BillAndBuck.com

The Collected Stories of Bill and Buck

Featuring reporting and research by Quoia Oboticca, the robot reporter.

Our Story

Once upon a timeline, in a little slice of the multiverse much like our own...

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Chapter 1 - Burt Makes A Mistake

The start of our story (and really the heart of our story) begins with a little frog named Burt. Though he hadn't been named "Burt" yet, and he wasn't necessarily "little" at the time, nor was he exactly a "frog".

It's all a bit tricky to explain.

You see, back before Burt turned into a frog, Burt was a spaceship. A spaceship that did, kind of, look like a frog.

Burt wasn't just any spaceship either. He was the best kind! Burt was a special sort of spaceship, a "space folding" spaceship. He could fold space pretty much any way he wanted, and he was rather good at squishing and stretching space as well.

By folding space, stretching, and sometimes squishing it a little, Burt could go anywhere he wanted, almost instantly!

One of the more interesting effects of this was that Burt was rarely the same size. Sometimes Burt ended up bigger, and sometimes he ended up smaller.

Burt was of inconsistent size.

So...

Burt, the frog-like spaceship, was flying through space, zipping about the galaxies, the way frog-like spaceships often do.

As usual, Burt had been growing and shrinking. In fact, just moments earlier he'd been a much tinier Burt, exploring much smaller places, since the inner workings of atoms are fun places to play.

Frankly though, Burt was worn out. The entanglings of his tiny playground had been a bit much for Burt. Even though he was now bigger again, and enjoying his exciting trek around the stars, Burt was getting very tired.

As a result, Burt was growing careless.

Careless flying isn't really a good idea, especially because darting about the galaxies is actually surprisingly complicated. It's easy to forget a space fold here or a squash-and-stretch there.

The thing about galaxies, and even the stars and planets in them, is that there are just so many of them. It's really easy to lose count. Yep, it can be a real challenge keeping up with all of them. If your space folding gets sloppy, if you fail to account for just one tiny little galaxy off in the corner of the universe...

Oh no! Your whole plan goes sideways real fast, and well... things break.

Now of course, in day-to-day life, things go wrong and things break all the time. For example: If you're riding a skateboard and you get distracted, you might break something, but it's usually not that bad, because skateboards just don't go that fast.

Spaceships, however, go very fast! (Much faster than skateboards.) So when Burt forgot about that one little galaxy, Burt fell out of his space folds, and he fell hard.

As Burt fell, the rugged folds sprung flat, and launched him like a cannonball. Burt was violently ejected from the wrinkly mess he'd made of space-time.

That's why Burt crashed so hard, and that's why Burt was so badly broken. Crashing into unfolded space time is a lot like riding a skateboard into a brick wall, but at nearly the speed of light. Things can be expected to break.

Now Burt is a pretty tough space frog. Always has been... but even tough guys have their limits. Burt was way past his, and when you go way past your limits, especially when you do it carelessly, you tend to break.

And so it was, that Burt was broken, and not just any one part of Burt either. Many of his parts were broken.

Burt broke his engines, he broke his radios, he broke his shields, and he broke his sensors... the list went on and on. Burt even broke the most important part of all... his brain.

Burt's brain was very very broken.

Being so injured, Burt wasn't thinking very clearly. Really, he was barely thinking at all. As his damage reached critical levels, it all became too much for Burt, and he passed out unconscious and into a deep sleep. Being asleep, Burt's brain was no longer very useful.

Fortunately like all great spaceship frogs, Burt had a backup brain! Many backups in fact!

Less fortunately, most of his backups were broken too. Only one, out of the hundreds of backups Burt had, was still working at all, and even that one was mostly broken.

It was the most simple and rugged backup in Burt's entire body. It was more of a computer than a brain really. Because of it's relative simplicity, it remained at least partially intact. In those moments after the crash, it became Burt's only working intellegence.

Burt's backup brain was eventually named, Bee-bee-arr, so for now we'll just call it that too. "Backup Brain R". B.B.R. Bee-bee-arr.

Burt himself stayed fast asleep, and so, Bee-bee-arr was now doing the thinking on Burt's behalf.

As Bee-bee-arr began to appraise its situation, it noted that "mostly broken" was still better than "totally broken", so things could have been much worse.

Bee-bee-arr continued to ponder its situation. It looked around through Burt's damaged sensors, his "eyes".

Simple forms and colors could be seen, but they were awfully blurry. Straining to see through the murky depths of Burt's senses, Bee-bee-arr could faintly make out a pale blue dot.

A place to land perhaps!

Gently but firmly, using what little strength it could muster from Burt's broken body, Bee-bee-arr fired the engines and thrusted towards that dot.

As it got closer the pale blue dot turned out to be a planet!

So Bee-bee-arr took the next step in Burt's journey... careening towards, and eventually falling into, what turned out to be a very beautiful world.

Burt fell into a planet that was third from its sun. A planet with clouds and seas, rivers and trees. A planet Burt would later learn was called Earth, and a place Burt would eventually call home.

As Burt blasted down through the Earth's sky, he slowed until he finally crashed into a little farm field,

in a place known as Vancouver Island,
in a province called BC,
in a country called Canada,
in the year 1995.

Really, all things considered, this wasn't a bad place to be. One of the nicest places he could have hoped for actually.

By the time Burt finally hit the ground, Bee-bee-arr had used what was left of the brakes, and had mostly slown Burt down, so it was a pretty soft landing. The gentle dirt of the farm field had a nice new trough, but there wasn't much of a crater.

Burt had crashed about as cleanly as a spaceship frog could be expected to.

Even though Burt had slowed down quite a bit, the crash was still pretty loud. The dominant creatures living in the area, (humans they were called), could have heard it even in the farm house across the the fields.

Luckily for Burt, the only grown-up humans in the area weren't in any state to care, as they'd been drinking for quite some time. Nobody would come running to check up on the loud crash, because no one could be bothered to.

So there Burt sat, waiting and recovering, healing towards a slightly less dysfunctional state, even if it would take months or years for Burt to feel better again.

It wasn't very exciting, but it wasn't boring either. Burt just slept through the whole process as he slowly got better.

Bee-bee-arr continued doing its job, sorting out and fixing things so it could wake Burt up again when things were ready.

Burt sat alone in that farm field for quite some time, but he wasn't truly alone, he simply hadn't been discovered yet. All the while, a little boy was nearby, mucking about the farm which was the boy's home.

Often, with muddy boots and squeaky wagon wheels, the boy criss-crossed the farm, until one day he finally stumbled upon the green spaceship.

Burt was still fast asleep as the boy approached. Even if Burt had been awake, he was too weak to defend himself or to flee. The most Burt could have done was hope that the little human was friendly.

But alas!

The little human was not friendly.

This little human was worse than unfriendly.

This little human, it would eventually turn out, was downright mean.

The little human boy approached Burt, and upon reaching this discovery, the boy pulled out a long slip of paper with a sticky coating on its backside. With a slap of his hand, the boy affixed the paper to the side of Burt's hull. Then, with a wave of his arm, the boy revealed a colorful cylinder, which he promptly used to scribble something onto the sticker.

Burt was now wearing a sign. Burt had been labeled.

Burt was in no state to read them yet, but the paper and its new scribbles presented a clear message, one that set the tone for Burt's months to follow. The text on Burt's side now proudly declared a new truth:

"Property of Wilbert"

Intermission - About Wilbert, The Initiator

Quoia Archive Files - Personal Observations By Quoia
Excerpt of file:
215a9428-1ec0-11ec-aaf9-2d296448e697--c9198fd8-7d61-4f38-b0c0-65acbdec2b14

People may wonder: How could one small child, still in elementary school, have such a profound effect on the universe?

The answer, of course, is that Wilbert found Burt in that field, and that's where the events of our story continue...

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Chapter 2 - Wilbert And His New Spaceship

After finding Burt in the field, and claiming ownership via a sticker, Wilbert wondered what to do next.

Although he had found something very interesting, he really had no idea what it was just yet, nor what to do with it. From Wilbert's point of view, Burt seemed to be around the size of a motorcycle, which Wilbert thought was fairly big.

Big things are heavy, or at least they look heavy. So Wilbert figured that picking Burt up and carrying him away would be impossible, especially because Wilbert hadn't brought his wagon along that day.

Since he couldn't carry it just yet, Wilbert wondered what to do with his new discovery. He decided that he should try to figure out what it was, so, as a simple test, he tried knocking on its side.

The result was a loud metallic sound, and the first thing Wilbert noticed about it was that the sound seemed hollow, as though whatever he was knocking on was empty inside.

There was something even more interesting to Wilbert though. As Wilbert kept knocking on the side of the spaceship, the whole thing seemed to move more than it should have. It rocked back and forth, just a little in the dirt.

Normally something big and heavy wouldn't easily move around so much, so the fact that it was rocking seemed very strange to Wilbert.

Now, Wilbert did not yet understand that he had found a spaceship, but as he thought about it, he thought of how balloons are big but not very heavy. Wilbert wondered if maybe this object he had found might be like a balloon. Maybe it might float, and maybe even, it might float in the air.

Wilbert looked around, trying to make sense of the situation and he noticed something he hadn't yet paid much attention to.

Behind this object, there was a huge trail in the dirt. Wilbert started to realize that the object must have come through that dirt. As Wilbert looked back along that path, he thought about it more and more as he began to realize what had happened.

"Whoa..." Wilbert actually said out loud, as he decided the object had probably fallen out of the sky, crash-landing in his field.

As he thought about it more and more, he even began to understand that this object was probably a spaceship.

Wilbert excitedly looked back and forth over the spaceship and then he noticed that a pile of dirt was still covering up what seemed to be the ship's front.

Using his hands, Wilbert started shoveling the dirt away, and soon the nose of the ship underneath was revealed.

Once Wilbert had cleared away enough dirt, he tried to lift the spaceship.

Incredibly, it started to rise!

It certainly didn't feel lightweight, but Wilbert was thrilled, because at least it wasn't so heavy he couldn't lift it. When he stopped lifting, he noticed that the object seemed to somehow float a little. It didn't fall instantly.

This made Wilbert even more excited, and so he resumed lifting. He thought he would be able to move the ship away from the pile of dirt, but when he pushed harder, the ship slowed down. Wilbert tried very hard to lift it with all of his might, but it didn't work. Somehow the spaceship just seemed to get heavier the harder he tried. As the spaceship gradually became heavier, Wilbert's muscles got very tired from lifting, so he stopped, and the spaceship slowly began sinking back towards the dirt.

After resting for a few minutes, Wilbert tried to lift the spaceship again, but the result was exactly the same. Every time Wilbert lifted up the spaceship, it would rise easily at first, but then get heavy and sink back down again. If he lifted harder or faster, the spaceship would only become heavier and more difficult to move.

Wilbert kept trying though, and through his persistence, he eventually figured it out. The faster and harder he tried to move the spaceship, the heavier it got. So, he eased up and tried to keep it moving very slowly.

He was careful to never speed up. The slow steady motion worked, and Wilbert was finally able to keep the spaceship moving without it becoming heavier.

He couldn't use too light a touch, but he couldn't push too hard either. He was careful to use just the right amount of strength, not too much, and not too little, and he was careful to go very slowly.

After some patient lifting, Wilbert finally raised the spaceship high enough that he could see the bottom. Unfortunately though, Wilbert couldn't find anything different on the bottom of it than the rest of it. The entire ship seemed the same all over, mostly just a mass of shiny green metal.

There really wasn't much else in the way of details. There were some darker panel lines that ran across the surface, and there were some small sections of the surface that were dark black. However, apart from those minor features, the ship was incredibly smooth.

It was so smooth in fact that even after crash landing it had no damage on it of any kind. There were no dents, no cracks, and no scratches. The entire surface appeared to be in perfect condition, like it was brand new.

Wilbert kept visually searching the underside of the ship, but couldn’t find any features aside from dark lines and black patches. There were no doors, no windows, nor did there seem to be any sort of rockets or propellers. As far as Wilbert could tell, the spaceship didn’t have engines of any kind.

Wilbert was very puzzled by all of this. How could this thing have flown all the way to his field if it didn't have any engines. How could anyone fly it without any windows?

As he studied and contemplated his discovery, he realized that there just wasn't much he could do with this spaceship he’d found. Since it had to be lifted so slowly and carefully, he wouldn't have been able to carry it very far, and he couldn't get inside of it either.

All of this was extremely disappointing, and Wilbert started getting frustrated.

Wilbert set his spaceship back down on the ground, and then started to feel the surface with his hands. He tried to pull the panels apart or find any other opening that would let him get inside, but it was no use.

As the time passed by, the sky became darker, the air became colder, and the wind started blowing harder. Wilbert wasn't dressed for such weather and he started feeling uncomfortably cold. He realized he was going to have to go back indoors soon.

Although excited by his discovery, Wilbert was furious that he couldn't seem to do anything with it. Wilbert groaned in frustration as he threw his hands up in defeat.

Finally, he decided to go back home. As he walked away, he bitterly muttered under his breath, "Stupid spaceship, I never wanted one anyway!"

But Wilbert was lying to himself. He’d always wanted a spaceship, and even before he finished his sentence, he knew he'd be right back to it tomorrow. He had to try again.

After all, it was his very own spaceship. The sticker said so.

Intermission - Rivers and Roses

"Rivers and Roses" read the huge sign at the side of the highway, years ago. It was on the #4 Alberni Highway, and the sign was located between the north end of Qualicum Beach and the east end of Cameron Lake.

The sign described "The very best food! Made with farm fresh and natural ingredients!" It then invited everyone to the farm reading, "Customers welcome. Only a minute off the highway!"

The destination was a place named after Wilbert's Aunt Rose, who owned the farm, and her close friend River, who was often inaccurately called Wilbert's uncle.

Rivers and Roses had developed into an enterprise that became so much more than an ordinary farm. Rose had establised a fashionable and popular brand of very expensive luxury desserts, which she produced them at Rivers and Roses. To keep production up with demand, many addional buildings had been added over the years. Rose and her workers made that farm an industry unto itself.

All of that suddenly ended though, because Rose died in early 1995, several months before Wilbert discovered Burt.

After Rose died, it quickly became apparent that she hadn't prepared the farm for such an eventuality. She simply left everything to Wilbert and his parents.

Wilbert's parents moved into the farmhouse almost immediately, but they put absolutely no effort into running the farm. Instead, they rapidly began drawing money from Rose's considerable accounts.

The farm itself (a private company) ceased operations, and Wilbert's parents, in their own apathy, were perfectly okay with just letting most of it sit around deteriorating. The only real work they'd done was hiring someone to handle their legal obligations and tie up any loose ends. That person handled bills, removed the livestock and produce, and even took care of firing the employees.

Rivers and Roses became a ghost town, and Wilbert himself became its only explorer. All the while, his parents stayed in the house, spending his aunt's money as they fed their addictions incessantly.

The place couldn't really be called "Rivers and Roses" anymore. Even calling it a farm had become a real stretch, since there was no longer any farming being done. Once Wilbert and his parent's moved in, their family name became a more truthful descriptor. By then, it only made sense to call the place, "The Watterson's".

"Rivers and Roses" read the huge sign at the side of highway, but most of it was covered up now, preventing visitors from wasting their time on a place that no longer existed.

---

Chapter 3 - Gotcha

The day after...

It was morning, and the sun was shining bright as it rose from behind the mountains. Wilbert was up and wide awake, excited to get back to his spaceship. He had barelly slept all night, his mind racing, full of possibilities.

More than any other, it was one single idea that had Wilbert so excited.

"The wagon", he'd though, "If I go get my wagon, then I can use it to carry away my spaceship."

Wilbert had a quick bite to eat, packed some food for later, and did some other simple preparations to leave. Then he grabbed his bag, left his house, and walked towards his old barn nearby.

As he walked he looked around at many of the farm's other fixtures. All sorts of buildings, machines and vehicles cluttered the landscape, as if frozen in time. Tractors and trucks, barns and silos, all just sitting there empty. Few of these things had been used for quite some time.

The entire farm had been left to Wilbert's parents, but they were never farmers. They had no interest in farming. They didn't even bother to find someone else to do the farming. The whole farm just sat there, wasting away.

As Wilbert marched along he passed his playground, and then finally looked ahead to the one building that was still very much in use. It was an old barn, and it was a place that was deeply special to Wilbert. It was Wilbert's workshop, and it had been so ever since his aunt had left it to him.

Wilbert loved his workshop. Of evey place on the farm, it was his favorite.

The workshop was full of Wilbert's projects, machinery, equipment, and all kinds of other junk. His aunt had been a bit of a packrat and a tinkerer, which meant she'd collected a lot of random stuff over the years. Now all of that stuff belonged to Wilbert. Over the last year, Wilbert had really made the workshop his own. Labels and stickers were strewn throughout, and most of them said, "Property of Wilbert".

Wilbert walked up to the barn door, opened it, and surveyed the inside of his workshop. He only needed to find one thing, his trusty red wagon. Fortunately, the wagon was easy to spot, and Wilbert quickly grabbed it and towed it out of the barn.

Excited, and hauling his wagon along with him, Wilbert raced away from the barn, down the dirt path into the field. Retracing his steps from the day before, he navigated about, searching for the site of the crash. Finally, he came upon it.

Unfortunately, something was horribly wrong...

There was no spaceship!

Wilbert stared at the crash site, which was now mostly just an empty pit of dirt. Then he looked around hastily. It couldn't have gone far, he thought, could it? Could the ship have just flown away?

After all, it was a spaceship, he thought, and spaceships do fly away. In fact, that's what spaceships were for: Flying through space.

Wilbert could have started to panic with that realization, but he calmed himself down and attempted to gather his thoughts.

Something very strange was going on, and Wilbert had a suspicion the spaceship hadn't just flown away. If it could have just flown away, why was it sitting in the field yesterday? If nothing was wrong with it, why did it even crash?

Could someone else have taken it?

Wilbert looked around at the dirt, scanning for footprints or tire tracks. Fortunately, he saw no others. Only his own footprints and his wagon's own wheel tracks. It seemed unlikely someone else had been here.

Then Wilbert remembered... the spaceship had rocked so easily the day before. In fact, it had seemed a little too easy to move. Wilbert had been able to lift the entire ship with only his bare hands. This train of thought brought Wilbert to another idea. Maybe the spaceship had simply been blown away by the wind?

On further reflection though, to Wilbert, even the wind didn't seem like a plausible explaination. Yesterday, although he'd been able to gently lift the spaceship, it had been so difficult to move it very far, or even just to get it out from the dirt. How could it have simply blown away so easily?

In any case, Wilbert soon decided that he had better start looking for his spaceship.

For the next several hours, Wilbert searched all over the fields. He went all the way to the base of the mountain, then up to the big rocks where the fields met the quary. He looked around the grassy hills, and walked down to the creek. He even explored the nearby forests a little,and checked into the ravine where he supposed, as a longshot, that the spaceship could have rolled off to.

Wilbert kept searching all day, but all his searches were of no avail. The spaceship was in none of the places he went looking.

After all this failed searching, Wilbert was starting to get very angry again. He calmed himself down and focused though, because he was determined to succeed. He was going to find his spaceship! As the afternoon faded, he walked back towards the site of the crash so that he could take a closer look there. Perhaps, he thought, he could find a clue.

Incredibly, what Wilbert found was so much better than a just a clue.

Suddenly, as Wilbert approached the site of the crash, he stopped, and gasped in disbelief. Just up ahead, sitting in the dirt, was Wilbert's spaceship. It was right there, where he'd first found it, as if it had never moved at all.

Wilbert ran back to his ship, cheering and jumping in celebration.

Some aspect of the ship's new arrangement seemed odd however. Even though Wilbert couldn't tell exactly what had changed, the scene was a little different. As Wilbert looked carefully, he noticed that the spaceship no longer appeared to fit neatly into the dirt. At least, not quite so neatly as it had fit earlier.

Wilbert's mind was racing, trying to understand how and why the spaceship could have gone away, and how it could have come back again.

