Chapter 21

     “Prof, wh…what are you doing here?” Strufis said in disbelief.
     The Professor indicated the government people still trying to get their sense of direction straight. “They had taken me into custody just after you left. They brought me along as well. And right now, they’re not paying attention.”
     “Nice,” Anastasia grinned with approval.
     Strufis handed the Professor the dimensional translator and he began examining it. He pressed several buttons.
     Their surroundings wavered again, and when it came back into focus it was in the middle of the night. They were again in a desert, but there were no buildings, and in the distance there was a tall stone structure on which there were many, many lights.
     “Hmm, that was interesting. What exactly happened to this thing?” Professor Enstrite asked Strufis.
     “Um…someone rammed into it.”
     “Ah.” He glanced at it again. “This definitely needs more work. I didn’t know it was that delicate.”
     Strufis did a double take. “D-delicate…?”
     The Professor looked around some more. “This doesn’t look like anywhere near the reserve, so the obvious didn’t work…”
     “It’s not our dimension, but it’s a location that’s in our world,” Drew said. “That’s the Devil’s Tower. And…” He resisted the urge to run towards it. “...well, if you’ve watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind…”
     “Look at those two,” Anastasia shook her head at Mr. Templehill and Khinterlin, who were now mouthing off at each other (the rest of each of their parties were still too mixed together to participate). “They’re bickering like six-year-olds.”
     Professor Enstrite observed them curiously. “Wait…those two are warping together now, too?” He stroked his beard. “…Maybe there is hope for us after all.”
     As the five looked at him, mystified, he finished resetting the device and proceeded to enter in their world’s coordinates.
     Then, Mr. Templehill had noticed the Professor and the five nearby and homed in on them. “What? Wait a minute, Roose, you’re here? Weren’t you being escorted by…?”
     “It’s hard for people to pay attention when they’re disoriented,” Professor Enstrite replied. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish entering in the coordinates so we all get back home.” Without another word, he finished what he was doing and activated it.
     The surroundings came back into focus as a familiar forest, where several more of Mr. Templehill’s and Khinterlin’s people were waiting for their return. Mr. Templehill and Khinterlin were in a different position than before, but they were again next to each other, near Professor Enstrite.
     Mr. Templehill grimaced. “When we asked you to set to include a small area of people, what else did you set it to do?”
     “It was you that was in a hurry to get it calibrated to include your people before those kids warped,” Professor Enstrite said crossly. “The range option doesn’t have its kinks worked out yet, you know. And I certainly didn’t test it out on rapid fire transportation.”
     “You hardly mentioned that!”
     “Should you be surprised? Your ‘requests’, in this context, are nothing more than polite coercion. And I’m seriously questioning the ‘polite’ aspect.”
     “Professor…Enstrite?” Heather ventured. The three men glanced at her. “Um…You know how you had said not to use the translator, otherwise they’d pick up our signal…? You were talking about that other device he had, right…?”
     “Yeah,” Strufis said with a nod. “How did they get something like that? If it was from your lab, then how come I didn’t know about it?”
     Professor Enstrite sighed. “Well…it was supposed to be a surprise I saved for you, Strufis. It was meant to be a supplement to the translator so you could come along easily during my test runs. That is, until someone I trusted to keep it out of your sight kept it out of mine for too long as well.”
     Mr. Templehill sighed. “Okay, Roose, do you want me to be frank with you?”
     “Yes, it’s about time you were!”
     “I…I seriously suspected you were going over to the Naturals’ side.” Seeing Professor Enstrite’s incredulous expression, he said, “That doesn’t seem to be the case, but I was really uneasy when you started being very antagonistic with the exploration program. And then when I heard you were staying at the Tripletree right next to the reserve…what did you expect me to think?”
     “One thing dangerous about you, Winston – when you get panicky or overwhelmed, you just stop thinking.” Professor Enstrite crossed his arms. “You don’t even realize it.”
     “I can assure you he hasn’t joined our side,” Khinterlin stepped in, holding the beeper-shaped following device. “Otherwise, all this would never have happened.”
     “What are you saying, Khinterlin?” Professor Enstrite asked.
     “These machines should be destroyed. There isn’t any good that is worth getting from them.” The other Naturals behind him who had regained their senses murmured in agreement.
     Mr. Templehill scowled. “The words of a madman. What we could gain from learning the discoveries of other worlds! What we could add to ours! Our knowledge would be triplefold every day we—”
     “Who’s the true madman?” Khinterlin exclaimed. “You talk of gaining knowledge and power, but all that leads to is destruction!”
     “Knowledge leading to destruction? I cannot agree with you on that point, Khinterlin,” Professor Enstrite frowned.      “Geez, this is getting intense…” Drew whispered worriedly.
     “Exactly, Roose!” Mr. Templehill burst out, looking at Enstrite for support, but Khinterlin ignored him and addressed the professor. “Curiosity is not a sin, but if the cost to this world is so great, it does much more harm than good.”
     “How does it harm, Khinterlin?” the Profesor asked him skeptically.
     “You don’t even see it? What about what this fool wants to do? Burst in on other dimensions taking their technology and sticking it along with all the rest here? Whether it is weaponry or industry, it defiles this beautiful planet and what creatures it has left with its debris.” The rest of the Naturals nodded heartily. “There’ll be nothing left of this world but these pieces of iron, metal, and poison!”
