My Friend is an Alien - Edlund Niklas. Страница 43

But visits from Niklas, Davy, Keith, Martin, or anyone else had been few and far between. As hot as the past summer had been, the winter had been that much colder and harsher. The boys just didn't get out as much, and for everyone but Davy, it was a fair trek, and doing it by bicycle was essentially impossible. There were also security concerns. The leaves were off the trees in the forest, which as a result looked a lot more open, which meant there was that much greater a chance of being detected. So, too, might suspicion arise from a constant trail of footprints into the forest that seemingly ended at a blank spot. Jahv had reworked the camouflage of the dome-tent so that there appeared to be snow in the spot where the tent sat, and he was very diligent about sweeping any new snow off the top of the dome (actually this task generally fell to Arion, who could simply fly up to the top of the dome with a small broom). But generally, the aliens had been on their own for months.

So when spring finally arrived and temperatures quickly climbed, the young aliens were delighted when their four closest friends dropped by for a visit. Arion's feather-hair had returned to all black, Morik's mood had improved although he had kept his unusually long hair (despite unsubstantiated claims from the others that he was shedding and it was a little disgusting to find a two-foot-long hair in one's food), and Jahv clearly had an air of anticipation about him.

"My friends," he said, "I have finally completed my latest inventions."

"Oh, God." groaned Keith. "We shoulda seen this coming. I told you we should've suggested hibernation to this bunch."

Jahv glared. "Keith, I really wish you'd have a little more faith in my skills."

"Yeah, Keith." added Davy. "At least wait until something goes wrong before you condemn it."

That got a moderate laugh, but Keith wasn't kidding. "Have faith? How about your track record? You nearly get us lost in space on board a shuttle that explodes five minutes after we finally manage to get back to Earth, and just to put a point on it, you got drunk on citrus punch at a Halloween party! Now you wanna tell me why I should have faith in whatever it is you've come up with this time?"

"Well, I did get your stepfather off your case for the better part of last summer." replied Jahv politely.

Keith opened his mouth but nothing came out.

Davy whispered to Niklas, "Score one for the green kid with the antennae."

Keith scowled, but he also knew that Jahv had a point. "All right. I'm listening."

Jahv opened a small box on a nearby table. There were eight small discs inside each about six inches in diameter. "These are teleportation devices," he explained. He pressed the center of one, and a small screen and keyboard appeared on the disc. "All you have to do is type in the location of where you want to go. The device will scan for a safe place within the general area and take you there. It's got the entire planet mapped."

"Darn, and here I was hoping for a nice quiet trip to Mars." said Keith.

"I'm working on that." said Jahv.

"Leave it to you to screw up a joke." countered Keith. "Okay, suppose these do work? What good does it do the lot of you? You can't show yourselves in public, anyway."

"Ah, that's where stage two of these devices come in handy for those of us who don't blend in with natives such as yourselves." continued Jahv.

"Just what we need — a two-stage cluster foul-up." quipped Keith.

"Keith!" snapped Niklas, Davy, and Martin almost simultaneously.

"All right, all right," said Keith, backing down. "Like I'm not entitled to an opinion."

"We incorporated holocron technology into these devices." explained Jahv. "Watch!"

Jahv pressed a few buttons on the tiny keyboard of the disc. There was a flash of light, and in the placve of Jahv stood — something that looked like what Jahv would probably look like were he human. The skin was a normal color, and his antennae had vanished. His hair was still rather oddly upswept, but it was blonde instead of white, and ears were visible. His eyes remained rather large, but they too appeared normal. His hands still lacked a fifth finger, but overall, the illusion was remarkable.

"All we need do," said Jahv, "is put on regular clothing and we're set."

"The disc can't do that?" asked Niklas.

"Probably, but we'd rather not strain them needlessly." emphasized Jahv.

"What about Chewbacca over there?" asked Keith, indicating Morik. "I don't care how human you make him look, that fire hazard he's toting around on his head is going to be trouble one way or the other."

"I guess maybe I could use a bit of a trim." commented Morik.

"And me without the lawn mower." remarked Keith. "Okay. You've got the means and you've got the looks. But where ya gonna go?"

"We sort of hoped you could come up with a suggestion." said Keyro. "There are so many fascinating places on this planet."

"What about that amusement park on all the commercials? The one that's supposed to be the best ever!" chimed in Martin. "I always wanted to see that place!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Keyro. "What's an amusement park?"

"Are you outta your minds?!" exclaimed Keith.

"I kind of like the idea." said Niklas. "I've never been there either."

"Me neither." added Davy.

"What is this you're talking about?" asked Jahv with a fair bit of emphasis.

Keith rolled his eyes and gave up. "It's an amusement park. Been in business only a couple of years, but it's supposed to be the wildest, most incredible amusement park ever. Technology that might even impress you. It's got just about every other amusement park on the planet wondering how they managed it. Some guy named Paul Keisner came out of nowhere and had the place built. Anyway, there's lots of rides and other attractions. The place is divided into different sections, each one somewhat different. But it also tends to be very, very busy and there's always long waits for all of the rides. I don't know if we could do the whole place in an afternoon."

"We could at least look it over." said Jahv. "It would be a good test for the discs, as well as the disguise programs."

Keith realized he was the only one who seemed only slightly opposed to this. And truth be told, even he wouldn't mind seeing the place himself. But he wanted to know one thing. "How fast can those discs get us out of there if we hit trouble?"

"Instantaneously." said Jahv. "There's an automatic homing feature that'll bring us all right back here if need be."

Keith bit his lip. "I hope you're right about that. Okay, if I'm the only holdout on this craziness, let's do it."

It took about twenty minutes for the four aliens to change into passable clothes. Arion seemed the most reluctant about that, but apparently even he was bored enough with his present surroundings to go along with the plan. Morik had managed to hack his hair down to a far more reasonable level, slightly longer than Keith's or Davy's, and it actually looked halfway decent, although his long pointed ears stuck through. That soon changed when they activated their disguises. Of the four, Arion's was the only one that was slightly suspect. The disguise program apparently wasn't entirely sure what to do with the feather-like hair the boy had, and the result looked vaguely like an afro.

The teleport-discs computers had located Keisner Park without trouble, although they took a while to secure a safe location for the boys to appear. Keith remained concerned about crowds, but Davy didn't think there would be many. "This place is generally only really busy in the summer months and around holidays. This isn't either."

"How would you know?" asked Keith. "You ain't been there any more than I have."