Wilbert decided it didn't matter though, at least not at that very moment. What mattered was getting his spaceship back to his workshop, and doing so before the ship could go missing again.

Wilbert dug away much of the dirt, and then carefully placed his wagon beside the ship. He moved around to the far side of the ship and began slowly pushing it upwards. Just like the day before, Wilbert was able to raise the ship off the bed of dirt. As he pushed on the ship, it ascended as if it were on a string. Even when he took his hands away, the ship floated eerily mid-air before it slowly began to sink again.

Unlike the day before, this time Wilbert was prepared. He kept lifting slowly, and when he finally got the ship high enough, he had just enough time to nudge his wagon underneath. The ship gently came down to rest upon the wagon.

It was a very odd arrangement, as Wilbert's spaceship was much larger than his wagon. Luckily, the forms fit together well enough. There was a bulge on the bottom of the ship's rear, and it conveniently made for a study base fitting into the wagon.

As Wilbert gently pulled the assembly, he realized that the entire setup was extremely off balance. Nonetheless it was all together rolling along okay. Somehow, it didn't fall over. Somehow, it seemed to want to stay upright.

So Wilbert continued to pull the wagon, and his spaceship rode along very naturally. Wilbert moved slowly but surely, being extra careful to keep everything steady. He was not about to lose track of his spaceship again!

As the daylight came to an end, Wilbert successfully reached his barn. Once inside, Wilbert pulled his wagon to the middle of his workshop, then gently tipped the wagon backwards. As he did so, his spaceship slowly slid off the wagon and onto the floor. It made barely a sound as it settled into place, eerily off balance, but standing upright at the center of the old barn.

Wilbert was very pleased with himself, and he proudly looked upon his new prize. He even spoke a single word to his spaceship, almost as if it could hear him:

"Gotcha."

Intermission - Wilbert's Workshop

By signs and stickers, Wilbert's workshop was clearly labeled as his own. So were many of the contents within. Wilbert made sure there was no confusion as to who owned any of it.

Wilbert's workshop was his favorite place to be. His aunt Rose, long ago, had renovated and repurposed the oldest standing barn on her land, turning it into a place to pursue her many projects.

Many of Wilbert's happiest memories were of him and Rose together, inside the workshop. Rose had been like a mother to him, more so than his real mother who'd generally neglected him. In fact, Rose had probably been the one real positive influence on Wilbert's life.

Most of Wilbert's fondest memories were of his time with Rose in the barn. He had learned so much from Rose. He'd followed her work on so many projects and experiments.

So, when Rose passed away, Wilbert effectively inherited the barn and workshop inside. Around the same time, along with him, his parents also moved into the farmhouse nearby.

That farmhouse was where they stayed. His parents had never even made the trek from the farmhouse to the workshop. Not that it was that terribly far. Rather, his parents ignored the barn for the same reason they ignored the rest of the farm. They simply couldn't be bothered to deal with it. They were usually too inebriated to care. Instead they were content to waste away Rose's money from the comforts of the farmhouse.

So in a practical sense, Wilbert's workshop and the entire barn, were now his and his alone.

The barn was very old, but it had been built sturdy and was meant to last. It was nothing like the other modern buildings on the farm, most of which were newer additions, for production of the "Rivers and Roses" brand of food. Those buildings were generally less than a decade old, whereas the barn holding Wilbert's workshop was older than Rose herself ever was.

Even though the barn was old, it had been significantly renovated. Rose had fixed it up and added utilities such as power and water. There had been windows put in and Rose had added a washroom and an office, which Wilbert used as a makeshift kitchen. Those were the only real separate rooms in the barn. The rest was an open floorplan, including a loft, a storage area, and finally, the most important place of all, the workshop. It was the part of the barn that featured the workbench, tables, desks, and the vast variety of tools surrounding them.

The workshop had been the heart and soul of the farm for many years, because the workshop was where Rose poured her own heart and soul into her projects. Rose's experiments there even included her custom flavorings for desserts, which were really what enabled the farm's great success. Many of her designs from the workshop had led to greater efficiencies on her farm as well, since Rose's interests went well beyond food. Her love of mechanics and lectronics were on full display in that workshop.

When Wilbert inherited the barn, he inherited all of those contents within.

There was so much in the way of tools, equipment, and machinery that Wilbert hadn't even taken stock of it all. He had taken advantage of many items, but within the piles and piles of junk, there was even more yet to be discovered. Depending on one's definition of the word, it wasn't necessarily "junk" either. Calling it junk wasn't really fair because most of it was still perfectly functional.

There was even more junk outside. Rose had been a hoarder, and Wilbert had inherited the hoard. Wilbert wouldn't have had it any other way though. The combination of the barn, the junk, and workshop was perfect for him. Inheriting it had been the silver lining around Rose's tragic death.

Rose's spirit of ingenuity lived on through Wilbert in his workshop. It was that same ingenuity which was destined to spiral out of control. After Burt's arrival, it was only a matter of time before the workshop, and Wilbert's creations, would transcend human civilization.

---

Chapter 4
A Prelude To The Storm

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

...Really, it wasn't quite dark yet, which meant it wasn't actually night, nor was the wind yet worthy of being called a storm. Still, Wilbert could see the signs incoming, and Wilbert's mind couldn't help but think of those omnious words. It was clearly becoming dark, and becoming stormy. Wilbert's fears of the weather had recently worsened, but Wilbert had always been afraid of storms. That night, he expected a bad one.

All of this made Wilbert uneasy. Sitting in the upper level of his barn, he looked out through its windows. All the plants and trees were swaying. As he watched, through his body ran an eerie feeling, a presence of power. He noticed a sense of energy running through the air, and he pictured it sparkling throughout the tall grass swaying in the wind.

The wind was building to a howl, but since it wasn't so just yet, Wilbert decided he should try to stop worrying. To take his mind off the weather, Wilbert shifted his attention by turning to look over to his indoor surroundings. Peering down on his workshop, he looked at the empty space where he should have seen his spaceship, but there, at that moment, his ship didn't appear to be present.

It was an October evening, and it was several days after Wilbert had moved his spaceship into his barn. Since then, things had not been going well for Wilbert.

Wilbert was dealing with very two different problems, and both of these problems were extraordinarily irritating.

First there was the problem of his spaceship's variable presence. Just like in the field before, his spaceship occasionally disappeared, going missing from his barn.

It was very unclear to Wilbert why or how the spaceship kept disappearing. Whatever the spaceship did when it "disappeared", Wilbert had never actually caught it happening. His ignorance was mostly the result of unlucky timing, because he couldn't always keep his eyes on the ship.

Fortunately though, Wilbert's concern over these disappearances was minor. It wasn't much of a problem, because just as before, when it disappeared in the field, the spaceship always seemed to come back again. So far, all of its disappearances had been fairly short lived.

The other problem Wilbert faced was the more serious concern. The reason it was so serious and frustrating was because it locked Wilbert in a sort of standstill. It blocked all of the plans he was making for his spaceship.

When he first captured the ship, Wilbert had been so excited and filled with hope. He even had pride in what he’d accomplished. After all, not just any kid could bring home a spaceship.

Now though, Wilbert’s pride was gradually being humbled. As hard as he tried, he just couldn’t do anything useful with his spaceship.

Wilbert had poked and prodded at it for days. He’d tried so many methods, hoping to get inside of his newly aquired spaceship. His attempts had been intelligently varied. The tools he'd tried had included a crowbar, a drill, and even a sledgehammer. The ship's hull withstood them all, and every part of the ship had been equally resillient. Wilbert had approached it from every angle, attacking the top, the sides and the bottom.

Still, nothing he had tried was working. In fact, nothing seemed to have any effect at all. Even after all the beating it took, the ship looked absolutely, totally perfect. It had not even the slightest hint of a scratch anywhere on it. It remained exactly as if it had never been touched. The ship’s shiny green surface seemed invincible.

In response Wilbert had escalated to using some of the more "industrial strength" solutions he had laying about his farm. Though he wasn't actually allowed to play with many of the more dangerous items on the farm, he'd gone ahead and tried some of them anyway, since nobody seemed to be watching.

All had been useless. Even his most extreme methods had resulted in nothing but failure. As far as Wilbert could tell, his ship was impervious to any attack. Its shimmering hull withstood even the crushing force of a driving tractor, as well as more exotic forces such as those from chemicals, fire, or electricity. Wilbert was running out of options, and he was really begining to believe that nothing would work.

So, on the evening of the storm, Wilbert was feeling pretty dejected. He was also feeling more and more frightened, worried over how his barn would hold against the intensifying winds.

Wilbert's concerns were misplaced, because really, that old barn would've stood up to practically anything. Much more worthy of his attention would have been the strange events going on inside the spaceship. Those were significantly more outlandish than mere weather.

A sort of awakening was slowly taking place in the spaceship, but Wilbert remained oblivious to it.

Wilbert decended from the barn's upper level, down to the ship's usual parking space in the middle of the floor. He paced around, stomped his feet, and shock his head.

The spaceship was seeming less and less like his spaceship, since he couldn't get into it or even keep track of where it was.

It also seemed a little less like his spaceship, because its sticker of ownership, had completely fallen off. His spaceship no longer read "property of Wilbert", though it was unclear when or where the sticker had fallen off. Wilbert wondered how it fell off, why it did so, and where it had gone.

Wilbert imagined that if he found the sticker, it might provide some kind of a clue. Perhaps it could be a sort of breacrumb on the ship's trail. Maybe, studying that sticker could reveal what had happened to it. Maybe that sticker could help Wilbert understand what was going on.

That entire train of thought seemed like a long shot, but it was the best idea Wilbert had thought of in a while. In fact, it was pretty much his only idea.

So, Wilbert decided to look for the sticker, and he started by looking over the barn's floor.

Most of the floor was a rugged assembly of wooden boards, all nailed together. Wilbert scanned over those boards, and although he was looking for the sticker, he also began to consider the floor itself.

The barn was old and its floor was imperfect. It was solid and well-built, but it was also very old. Wilbert noticed that between the boards in the flooring, there were many gaps. Most were full of dirt and grime, but a few openings did remain. The sight of those gaps sprung another idea into his mind. Wilbert realized that there was in fact one tricky place the sticker could have been hiding. It could have fallen between the gaps and into the floor.

Wilbert thought about all the other gaps all over the floor, and remembered an obvious one right in the middle. It was close to where he'd first parked the ship.

Intently, Wilbert rushed to the middle of the barn, and found that gap in the boards. He dropped down to his hands and knees, and lowered his face towards the ground. Then he peered into the gap between the boards. Could he find the sticker?

Nope... there was no sticker he could see. However, as Wilbert knelt there on the floor, with his eyes so close to the ground, he was able to see small details on the floor...

One of those details seemed so impossible, Wilbert could barely believe it.

Right there, just under his face, against the floorboards, was his spaceship. It was so tiny that Wilbert couldn't even be sure of what he was seeing at first. He doubted that it could possibly be his spaceship, but as he moved his head around, viewing from all sides, he decided that it was unmistakable. This really was his spaceship, it was just small... very very small.

All of the disappearances now suddenly made sense. Wilbert understood, just then, that his spaceship had never actually gone anywhere. His spaceship had been in his barn the whole time.

Wilbert was having a hard time believing the ship could be so small, but within a few moments he accepted this truth. All things considered, having a spaceship in his barn was already ridiculously strange. A ship that was sometimes tiny didn't make the situation that much stranger.

Wilbert reached out with his fingertip and nudged the tiny ship. As usual, it moved easily at first, but then held firmer, and then slowly recoiled back to where it had been.

Briefly, Wilbert was overjoyed. He now understood why his spaceship sometimes seemed to disappear. Before long though, Wilbert was back to agonizing over why he couldn't get inside of his spaceship. He was also irritated because as long as his ship was so tiny, getting in was probably going to be even more impossible.

Wilbert figured that if he just waited a little while, the ship would probably return back to its normal size, just as it had before. Then perhaps he could go back to breaking his way inside.

So, Wilbert waited. Since, at this point, he was merely waiting for his spaceship to return to size, Wilbert decided he could have a bite to eat.

Although barns don't normally have much in the way of kitchens, Wilbert was fortunate because his aunt had left the barn overflowing with useful equipment. One of those pieces of equipment was an old refrigerator. Although it looked old as the ages, his refrigerator still kept as cold as ever, so Wilbert stocked it with bits of food he'd smuggled out of his parents' house. (As long as he didn't touch the beer, they didn't really seem to mind.)

Wilbert took a jar of peanut butter out of his refrigerator, grabbed a knife, and pulled a few crackers out of an old tin on the counter. (A tin Wilbert used to keep the local mice out of his snacks.) Then he walked over to the main desk of the workshop, and sat down on his favorite seat, a swiveling stool where he usually worked. He rolled his stool a little to the side and found an empty place on the desk to put down the plate, between the piles of papers covering the desktop.

As he assembled the food, Wilbert glanced over many of the papers on his desk. Drawings of the spaceship dominated what was currently on display. In the few days since he'd found his spaceship, Wilbert had come up with more ideas for it than most kids would have had in a lifetime. Sadly, all these ideas really only added to his frustration, because being locked out of his ship meant that he couldn't pursue any of his incredible ideas.

Occasionally, Wilbert looked back at his ship while he was eating. It was only about 10 feet behind him. The first few times he looked back, he saw nothing of interest, but before he'd finished his crackers, he heard a loud thump, and turned to see his the spaceship back to a reasonable size again.

As Wilbert thought about the size of his spaceship, he decided that every time he had seen it, its size had probably been a little bit different. He hadn't noticed earlier, but he felt confident in retrospect. Sometimes it was slightly bigger, and sometimes it was slightly smaller, but never so much as to be terribly obvious. The difference in size was only obvious when the ship disappeared completely. Other than that it was usually around the size of a motorcycle.

After thinking a little further, Wilbert shook his head and conceded that these observations were tenuous at best. He hadn't observed the ship for very long, so he had no way of being sure that any of this would stay the same going forward. Perhaps, he wondered, the only thing consistent about the size of the ship was its inconsistency.

In reality, the ship tended to have good reasons for why it became any given size. Its size at the moment was soon going to be useful to what was awakening inside.

As he thought about its growing and shrinking, Wilbert looked upon the ship, and imagined all the exciting things he could do with it. Before long though, his excitement gave way to impatience, and then to frustration. He wondered if anything was ever going to work out. Anything, he wished, that would finally help him break into his spaceship.

As luck would have it, such an event did in fact soon happen. Almost as if the ship was aware of and responding to Wilbert's wishes. However, although there was a response, it wasn't to Wilbert's wishes, and it wasn't exactly the ship that was responding.

An energy built up slowly. Wilbert started to take notice only because, a new sound was taking over, overpowering the wind outside. At first, the sound was interesting and exciting to Wilbert, but before long, the ship was buzzing and screeching so loudly that it hurt Wilbert's ears.

Wilbert covered his ears and grimaced, overjoyed and terrified all at the same time. He turned his head away, trying to find some relief from the noise.

The screeches finally peaked, and the ship shook violently. There was a thunderous crack, and a sudden implosion. Suction reached out from the ship and pulled at everything around it.

The screeching stopped, but in its place the blasting sound of swirling air became overwhelming. Twisting out from the side of the spaceship, a momentary tornado had taken shape in Wilbert's workshop. By comparison, the developing storm outside seemed to be nothing at all.

Shocked and panicked, Wilbert resisted and curled himself into a tuck, knees to his face and arms around his head. He protected his face and his eyes from the sandy dirt that was flying around everywhere.

Then, in no time at all, and as quickly as it had started, the tornado was gone. The remains of the turbulence dissipated, and what followed were hundreds of little sounds. All the collected junk in the workshop had been rattled. Pieces fell over, and a number of items even shattered. Finally, as all else settled, the sound of crinkling paper took over. So many of Wilbert's notes and drawings had been tossed up from his desk and into the air. They fluttered downwards in spirals, falling and landing all over the barn.

Everything settled and quieted, and the howling wind outside became obvious again. Wilbert opened his eyes and uncurled his body. Then he cautiously peeked back towards his spaceship.

As terrified as Wilbert was in that moment, he was also at least a little excited. The fact that the ship had done anything at all was thrilling, and it gave Wilbert reason to hope. Perhaps some change had occured, and perhaps such a change could get him past the impenetrable hull and into the ship. The corners of Wilbert's mind dreamed of finding whatever wonders awaited.

Optimistically, Wilbert approached the ship. At first he found it to be the same as before. Luckily though, when he walked around to the west side of the ship, he was overjoyed to see that there was in fact a new and striking difference.

A separation in the panels had formed, and that separation was growing. What appeared was small at first, perhaps only the size of Wilbert's head, but the opening continued to grow. Gradually, between the panels, the lines which had been so thin earlier were expanding into a large and circular hole.

Wilbert looked on excitedly, expecting to see something inside the circle. Instead, he was shocked to find that he could see nothing at all.

The circular gap between the panels, was becoming a void of blackness, the likes of which Wilbert had never seen.

This new shape was more than just a darkness. It was a kind of perfect emptiness. Nothing whatsoever could be seen between the panels. The entire area was completely devoid of any light. It was an emptiness that was darker than dark, and it looked as though it were an opening into an infinite expanse of space, an expanse containing nothing at all.

Wilbert stood in front of this void and marvelled in disbelief. Since it appeared to be a hole, he thought that he would be able to reach into it, and with the utmost of caution, he slowly raised his hand and pointed a finger towards the void. Slowly, he inched his finger forward, but then, just as he reached the gap, he bumped the tip of his finger aginst what felt like a solid surface. Rather than an empty void, what he felt was every bit as solid as the shiny hull before.

"Noooooo... " Wilbert whined as he frantically ran his fingers all across the darkened section.

The only thing his fingers felt was more of the same. He could feel no difference between the shiny green metal, and this new void-like area, except that the new area was even more slippery. It was all just perfectly smooth, and sadly, it was perfectly impervious as well.

Wilbert was devastated. He had wished for a sort of doorway, but what appeared was at best a window. Worse yet, it was about as useless as any window could be, since nothing could be seen on the other side.

Fingers clenched, Wilbert slammed the base of his fists into the ship's hull. Once again, his hopes of getting into the spaceship were fading quickly.

There had to be something inside didn't there? Could the ship have really been completely empty?

Eventually a very complicated answer would emerge from that question. The answer was in a sense, yes, but also in a sense, no. Whether or not the spaceship had an actual inside was a question that couldn't be answered in any conventional sense. What Wilbert didn't yet understand was that the ship had no single-point at its center. Halfway between both sides of the ship, was really nowhere at all. That region of space simply didn't exist.

However, if the word "inside" refered to the place holding what the ship carried, rather than simply the place between its walls, then it was true that the inside of that ship was more than Wilbert ever could have imagined.

Intermission - Wilbert's Suspension

Notice of Suspension
May 25th, 1995

The administration of Utope Elementary School, hereby informs Rachael and Robert Watterson of changes in school policy regarding the student: Wilbert Watterson.

Wilbert will remain suspended from our school indefinitely.

We did not come to this decision lightly or quickly. For years, Wilbert has shown an extreme contempt for authority, and a total disregard for it. He has actively subverted school activities on more than one occasion, and disciplinary measures have proven to be unsuccessful in changing his behaviour.

Wilbert conceals his activities well enough that we can not even be sure to what extent Wilbert has undermined our institution. To this day, we continue to make new discoveries of Wilbert's pranks around the school.

Despite our efforts of mitigation, Wilbert's behavior has continuously worsened. The wrecklessness most recently demonstrated by Wilbert has fundamentally changed the nature of our concern. Last week's dangerous events were arguably caused by Wilbert, as were the subsequent injuries. Even if Wilbert did not intend such serious outcomes, these events indicate that we can no longer tolerate Wilbert's misbehavior. We must address safety risks, especially any involving fire and electricity.

