"We usually had the other side of the field hidden near our base at Ghost River," Hunter told her. "It was just like stepping through a door. There one moment, here the next."
"Almost like traveling in Supertime?" she asked him. "You're moving so fast, it doesn't seem like you are moving at all."
Hunter just stared into her big, beautiful eyes. God, she was cute. "Well, yes," he was finally able to reply. "I guess…"
"Then that's what we did here," she told him. "Just on a much grander scale."
Hunter wasn't sure what she meant. "This you will have to explain to me," he said.
"My pleasure," she said, snapping her fingers but still without a smile.
Suddenly they were standing alone on a very high peak.
The beach and the ocean were off to the east now, far below them. Up and down the coast, for as far as Hunter could see, was nothing but paradise. Trees, hills, flowing grass, lakes, rivers, the ocean itself. Beautiful. Inviting. Tempting…
Xara turned him around.
He was now gazing West, into a deep valley; it looked like something from a dream. It was just as beautiful, just as peaceful as the coast. More trees, more high grass and flowers everywhere. Small clutches of tiny houses, cottages, even house boats. More lakes, rivers, and streams. A soft wind in his face. Very comfortable temperatures. A slight white glow around everything.
In a word, heavenly.
And hanging in the air above the pleasant valley, the six blue and chrome spaceships of the UPF, along with the six stolen cargo 'crashers.
"If I am not imagining this," Hunter said with a gasp, "then it all must be true… Right?"
"We've managed to find a way to hide your fleet in here," Xara told him proudly. "Along with all your friends."
Hunter just shook his head.
"Well, it was Vanex really," she explained. "Once he and I explored this place, he came up with a way to create a portal, just like the Twenty 'n Six field you manufactured on Planet America. Except with this one, we opened a large window to here, the thirty-fourth dimension. Or what people commonly refer to as the thirty-fourth…"
Below him Hunter could see Erx and Berx again, and Tomm, Calandrx, Klaaz, Zarex, and his robot. He saw Gordon and many of the top officers of the UPF. They were all alive and lazing about the placid green fields, talking in small groups, lying out in the warm sun. Farther away, the crews of the UPF ships. Beyond them, more hills, more mountains, and undoubtedly, more beautiful things over those mountains.
"But I was told that the fleet was destroyed," he said. "And everyone aboard had perished."
"Who told you all that? The Solar Guards?"
Hunter nodded numbly. "Well, yes…" He quickly told her what he'd seen after being seized by the SG once he'd returned from the mind ring trip.
"The Solar Guards lied," Xara told him plainly. "The truth is, they have no idea what happened to the fleet. From their perspective, your ships were on the sensor screens one moment and were gone the next. They've undoubtedly been spinning it for their bosses, and my father, and, I'm sure, to Joxx himself. Manufacturing evidence of fighting right aboard the ShadoVox itself? This, after our friends had already blinked out? Fairly clever, I guess. But Joxx figured out the truth anyway. And he has since played his part. After all, he was the one who passed the holo-capsule to you."
"And saved me," Hunter whispered, realizing now just what the SG commander had done. "But I'm still a little confused about this whole thirty-fourth dimension thing."
Xara looked like she wanted to conk him on the head. He was supposed to be this brilliant superhero, but at the moment, his mind seemed to be back down on the beach.
She explained it all to him again, this time slower, in more detail. It all started with the visit from the spy to her quarters, his tip that the advanced holo-girl capsule was actually a technology that went far beyond what people thought they understood about trips to the thirty-fourth dimension. That's when she brought Vanex in, and after she and the master engineer spent the equivalent of two months in this place, they figured out a way to open a hole large enough for the rebel fleet to pass through without the Solar Guards ever knowing what was happening. That's how everybody got away, she told him. That's why everybody was still alive. In this very beautiful place. With absolutely nothing causing them to return to the real world until they wanted to.
"But everything you just told me seems too pat," Hunter told her once she had finished. "Too perfect."
"Exactly," Xara replied. "That's the way everything is in here. Every problem solved, always by the perfect solution. You feel everything seems dreamy here, sort of?"
Hunter nodded. It did feel like he was walking on air.
"Well, I feel that, too," Xara said. "We all do. That's got to be just one of the reasons people thought this place was, well, so different when they first discovered it — what? Eons ago? It's in all the myths. All the legends. We just never thought of it as a real, tangible place."
Hunter still looked confused.
"What I'm trying to tell you," Xara finally said, "is that I think everything is connected. Twenty 'n Six technology, this sexual fantasy land, Time Shifters, and Supertime. They are unified in a way. Just take a look around you. How realistic does all this seem?"
Hunter could only shrug. Compared to what was experienced in a mind ring, this was a quantum leap in improvement.
"It looks very real," he said.
She finally smiled. "That's because it is," she told him, "People have been using the sex trips to come here for God knows how long now. But have you ever met anyone who has gone anywhere other than the beach? Anyone who hadn't just stayed put with whatever flavor girl they'd chosen? No — no one ever moved, ever explored, because they thought they were inside an illusion. Like that nutty sixth dimension or the thirteenth. But the truth is, they were not inside an illusion. Not a typical one, anyway. This place is real. It's a different place. A place we know very little about, just like we don't know exactly who invented the means to get here. But it is real… and it is definitely somewhere on a higher plane. That's why you feel the way you do here. That's why everything is perfect."
"Are you saying the thirty-fourth dimension is actually someplace else?" he asked her.
She smiled and touched his lips.
"What I'm saying," she replied, "is that the thirty-fourth dimension is what people used to call Heaven."
Hunter would never pretend to understand very much Xara told him after that. It was just too much information, too much of a leap of faith, all at once. He had to take it in slowly.
So they stayed atop the hill, looking out on paradise, the twelve warships hanging lightly in the sweet air. He told her everything he'd gone through since last seeing her on Earth, before he went AWOL. Then she went over her story again, emphasizing some points here, other points there. On some level, Hunter was just happy to be with her, happy just to hear her talk. He could have stayed atop the hill with her forever.
Finally, though, after what seemed like hours of this, he asked her, "But what do we do now?"
"We prepare the fleet," she replied quickly. "We figure out what to do when we blink back into real time. When we all step back down from Heaven. Now that I know what you discovered about the building of the Empires, I think it's imperative that we overthrow the current regime, no matter what. That should be our first step of many."