Chapter 4

     “That took long enough.” The stranger sighed.
     Heather glowered. “We would’ve finished sooner if you hadn’t kept interrupting with all these weird suggestions!”
     “Look, it made sense to me; your dimension’s chemistry principles are identical to ours. Apparently the reactions in yours are more boring than in mine…”
     “Say, you know what?” Anastasia realized abruptly. “We never got your name. What should we call you? Or do we have to settle with ‘Blondie’?”
      “No, I’ve got a name,” he replied, rolling his eyes. “Call me Strufis.”
     “Okay, then, Strufis,” Heather proclaimed, “let us decide what we’re going to do.”
     Strufis blinked. “Er…aren’t we going to Professor Enstrite’s place?”
     “You might be. But we four haven’t thought on it yet, with all that’s going on. So just chill while I get everybody’s opinions.”
     “Well, it doesn’t make a difference. Remember that we can’t separate, since we’ll all warp together? And that I have the dimensional translator?”
     “Not if we have something to say about it. Hey, it’s four against one. And if it came down to it, you don’t look like you could take on someone who’s been at girls’ varsity basketball every day,” Heather said, loosening up her shoulders casually.
     Strufis’s eyes narrowed uneasily. “Are you threatening me?”
     “Just because you have the warping thing doesn’t mean you’re in charge. We’re talking about this before we agree to anything.”
     “Well, I for one,” Drew announced, “am perfectly fine for staying here for a little while. Do you realize what’s happening? We are in another dimension!! Don’t care what I’m doing, I want to see more of this place!”
     “It’s fine with me,” Anastasia said calmly. “I’m fine either way.”
     “Well, since we have the chance to return without worrying about time passing,” Phillip said, “we really don’t have anything to lose.” More to himself, he added, “There’s nothing I really want to go back to, anyway.” The comment made his lab group look at him puzzledly.
     “It looks like everyone else agrees,” Strufis said to Heather. “What about you?”
     “Since everyone says yes, I will,” Heather replied solemnly. “I just wanted to make sure everybody here had their say.”
     “Okay, we don’t have a minute to lose. We’ve got to talk to the Professor, and soon. Just let me get a couple of things, and we’ll be off.”
     Strufis went and got a knapsack he had in the corner and put a few things in it before dialing in the coordinates into his device. In a second, they disappeared.

     A few moments passed. Then, the door in the corner of the laboratory burst open as people in black suits and sunglasses filed in.