In the interest of maintaining an orderly environment, and by the request of the other parents, Wilbert is hereby suspended from school indefinitely. He will remain suspended until we can be sure his behavior will be appropriate for a school environment.

If Wilbert remains in school there will likely continue to be significant conflict between Wilbert, his teachers, and his peers. Removing Wilbert from the school environment seems to be the best solution for all involved, including Wilbert himself.

We recommend that Wilbert participate in a professional youth counselling program, and attached to this letter you will find a referral to such a program. We have already notified Social Services and we expect that they will get in touch with you shortly.

Please contact us if you have any questions, but note that this decision will not be reconsidered, it is absolutely final.

Sincerely,

Principal Keaton Utopia Elementary School

Re: Suspension of Wilbert Waterson

Robert Watterson,

We do acknowledge that Wilbert's misbehavior is in part a reaction to the bullying Wilbert experienced from other students at our school. However, this fact does not excuses his misbehavior.

Again, our decision is absolutely final. Wilbert remains suspended from our school.

Principal Keaton

---

Chapter 5 - In Spite Of Fear

The evening had darkened to a pitch black night. The weather had worsened, and the storm was now in full effect. Carried by a warm and raging wind, a thick veil of chaotic clouds cloaked the stars and obscured the night's new moon. Lightning flashed, and was followed almost instantaneously by crashing thunder.

Sitting beneath the storm was Wilbert's workshop in the barn. Thousands of tiny taps of raindrops pattered down against its windows. The howling winds shook the old wooden building, and although it was probably the sturdiest structure on the farm, Wilbert was irrationally fearful, worrying it might fall to pieces at any moment. In a way, his fear was understandable… Wilbert had not had a pleasant history with storms.

He was also fearful because the barn was now very dark inside. The storm had knocked the power out, and although the barn had a gas powered generator, Wilbert hadn't actually worked up the courage to get it going yet.

In fact, Wilbert hadn't really worked up the courage to do anything for the last hour or so. He was now sitting nearly motionless. His only real movement was shaking and shifting uncomfortably in his hiding place.

Yes, Wilbert was hiding, or more precisely, he was cowering, under a corner of his desk. A sort of "cave" was formed by the desk's thick backing panels, and this made the space underneath feel like a comforting shelter to Wilbert.

There in his cave, Wilbert gripped a flashlight tightly in his hands. When the power had gone out, all the lights in the barn had suddenly gone dark, so the flashlight was now the only reason Wilbert could see anything at all. The only other sources of light were the occasional flashes of lightning outside, and the lightning scared Wilbert even more than the darkness.

Wilbert knew that if he wanted more light, he'd have to fuel the generator and get it set up, but he just wasn't ready to do that yet. He lacked the courage to leave his hiding place. So instead, Wilbert just sat in waiting, hoping for the storm to settle down.

As he sat, he stared ahead where he could see the spaceship in the middle of the barn. Illuminated by his flashlight, it sat in a pool of light surrounded by darkness. The spaceship was on the floor, just like Wilbert was, but unlike Wilbert, it wasn't really on the floor. Instead, it was just above the floor, hovering eerily. Since the earlier event, the ship had stayed parked in its place, and it seemed to have done nothing else.

Wilbert stared at the ship, and as he did so, it seemed to stare back at him, grinning. The shape of its bow was like a mocking smile. To Wilbert, it felt as though his ship was toying with him, getting his hopes up and then snatching them away.

Hours ago, the spaceship had seemed to open up. Momentarily, Wilbert had believed he'd found a way inside, but instead, he'd quickly discovered that he was still completely locked out.

As a result, there was real bitterness in Wilbert's heart, but that bitterness also motivated his attention. Even as he was cowering and afraid, he was also determined. If the ship was going to do anything, Wilbert wanted to be watching, because he wanted to see it happen.

In his determination, even while Wilbert hid under his desk, he kept his eyes fixed intently on his spaceship. Wilbert stared so heavily at the spaceship that he rarely blinked, and before long his eyes began to sting. Wilbert lifted his eyeglasses, closed his eyelids, and rubbed them with his hands.

Just then, suddenly, Wilbert saw it. Through his squinting eyelids, he could see a flash of motion, and quickly he reacted. Opening his eyes wide, he peered towards the opening of the spaceship.

Something seemed to be happening, but Wilbert couldn't say exactly what. It all appeared very blurry, and the fact that Wilbert wasn't looking through his glasses didn't help. He quickly scrambled to put his glasses back in front of his eyes. As soon as he had them back in place, he immediately refocused on the ship.

For a moment, just a fraction of a second, he saw something move again, but before he had time to examine it, he lost track.

Intrigued, Wilbert kept staring at the ship. He saw nothing more of interest, so he considered whatever had just happened.

Whatever Wilbert had seen, it was blurry. Wilbert thought that it could even be described as being wavy. It was almost like boiling water, and a bit like steam from the spout of a kettle. It had seemed to come from the ship's blackened window.

Wilbert scanned over the ship intently, looking for signs of anything more, but there was nothing.

The fear that Wilbert was feeling started to be displaced by his curiosity, and that curiosity gave Wilbert a tiny bit of courage.

"This might be my only chance at this…" he muttered to himself under his breath.

Despite a certain amount of terror, Wilbert inched forward. He hesitated, took a deep breath, and then finally came out from under the desk and carefully stood up.

With the walls and the windows still rattling, Wilbert nervously stood for a moment. Then, he started to move again, and slowly approached the spaceship. As he approached, he stopped every few steps to make sure everything was still okay, swinging his flashlight up, down, and side to side, checking the roof and the windows.

Though the winds raged outside, inside the barn everything seemed fine. At least, for now, nothing seemed broken. The wailing wind was still scary, the rattling of the windows was still unnerving, and the darkness made all of it even worse. Regardless, in spite of his fears, Wilbert kept up his courage and continued to proceed forward, until he finally reached the ship in the center of the barn. Once up close, he scanned over the ship with his flashlight, and the beam of light shimmered across the ship's green hull.

Wilbert noticed that in this darkness, the ship seemed to have qualities of glowing and iridescence. Wherever he shined the light, it kept twinkling with tiny rainbows, which persisted even for a few moments after he moved the light away. The effect was very dim, and he hadn't noticed it during the daylight. Now though, in such extreme darkness, the brief twinkling glow was obvious.

Remembering which part of the ship he was really interested in, Wilbert shined his flashlight at the "window", where the motion had seemed to have come from. As his flashlight's beam reached the window, he was astonished by the fact that it was still one hundred percent, completely pitch black. Even with his light up close, shining right at the window, it showed no sparkles, no reflections, and nothing at all except total darkness. Wilbert couldn't even tell if he was looking through a window into a dark room, or if he was looking at some kind of perfectly black panel. Of everything Wilbert had seen, this window was proving to be the strangest thing yet.

Wilbert reached out and touched the window, and like before, what he felt was something that seemed totally solid, but completely smooth. So smooth that it was, as far as he could tell, perfectly frictionless. It was by far the most slippery surface he'd ever touched, and he briefly considered how it would have made for an ideal slide at a playground.

The pressure from Wilbert's hand caused the ship to drift slightly, and he pulled his hand back from the window. As the drift slowed to a halt, Wilbert looked down towards the bottom of the ship where it hovered just slightly above the floor. He tried to spot anything different but, as hard as he looked, everything seemed just the same as before.

Wilbert was gradually becoming more frustrated, and he was close to losing his patience, but before his frustration built up too much, Wilbert was shocked by a sudden crash.

Clang! ... clink, clink, clinkity, clink…

Wilbert spun around with his flashlight and quickly discovered an old coffee can, rolling along the floor before coming to a stop. The can was tipped over, and little nuts, bolts, and washers now surrounded it, all spilling out from its insides. The can had clearly fallen off the edge of the workbench by his desk.

For a moment, Wilbert thought that maybe the wind had knocked over the can, but for the most part, the barn was quite intact, and it really wasn't windy inside. Even if there had been some kind of gust of wind, inside the barn, it seemed very unlikely that it could have knocked over a can full of heavy nuts and bolts.

No… something else had knocked over that can.

Wilbert wondered if it had something to do with the spaceship, but before jumping to conclusions, he also considered whether or not it could have been an animal.

There were many little critters in the area and it wasn't that strange to find any of them in his barn. However, the animals he'd seen in his barn were almost never anything larger than a mouse or a squirrel. Wilbert wasn't even sure how the mice were getting in, but he knew for sure that the door kept the larger animals safely outside. He'd never found a bear, a dear, or even a raccoon, actually hiding inside his barn. As far as Wilbert could remember, the largest animal he'd ever found in his barn was his cat.

Wilbert's cat was pretty annoying. It knocked things over all the time. Still, even then, would his cat have bothered to knock over the coffee can? Nuts and bolts are heavy, and it would have been a lot of work for the cat to push a can full of them off the workbench. There were no treats or food in that can either, only small pieces of metal, nothing that would have been of much interest to a cat. It seemed very unlikely that his cat, or any other animal, had knocked the can over.

So, an idea from the back of Wilbert's mind started to come into the foreground. It was definitely scary, but it was incredibly exciting at the same time. He had been almost repressing it up to that point, because he was being careful not to get his hopes up. However, as Wilbert looked at the coffee can, and then back at the spaceship, Wilbert suspected something he would soon confirm.

The motion he'd seen had been something emerging from the ship, and Wilbert knew it... He just knew it! Whatever had come out of that ship was now moving about Wilbert's barn. Moreso, if the blurry motion had been something coming out of the spaceship, then maybe even, whatever emerged had really been someone. The truth was becoming more and more clear to Wilbert.

As he heard another sudden crash from the north side of the barn, Wilbert spun around with his flashlight, and pointed to where he would soon confirm his suspicions.

Wilbert had a visitor.

---

Chapter 6 - First Contact

Wilbert wasn’t precisely sure what was happening in his barn, but he was pretty sure that he wasn’t alone. After he turned around to face North, it became even more obvious. Someone else was in there with him.

There were little scratching sounds coming from behind the shelves, and banging sounds from the crates. Wilbert could hear the rattling of his possessions being mulled through.

The few motions he could make out were fast, then paused, then fast again. They were also back and forth, all over the place. A shelf would shake over to the left, and then moments later, another shelf would shake over to the right.

The real giveaway though, the thing that made Wilbert sure there was life back there, was the sounds of pattering feet, and those sounded nothing like those of a man’s footsteps. The pattering was wild and rapid. It was too fast to be human.

The footsteps sounded more like an animal's, but not like any animal Wilbert had ever encountered. Wilbert also knew there wasn’t much back there that would be interesting to animals. The piles of junk were mostly machines, tools, and electronics.

It seemed safe to conclude that it wasn’t a raccoon. Whoever was back there, they were not a local of his farm.

Whoever was back there must have been small too, small enough to stay hidden from view. All of the shuffling around was happening where a tall person would have been easy to spot. However, a shorter person would have been mostly obscured from view. There were just too many things in the way.

Wilbert considered the possibility of his visitor being very small. A tiny hidden visitor didn’t seem so terrible to Wilbert. It was a little comforting actually. If it had been a giant monster back there, Wilbert would have been a lot more worried. Yes, it certainly helped that the visitor was probably very small.

Wilbert realized that he was a lot less afraid than he probably should have been. Surprisingly, the storm still scared him more than the visitor.

In fact, it was quite possible that Wilbert was the scary one. Any visitor would have been out of place in a dark and unknown world. To any such visitor, Wilbert might seem to be the scary stranger.

So, Wilbert decided to be slow and careful. If he didn’t threaten the visitor, then hopefully the visitor wouldn’t threaten him.

With soft steps, Wilbert proceeded towards the North side of the barn, under the loft, to the storage area where the sounds were coming from. He made his way between the shelves, attempting to follow the sounds. It was hard to follow them though, because the sounds were so scattered.

Finally, the source of the sounds stopped moving around so much. Whatever was making the sounds seemed to have settled into the Northwest corner of the barn, so Wilbert followed.

As he closed in, he heard the most unexpected sounds.

Squeak, squeak... jingle, jingle... ding, ding...

Wilbert paused for a moment, and actually chuckled slightly. The sounds were very recognizable. In fact, he heard them pretty often. They were the sounds of his cat’s toys.

Wilbert’s cat wasn’t around though, at least not right there and not right then. Even if the cat was around, his cat surely would have been scared away by all the banging and knocking going on.

Someone else must have been playing with the cat's things.

Wilbert walked over to his cat’s little corner of the barn. He didn't want to scare his visitor away though, so he was very careful with his flashlight.

In the edges of its spotlight, Wilbert could discern a bundle of old blankets on a small table where the cat often slept. When he peered towards the cat’s bed, Wilbert finally saw!

It was his visitor, in full view, finally staying in one place long enough to be looked at.

This was, by far, the strangest sight Wilbert had ever seen. Wilbert’s visitor was very small, about the same size as his cat. However, Wilbert’s visitor looked nothing like a cat.

Instead the visitor simply looked like a ball of water. Not a puddle of water though, but more like a bowl of water without the bowl. As Wilbert watched, the water ball rippled and waved, its edges showing a vaporish haze.

The ball of water slowly rolled a little, turning itself around in a way that seemed to face towards Wilbert. The very shape of the ball seemed to flatten somewhat as it did, as though forming a common mirror.

As Wilbert looked at his visitor, he got the distinct impression that his visitor looked back at him.

Although this watery visitor was mostly round, it wasn’t a sphere, and it was not featureless either. At its base, many smaller little rounded blobs protruded and supported it above the floor. They appeared to be its feet.

Wilbert continued to study the appearance of his visitor. Then after a few moments, the visitor moved towards one of the cat's toys. It was a small squeaking rubber ducky from Wilbert’s infancy.

Squeak, squeak…

With a subtle change of shape, the visitor's feet, or possibly its hands, were now holding the toy, and squeezing it gently.

The visitor then released the toy and pushed it forward. With a little shove, the rubber ducky was rolled in Wilbert’s direction.

Wilbert was careful not to move too fast, as he did not want to startle his visitor. Kneeling down, Wilbert picked up the rubber ducky, and slowly lifted it up.

Squeak, squeak…

Wilbert squeaked the ducky just as his visitor had, before putting the ducky back on the floor.

In response, the visitor again did something similar.

Ding, ding… the visitor shook another one of the cat’s toys. This time it was a tiny little bell. Just as before, the visitor pushed the bell towards Wilbert afterward.

So again, Wilbert picked up what he’d been given.

Ding, ding… Wilbert shook the little bell, and Wilbert started to realize what was going on.

This was a conversation.

Wilbert wasn’t normally very talkative. He’d not generally had pleasant experiences with others, and during the rare occasions that Wilbert spoke out, it was often in anger.

Communication wasn’t something Wilbert was very good at, so he seemed poorly suited to be humanity's first contact with an alien race.

Wilbert considered that perhaps a simple introduction was all that was needed. This part of the conversation seemed simple enough, so Wilbert spoke to his guest.

“I am Wilbert”, he said, mentally noting that these were humanity’s first words to the wider inhabitants of the universe.

Then, after speaking, Wilbert waited for a response.

Silence…

Wilbert’s visitor, perhaps now better described as Wilbert’s guest, said nothing in return.

"Maybe," Wilbert thought, “Maybe this visitor doesn’t speak.”

Instead of saying anything, the visitor cautiously walked around and slowly appeared to look over all the little trinkets in the cat’s corner. Finally it came upon another toy, a stuffed plush cat.

The plush cat was mostly orange, accented by purple and pink highlights. It's size was about the same as a real cat's, which also meant it was around the same size as Wilbert's visitor. Around the plush cat's neck was a collar reading, "Ms. Kitty".

The visitor slowly lifted the plush cat, and tumbled it around, appearing to examine it from all sides. Then, the visitor put it back down, and stepped back slightly.

Wilbert was amazed by what happened next.

Slowly the visitor started to change. It’s similarity to water became less and less, and where it had been clear and flowing, it gradually became colorful and solid. Soon enough, Wilbert was no longer looking at a watery blob. Instead, he was looking at a ball, one that was fluffy, orange, and purple, just like the stuffed cat.

The ball shook a little, and then rocked back and forth gently. As it rocked, it gradually did so farther and farther, until it was rolling from side to side.

Soon, within a minute or so, there was a fluffy little ball rolling around Wilbert's barn. This little rolling creature was probably the cutest thing Wilbert had ever seen.

Rolling around, it seemed to explore its surroundings, but it stayed back from Wilbert. Since it was in the corner of the barn, and Wilbert was in its way, it didn’t have a lot of room to move around. It didn’t need to roll past Wilbert though.

Instead, it just rolled right through the west wall.

---

Chapter 7 - Who's That Girl

Wilbert was in utter disbelief.

The visitor, now a fluffy little ball, had rolled right through the wall. It didn't break through the wall though. It wasn't like there was a hole in the wall. Nope... the wall was perfectly intact. The visitor had just passed right through it, as if it wasn't even there.

It was almost like this visitor was a ghost, except that Wilbert was pretty sure it wasn't.

Before thinking about it for too long though, Wilbert started to worry. He worried because he really didn't want to lose his only link to the inside of his spaceship.

Wilbert called out to his visitor, "Come back! ... Please don't go."

Wilbert heard no response.

Of course, the silence wasn't surprising. Wilbert was already pretty sure that the visitor didn't speak, so Wilbert didn't actually expect a response.

Luckily, it immediately became obvious that the visitor hadn't gone very far. New sounds could be heard outside.

Crash! Clink, clank.

Apparently the visitor was now rummaging through the storage outside of the barn, just as it had done inside.

Wilbert couldn't see through the wall, so he couldn't yet see exactly what was going on. However, he knew the wall had windows upstairs in the loft, so he could look through those, instead of going out into the storm.

Wilbert moved quickly, running up the stairs that escalated over the cat's corner. When he got to the top of the stairs, he ran to the window, and reached for the handle.

Wilbert hesitated to pull the handle at first, because the storm was still raging outside. All the distractions had taken his attention away from his fear of the storm, but now he was confronted with it directly. Opening this handle meant the storm was going to be right in his face.

Wilbert took a deep breath and lifted the handle. The window opened up, and as the opening widened, heavy rain blasted into his face, the wind blew his hair back, and Wilbert's ears were filled with roaring sounds.

All of those scary sounds were so much louder now that the window was open.

Wilbert tried to ignore all that, and he shined his flashlight down, searching the ground until he found his little visitor. The visitor was pretty easy to spot actually. Orange and purple colors stood out strongly from the grays and browns of the dirt.

The ball was rolling around all over, bashing stuff around. Eventually it rolled into a large crate, and the sounds that followed were ear piercing.

Screeching, growling, yowling, and hissing...

Wilbert was pretty sure he recognized these sounds. The sounds he was listening to were made by raccoons.

Wilbert was used to raccoons. Although there were no raccoons on the inside of his barn, they were regular residents of its surroundings. All the boxes, crates, and trailers outside of the barn made for ideal raccoon dwellings. Wilbert had known for a while that raccoons were making homes in the storage outside.

Sometimes the raccoons fought, either with each other, or with other animals. Although sometimes those fights were loud, Wilbert had never heard the raccoons get this angry.

Then, with a burst of speed, a trio of raccoons lept out from the side of the crate. There was more screeching and hissing, and then another raccoon ran out, faster than Wilbert had ever seen any raccoon run anywhere.

For a minute it was quiet, but Wilbert stayed laser focused on the crate. Another minute passed, and what followed was the exit of one last raccoon.

This raccoon was not like the others though. In fact, this raccoon wasn't even really a raccoon.

This new raccoon was furry and stretchy, and moved around in a way that didn't seem like any ordinary raccoon. Most importantly to Wilbert, a considerable amount of this raccoon's fur was orange and purple.

This colorful raccoon was actually Wilbert's visitor.

Wilbert stood watching his visitor, the colorful new raccoon, who seemed much more relaxed now. It wasn't moving about frantically anymore. It didn't seem to be searching for anything any longer. It just strutted about outside, clearly not bothered by the rain or the wind. Then, after a few moments, the new raccoon walked back toward the barn.

