Pandora's Chase

Chapter Twenty-Four

Cael's place was as lavish as his collection of faraway plant and animals was exotic. The most spectacular thing about it was the grand view of the moon's landscape in the main room. In his race to find Cael, Chase hadn't considered stopping for a minute to check out the incredible view of the moon outside. Now, he approached the wide window, half in awe and half in fear, almost afraid that he'd break the glass if he touched it too hard. Carefully pressing his palms to the window, he peered out at the breathtaking scene. Stars hung over the vast horizon, floating in the infinite darkness of space, and beneath them, the gray, powdery surface of the moon glowed a beautiful bland consistency.

In the distance, a mountain range stretched across the barren land and into the Sea of Serenity. Chase gestured to the mountains and said to Cael, "That's the Apennine Mountain range, right?"

"Yeah, it is," Cael replied. "You're pretty smart, kid."

"Kind of a nerd," Chase confessed.

"Yeah, I guess you are. Listen," Cael's tone ushered the conversation a different direction, "I've been thinking about how I might convince a crew to take you on. It's going to be difficult without knowing where you're going. Are you sure you don't know? How does a map not tell you where you're going?"

Chase was tired and ready for a shower and some sleep. He wasn't in the mood for questions, but he needed Cael to find him a ride more than he needed rest. "All I have is a direction relative to where the map is. That's why I'm looking for a crew with a good pilot," replied Chase. "A pilot should be able to tell me where it's pointing."

"Should? Let me have a look at it." Cael gestured for Chase to hand over the map. "If I'm going to talk some crew into taking you on your little trip, I need more to go on."

Chase considered it for a moment and concluded there wasn't much else he could do. He needed this ride, and showing the map was a necessary risk to take. He dug into his pocket, pulled out the folded piece of paper, and handed it to Cael who immediately walked over to his dining table. He laid out the map and a moment later, the blue dot and the counter appeared.

Right away, Chase noticed a curious change from before. The dark red dot showing the disk was now a faint, transparent glow off the right edge of the paper. The blue dot was still in the middle of the page, which seemed to be its relative location.

Cael turned the sheet so the counter was upright, and something interesting happened. The dots stayed in the same spot relative to everything but the map, independent of how the paper moved. Cael rotated the sheet back and forth, and Chase watched the faint red dot track around the edge.

"I didn't see that before," Chase announced.

Chase slid an arm in front of Cael and began his own testing. He rotated the map again for effect and then slid the map across the table to see what happened with lateral movements. Nothing.

The pair of them stared at the map in silence for a few moments before Chase had another idea.

"On the ground," he said, "on Earth, we're used to looking at maps in a two-dimensional plane. But this thing is traveling through space, right?"

"What thing?" asked Cael.

"Nothing," he stuttered. "I meant the map is supposed to be used in space." He swallowed, hoping Cael would accept his cover-up. "If that's the case, then we need to think three-dimensionally."

Cael gave him a skeptical look.

Chase grabbed the map, lifted it up, and walked around the table to a more open area. With the map still parallel to the floor, he rotated his wrists upward. The blue dot stayed stationed in the middle of the map, and the faint red one continued to hover along the right edge. Chase positioned his arms to place the faint red dot in the center of the right edge. This put his arms at about a forty-five degree angle with the floor. He turned his body to the right, and as he did, the faint red dot began to fall along the right edge. He continued to turn, and the faint red dot continued to track along the edge. It turned the corner at the lower right and then moved along the bottom edge as Chase kept rotating. Chase had almost turned a full quarter. When he stopped, the faint red dot was at the center of the bottom edge. That's when Chase began to lower his arms, and suddenly, the dot became solid. It left the bottom edge and moved towards the blue dot.