--no wait--it's coming up on the display. See? It's so cool! A 3-D map of the river!"<P><P>"There ya go."<P><P>"So it's down, uh, that way," Ferrajalt said, pointing. <P><P>Treyess looked over at Ferrajalt, and the Prince noted the beauty of her eyes.<P><P>After a pause, Treyess said "So now we get to see if this office complex thing is still there."<P><P>"Yeah," Ferrajalt said, turning back to the river, and easing forward on the controls.<P><P>The Warhome's wheels spun a little, but then some sort of traction control kicked in, and they were cruising along at a fair pace.<P><P>Treyess looked around, at the surreal landscape all around them--giant streetlights, river like a mirror, creepy shapes on either bank, and the feeling of being nowhere.<P><P>"Now remember, there is a waterfall coming up sometime," she said. "We don't want to go over it."<P><P>"I know," Ferrajalt said. "I don't think we're near it yet, and I'm sure the Warhome will detect it and start blinking and beeping all over the place."<P><P>"I sure hope so," Treyess said, not at all sure they should depend on the new Warhome in this situation, but not wanting to insult the Prince's handling of the matter.<P><P>They drove on in silence for a while, then Ferrajalt spoke.<P><P>"So what do you think is really going to happen to us? I used to have a good life. I mean, I was a Prince--I am a Prince. Back on my Earth. I mean, I thought it was all bullshit, I had all these ideas, like why should we be so much better than commoners? All that. But right now, I don't know. I kind of wish I was back there."<P><P>"Well to me, this is pure adventure--and that's what I live for. Back on my Earth I was quite well-known, also. Our technology hasn't developed quite as smoothly as on all you guys' Earths. I mean, the internal combustion engine, flight, all that we just recently got going. And computers, forget it--they might have the first building-sized prototype going in a few years. So there are a lot of places on my Earth where it's very difficult, maybe even impossible, to get to. And adventure was popular. I was popular. And there's some weird stuff on my Earth, weird hidden places."<P><P>"But what's this?" Ferrajalt asked, waving his hand. "Look around--this isn't anything! It's a nightmare. It has no relation to anything. It's like the universe ended and we just don't know it yet. Yeah--maybe all this is just a hallucination."<P><P>Treyess studied Ferrajalt's face. He had potential. You could see somewhere in there ancestors who were great heroes, great warriors. But he needed to stop being such a wimp.<P><P>"Well you know," Treyess said, "from what I read, this may have happened once before--in Sweptim. I guess this is what happened.<BR><A HREF="SR_Bk1-0155.txt">Next (Page 155)</A>