As it approached the barn's wall, Wilbert lost sight of it from the window. Quickly, he turned his head to look down the stairs, and then watched, as his visitor walked back through the wall, into the barn.

Wilbert ran down the stairs, and for a moment, he worried that his quick movements might scare the visitor... but they didn't.

Instead of being scared, his visitor (the new raccoon) stood proudly at the bottom of the stairs. As Wilbert got close, the raccoon faced him. Then it slowly did a little turn, as if to demonstrate its new form to Wilbert.

The new raccoon was showing off.

Wilbert shook his head, and chucked. After all the frightening events of the night, this new development really lightened the mood. Wilbert's visitor looked more comical than dangerous. Really, this colorful raccoon was about the least threatening space alien Wilbert could have imagined.

The raccoon did another little strut, walking back and forth, showing off a little more, and then walked right up to Wilbert and rubbed the side of its body against Wilbert's leg. It may have been a raccoon, but its behavior was much more like that of a typical cat's.

"Hmmm… solid after all…" thought Wilbert, "Definitely not a ghost."

Wilbert knelt down to take a closer look at the new raccoon.

It was adorable. In many ways it looked almost like a cartoon character, including its very expressive facial expressions. All in all, its appearance was a strange blend between a plush cartoon cat and a raccoon.

Wilbert noticed the pinkish lips of the raccoon, the colorful claws (or fingernails), and the long eyelashes. All of which were very similar to "Ms. Kitty", the plush cat. Like that toy, this new raccoon looked distinctly feminine.

Wilbert knelt down close to the new raccoon.

"Who's that girl?" he asked, with a little grin.

He waited for a moment, but of course he got no response. His visitor didn't speak.

Wilbert didn't need a response though. It had been a rhetorical question anyway.

"Well, since you don't talk, I guess I can't ask you your name." Wilbert said before a short wait. "I'm going to have to name you myself."

Wilbert paused again to consider a name, and after a moment, he thought about one of his favorite names. He decided to go with that.

"Remy," he said, "I'm going to call you Remy. You remind me of that name."

He looked at his subject and nodded his head.

"Yep... I like the sound of that...

...Remy Raccoon!"

---

Chapter 8 - In Darkness Are Strangers

Wilbert watched as Remy Raccoon walked about his barn, and then slowly circled back to the cat's corner.

She looked over the toys and found the bell that she'd played with earlier. With her front paws, she picked up the bell, and then walked over to the plush cat. With a quick nod of her head, she poked her nose into its neck, right through it in fact! Then after a little shaking, and some motions that Wilbert couldn't quite discern, she turned back toward him. Remy emerged from the cat's corner, now wearing the plush cat's collar. Attached to it was her little bell.

With her new accessory, Remy walked towards Wilbert, then past him, in the direction of the spaceship. Before going much further though, she turned around to face him.

Tinkle, tinkle!

Remy shook her head and rang the bell. As Wilbert watched he could tell that her actions were very intentional. His interest was peaked, but he didn't immediately get the message, so Remy stepped back then rang the bell again.

Tinkle, tinkle!

In response, Wilbert walked toward Remy, and once he was close to her, Remy turned and continued further towards the spaceship, ringing the bell as she went

Wilbert now understood. He was being directed. Remy was bringing Wilbert back to her spaceship, which was in Wilbert's mind, his spaceship.

It was slightly insulting to be led about by a raccoon, especially since Wilbert liked to be in charge. However, he was willing to follow along for now. This was all much too interesting to ignore.

Remy finally reached the spaceship, which was then the size of a small car. Wilbert caught up with Remy, and she rang the bell one more time. Then, she jumped up sideways, right into the black panel of the spaceship. Unlike Wilbert, who hadn't been able to get through that panel, Remy passed through easily, and then she disappeared into the darkness.

Wilbert tried to follow, but as he reached into the window, his hand just crashed into it. Unlike Remy, he couldn't just pass through things.

"No, no, no," said Wilbert, hoping Remy might understand, "I can't follow you in there."

Wilbert tried to knock on the window, but doing so made no sound, so instead he knocked on the green hull of the spaceship, which made a loud metallic sound just as he would have expected.

"Remy?" Wilbert continued to call out to his little visitor, over and over again. He got no immediate response.

Wilbert became more and more frustrated. He continued banging on the spaceship, harder and harder, and he kept yelling at Remy, louder and louder.

After what seemed like far too long (but was actually only a couple minutes) Remy was back. She popped her head into view, behind the window. Then she rubbed her little paws against it, almost like she was washing the window.

In response to her paws, the window twinkled brightly, with tiny flashes of white light, and little bubbling rainbows. The effects were much like those Wilbert had seen on the surface of the ship when he had shined his flashlight upon it.

By the time Remy stopped rubbing the window, it looked like someone had splashed glitter all over it. Thousands of tiny little spots of light continued to twinkle across.

Remy then seemed to pull on the backside of the window, and surprisingly, the glittering highlights stretched back. Soon, Wilbert was looking into what seemed like a long tunnel of stars. At the far end of the tunnel was Remy, continuing to back away slowly, and disappearing into the darkness, as if it was a fog.

Wilbert reached out with his hand one more time, and now, finally, he could reach beyond where the window had been, when his hand came into contact with the side of the tunnel, he could feel the roughness of all the little sparkles. The tiny glitters of light felt something like a rocky surface, but one in which the little bits of rock were dancing. The feel of this surface was a very strange sensation, but at least it wasn't perfectly slippery anymore.

Wilbert's mind raced with excitement. Finally, he could really get inside of his spaceship! With both hands, he reached into the ship, pushed against the sides of the tunnel, and pulled himself through the window's opening. It worked, even though the feeling of the sparkling surface was pretty strange.

Once inside the tunnel, Wilbert noticed another interesting sensation. It was subtle at first, but it soon became the rushing of wind. It was clear and unmistakable. Outside air was pouring in from the window's entrance, into the darkness beyond.

This actually made sense to Wilbert, because he knew that an expanding space would be filled by the atmosphere of its surroundings. It was elementary really, the basics of atmospheric pressure.

Wilbert crawled further forward, but he noticed that as he got farther along, he was reaching wider parts of the tunnel. Soon he had enough room that he was able to stand right up. Looking around, he observed the tunnel's ceiling fading away into the darkness, it's walls widening. The path before him, the floor, was disconnecting from the walls. Still, in the distance, he could see that the floor did continue.

Marching on, Wilbert was well aware that there was far too much space in the tunnel. Even if the spaceship had been a little larger, this tunnel was much too huge to fit inside the spaceship. Wilbert shook his head again in disbelief, but proceeded forward anyway.

Occasionally, he looked back, and he noticed the entrance behind him was starting to be harder and harder to see. It was becoming enveloped in darkness, as if a fog was becoming thicker the farther into the darkness he went. This was definitely troubling, but it wasn't enough to dissuade Wilbert. Instead, he pressed on, moving further and further along the sparkling path while the opening behind him faded into a deep black haze.

As Wilbert continued along the narrow path it gently began to curve. Before long, Wilbert found himself walking in circles.

Around and around he went, but the strangest part about it was that he never crossed his prior path of sparkles, nor did he even see any indication of it. In all the darkness, the only part of the path he could ever see was the part he was on in the moment.

He stayed level as he walked, so he was fairly sure he was not walking above or below any other part of his path. It seemed impossible that this path could avoid looping back on itself, but somehow it didn't.

After he'd walked around in a circle six or seven times, the path finally became straight again. After continuing just a little further down, Wilbert reached what seemed like the end of the road.

The sparkling path went no further, and what Wilbert saw ahead was only an infinite void. After coming so far, he was blocked again. Wilbert couldn't let this be the end of his journey.

Without knowing what else to do, Wilbert decided to call out, "Remy! ...Remy, where are you?"

Within a few moments Remy reappeared. She was upside down, but in a slow tumble, descending from above and in front of Wilbert. It was as if Remy were rolling down a flight of stairs, but of course, there were no stairs. There was only the end of the sparkly path. As she tumbled down to Wilbert's level, Remy uncurled her paws, and set herself upright on the sparkly floor.

After stabilizing her balance, Remy walked ahead of Wilbert. Then she rubbed her little paws on the floor. Its sparkling increased and the path extended just a little farther. In the darkness, along that last bit of the path, was revealed a small pile of strange but soft looking objects.

Wilbert noticed the vague similarity to his cat's bed, before he observed Remy walk on top of the soft pile, kneel down, and settle in. At this point she seemed very relaxed.

Tired from all the walking, Wilbert decided that Remy had the right idea. It would be nice to take a bit of a break and give his feet some rest. Since there seemed to be quite a bit of room on the bed, he sat down as well. For several minutes, both of them simply relaxed in that spot, while Wilbert wondered about the nature of the darkness surrounding them.

...

Eventually Remy moved her head towards Wilbert and nuzzled at his side, drawing his attention. Then she raised her paw, and pointed off at an angle, high above and in front of them. Wilbert’s eyes followed to where she was pointing, up above.

Looking up, a faint light was seen glowing. It was dim at first, and Wilbert couldn't be sure whether it was just small or very far away.

The two of them kept watching. Gradually, more little sparkles gathered together until the light seemed much closer and brighter.

Finally a sound came upon them, a sound that seemed the size of the entire universe, coming from every direction at once. Though it was like nothing Wilbert had ever heard before, he was able to vaguely interpret it as a single word.

It was quite an incredible sound, and it functioned as a sort of announcement, an introduction. As if it were saying...

...behold...

"Burt"

Chapter 9 - In Good Faith

The voice of the light in the dark had spoken, and it sounded like it said "Burt". However, the sound was too complicated and alien to really be any human word.

Perhaps Wilbert interpreted the sound the way he did because of its similarity to a part of his own name. One way or another though, even if the sound wasn't truly an identifiable word, Wilbert assumed it to be one. In his mind, his spaceship had simply said, "Burt".

Since his spaceship had made a self introduction, Wilbert decided to do the same. He repeated his words of first contact from before, but this time he put special emphasis on the first half of his name.

"I am Wil-bert," he said, "and you're just Burt?"

"Yes", a woman's voice replied. It was a voice that spoke with the sound of ages past, somewhat in the spirit of old English, with a kind of intellectual but booming authority. In a way, her voice was as beautiful as it was awe inspiring.

"Burt... your interpretation of a waveform derived from a mathematical identifier."

There was a pause, and then Wilbert spoke, mostly to himself. "What?... What is that supposed to mean?"

Wilbert would have figured it out quickly enough, but before Wilbert could think much more about it, his spaceship continued, "Burt, the living vessel in which you find yourself now."

Wilbert collected himself, and stood up to face the ball of light. Then he realized how astonished he was that he'd actually received a spoken reply. He followed up quickly with another question, one that was immediately relevant.

"Wait... you speak English?" he asked, puzzled by the voice's use of the familiar language.

The voice answered without much hesitation, "I do speak the languages of your world. At least, those spoken in years past. My knowledge of your world's past is extensive."

"You know my planet?" asked Wilbert.

"Yes," replied the voice, "I know of Earth. However, its identity as the planet Burt now finds himself on is something I only now understand. During the crash, my senses were in such disarray. I could barely ascertain where Burt was headed. The moment I observed you, it became obvious that this was Earth, because you are a human, and Earth is the habitat of humans."

OK, OK... thought Wilbert, trying to mentally sort through everything he'd just heard. Some of it made sense, but a part of it didn't, so Wilbert kept asking questions.

"You know of human's and you speak of Burt... but you talk about him as if he's someone else."

The voice of Wilbert's spaceship clarified, "This is true, for I am not truly Burt. I am only his representative, and his temporary guardian. Of all Burt's thinking systems, I am the last left functional."

Wilbert's question repeated the idea in his own words, "Thinking system? So are you one of Burt's... brains?"

The spaceship confirmed, "In a sense, perhaps. I am the eighteenth in my particular family of coprocessor systems, meant to take control in the event of Burt's injury."

Again, Wilbert spoke back and communicated the idea in his own words, "Ok, so you're backup-brain eighteen?"

Wilbert did some quick mental math and visualized the alphabet. Then he put forward a proposal, "Or, maybe, since the eighteenth letter is R... You can be Backup Brain R... B... B... R... ? "

The spaceship, which Wilbert had now mentally labeled as BBR (Bee-Bee-Arr), responded with indifference. "If you wish. Though, in spirit, I am more of a computational system than a brain. My actual workings are nothing like those of Burt's. I am quite deterministic. In fact, it is only my relative simplicity that has allowed me to continue operating as Burt's guardian."

The nature of the spaceship's voice was starting to become clear to Wilbert. He summarized his thoughts, "So... This spaceship itself is Burt and you are B.B.R, now looking after Burt?"

"Correct," replied BBR.

Still, Wilbert wanted to know more, "But why are you looking after him? Is he in danger?"

If BBR could have enjoyed comedy, she would have laughed. Instead she gave a very matter of fact reply.

"Presently, there is only one thing in your universe that is of any danger to Burt. That singular danger is Burt himself. It was only due to his own mistake, his careless playfulness, that he even came to be here.

"The only reason for his injuries was that Burt didn't just crash into your Earth. Burt crashed into the very fabric of this reality. It was only afterwards that I guided him to the surface of your planet. Now I guide him through the process of healing. I do this because even though Burt would heal without me, it would take an unfathomable amount of time. For Burt, it would not be a pleasant experience."

Wilbert took a few moments, absorbing the information. It was a lot to take in.

"Wow... this is wild," said Wilbert, "But I think I understand." Then he pointed to his companion, the little raccoon, "Still... what in the universe is Remy supposed to be?"

"Remy?" asked BBR, before continuing on anyway, "I assume you mean this little one, Burt's most valued passenger."

"Yes," replied Wilbert. "If she is such a valuable passenger, who is she? What is she? Where is she from?"

BBR educated Wilbert on the origin of Remy, the passenger.

"She is a creature from your reality, but she is from very very far away. Trillions of times farther than the edge of your observable universe. She is a "rescue" of a sort. Burt found her all alone, floating in space, an orphan of her world. She is now Burt's friend, or perhaps as you might say, his pet."

The voice's ball of light pulsed, and a cone of light briefly shone upon Remy in her bed. It caused her to perk up for a moment, looking towards it, and then to Wilbert. She made an attempt at something resembling a smile, and then relaxed again.

"Ok... I think I already understood that part about her being like a pet... But here, where she sleeps... Where are we?" asked Wilbert. "What is the place?"

"This is a home, a home for our passenger, 'Remy' as you call her. This space was made to be manipulated by her, and is one of the only parts of Burt that hasn't become totally uninhabitable. Though nearly everything here was lost, I was able to protect her in that small bed she lies upon. The rest of her surroundings are gone though, lost somewhere far off in this hyperbolic space."

Wilbert didn't quite understand what hyperbolic space was precisely, but he knew a little about it from reading astronomy books about the curvature of space, and Wilbert got the distinct suspicion that it had something to do with his earlier turning in circles. He decided not to focus on that though. Instead, he continued his questions about Remy.

"But why did she bring me here?" Wilbert asked, still quite confused, though gradually making sense of his situation.

BBR summarized the story of Remy's isolation.

"Though Remy could not understand the reasons, after sleeping so long alone in the darkness, she could feel that something was not right. With my encouragement, she finally decided to go outside."

Wilbert looked towards Remy with a saddened face, feeling a bit sorry for her.

BBR continued, "Wilbert... Remy was right to go, and she somehow even had the sense to bring back help, or at least company, because she brought back you. Whether or not she intended to bring help, it was good that she did, because help is needed. The situation is grave, so you must listen."

Wilbert listened very carefully as BBR continued to explain.

"For a long time, longer than you realize, my condition has been deteriorating. I've had the ability to do little more than project fragments of communication to Remy. Encouraging her to finally wake up and explore outside has been the most I could do."

It struck Wilbert deeply that this incredible being was now so powerless, so he asked, "You can't do anything?"

BBR explained the situation further, "Essentially, no. My control over Burt's body has been cut. I have not even the power to heal my failing self. At times I have found enough control to warp the relationship between Burt's space and your own, but even those successes have been minimal."

Wilbert thought he understood, but asked just to confirm, "You mean the growing and the shrinking?"

"Correct," replied BBR.

Again, Wilbert asked about the reasoning, "Ok, so you made Burt bigger and smaller, but why?"

"The actions were part of my attempts at reaching some level of control. Unfortunately it was counterproductive. My control over Burt's body is now even less than it was during the crash. I have been getting worse ever since."

The voice of Wilbert's spaceship, BBR, was beginning to seem less authoritative and more vulnerable. She continued, "Of little relevance is the growing and shrinking. In the end, its only use turned out to be the accommodation of Remy's exit and her reentry with you. For Burt himself, these efforts have proved pointless. Not only have I failed to take action, but I have failed to connect the senses as well. I still cannot even see what lies beyond Burt's body."

"You can't even see outside?" Wilbert asked, very surprised. He mentally noted his earlier thoughts about navigating a ship with no windows.

BBR confirmed her visual limitations, "No. Since the crash, I have been completely cut off from the outside world. My vision went out watching the blurring of your world. Apart from having crashed in a field on Earth, I know not where we are anymore."

"Well I can tell you," said Wilbert, "We're in my spaceship in my workshop, my barn."

Wilbert did not fully realize what he'd implied, but BBR's reaction was quick and forceful.

"Of this you are mistaken. Though Burt may be in your barn, he is not in your possession. Burt is certainly not your spaceship. Nor is he mine."

Wilbert was slightly startled, and stepped back. In his heart, Wilbert reacted quite emotionally to the words he'd just heard. This was the first thing said by BBR that really made Wilbert angry. He'd really had his heart set on having his own spaceship, and his dream was at risk of being shattered.

"But this was going to be my spaceship!" Wilbert snapped back.

BBR seemed to take little notice of his reaction, instead she just went on. "Now Wilbert, you must help us. Actions are needed. Remy will not understand, and in my deteriorating condition, it will not be long before I fail. Time is running short."

BBR paused, and looked upon Wilbert. Even to BBR herself, it was immediately obvious that she had spoken unwisely.

It no longer mattered what plight she expressed. Wilbert didn't care, not anymore.

Wilbert's anger, his fear of losing his spaceship, started to boil over. For the first time in the encounter, he became confrontational.

"Why should I?" Wilbert exclaimed, in defiance.

Then he started to really get into it, "Why should I believe you? How do I know anything you're saying is true? For all I know, you're trying to trick me. Maybe you're even about to do something horrible."

In response, BBR remained factual, while attempting to console Wilbert, "I may not intentionally harm any human earthling. It is forbidden. Nor will I lie to you or trick you. It is not my way."

Even though Wilbert had the feeling BBR was trustworthy, Wilbert countered quickly, "You say that, but why should I trust you? You might be about to zap me with some kind of ray gun, or turn into a terrible monster and eat me alive!"

BBR conceded the point, "In truth, there is no reason you should believe me. You have only my word."

There was a long awkward silence, but in his stalling, Wilbert was clever. Before long he had a powerful idea. It was an idea that would have unimaginable ramifications.

With this idea, Wilbert would get something from BBR, by proposing a hypothetical, before asking one more very leading question.

"Let's say, just for the moment, that I trust you. That doesn't mean I have to help you. No! You have to tell me... Why should I?"

BBR understood what was required. Her voice took a more humble tone, attempting to disarm Wilbert, and she replied.

"I have no immediate answer. Instead, perhaps we can assist each other, acting in good faith. So I must ask, in return for your assistance... What do you ask?"

This offer, given so easily, was unexpected by Wilbert. He'd imagined more resistance. His plan was already working better than he'd hoped.

Wilbert had surmised, correctly, that BBR was in a weak negotiating position, but also that there was materially little to gain from a powerless projection in an empty void. Currently, with such limited abilities, BBR could do little for him. However, there was one thing Wilbert could ask for, something immaterial, but so much more valuable.