     “N-nothing left? What do you mean? Technology is progress!” Mr. Templehill retorted. “The farther we can go with it, the more we can improve people’s lives and protect them! If we can learn new ways and techniques from others, then so much the better, we’ll progress even faster!”
     “I can’t follow you there, Winston,” Professor Enstrite said.
     Mr. Templehill blinked, taken aback. “But…why?” he asked earnestly.
     Before Professor Enstrite could answer, Khinterlin exclaimed, “Look, under the federal government’s administration we’ve done nothing but push further, further on with technological progress. And look what it’s done to the natural environment! This land we’re in is one of few pockets left of any semblance of wilderness. We’ve become too reliant on our technology, and this device will not only have us ruining the order and inherent beauty of other dimensions, but will have us stealing technology from those dimensions, making us even more reliant on it; it will be running our lives and our minds!”
     “And that is the part I have constantly come head-to-head with Winston on,” Professor Enstrite put in. “While I approve of exploring new dimensions and interacting with them, if we rely on other’s ideas for our own technology, we will lose that essential spark of ingenuity that is required for progress. That is what his plan entails.”
     “Well, evidently we can’t shield ourselves from all knowledge that we might discover there, so are you suggesting that locking ourselves in the caves is the better alternative?” Mr. Templehill scoffed.

     Khinterlin replied, “It seems immoral to me to go messing around with other dimensions when ours is bungled as it is.”
     “How do we know that those other dimensions aren’t in as much or more trouble than ours?” Mr. Templehill countered. “I believe there would be great benefits by our exchanging ideas for both sides.”
     “Again, I reiterate – what business do we have running about other worlds when we need to fix our own?” Khinterlin became impatient. “Our world is overrun with technology, and the planet is paying the price, and soon we will, too, if we don’t stop our unbridled expansion of technology to the point when it will be all that is left of us.”
     Mr. Templehill grimaced. “Your party always deprecates progress, just because of a few—”
     “It wouldn’t be so if this government actually paused and thought about what it was doing for once!”
     A tense silence hung in the air.
     “Captain Khinterlin,” Professor Enstrite spoke up, “your party’s view seems to be that all technology should be abolished. Is all technology detrimental? Might I remind you that technology has enabled us to save people’s lives and improve the quality of them as well.”
     Khinterlin sighed. “I will admit that the helpful aspects of technology are valuable. However, I do not think this government is being considerate or cautious with their technology policies. Look at the toll this unfettered expansion has had on our planet. As I’ve mentioned, this small ‘reserve’ is one of the few places where there is a significant amount of greenery. Nature creates the very air we breathe. If any in this world think that we’ll be better off without it, they are immeasurably mistaken. In addition, if it’s supposed to be helpful to mankind, then why are weapons being created with ever more accuracy and force? The only thing those can bring is destruction. Further, traveling to other dimensions, we’ll gather all the most destructive weapons from all of them, and then we’ll simply end up destroying not only our dimension, but all the others!”
     “Does that mean we should leave ourselves vulnerable? We’re not the only country out there that has weapons, and I can assure you we aren’t the most unreliable ones to have them! We don’t live in a world of angels, Khinterlin.”      Khinterlin spat bitterly at the ground. “So you let the downward spiral continue…”
     “Well, then, um,” Heather broke in, causing the three important figures to glance at her intensely, which startled her for a bit but she went on. “Basically, Captain Khinterlin, you’d be happy if Mr. Templehill agreed to stepping back and examining some of their programs, and improving aspects that are harmful to the environment and society.”      “It would be a step in the right direction,” Khinterlin admitted. “Although certainly not the end of the issue.”
     “Cause, ya know,” Drew put in, “technology is progress, but it’s up to us whether it’s good or bad progress. I wouldn’t just stop exploring just because we’re afraid to do something wrong. Risks are a part of life, ya know?”
     “In our world, everyone argues about this same thing,” Phillip said. “People on both sides thought we were going to hell in a hand basket. But we’re still around now, anyway. It’s a balancing act, and I guess everybody’s arguing helps moderate things.”
     “So, you people should all talk to each other, and argue instead of shooting at each other,” Anastasia said. “What you’re doing right now is exactly the point, really.”
     Strufis nodded. “You know, I noticed from keeping up with current events that your party, Khinterlin, the Naturals had a huge spat in Congress with the government. They were so fed up they ended up boycotting government proceedings altogether and communications were essentially cut off: nobody was talking to each other. And Mr. Templehill, Prof, you two really knew each other, but then, I guess something happened and you two weren’t exchanging dialogue either. So then everybody assumes the worst and gets all agitated, and that looks like a main root of the problem.”
     It was kind of strange, but somehow hearing what came from the mouths of intelligent-sounding adolescents let them humble themselves to each other.
     Khinterlin shook his head. “I stand amended. Maturity and civility are the only ways to conduct discussion among sentient creatures.”
     Mr. Templehill sighed. “I suppose we’ve been acting pretty immature up unto now. At least I have. We should have done this sooner, but I guess I was second-guessing too much.”
     “I made the same mistake, Winston,” Professor Enstrite told him. “I admit I let this commotion get to my head, too.”
     The three men nodded solemnly. “I suppose we have much to catch up on.”