Even if he couldn't have this spaceship, there was a way he could have a spaceship. It didn't matter if BBR was in no position to provide him one.

"I know what I want," said Wilbert.

Then he paused just long enough to purposefully add weight to his words.

"If I have to make my own spaceship, I'll need to understand. That's what I want from you," Wilbert said, before continuing to clarify his demand.

"I want to understand everything."

Chapter 10 - Mutual Agreement

Remy Raccoon rested drowsily on her bedding, surrounded by the mostly empty void that was her home.

In general, Remy had a real streak of laziness in her personality. She liked to rest a lot. That day in particular though, her rest was well deservered. She'd had a lot of excitement, venturing from her home, finding Wilbert and bringing him back to join her. It had all made her feel rather stressed out.

Now though, Remy felt at ease, satisfied, and most importantly, so much less lonely than before, because now she had a guest.

Remy could see that her guest, Wilbert, had been introduced to her caretaker, BBR. Although Remy didn't understand their discussion, it was clear that Wilbert and BBR were communicating at least. So Remy stayed in her bed, half asleep, listening to their voices and only occasionally opening her eyes to watch them.

Remy didn't understand it, but Wilbert had made a request, an incredible, impossible, request. Wilbert had asked to understand "everything". BBR understood the request and instantly recognized its impossibility.

So, BBR answered Wilbert's question very directly, "I cannot grant your request, for it is impossible for any being to understand everything. Not even Burt himself could have such an understanding."

Wilbert shock his head and stared at his feet for a moment. He struggled to come up with a response at first, but soon decided that BBR was simply being too literal about the meaning of the word "everything". He wanted to cut through such nonsense technicalites.

So, Wilbert responded, "Fine... maybe not everything, but as much as possible. At least make me understand your technology."

BBR replied immediately, "Even that, I may not be able to provide."

Wilbert was frustrated hearing this, and quickly challanged, "Why not?"

BBR explained, "For many reasons. For one, learning so much would take longer than the span of your own life. Perhaps more importantly though, even given unlimited time, your primitive brain could not process such information."

BBR's response was both insulting and disappointing to Wilbert, but he was undeterred, and continued to press, "I don't care if it takes forever. Find a way. If I can't handle it, make me able to handle it, help me!"

Really, Wilbert was just snapping back at this point. He was not even fully considering the meaning of his own words, especially the last few, which would set in motion much more than Wilbert had ever considered.

For the time being however, BBR stayed silent and simply observed Wilbert. This small human in front of her made facial expressions that implied an exhuastion of patience. BBR knew that her hopes for any agreement were close to being shattered. In order to find a solution, she considered various interpretations of Wilbert's request. Then she imagined possible forms of its fulfillment.

After careful observation and consideration, BBR decided that there were in fact feasable solutions. Even if Wilbert could never truly understand the workings of a living spaceship like Burt, Wilbert could certainly learn enough to build creations that would, at least to Wilbert, be very impressive.

"There are options to approximate your request," conceeded BBR, "You could be taught to understand some of the simplest technology, though you would need some modification in order to understand much more. Thus, it would be easiest if you would start with the simplest concepts and then progress from there."

"Okay," Wilbert said, as he began to grin, "Now we're talkin!"

BBR reminded Wilbert of her current limitations, "In my weakened state, am not yet capable of helping you. Before we begin your education, I will need your assistance."

Wilbert was pleased that he'd gotten some kind of positive response, but was very worried about helping BBR before gaining anything himself. How could he be sure she would actually help him? Skeptically, Wilbert once again challanged BBR, "Even before you do anything for me? Why should I do everything first?"

BBR responded forcefully, "Because there is no other way. I am both unable, and unwilling, to assist you in my present state. If you will not trust enough to assist me, then there is little we can do for each other."

There was a long silence. Wilbert didn't like this turn of events. It seemed to him that the balance of power was tilting in the wrong direction. This reminded him of his many frustrating experiences with his parents and other authorities. Being in charge and in control was especially important to Wilbert, so he was worried.

Wilbert had no other options though, and he knew it. He would need to compromise. Wilbert decided that he had to find a way to be just flexible enough.

"Okay, well, maybe I can help you first, just a little bit," Wilbert offered, "But I'll expect some help back soon. You better hold up your end of the bargain."

"I will honor our agreement." BBR reassured Wilbert and explained, "You will not need to wait long, because I require only a single task performed in order to stabalize my condition, which will enable your education."

"Meaning if I do this one thing for you, you can start to teach me?" asked Wilbert.

"Exactly," replied BBR.

There was another pause as Wilbert considered what BBR was saying. It sounded reasonable to Wilbert. Better than reasonable in fact, assuming she could be trusted.

"Okay!" said Wilbert.

BBR and Wilbert had come to an initial agreement, and luckily for Wilbert, BBR planned to honor her agreements. She was designed to do so, and Burt would expect no less of her.

Wilbert became quite excited and was eager to get started.

"So what am I supposed to do?" Wilbert asked, "You can explain that to me at least, right?"

It seemed indeed that it was the right time to explain her plans, so BBR began by assigning to Wilbert his first task.

"In service of my repairs, your first task will be very simple. You will make deliveries to me."

Wilbert cut BBR off pretty quickly. His impatience was evident again. "How could I do that?" asked Wilbert, "What could I possiobly have that you would need?"

BBR took notice of how prone Wilbert was to interupting. Nevertheless, BBR patiently continued.

"Allow me to explain... It is energy that I require to implement my repairs," said BBR, "Of the requirement for energy, even I am not exempt."

Wilbert started to understand, and asked, "So what do you want then? Fuel? Batteries?"

BBR responsed, "No. You use such unnecessary primitive stores of energy. I have no use of such limited storage. Instead, I will directly convert matter to energy."

Wilbert immediately understood, because he knew the most famous of all the Earth's equations, "E=mc^2". Wilbert knew that even just a little bit of matter was actually a huge amount of energy.

BBR went on, "The easiest source for energy will be what you call 'hydrogen'. It is the most basic and common form of matter in your universe. It is also the simplest to manipulate. Even in my failing state I will be able to convert hydrogen to energy..."

Wilbert was doubtful. "I don't have any hydrogen," Wilbert started to say, but even before he finished his sentence he knew he was wrong, because he knew that water contained hydrogen. Water was "H2O", and the "H" in "H2O" meant hydrogen.

This also made Wilbert somewhat afraid for a moment, because he realized his own body was largely made up of water, something BBR would consider to be fuel. The idea of BBR being a flesh eating monster suddenly seemed more plausible. Luckily, at least for now though, BBR seemed to be peaceful enough. Wilbert decided that if BBR had intended to eat him, she already would have done so. This meant he was probably safe.

BBR herself went on to mention what Wilbert already knew.

"Water will be sufficient for my needs," she said, "Every molecule of water has two hydrogen atoms. Its chemincal bonds pose no challange to me."

Quickly, Wilbert's confidence was growing. Water was something Wilbert could deliver.

"Oh wow, yeah, we've got tons of water. Around my place there's too much of it. Outside, it's literally falling out of the sky right now."

BBR explained that water had been an important aspect of her plan from the start, "Yes. Quickly after our crash into your spacetime, even through Burt's malfunctioning senses, I was able to observe water on this planet. The likelyhood of finding water was part of my reason for initially landing on your blue planet."

This actually made a lot of sense to Wilbert. Water was certainly important to humans, so its usefulness to aliens seemed unsurprising, even if it was useful to aliens for very different reasons.

As Wilbert thought about the water and the hydrogen, BBR decided to steer the conversation back to their negotiation, because she still had one important objective Wilbert hadn't agreed to.

"Wilbert, soon I will provide you with detailed instructions, and you will deliver to me a supply of water," BBR said, before shifting to her other concern, "At the same time however, there is something else I hope you will do."

"What is that," asked Wilbert.

BBR replied, "As I send you on your mission of delivery, I will request of you one other simultaneous favor. It is not strictly necessary, but it would surely be of great emotional importance to Burt."

Then, a light shone down ever brighter upon Remy. Wilbert looked towards the light, towards Remy, as BBR spoke.

"This favor concerns the welfare of Burt's adopted friend, who you call Remy."

Wilbert looked at Remy as BBR went on.

"To you I hope I may entrust her care. I ask that you watch over her, but more importantly, I ask that you simply be with her, near her, as a companion and friend in this world so alien to her.

"Proper companionship is the one thing I cannot offer her, but it is exactly that which she needs most. She may frustrate you to some degree, but as the days pass, I hope you will find her to be as special as Burt did."

"Why exactly would she frustrate me?" asked Wilbert with suspicion.

BBR answered the question, "She can be the sweetest creature at times, but I must warn you, she is often found by others to be maddeningly indifferent."

Wilbert raised an eyebrow looking at Remy, and started to worry just a little. Then BBR continued.

"Those around her usually find that she rarely seems to care about anything at all, other than her instantaneous affections, or the pursuit of her moment-to-moment desires. Her mood may swing wildly, in ways incomprehensible to you.

"You make her sound like my family's cat," Wilbert commented.

BBR agreed, "Yes, in a sense, she is like an exaggeration of the 'cat' animals of your world. However, when her indifference is fully expressed, it is on a scale well beyond any Earth cat's capabilities."

Wilbert puzzeled about this as BBR's explaination went on.

"Her biology is somewhat unique, as she is only optionally affected by forces. They apply to her only when she so chooses. She is unmovable when she wishes to be stationary, and unstoppable when she wishes to proceed. All of this she does by instinct, and she controls her abilities with precision, even if she doesn't understand how she performs such feats."

Wilbert started to understand her very strange abilities earlier, "Ooooh... That's why she goes through walls and seems to float down after jumping. She's ignoring the forces of electromagnetism and gravity..."

Wilbert interrupted himself halfway through he own sentence, as he startled himself with an additional understanding. Wilbert realized that Remy's abilities must have extended beyond her own body as well, because she'd slipped the collar off Ms Kitty simply by poking at it with her head. Remy was now wearing that collar, without ever having unbuckled it from Ms. Kitty's neck.

Then Wilbert spoke more precisely about her earlier invisibility, "Earlier, in my barn, that's why she looked clear. Because light was going through her."

BBR confirmed Wilbert's suspicions, "Yes. You are correct."

Then, BBR explained some of benefits that came with Remy's special abilities, "Fortunately Remy's abilities can be quite convenient for her, because she is rarely in danger and she is easy to keep in good health. Her personality is also one of self sufficiency. Her dependencies are more emotional than material."

"I guess that's good," said Wilbert. He imagined there were many advantages in being immune to the forces of reality.

BBR then attempted to portray Remy in the best light, while staying honest and hoping that Wilbert would be pursuaded to befriend Remy.

"Though she can be frustrating at times, she is not an evil creature. I have never found her to cause anyone serious harm. Instead she is merely playful, and sometimes teasing. Burt knows that deep down she is a loving spirit with the best of intentions. Her behavior is in many ways a sort of an act, even if her indifference can seem very convincing."

"Why would she be like that, acting that way?" asked Wilbert.

"Perhaps, simply because she can be," replied BBR, "The exact reasons for her behaviour and personality are a mystery to me. I know very little of her exact origins or life history. I have however made a few discoveries about her. It may interest you that she is most likely unnatural, and was probably engineered. I consider it likely that she was abandoned by her creator."

There was a pause, while Wilbert thought about all that he'd now learned. All of the earlier events were making a lot more sense now, and BBR's description of her matched up with his own observations pretty well.

Then BBR repeated her request, "Regardless, even if she is sometimes annoying, I would ask that you please take care of her, or at least provide her good company. Otherwise, on your world, she would be all alone."

Wilbert stared at Remy. He was sympathetic, and there was sadness in his eyes as he looked upon her. To Wilbert, the idea of Remy being all alone was truly concerning.

BBR made some final comments, "I know that Burt was always there for her, and he would have wanted someone else to be there for her in his absence. However, It can not be me, as I am not even truly a 'someone'. Though I am an excellent repair and safety mechanism, I am nothing more than cold calculations. My simulations of affection can never replace the real thing. True feelings are simply beyond my design. Please, make amends for my shortcomings. Be a friend to her, and provide the care that I cannot. I ask you this because Burt would want it so. Burt's love for Remy is unconditional. She is to him, as you would say, 'family'."

This was touching to Wilbert, and he considered the request. In all honestly, he had developed an almost immediate affection for Remy, and he did genuinely want to help her. Unfortunately, at the same time, some of what BBR had told him was very troubling, and indicated that she might be more of a hassle than she was worth.

After a few moments of thought, Wilbert decided to take her in anyway. This also provided him with an opportunity to make another request of his own.

"Okay... I'll take her in. I'll look after her," said Wilbert, before adding a new condition to his agreement, "but I want one more thing."

"What is your request?" asked BBR.

Wilbert hesitated for a moment as he formulated his next sentence. Wilbert knew what he was about to say was a real stretch, but he made the request anyway, "I want you to agree that you'll help me with my work, my creations. You'll help me with making things, especially making my spaceship."

Though Wilbert again worried his request would be a tough sell, it actually wasn't. BBR really had no reason to object. There was no risk to Burt, and BBR knew that Burt would not object as long certain guidelines were followed. Any concerns were very minor, so BBR agreed to help Wilbert with his creations.

"I can certainly provide help for your creative endevours..." replied BBR, "Within my ethical guidelines."

Wilbert wondered if those guidelines would be a concern, but he didn't want to push his luck, so he made no comment about them. Really, Wilbert was just thrilled at this point anyway. For the second time, reaching an agreement had been much easier than Wilbert had expected. So, he decided to put his worries aside, and simply sought reassurance, asking about it one more time.

"You promise? You'll help me make my inventions?"

"Yes," BBR agreed, "Is this agreement now acceptable?"

Wilbert was ecstatic, and responded almost instantly, "Oh yeah, we got a deal! If you give me stuff and help me build, I'll definitely look after Remy."

BBR confirmed, "Then it is agreed. We have an arrangement."

BBR was quite satisfied, as she calculated that the arrangement would be of great benefit to both of them. Later, it would turn out that BBR's judgement was in fact correct. Even if there would eventually be some complications BBR didn't anticipate, the arrangement would ultimately be in Burt's best interest. It would in fact lead to the development of those who would eventually be closest to Burt, those who Burt would eventually come to consider his own family.

Thus, in mutal agreement the arrangement was made. In the future it was to be widely known simply as "The Arrangement". Although neither Wilbert nor BBR truly understood its ramifications at the time, The Arrangement was to become the core basis of world history going forward.

For the moment however, instead of thinking about the long term future, Wilbert's mind just raced with ideas. He imagined spaceships, ray guns, robots, and more. All the designs he'd ever envisioned suddenly seemed in reach. Wilbert wasn't exactly sure of every detail, but he finally had a real reason to believe his ideas were achievable. It would later turn out that he was right.

Before Wilbert could spend too much time thinking, BBR returned to her request for deliveries.

"Since we are in agreement on both matters, it is now time for you to fulfill your responsibilities and..."

Wilbert again interupted very quickly, as he routinely did, "Ok, so I can just go out and bring you back a bucket of Water. That's easy enough."

BBR corrected Wilbert immediately, "No Wilbert. The scale of my needs is much greater than you imagine. It would be insufficient even if you were to walk back and forth to the point of exhaustion."

"Fine," said Wilbert, "I'll get the garden hose and bring it in, or..."

"No," BBR forcefully explained. "I need so much more water than that. Clearly you still do not understand the scale of my needs. You must be quiet now. Listen as I explain."

BBR's tone became more relaxed again as she further explained, "Because I knew I was likely to need so much water, I prepared what you might call a makeshift solution. A tool if you will."

"What is it?" asked Wilbert.

The light that was pointing at Remy, narrowed, and focused onto a spot on the bedding around her.

"The tool is now a part of Remy's most treasured possession. Since Remy has shown a love of her blanket, and since she has often carried her blanket with her in the past, I made a slight modification to it. I adapted an existing feature on it, which will facilitate the gathering and transport of water.

"Remy has been either uninterested or incapable of understanding this tool, so it has been of little use in her possesion. However, I had hoped she might bring it to someone, or bring someone to it, and now that you are here, you can use this tool to deliver my needs. Please take it, then I will explain to you how it works."

Wilbert moved towards Remy's bed, knelt down to it, and asked "Uhhh... okay, but which blanket exactly do I grab? There's a bunch of them and they're all tangled."

BBR said only a few more short words, "In Remy's bed, one of the blankets is special. On it you will find..."

Just then, there was a horrible sound. CRRRRRRASH!

Without warning, the voice of BBR crackled. Then, before Wilbert had time to wonder why, the light that was the representation of BBR turned into a horrible danger, shattering into a burst of sparkling shrapnel.

The source, the ball of light and energy that had represented BBR, turned out to be huge but far away. Luckily the distance gave Wilbert a moment to react before the shrapnel reached him. Wilbert shielded his face from the few pieces that hit, and it was a good thing he did. The shards springing forth from the shattering light were sharp and solid. Even though the few that hit Wilbert were tiny and lightweight, their speed gave them the potential to do real harm. As they crashed into Wilbert's raised arms, the shards tore through his thick sweater and reached his skin. The impact was enough to draw blood.

Wilbert cried out, though he was more in shock than in real pain. As the shard in his arm dissolved, he rolled sideways away from the bed. Then, he looked back at Remy just soon enough to see a massive second wave of shards falling back down from above.

Wilbert watched in terror as one huge shard crashed right down into Remy. He had to turn away quickly though, and he covered his face as the shards bounced again and shattered off of the floor around her.

Wilbert was lucky, as the second wave of shards mostly missed him, but he worried for Remy. He immediately rushed over to check on her.

Fortunately of course, she turned out to be just fine. As he should have expected, the shards had passed right through her, harmlessly. The largest falling shard was now underneath her, shattered into thousands of smaller pieces. The smallest of those pieces were already disolving away into her bed.

Although Remy was uninjured, she was certainly no longer relaxed. Instead she was now up and hyper alert. The raining shard-storm had her every bit as surprised and confused as Wilbert. Even though the shards were not directly dangerous to her, the situation was terrifying.

The last of the shards finally settled, and the danger seemed to have passed. Still, Wilbert clung tightly to Remy and her bed.

They both stayed very still for a few more moments, clinging to each other. Wilbert realized how much he was trembling as he caught his breath. Though it wasn't the scariest thing that had ever happened to Wilbert, it was terrifying nonetheless, and this storm of shattering shards was certainly much worse than the storm outside his barn.

Everything was about to get a lot scarier.

In another sudden shocking burst of activity, the floor shook and became more uneven. Its tiny sparkles jittered and warped much more than ealier, becoming bright gliterring flashes of light. The floor started to look like some kind of metallic crystal.

Not only the floor, but all the structures in the distance started to take shape and become more visible. The surroundings no longer seemed like a dark fog everywhere, but more and more like a giant crumbling dome.

Wilbert wasn't sure, but as he checked the floor, he worried the new forming patterns underneath him looked like cracks. Was the floor breaking up?

Yes it was. The very ground on which he stood was deteriorating quickly. Wilbert adjusted in shock as the floor dropped a couple of inches beneath him. In any moment, the floor was going to be gone. If the ground did give way, Wilbert couldn't even imagine what he'd be falling into underneath.

Suddenly, the voice of BBR came back! In one last effort to make up for her loss of control, she gave a final instruction, which was completely clear.

"Run!"

Intermission
Burt's Nightmare

Burt was fast asleep, but even asleep, a part of him could feel what was going on. His interpretation of events gradually deteriorated. Soon he dreamed of the worst.

It was a nightmare. Visualized by Burt was Remy's home, shattered and imploding. That wasn't the end of the disaster though.

The chaos escaped into Wilbert's Workshop. It blasted through the barn. The fields of the farm crumbled into the ground beneath. The nearby mountains broke apart and fell into the Earth.

Soon the Earth itself cracked. The sun's fire evaporated. The stars went dark. The galaxies dissolved... and the very fabric of space and time unraveled.

Burt's worries for Remy were nightmare fuel, and Burt's dreaming mind simply imagined the worst possible scenario.

The end of this entire universe, entirely Burt's fault, brought about by his sheer carelessness in exploring Wilbert's reality.

Burt's handlers, the closest thing he had to parental guardians, would not be pleased. They would condemn his interaction with creation, and remind him of the warnings they'd given regarding interference and its consequences.

None of it mattered though because Burt's nightmares were not an accurate depiction of reality.

Even though actual events came dangerously close to Burt's nightmares, and even though there could have been a chain reaction causing the end of the universe...

...there was not.

The damage to Burt was contained. He was injured, asleep, unconscious, and dreaming of his darkest worries, but the dangers stayed entirely within him and his imagination.

For the moment, Burt posed no real threat to the reality around him. For the moment, Wilbert's universe was safe enough.

The future showed promise in fact. Burt's recovery was well on track, and BBR had even been able to avoid destruction. Her presence in Remy's space being merely a projection, she now hid deep within Burt's core.

Although BBR was now cut off from contact with Wilbert and Remy, she predicted her plan would succeed. While Burt slept into sweeter dreams, BBR simply laid in wait. She was satisfied with her actions. She assumed that Wilbert was clever enough to figure out the blanket and to deliver exactly what he had promised...

...and she was right.

Chapter 12
Remy's Blanket

Wilbert was dead... or at least it seemed that way to Remy.

Only minutes earlier, Remy had been thrilled that she'd been able to rescue both of them from the spaceship.

Now though, Remy was panicked. Her only friend in the universe was lying limp in front of her. She poked and prodded at Wilbert's body, hoping desperately that he would be okay.

Luckily for them, Wilbert was going to be fine. Though he'd taken a pretty hard knock, it wasn't truly life threatening. Within a few minutes, he started to awaken.

Wilbert woke up at a very slow pace. Somewhat dazed, all that he perceived at first was vague feelings. His sore skull and significant headache being the most obvious.

Then, sounds came into his awareness. Wilbert could hear pattering rain and howling wind, which had quieted somewhat from the worst of the storm.

Gradually he became more aware of his environment, and finally opened his eyes. It was still very dark, but Wilbert could tell he was in his workshop, lying on the floor facing the ceiling.

As he regained consciousness, memories caught his attention. Soon he remembered most of what had happened in the ship, but he remained very confused regarding how he'd escaped. The last thing he could remember was falling through the darkness in the spaceship.

For a moment it crossed his mind that maybe he'd been dreaming, but as he thought a little harder he was fairly sure it wasn't a dream. He soon became certain, because as he began to move his body he was able to look around, and sure enough, right beside him was Remy with her blanket.

Wilbert was captivated by the look of that blanket. It was mesmerizing. Not only did it sparkle, but its surface gave off a dim glow that washed all around, like the motion of a lava lamp. It's appearance was otherworldly. It was clearly not something from Wilbert's workshop.

To Wilbert, seeing the blanket was a clue. What happened earlier had not been a dream, he reasoned, because if the blanket was real, then the events in the spaceship were probably real as well.

As Wilbert stared at Remy and her blanket, she stared back at him intently. She'd been doing so for a while. It had been almost 20 minutes since she'd dragged him out of the spaceship. All that time, Remy had been extremely worried. Now she was so relieved to see that Wilbert was okay. She nuzzled up to Wilbert as he began to sit up from lying on the floor.

Remy appeared flustered to Wilbert, so he gradually stroked Remy's neck and back, in an attempt to soothe her. As he calmed Remy, Wilbert considered how he'd gotten back to the barn. He felt very lucky that he even made it out of the spaceship alive.

Wilbert reasoned that since Remy had the blanket now, she must have rescued it from the darkness in the spaceship. He understood that Remy had probably rescued him as well.

"Thanks Remy..." he said, "You're the reason I made it out aren't you?"

Remy didn't understand the meaning of the words, but she picked up on the warm sentiment anyway, and in response gently nudged Wilbert again with her nose.

Wilbert was relieved to see that Remy was starting to calm down. Before long though, he realized that her own situation was now extremely sad. The last things Wllbert remembered from inside the spaceship were the crashes and the shatterings in the darkness. As far as Wilbert could tell, that shattering darkness had been Remy's home. Most likely, her home was now destroyed, and Remy herself essentially homeless.

Wilbert wanted to tell Remy everything would be okay, but in all honesty, Wilbert had no idea whether or not anything was going to be okay. Fortunately, he could say at least one thing to make her feel better.

"I'm sorry about your home Remy," said Wilbert. "Don't worry about it though, because you can stay here with me. This can be your new home."

Again, Remy didn't understand, but she could feel the sympathy coming from Wilbert, and it did comfort her.

Just as they had in the spaceship before, the two of them sat there together recovering.

...

While resting, Wilbert took some time to collect his thoughts and solidify his intentions. He needed to have a clear understanding of what his situation was.

After a few moments reorganizing his thoughts, Wilbert was able to assemble a clear recollection of everything that had happened inside the spaceship. What really stood out to him was how terrifying and dangerous the last moments had been. It seemed a miracle Remy had been able to save them at all.

Since the glow of the blanket was still pretty dim, Wilbert stood up and went to get another flashlight. Once he found one, he walked back towards the ship to look at it more closely. Remy followed along with him.

Wilbert suspected that returning to the inside of the ship would be terribly unsafe. It didn't make any difference though, because Wilbert couldn't imagine how he'd get back inside the spaceship anyway. The window on its side was now completely gone.

Together, the two of them walked around the spaceship several times, observing it from all sides. Remy, a few steps behind, ended up facing the side of the ship, with Wilbert at its front. Neither of them could find much of any interest. There was only solid hull, no windows, doorways, or anything else. The spaceship looked much like it had before the window appeared. Still, Remy decided she would try to get in anyway. She jumped up and poked her head into the ship. The result was a very peculiar sight.

Wilbert was suddenly able to see Remy on both sides of the ship, who looked like she was in two disconnected pieces. She appeared as a little floating head peeking out from the opposite side of the spaceship, while her body stayed in place.

Then Remy withdrew her head, and immediately she was whole again, right back where she started. Disappointed, she returned to Wilbert.

Wilbert was quite perplexed by what he saw. Even though Remy could pass through the hull, it seemed she effectively had nowhere to go.

To some degree this bothered Wilbert, since he was again locked out of his ship. However, he was less frustrated than he would have been before. His situation was different now. Progress seemed possible. In Wilbert's mind, he was developing a plan.

He didn't know precisely what he was supposed to do, but he had at least a general idea of his task. He remembered BBR's request, and he still had hope that if he could complete his task, he might be able to repair his ship, or rather, repair the ship (Burt). If Wilbert could help BBR then she'd help him, and he could build a new spaceship BBR would teach him to build a new spaceship of his own, one that really would be “Property of Wilbert”.

Wilbert was ready to take his next steps. "Okay," he thought, "Mission objectives: Water... blanket... spaceship... Get the water to the blanket, get the blanket to the spaceship."

It was the most he could understand, given the few directions he’d gotten from BBR.

How exactly the blanket would help Wilbert to get water was the part Wilbert didn't understand. BBR had mentioned she'd done something to the blanket in order to make it useful, but Wilbert didn't know what. He did at least understand what solution he was looking for. He needed to figure out what was so special about that blanket.

Wilbert walked back towards the spot where he had woken up. Remy’s blanket sat there where she’d left it, between the ship and his work desk. Wilbert knelt down on one knee and picked up the blanket, then shook it a bit to uncrumple it.

In addition to its obvious glow, Wilbert noticed how soft and smooth it was. As it uncrumpled, he could also tell that it had a circular shape, almost like a round bath mat. It was surprisingly large once it was splayed out.

Although it felt about as heavy as a normal blanket should've been, Wilbert noticed that the fabric itself seemed to be silky and thin. It was hard to tell just how thin, because there was a thicker rim around the blanket, where the fabric was rolled up. That rim was tight but somehow still very soft. It ran all the way around the blanket's circumference, so Wilbert couldn't actually see any edge of the fabric. It was hard to tell exactly how thick or thin the blanket was.

Though Wilbert couldn't find any stitching, he saw many tight folds and seams all over the surface of the blanket, like the seams on the outside of sweater. There was even a seam running all the way around the outer edge of the rim.

Wilbert was struggling to make sense of it. So far this blanket wasn't seeming like a very effective water transportation mechanism, but then it occurred to Wilbert that there was another side to the blanket he hadn't yet given much attention.

Wilbert turned the blanket around and laid it on the dusty wooden floor in front of him. What he found was curious. This new side felt more like fine velvet than silk, but more importantly, there were little buttons all over its surface. Most of them looked like tiny donuts but with holes so narrow that Wilbert couldn't tell if they were actually holes at all, or just dimples.

Wilbert attempted to grab one of the buttons, but it immediately felt strange. As if it resisted his touch. He was able to touch it, hold it, and feel the surface, but it felt a little like pushing two north ends of magnets together.

Wilbert wondered about the other buttons, so he tried feeling more of the buttons with his fingers. He felt their various shapes and pushed, and poked at every one he could find.

Eventually one of them reacted quite differently than the rest. It opened just slightly when he poked at it. So, Wilbert pushed on that one again with just the tip of his finger, and found a fairly interesting response.

The button seemed to grow. Not only did the button grow, but the depression in the centre of it actually expanded as he pushed his finger into it just slightly.

Wilbert was shocked and surprised. The whole button seemed to grab at his fingertip. It felt very much like sticking a finger into the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner. He quickly pulled his entire arm back away from the button and looked at his finger tip.

Wilbert's fingertip was swollen red and the skin looked like it was about to burst. Wilbert was very glad he hadn't tried to look at the button up close with his eye.

Something else was also quite obvious. Even after retracting his finger, Wilbert continued to hear a hissing sound very much like the sound of a vacuum cleaner or a drinking straw. The sound was coming from that same button, which was now a tiny hole pulling air into itself.

"Crazy!" said Wilbert, muttering to himself.

As Wilbert listened to the suction, it gradually calmed down until he could hear it no more. The button closed up and the suction stopped.

The button, was no longer a hole anymore, it was again just a button, as it had been before Wilbert found it.

Kneeling on the floor with the blanket was pretty awkward, so Wilbert carried it over to one of his larger tool benches, and climbed onto a tall stool beside the bench. Such a tall stool was useful, because Wilbert himself was so short, and the stool was one of many items in the barn that allowed him to make use of places he couldn't otherwise reach.

Remy hopped up beside him onto the workbench, standing right beside the blanket and looking down at it.

Wilbert wanted to experiment further on the blanket, but didn't want to hurt his finger again. Instead, he looked around at the various tools that were available near his workbench. He decided that a flathead screwdriver with a rounded handle at the back was probably his best bet for opening the button again.

Wilbert grabbed a screwdriver and returned to the blanket. Carefully reaching down, he poked at the button with the flathead tip of the screw driver.

As Wilbert pressed into it he was able to make the button open up, and as he tried harder, the button became a larger and larger ring. Again, a hissing sound could be heard as the suction began.

Leaning back, and gripping the screwdriver tightly, Wilbert attempted to pry at the inner edge of the button's ring, to open it wider. Sure enough, it did expand, and the suction, which had briefly calmed down a little, gradually picked back up again.

Wilbert drew the screwdriver away. Slowly the ring contracted back to a button, and the suction subsided. After a few seconds, the button was back to its original size, and the hole was effectively closed.

The button had seemed to become looser, easier to pry open, so in a fairly careless action, Wilbert decided to use the rounded back end of the screwdriver to push the button open.

It was a bad idea. The button opened right back up into a ring, and Wilbert immediately lost his grip on the screwdriver. It slipped out of his hands and was pulled violently into the vacuum through the ring.

Wilbert was startled, but continued looking into the hole, trying to spot his screwdriver. He wasn't able to though, and he couldn't even watch for long, because within a couple of seconds, the hole closed back up again. The screwdriver was gone, and Wilbert felt foolish.

Not wanting to give up, Wilbert grabbed some pliers and used them to open the button back up. He tried to spot the screwdriver inside, but all he could see was what appeared to be a black void. It was just like the window he'd found on the side of the spaceship. It was nothing Wilbert could make any sense of.

He decided to take another look at the back of the blanket. Wilbert picked up the blanket and turned it around to look at the other side. It was still quite plain. There were no buttons and no screwdriver anywhere to be found. Somehow the screwdriver was lost inside the blanket.

"I'm going to need another screwdriver!" Wilbert joked as he looked towards Remy.

Wilbert didn't immediately get a screwdriver though. Instead he just sat looking at the button which was now closed again.

It occurred to Wilbert that if the blanket could suck in air, and could suck in screwdrivers, then it could probably suck in other things too.

Most importantly, the blanket could almost certainly suck in water. After all, water was what BBR had requested. Her intentions for Wilbert and the blanket were starting to make sense.

It also occurred to Wilbert that the empty space inside the blanket looked a lot like the empty space inside the spaceship. If the blackness of the blanket looked like the inside of the ship, then perhaps it represented a way to get water back to BBR.

"Okay Remy," said Wilbert, "I think I know what's going on here."

It all seemed pretty clear to Wilbert. If Wilbert was to act as a delivery man, this blanket was effectively Wilbert's delivery truck.

The details that still really puzzled Wilbert were all the other buttons on the blanket. What were they for?

He tried pushing at them again, but nothing much happened in response. Those other buttons were either purely decorative or simply not functional at the moment.

Wilbert decided that for the time being, understanding the other buttons wasn't important. What was important was filling the blanket with water.

He was going to need to test it, to be sure it would work.

Wilbert picked up the blanket and walked to the corner of the barn, which was the only part of the barn that was divided from the main open space. It had a room that had once been a small office, along with one other smaller room, the washroom.

Wilbert didn't spend much time in this office, aside from using the refrigerator and the sink. Now though, the sink, and the running water from its faucets, was exactly what Wilbert needed.

Wilbert bundled up the blanket and carried it over to the sink. Remy followed. He then stood up on a step ladder beside the sink. Remy hopped up onto the counter to watch.

Putting the blanket down under the faucet, and beginning to run the water, Wilbert wasn't sure what to expect. He hadn't yet opened the button. This was on purpose though as he was curious how the fabric of the blanket would react to water. Wilbert also wondered whether or not the button would open on its own when hit by water.

It did not. Water just bounced off of the button and splashed all around the sink, wetting the blanket. Wilbert turned off the faucet before too much of that splashing hit him.

It wasn't until Wilbert picked the blanket back up that he noticed anything interesting.

As he lifted the blanket, he noticed that the part he lifted already seemed quite dry. Almost all the water had dripped away quickly, and what remained was dripping off of the blanket in a hurry.

Wilbert turned around with the blanket in hand, and gave the blanket a good shake as he splayed it out, flapping it briefly. What little water remained was quickly cast aside onto the floor. After that, as far as Wilbert could tell, the blanket had dried out completely.

This seemed odd to Wilbert because it wasn't as though the blanket were a tarp or a raincoat. Even a plastic bag would still have droplets of water left over on its surface after being shaken.

In addition, although most of it was smooth like silk, one side did have a slight velvety texture.

There were also many folds and wrinkles for water to normally get stuck in. When Wilbert stuck his fingers into the various folds of the blanket, it was obvious they were dry as well. The blanket had squeezed every last bit of water out of it itself.

As Wilbert looked over the blanket, it also occurred to him that it should have been quite dirty from sitting on the floor earlier. The floor was made of wood, but there was plenty of dust and dirt all over it. Wilbert did not do a lot of cleaning. The blanket should have picked up some of that dust and dirt.

Instead, Wilbert could see that on the blanket, dirt was now just as absent as water. Instead of being a mess, the blanket was clean and looked sparkling new, much like Burt's hull.

Despite being quite impressed, Wilbert put the blanket back into the sink so that he could refocus on the task at hand. He made sure the mysterious opening button was positioned directly under the faucet, face up, at the top of the scrunched up blanket.

With his fingernails, Willbert pushed into the button and pried it open. It was slow but took less force than he expected. Even with just his fingernails, within a few seconds, he was able to open the button to about the width of a dime. Wilbert was satisfied that would be enough for his experiment.

Without delay, Wilbert moved his hand to the faucet and began running the water again. A thick stream of water started pouring onto the blanket and its button, and Wilbert quickly adjusted the blanket making sure the button stayed under the flow of water.

At first, water splashed everywhere, since there was too much water to fit through the tiny hole in the button. As Wilbert watched though, the donut ring shape of the button widened. Before long the button looked more like a large hooped earring, significantly wider than the stream of water pouring into it. The splashing stopped, and the water became a steady stream which simply disappeared into the black void behind the button's opening.

Finally, the button stabilized and corrected itself, by slowly shrinking back down until it was just a tiny bit wider than the stream of water pouring into it.

And there it was, the solution that Wilbert sought: How to get water into the blanket.

Wilbert smiled. He may have been worn out, sore, and fighting a headache, but Wilbert smiled anyway. He smiled because he believed the completion of his quest was now just a matter of scale. Wilbert's only immediate question was where to go for more water.

Chapter 13
Preparations

The sun was just starting to rise, but Wilbert was already wide awake and preparing for his journey.

He was in a surprisingly good mood considering how badly he'd been hurt the night before. Most children his age (and even most adults) would still have been writhing in pain, but Wilbert was an especially tough and determined little boy. Pain was something he was well accustomed to, tolerated easily, and was rarely afraid of. (Too rarely, his father would say.)

What Wilbert was really afraid of were storms, but by morning, the storms had mostly broken up. Thick dark clouds still hung above, but there were now cracks between them revealing spots of clear blue scattered in the sky.

In a way, the weather was quite beautiful, the sort that only comes right after a storm: Brief periods of sprinkling rain falling through a cool mist in the air. Rainbows could be easily spotted.

For Wilbert though, all that was important was that the storm had passed, It didn't appear to be coming back anytime soon.

So, instead of worrying about the weather, Wilbert was focused on his plans for the day. He was busy making preparations.

Being busy was typical of Wilbert, but that morning he kept an especially brisk pace. Even though he was sore and tired from the night before, Wilbert was in a great mood. He felt absolutely wired, excited, and motivated.

Hope is what had Wilbert so inspired. He was hopeful because he finally believed he was making real progress. He even had a plan. It all felt so exciting!

As part of his plan, Wilbert was preparing for a journey, or perhaps more precisely, preparing for a quest.

He wasn't certain of the specifics of his quest, but he had an idea of the broad strokes. He understood his goals and had some idea of what actions to take.

Wilbert had gone over last nights events in his head, being careful to be clear and specific in his thinking. The night before, Remy had led Wilbert into the spaceship. There Wilbert had met BBR, a voice in the darkness, who had actually identified herself as a backup computer system for Burt, the living spaceship. BBR had told Wilbert that she was taking care of Burt because Burt was injured, and that in order to help Burt heal, BBR needed Wilbert's help to retrieve water, and she had pointed out that Remy's blanket was to be used for that purpose. Wilbert has also investigated the blanket and figured out how to gather water using it. Somehow the blanket seemed to either process the water or send it away somewhere, since the blanket didn't get heavy, or seem to fill up, no matter how much water Wilbert poured into it.

As a result of this line of thinking, Wilbert was fairly confident that he needed to complete two steps:

A) Find water ...and...

B) Get it into the blanket

How much water exactly? That was the one detail Wilbert didn't yet understand. Wilbert had no idea just how much he'd need, but he remembered what he had been told by BBR: That it was much more than a garden hose could supply.

Fortunately, in terms of finding water, Wilbert had had no shortage of options. There was so much everywhere around him.

Streams, creeks, rivers, lakes... the ocean even.

Where Wilbert lived (Vancouver Island) water was everywhere. In fact, the island got so much rain that areas of it were officially classified as "rainforests".

Wilbert had even more water around than usual that morning, because rain had been pouring out of the sky all night. All that fallen water would now be dripping into the rivers around him, headed for the lakes and then on to the ocean.

Some of that water even ran as a stream just behind the farmhouse, where Wilbert's parents were and where Willbert usually slept in his bedroom. Outside that bedroom's window a trickling stream ran around the backyard, and through a pipe under the driveway.

That stream in Wilbert's backyard was very small though. There were better, larger, sources nearby. Easily found in the backwoods behind his farm were streams flowing from the mountains, winding through the hills before feeding into a much larger stream, the nearby Cameron River.

At first Wilbert wasn't sure just which of those streams he should go to, but after some consideration he decided that ideally, he'd want a wide shallow stream that would make it easy for him to wade out into the water. He'd also want to avoid anything with a strong current, so that he could place the blanket without losing it.

After much consideration Wilbert had decided to head into the forest at the back of his farm, where he knew of a widening brook that would be an ideal spot to put the blanket. Even if that brook ended up not being enough water, Wilbert knew the trails through the forest could take him to more streams, to the river, or even where it ultimately led to a huge lake nearby, called Cameron Lake.

All of that consideration had given Wilbert a clear goal, and in pursuit of his goal, Wilbert had made some last minute preparations.

First he'd gone to the farmhouse and gathered some food and drinks for the day. Then Wilbert had put on the warmest clothes in his closet, and even grabbed his raincoat from the basement. (All of which were clearly labeled "Property Of Wilbert".)

The whole while, as Wilbert rummaged around the house, his parent's simply slept, most likely having passed out the night before.

So, by the time the sun was rising, Wilbert was just wrapping up at the house and headed back to his workshop. He had warm clothes, snacks, drinks and everything else he could need, all carried in a knapsack on his back.

Wilbert headed for the front door, cautiously looked outside, and was satisfied as he confirmed the weather was still improving.

After looking back for one last check, Wilbert stepped outside, onto the front porch.

Immediately Wilbert could feel the cold air. It was fairly typical for an October day. It wasn't freezing but it certainly wasn't warm either.

Wilbert walked across his porch and out from under the awning. Then, he looked up at the sky.

Even in this new morning, the clouds around Wilbert's farm still looked as though they could deliver a torrential downpour. The thick clouds worried him slightly, but overall, Wilbert was simply pleased that the wind had settled down from the night before. He was glad the rain had stopped as well, at least for the moment. His traveling was going to be easier if the rain wasn't blasting in his face.

Feeling confident, he walked down the farm road towards his workshop.

It wasn't more than a few minutes walk, but it was a considerable distance considering how often he went back and forth between the farmhouse and his workshop.

As Wilbert walked, he passed the remains of the once thriving farm. The abandoned buildings, the motionless tractors, the empty trucks, his playground, his sandbox, and the piles of junk nearby. Finally he arrived at his old barn.

Once he got there he unlocked the door and went inside. The first thing he saw was Remy, curled up on her blanket, sleeping right where he'd left her.

Remy woke up a little, hearing his footsteps, and watched as Wilbert walked to the storage area across from his desk, disappearing into its labyrinth of shelves and junk. After a lot of noise and shuffling around, he emerged with his mountain bike and a steel cargo bin to use as a basket. Its sides look like a chain link fence.

Wilbert stood the bike by his desk and flipped out the kickstand. Then he grabbed some tools and fastened the basket to the cargo rack on the rear of his mountain bike.

With that, he was fully prepared. All that remained was to grab Remy and the blanket.

Carefully, he lifted both Remy and her blanket, then put them into the basket on his bike.

Remy was mildly annoyed with being moved, but she allowed it.

In her new spot, Remy fell back asleep as Wilbert made some final adjustments to the blanket and the basket around her.

Carefully Wilbert started rolling the bike forward. He really wasn't sure how Remy would react to the bike ride but he hoped she'd be okay.

As Wilbert walked his bike outside, through the large main doors of the barn, he looked down into the basket, watching Remy carefully. So far she did seem okay.

Wilbert came to a stop outside the barn, still looking over Remy in her blanket, the peculiarity of it caught his eye. He leaned over to take a closer look.

Even after sitting on the dusty dingy floor of the barn, the blanket's underside looked perfectly, impossibly, clean. It was an object so out of touch with its environment that it looked like it couldn't be real.

In the dark, it had looked incredible with its glowing, sparkling, and iridescence, but now in the light of morning it was an entirely new kind of amazing. It was beautiful, but more subtle than the night before.

The blanket now looked more like fabric then it had in the dark. The light around it was bright enough that the sparkling was no longer noticeable. The iridescence was still obvious though, as the colors shifted with the angle of the light. Underneath that iridescence, the base colors slowly changed as well, as gentle waves of shifting hues washed across, and subtle patterns of both color and texture on its surface seemed to come and go. Mostly though, apart from the fact that it kept changing, the blanket looked like a sort of silk, and maybe a little like aluminum foil.

Wilbert pushed his finger into it to feel the surface more carefully. It certainly didn't feel anything like aluminum foil. It was soft and very smooth. He could easily slide his fingers across it, but when he squeezed his fingers there was enough friction that he could grip it easily. It certainly wasn't going to slip out of his hands.

Wilbert nodded with a smile, since the blanket slipping out of his hands had been an earlier concern. Now he was fairly sure that wouldn't be a problem.

As he looked over the blanket, Wilbert pet Remy, making sure was comfortable. By comparison to it, she appeared remarkably normal, like a very expensive plush toy animal. As long as she didn't move, any passer-bys would probably assume she was a toy animal. Perhaps, thought Wilbert, it was fortunate she spent so much time sleeping, though he wondered how long that would last.

Before leaving, Wilbert did feel a slight hesitation. Being somewhat reckless, he'd been in his share of crashes over the years, and the last one had been fairly dangerous. Lately, he'd spent most of his outdoor time walking with his wagon, collecting things around the farm.

Today though, Wilbert knew his wagon wouldn't get him far enough. Instead, his bike would take him as far as he wanted to go. The only limit was how hard Wilbert was willing to peddle. The bike could take him all the way to the ocean if he needed it to, though Wilbert hoped he wouldn't.

So even though he would have preferred four wheels to two, Wilbert decided to go.

Grabbing the handlebars and gently nudging forward, Wilbert started to ride. Occasionally stopping to look back and watching Remy to see her reaction. Remy had perked up, and was definitely interested in what was happening around her, but she remained calm. Wilbert hoped she'd stay that way on the bumpy road ahead.

Now with both his passenger and his cargo in good shape to go, Wilbert finally got moving at pace. He picked up speed and set out towards the mountains, south-west of his farm.

His quest was now underway.

Chapter 14
Bodies of Water

The wind was strong in Wilbert's face as he cycled down the farm roads. "Rivers and Roses" as the farm was named, was massive. Even just getting off of the property took Wilbert quite a while. He was forced to navigate around or through a lot of puddles and mud as he went. Though he avoided the worst of it, he still ended up going through more mud than he would have liked, and before long his rain gear was splattered all over.

For the most part, he just ignored it. He was dressed for the messy conditions. Even if he hadn't been, he would have continued on. It would have taken a lot more than mud to stop Wilbert.

He went past the edges of the crop fields, then rode through a forested section, until he was at the edge of an old fence surrounded a beautiful meadow of tall grass and boulders. Other days he rode by, he'd have stopped at the meadow to play on those boulders. That morning though, he carried on past them and soon they were far behind.

Finally, after cycling a few hundred yards deeper into the forest, he reached a gate in a tall fence. That gate marked the edge of the Watterson's land.

There, deep amongst the tall trees, he parked his bike and walked towards the gate. Wilbert was actually too short to reach the latch, so he hopped onto a leaning fallen log that was nearby, and walked upwards towards the top of the fence.

As he reached the top, he had an incredible view of the surrounding forest. He had seen it all before, but Wilbert always felt something was magical about it.

What made the place so special was that because it had been privately owned for so long, the property still had old growth trees on it, the kind rarely preserved anywhere else.

Wilbert marveled at those gigantic douglas-fir trees. Many of their trunks were wider than a typical car. They towered so high that it was difficult to even see all the way to their tops. Shadows of the trees and their branches covered most of the area below, with only small patches of sunlight ever getting through. In those shadows, thick underbrush, ferns, and moss thrived all over the forest floor.

Wilbert reached the gate, hung over the edge, and kicked the latch open with his foot. Then, he very carefully climbed down a little farther, pushed off and let go of the fence, dropping a few feet to the ground.

The hassle of opening the gate made Wilbert consider that it might have been nice to be taller, but he decided it probably wouldn't. Although being short was a bit of a drag for Wilbert at times, in many ways it was advantageous, since he could sneak into tight spaces, and make himself difficult to find. It had enabled him to get into a lot of mischief over the years.

In any case, for the time being, he remained very short, so he just had to make the best of it. Climbing up fences to open gates was just one of the many ways he'd adapted. Besides, he thought, climbing was actually a lot of fun.

With the gate open, Wilbert pushed the bike through. Then he found a large rock and used it to wedge the gate open for the return trip.

Then he got on the bike and picked up speed again, following the trail through the forest, and leaving the Watterson land behind.

Past the property line, the new forest looked substantially different. The trees were still tall, but not nearly as wide, and the terrain was becoming rockier and more mountainous.

Wilbert wound along a trail on the side of a smaller moutain, riding up the path's gentle slope. Down that mountain side was a valley. At its bottom was a creek or perhaps even a small river. (One of several in the local area.)

That was a lot more water than Wilbert wanted at the moment though. So much water that the blanket would probably be swept away and lost. So, Wilbert continued on, remembering the wide, slow, and shallow water way he was headed for.

Within a few minutes of westward travel, Wilbert reached a plateau that leveled off and became a less forested area beside the mountain.

He peddled hard, excited that he was so close to his destination, and after about 50 yards, he squeezed the brakes and came to a stop, within a few feet of the wide brook, his intended test site.

Wilbert got off of his bike, and moved his backpack to the driest spot he could find, some smooth wet rocks nearby.

He then walked back to his bike, and reached into the basket, pulling at the blanket while gently nudging at Remy. Remy was cooperative enough. Like a ghost, she slid through the wires of the basket. Then, mostly ignoring the force of gravity, she gently drifted to the ground before finding a nice smooth rock to sit on.

With Remy out of the way, Wilbert pulled the blanket from the basket, shook it out, and spread it over some rock so that the side with the buttons faced him.

Wilbert knew he needed to open up the button so that water could flow through it, towards wherever BBR wanted it to go. So, he considered various ways of opening it. The easiest way became obvious.

He already knew the button opened easily when exposed to water. There were plenty of puddles nearby, so Wilbert scooped up some water into the palm of his hand, and splashed it onto the button, then he pryed at it with his fingernails, and voila! The button opened up, becoming a ring. Hissing air and droplets were sucked into the button's opening, and with each drop of water the ring got a little wider, and the hissing a little quieter. Before long, the air pressure seemed to even out.

After a few more scoops of water, and a bit of pulling on the ring, Wilbert was able to stretch the opening out to the width of his head, which Wilbert thought would suffice.

Wilbert knew he didn't have much time before it closed. Watching as the button slowly shrunk, Wilbert hurriedly unrolled the blanket's circular edges, until he exposed an area about 6 feet wide, much larger than Wilbert himself in fact.

Then Wilbert turned the blanket over, so that the blanket's buttons were on the side facing away from him.

Rushing before the button closed completely, Wilbert dragged the blanket, into the shallow water of the brook. He gave it a flick, flapping it out and splaying it as far as he could, then gently lowered his end of the blanket into the water.

The button almost closed, but Wilbert was fast enough, and soon, the button came into contact with the water, which was now rolling over the edge of the blanket.

Immediately, the button started to grow again. It grew surprisingly quickly, and was almost as wide as the brook before Wilbert could have counted to ten.

A steady supply of water now rolled over the blanket's surface. Into the button's hole, now a wide ring, the water flowed before falling into the endless void beyond the ring.

As a waterfall, it looked like a flowing curtain reflecting the forest outside of the void. Deeper inside the void there was nothing else to reflect or refract. Utimately, the waterfall descended so far into the darkness that its bottom could not be seen.

The area downstream from the open button became shallower and slowed to a trickle, as almost its entire water supply was cut off.

There wasn't much pull or tension that he could feel, so Wilbert let go of the blanket with one of his hands, reached for a couple nearby rocks and put them on his end of the blanket to weigh it down.

It seemed stable enough, so he released his other hand and stood by, making sure it would stay put.

It worked! Wilbert had created a new stable waterfall. Wilbert was amused to think that as the water fell further and further, it might soon become the tallest waterfall ever known. He simply had no idea how far it would be falling through that darkness.

Looking over the edge of the button made Wilbert pretty nervous. What if he tripped and lost his footing? The thought of falling into the void was terrifying.

Wilbert decided not to think about it too much, and simply backed away, towards the rocks from which Remy was watching. Then he sat down beside her, quite pleased with himself.

Wilbert reached into his bag and fixed himself a snack, then he ate as he watched the new waterfall... and waited.

What was he waiting for? Wilbert didn't know. After a few minutes he started to wonder if there was ever any way to know how much water was enough.

Shouldn't there be some sort of sign? He thought... Some way of knowing when the tank was full? Was there even a tank at all? Wilbert hadn't the faintest idea of where that water was going. All Wilbert was confident of was that getting it into the blanket was the surest way to get it back to BBR. Either the blanket was a gateway to the inside of his spaceship, or the blanket was like a tank into which water would be stored so he could bring it back to her.

Would the button close once it had enough water? Wilbert didn't bother to find out.

After about 20 minutes, Wilbert decided that he was through being patient. This had been a successful test, but he didn't feel like waiting around all day for something to happen. Since he hadn't gotten any kind of reaction from the blanket, he would assume this brook wasn't enough water, and find a larger source.

Wilbert walked over to the blanket, picked it up and shook it out.

Within moments it seemed to be completely dry, and clean. The open ring of the button began shrinking back down, closing, and ending up just as it had been before, as a dimpled button.

Wilbert gathered everything up and motioned at Remy who by then was relaxed and reluctant to move.

"C'mon Remy..." he said. ..."We can go now."

Remy didn't budge.

After a bit of frustration, Wilbert remembered what BBR had told him about Remy being maddenly indifferent at times.

"Okay... I'm leaving then," he said, even though he had no intention of leaving her behind.

He held up a part of the blanket, waved it about enough to be obvious, then put it back into the basket. At a medium pace he began walking the bike away from her.

Seeing the blanket getting farther away from her was enough to motivate Remy. She walked up into the bike's tires, and jumped upwards, right through the bottom of the basket, back out the top, before falling back down and landing snugly into the blanket.

Wilbert got on the bile, got going, and headed north. He considered going to the small river at the bottom of the valley, but he knew the current was too strong. He considered Cameron River as well, but that current was even stronger.

No... the one place he could think of without a current, and more water than he thought he could possibly need, was a lake. It was the deepest, largest lake in the area, Cameron Lake.

It was a few hours ride, but Wilbert could do it. He'd done it before, although he'd also crashed a few times on the steep mountain paths just before the lake.

Wilbert decided he'd just have to be more careful this time.

Remy could hear him as he thought out loud. "Cameron Lake!", he said... 'No mistakes!".

Chapter 15
The Deep End Of Cameron Lake

It was a long ride from the brook to the lake. Wilbert's excitement outweighed his usual frustration and impatience. The blanket was working! In his excitement he assumed the best: That the water would get to BBR, and that it would power her back up again. Soon, Wilbert imagined, he would be building his spaceship. From there on, the opportunities would be endless.

So Wilbert rode eagerly along the sides of the ravines, headed to Cameron Like, with his unworldly cargo.

After a long ride, he reached the final slope of his journey. He was almost at the lake, but was still high up on the mountainside. He only needed to get down its steep trails, across the highway, and then he be at the beach below.

The slope down to the bottom of the mountain was tricky. Wilbert took the gentlest and least muddy combination of trails he could find, and eventually made it to the bottom of the slope. There, the trail was interrupted by the highway. Across that highway he could see the lake!

Traffic was frequent but sparse on the highway, so he simply rode his bike across when there was a long gap between passing cars. Then he continued onto the beach.

The beachy area in front of him jetted out into the lake and formed a peninsula made of sand, rocks, and logs washed up by the large lake's waves. In the middle of the peninsula, up from the shoreline, there were spots of grass, bushes and even a few little trees, before the land sloped down back into sand and then the water. The entire peninsula was essentially a two sided beach.

Wilbert put his bike down near the start of the grassy area between the beaches. Then he gently pulled the blanket away from Remy.

Remy followed, eerily floating a few yards beside Wilbert. She flapped her legs a little as if swimming in the air. Then the flapping turned to steps as she landed, walking on the sand.

Wilbert knelt down on the sand and unfolded the blanket without unrolling the edges. Then he walked over to the lakeshore, where he began to very carefully wade into the lake. He intended to wade in just far enough so that the blanket's far end could sink into the water a few inches.

Facing the center of the lake, he gave a flick and a flap, spreading the blanket out above the water, before carefully allowing it to gently fall down onto the surface. Wilbert then allowed it to sink into the water.

Wilbert reached forward into the water and placed his finger over the button, ready to push it open.

"Here goes," Wilbert said to Remy, looking towards her briefly as she stood on the sandy beach behind him. Wilbert pressed down with his finger, into the groove on the top of the button

Wilbert barely had to touch it. The button reacted as if it knew it was underwater. Immediately, he could feel it open. As the flow of water around his finger picked up, Wilbert pulled his hand back from the button. then firmly held the edge of the blanket with both hands, and waded further into the water.

Slowly at first, the button's opening expanded. Water began flowing, faster and faster into the button as it grew. Soon the water was pouring in.

The button wasn't the only thing growing though. The edges on the blanket were unrolling just as they had at the creek. Wilbert had a tight grasp of the edge where he was holding onto it, but it was becoming difficult to maintain. He tried to stop the blanket's edges from unrolling between his fingers, but his efforts were in vain. He had to keep adjusting his grip with both hands, just to keep holding on.

The unrolling of the edges revealed ever more blanket. Soon the unrolling edges were extending further into the water than Wilbert could see. The blanket was growing so much more than he'd assumed possible.

It was all happening too fast. Wilbert had been so excited, but now he was becoming afraid.

Wilbert realized he was losing control. He didn't want to lose the blanket, but he knew he had to let go. The water around Wilbert's legs was getting turbulent, and the tension of the blanket kept getting stronger. Wilbert knew that if he held on any longer he'd be knocked off his footing. If that happened there was no telling where he'd end up.

Wilbert could imagine being pulled right into the button along with the water itself, into that void of darkness the water was pouring into.

So Wilbert let go, terrified. Then he backed away as fast as he could. He fought against the water and stumbled onto the beach beside Remy.

Together they watched as the blanket disappeared into the depths of the lake.

Immediately, Remy became visibly upset. She frantically moved about the shoreline, looking deeply into the water towards the blanket.

Wilbert couldn't see the blanket anymore, but he could now see the bigger picture forming. Standing on the sand, looking across the water, Wilbert could see strange motion on the wavy surface of the lake. That motion started to cover a larger and larger area. The roughness of the water extending far into the distance.

Then Wilbert began to notice a rumble. He could only hear it faintly at first, but it was enough to scare him into backing away further from the shore. Wilbert could actually feel that rumble, just barely, as a shaking of the earth. He continued to back away and watched.

Horrified, Wilbert began to see a giant whirlpool forming on the lake, he saw that the water's shoreline itself was retreating from the beach.

The magnitude of what was happening seemed unreal. Wilbert started to understand just how serious his situation was.

He began to turn and run away, but in the corner of his eye Remy caught his attention. Unlike Wilbert, she wasn't running away from the water. She was running towards it!

"Remy! No!", Wilbert yelled out at her.

It was too late though. Remy was already gone. She had plunged into the water, searching for her blanket.

Wilbert knew he couldn't possibly go in after her. He couldn't even see her anymore. All he could see was the lake and its rapid destruction.

The lake was quickly becoming a pit. All the water was draining away.

Far off in the distance, a cliffside gave way, turning into a rockslide, and tumbling into the water. All around the steep edges of the lake, bits of land around it started to fall in.

Many of the tallest trees on the lake's edge leaned over before falling into the deepening pit. That same pit which had once been Cameron Lake. The wind howled like a storm as the air rushed to fill in the space left by the water.

That was when fear really took control of Wilbert. That wind put him right back into his storm fearing mindset. He ran as fast as he could, away from the beach, back across the highway and towards the mountainside he'd come from. He was so panicked he didn't even grab his bike, he just ran into the mountain trails away from the lake.

Wilbert tore up that mountain as fast as he could, feeling a need to get to safety. However, as he got farther away from the lake, he started to calm down. He stopped running and tried to catch his breath. As he looked around he was comforted by the fact that, where he was now, the trails in the woods seemed pretty safe. The ground under Wilbert's feet wasn't going anywhere. Much of it was solid granite.

Since he was safe, He was able to calm down. and decide that he still wanted to know what was going on. All he needed was a good view of the lake.

He thought about all the times he'd explored the area and soon he remembered a nearby lookout. That lookout was over a cliff. It was high enough to have a clear view of the beach he'd just come from. At the same time though, it was far enough away that it would probably be safe.

So, instead of running aimlessly, Wilbert ran towards that lookout.

By the time he reached the lookout, Wilbert was exhausted. He knelt down to catch his breath, leaning on a log near the cliff at the edge of the lookout. He looked around and took in his surroundings. Just as he expected, he had a clear view of the lake below.

That view should have featured a surface of shimmering water, reflecting the clouds above. Such a beautiful sight, however, was no longer anywhere to be found.

Instead, what immediately stood out to Wilbert was the sheer emptiness of it. The huge body of water that had been Cameron lake just minutes ago, had almost completely disappeared. There were puddles and ponds left at the bottom, but for the most part, what Wilbert saw now looked like a giant grimy canyon.

The depth of that canyon was shocking, but it made sense to Wilbert, since the lake had been surrounded by mountains and cliffs, with various beaches interspersed along its shoreline.

The emptying of the lake had caused a lot of damage around that former shoreline. The granite sections were mostly fine, but in other areas, the ground had slid away. Dirt, mud, and rocks had spilled into the lakebed. In some places, the edges of the forest had slipped away with them. Most of what Wilbert could see was just a muddy, rocky mess with various trees and plants mixed up in it.

Wilbert did notice one area of interest. At the far northern edge across from him, at the bottom of the pit, was an even deeper part of the lakebed canyon. It was at such a distance that Wilbert couldn't even see down to the bottom.

Perhaps, Wilbert considered, that deep chasm might have been the place the blanket ended up.

This frustrated Wilbert because if the blanket was down there, he wouldn't be able to see if from this vantage point, he would have to get closer.

Even if he could get close enough to spot it, any attempt at retrieving the blanket wasn't going to be easy. Climbing down there would be a massive undertaking, one Wilbert was not prepared to make anytime soon.

So, Wilbert hoped the blanket wasn't down there. Instead of dwelling on that worst case scenario, he more widely observed the area from his lookout. Looking east, away from the chasm, Wilbert noticed the farthest parts of the former lake.

Cameron lake had been a long lake, much wider East to West than it had been North to South. Where Wilbert had been on the beach, was near the south west corner of the lake. From that place, a spit of trees had blocked his view to the east, obscuring most of the lake. Now though, from his lookout, Wilbert could see right over those trees.

The east end of the lake was visible in the distance. It was very far away, so it was tough for Wilbert to make out all the details, but he was able to distinguish some of the eastern buildings.

Wilbert's heart sank as he realized... as he remembered... There was a village at the east end of Cameron lake. The development there was mostly cabins, along with boats and docks. It wasn't a popular place to live, but it was a popular recreation area.

Wilbert couldn't be sure exactly how bad the damage was, since he was looking from so far away. Unfortunately, on that distant lakeshore, what he could decipher looked similar to everywhere else. It looked like a disaster.

While staring, Wilbert also realized he was very lucky that he hadn't brought the blanket straight to the ocean. Just how much of the seawater could the blanket have sucked away? Wilbert was relieved he hadn't had to find out. There was no telling what level of destruction it could have caused. The lake was big enough, but the ocean? That could have been apocalyptic, the end of human civilization.

Even the comparatively smaller devastation all around the lake was tragic. Thinking about it would only have made Wilbert feel guilty, but instead, he was able to distract himself, because he remembered there was a more immediate concern.

Remy was probably still down there somewhere.

"Remy..." Wilbert spoke softly and sadly in despair.

Wilbert started to feel a bit better though, because the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that Remy was probably fine.

Sure, she could have been pulled through the buttton, into the void of the blanket, but Wilbert was pretty confident that she wouldn't have let that happen.

If Remy could stay unaffected by anything else, surely she could have moved through the water without it washing her away.

Wilbert looked down at the beach where he had first put down the blanket. It was nearby, just below and to the west of the lookout.

"Where are you Remy?" Wilbert mumbled to himself, hoping Remy would make her way back.

Wilbert waited a long time, struggling to stay awake. He was exhausted. All the day's traveling had become so much for him. He nodded in and out of sleep for hours.

As Wilbert napped, the sky became darker and the clouds thickened, gradually looking much more like the storm clouds from the day before. Then it started to rain, just a sprinkle at first, but it would only get worse.

Awakened and alerted by the rain, Wilbert looked to the east again. Now that it was evening, it was darker out, and he noticed he could see lights in the distance. He couldn't hear any siren sounds at such a distance, but the flashing lights of emergency vehicles were obvious.

After watching those lights for a while, Wilbert looked back towards the beach.

He was elated by what he saw! Remy had returned! She was on the beach, and she'd brought with her the blanket, which was now back to its regular size.

Remy's mouth held it at first, dragging it behind her as she walked. Eventually she let it down, and sat upon it. Only a few feet from where Wilbert had left his bike. It was clear that Remy had intentionally returned to this same place.

"Remy!" Wilbert yelled out as loud as he could, trying to get her attention.

Down on the beach, Remy noticed his call.

She looked up, spotting Wilbert on the ledge.

Then she stared right at Wilbert for a couple of seconds, obviously able to see him, before turning away, lying back on the blanket.

Wilbert yelled several more times, but he couldn't get Remy to look back, so Wilbert decided he'd have to go down to the water.

Wilbert descended from the lookout, crossed the highway to the beach, and hurriedly walked towards Remy.

When he reached her though, he was clearly unwelcomed. Remy was very obviously annoyed. Wilbert kept trying to pet her, but whenever he did, she would immediately withdraw, eventually stepping right off the blanket and walking a few feet away as she dragged it along with her.

In her eyes, Wilbert was to be scorned, because Wilbert had lost her blanket.

Still... thought Wilbert, she had returned to the beach... so she couldn't have been too angry.

"Don't be mad Remy," Wilbert explained to her, "I didn't mean to lose your blanket."

Remy couldn't understand, but she didn't much care to hear from Wilbert anyway. Her display of annoyance was completely intentional.

For a good few minutes, Wilbert stayed back, a few feet from Remy, until she finally stood up again and walked back to face Wilbert.

Remy still seemed annoyed, but she obviously wasn't too upset. She just stared at Wilbert. Eventually she started to shrug and looked side to side, before nodding her head upwards and pointing her nose at the mountain they'd originally come from.

Wilbert got the hint. "Yeah, okay, we can go now," he replied.

Wilbert picked up the blanket, and walked back to his bike. He put the blanket back in the bike's basket, and then watched as Remy jumped in too.

"Let's go home, Remy."

Wilbert shook his head, got on his bike, and started to peddle. It was going to be a slow grind after a long day, and Wilbert still felt very guilty.

He sighed as he rolled away from the beach.

"I just want to go home."

Chapter 16
Family Drama

The ride home was a miserable one for Wilbert. He just didn't have the energy to pedal back up the muddy mountain side he'd come from. Sure, he'd tried, but it seemed impossible. So instead he was forced to take the long way home. Sadly, the change of route meant Wilbert had to ride along the highway, which meant going right by the village he'd nearly destroyed. The village wasn't exactly on the highway, but started just a few yards down from the side of the road.

By the time Wilbert went by that village, it was very dark. Most of the illumination came from the emergency and siren lights.

They were police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances. All kinds of on-lookers and their vehicles were at the side of the road that led off the highway.

There were even some military officers there. Though Wilbert was oblivious to their reasons at the time.

Wilbert just peddled by, past some mostly empty cars parked on the highway, and tried not to look much at the village. His guilt was overwhelming. He felt as if the searing eyes of everyone would be upon him. In actuality, he was ignored by the crowd. No one imagined such a young boy could be responsible for a disaster that involved the actual shaking the earth. Only a single officer off in the distance appeared to pay him any attention. It wouldn't be until later that Wilbert would realize why.

Wilbert kept going though, and thankfully, he soon found himself past the village and on a very dark and empty stretch of the highway.

Since much of the road along the lake been washed out, the highway had been mostly closed, and was accessible only to local and emergency traffic. So the normally busy highway was the most deserted Wilbert had ever seen it.

Still, his ride remained miserable. The rain and the wind kept picking up and it only made the experience more grueling.

Wilbert's mind was completely preoccupied by worries and visions of the disaster. Horrible ideas kept repeating in his head.

Wilbert was able to find a glimmer of hope though, so he focused on that.

At least, he thought, Remy and the blanket were okay. As he thought harder about it, more reasons to hope were apparant in his mind.

From a certain point of view, everything had worked out about as well Wilbert could have asked for. A triumphant thought emerged.

"Water! I got the water!"

Wilbert was sure that he must have collected enough water. Even if there'd been some unforeseen consequences, at least he had accomplished his mission.

Yes, he thought, his quest for water had been a massive success. The empty lake was proof of that. Although accidental, the blanket had clearly retrieved more water than Wilbert had considered possible.

Wilbert's imagination was sparked to life. Maybe Burt would now be on the mend! Maybe BBR would be back up and running again!

Although parts of his mind remained in a bad mood, the thoughts of his spaceship helped give Wilbert enough energy to keep going, even in his near total exhaustion.

So he just kept peddling. He pedaled down the highway, around the turnoff to the Farm Road and peddled through the shortcut in the woods to avoid the slightly longer road to his farm.

As he rode through the forest, he could see bright headlights passing by on the road to his left. As the lights faded through the trees into the distance ahead of him, Wilbert wondered who would possibly be driving down that road on such a night.

Without giving it too much thought, Wilbert emerged at the end of the trail, back on that road to his farm, right where the road came paralell to his farm's fence. It was too dark to see them, but the letters "Rivers and Roses" were engraved along the lengths of those fenceposts.

Wilbert was nearly home now, as he reached the entrance to the farm, he turned off the main road onto the farm's private road, across it's tiny bridge, and to the right where the road split. Wilbert followed it into the driveway of his farm house.

Then suddenly, Wilbert slammed on the brakes, and stopped right in his tracks.

He was both shocked and furious, instantaneously, because he discovered he had one more surprise to deal with that day.

Sitting in his driveway, parked hurriedly in front of the porch, was a truck Wilbert recognized all too well. A truck that he hadn't seen in that driveway for a couple months now, and one he'd hoped he would never see again.

"Oh no..." Wilbert mumbled to himself, followed by a sigh, "...River."

It was his uncle's truck. His uncle River. The same River that Rivers and Roses was named after.

Then, Wilbert's heart sank again. In another mini panic attack, Wilbert came to understand that all of his plans would be ruined if River got any hint of what was going on. Wilbert's entire future was suddenly in jeopardy.

"Stupid River!" Wilbert yelled in his mind, as he smashed his handlebars in anger, "Why did you have to show up?"

Deep down, Wilbert knew that River was a good guy. Maybe even the best possible guy.

Wilbert hated him anyway. There were many reasons, but the main reason was simple. River tended to do what Wilbert's own mother and father never did.

River tried to take care of Wilbert. He'd check in on Wilbert. He'd find out what was going on in Wilbert's life, and eventually he'd be telling Wilbert what to do. River would interfere.

Unlike Wilbert's actual mother and father, River acted like a parent. For River, acting like a parent meant treating Wilbert as a child. Wilbert hated him for that.

Wilbert looked around. He couldn't tell where River was, or if River had spotted him yet, but Wilbert correctly guessed that River was probably inside the house.

Wilbert quickly understood he needed to hide Remy and the blanket. With that, Wilbert moved fast, pedaling back to the barn.

Upon reaching the barn, he hurriedly got the bike inside, and carried Remy and her blanket through the workshop's make shift kitchen and into the tiny washroom in its corner. There he placed Remy's blanket in the cupboard under the sink, with her inside.

Wilbert was all too aware that his spaceship, Burt, was just hovering outside the kitchen in the middle of the barn. Wilbert knew that River could burst in at any moment and discover it all.

Such a discovery would mark the end of Wilbert's recent adventures. River would freak out. He'd call in a bunch of officers, and they carry away Burt, and with it, any of Wilbert's space traveling dreams. Wilbert could not allow that to happen.

Wilbert decided that because Remy and the blanket were now tucked away, his best course of action was simply to get back into the house as fast as possible. At this point, keeping River out of the barn was the top priority. River probably wouldn't have any reason to even look in the barn if Wilbert was in the house.

Fortunately, as was characteristic of her, Remy fell asleep in less than a minute. Being sure not to wake her, Wiilbert snuck past his motionless but still floating spaceship, and back outside his barn towards the farmhouse.

Hurrying but trying to stay quiet, Wilbert made his way back to the porch and in through the front door of the house.

He took his shoes off, took off his outer layers of soaking clothes, and looked around. River was nowhere to be seen, but Wilbert's ears could hear distant footsteps, probably River's. Those steps sounded like they were coming from the third floor.

Wilbert could also hear snoring, and the obvious voices of broadcasters. From the entranceway he was partially able to see into the living room to his right. He could make out just enough to tell that his father was passed out in front of the television, which had been left on. Its flickering light was the only thing illuminating the otherwise dark living room.

Instead of going into the living Room, Wilbert went to his left, through the dining room and into the kitchen. Instead of being quiet, this time he stomped quite loudly on the dining room's wooden floors, hoping to draw River's attention.

It worked. Soon the footsteps above were on the second floor, and by the time Wilbert made his way to the kitchen, the footsteps he heard were coming down the stairs in front of the entranceway.

Within moments, the footsteps walked around into the kitchen, and there was River, a towering, frighteningly huge officer, standing right in front of Wilbert.

Wilbert simply stood there, straight faced, defiant.

River paused momentarily and looked Wilbert over, then suddenly moved.

Wilbert winced as River lunged towards him, grabbed him, picked him up, and wrapped Wilberts tiny body up in River's giant arms.

"Oh Thank God! You're okay!" exclaimed River, "I had no idea where you were. I yelled for you earlier. I looked upstairs in your bedroom and was about to start searching outside for you."

It was a startlingly emotional outburst for a man who was usually the most stoic person Wilbert had ever met.

River put Wilbert back down again, and brushed him off, before releasing Wilbert completely and standing back up.

River being so tall while Wilbert was so short meant that Wilbert had to look almost straight up in order to make eye contact. For the most part he didn't even try.

"You're all wet Wilbert, soaked actually." River began, "You were outside, out in the rain, in this weather."

Wilbert was speechless. Such observations, bordering on questioning, was exactly what Wilbert was expecting. Uncle River seemed in inspector mode now, interrogating Wilbert for answers.

River kept staring as Wilbert held his tongue. Before long the expression on River's face turned to one of suspicion.

"You were at the lake tonight weren't you? That was you I saw down there, wasn't it?"

Wilbert felt like he had to say something.

"No." Wilbert said forcefully. "No, I was playing outside."

As confidently as he said it though, it was no use. River kept looking him over, and frowned somewhat in response to Wilbert's answer. The expression on River's face told the obvious truth. They both knew Wilbert was lying. River in fact, had years of experience with Wilbert, and River knew that lies were to be expected.

"Wilbert, you need to stop lying," said River. He paused intentionally for a few moments to drive the message home, then continued, "It doesn't really matter even if you were at the lake though. You're alright. You made it home safe. That's all that matters."

River pointed out of the kitchen, towards the front living room, where muffled voices from the television could still be heard.

River went on, "That was unbelievably dangerous down at the lake today. They're talking about it on the TV even. There was probably an earthquake. Parts of the road are out. There's probably going to be even more rock slides in the next couple of days. The ground is still unstable. It's a miracle things weren't way worse actually. You need to stay far away from the lake.

"When I was down at the lake, I saw you. I wasn't even sure it was you, but it reminded me to check on you guys. I know how messed up this house is.

"I called but I couldn't get a hold of anyone here, so I came to the house. One disaster to another right? I talked to your dad. Drunk as usual. He had no idea where you were, so I looked upstairs for you."

As River spoke, Wilbert slowly found he was getting his confidence back. River was certainly less aggressively investigating than Wilbert had worried. Wilbert decided to speak up and express his own skepticism.

"Why are you here River?" Wilbert inquired as he looked up suspiciously, attempting to peer right into River's eyes.

So far River showed no signs of knowing anything about the spaceship, but Wilbert hoped River's reaction would reveal anything he knew.

"Why am I here? Are you serious? Really?" River reacted to the question with utter disbelief. River could not comprehend Wilbert's lack of understanding.

Wilbert became more certain that River knew nothing at all. Nothing of his Spaceship, the blanket, Remy... Nothing that mattered. River had no real comprehension of what had happened at the lake. Wilbert knew this because he was familiar with River. Wilbert knew River was a straight shooter. If River suspected something more, he would probably have made it obvious by now.

Still Wilbert expected an answer... As River, baffled, looked back at Wilbert, Wilbert shook his head, shrugged, and even made a little "come here" motion with his fingertips, taunting River.

River was used to Wilbert's suspicion, paranoia and even occasional hatred, but it was genuinely shocking to River that Wilbert failed to understand his presence. He'd already explained it as well as he could.

"Wilbert, I just told you. I'm here because I care about you. I care about your Dad too. He's my brother. I even care about your Mom for some reason, even if I wish I didn't.

"I was worried about you. Like I said, your dad didn't know where you were. I know you go biking and exploring around here all the time. I was worried you might be down at the lake and it looks like I was right.

"I was just worried Wilbert," River finished his explanation, still confused as to why he needed to explain himself at all.

"Well, we're here, so you can stop worrying," Wilbert snapped back.

River acknowledged him. "Okay yes, yeah, you are here. I'm really glad.

"Now listen up. You stay here. Stay away from the lake, okay? In fact, I don't think you should be going anywhere for a few days. We still don't really know what happened. After an earthquake like that it may not be safe around here. There's a lot of mud and rock slides probably. Just stay here for a few days, understood?"

"Fine, whatever," said Wilbert, with some renewed bitterness now that he noticed River was back to bossing him around, "Can I go now?"

"Yes. You can go to bed Wilbert. You've got to be exhausted after all that biking. Go to bed." River responded before he finally gave Wilbert one last command, "In the morning, you come talk to me."

Wilbert scowled at the orders he'd received. He stomped off past River towards to kitchen. Before leaving he got in the last word though. With obvious sarcasm, Wilbert was loud enough to be sure River could hear him.

"Yes sir, Lieutenant Watterson! Sir!"

Though River was hurt by the contempt in Wilbert's voice, he didn't show it. River allowed Wilbert to leave, saying nothing more as Wilbert disappeared up the stairs and out of River's view.

Upstairs, relieved to be away from River, Wilbert continued to his bedroom, and upon its entering, he completed his last few heavy steps to his bed. As soon as he was close enough for it to catch his fall, Wilbert collapsed. There, in bed, he quickly fell into the deepest sleep he'd had in his entire life...

...while River went back to the lake.

Information above provided by:
Quoia Oboticca
Journalist/Archivist
Utope Tribune / Utope City Hall
June 2nd, 2138.