Béla Book 3: Wrinkles in Time

'Do you expect me to teleport all the way there? And back?' Beth had asked, incredulously. 'I'll starve to death!'

'No, silly, ' Béla had replied. 'Just dream-walk and carry it back – just like we did all those munitions we stole for our games ... Remember?'

Beth went to sleep, then woke up a few minutes later and put on one of the helmets that her father had given her. She came downstairs carrying the other one under her arm.

Béla looked up and laughed. "You look like Alanna from Rana."

"Who?" Beth wanted to know.

Images of a thin, colorful, paper book with primitive drawings in it. A fictitious character named 'Adam Strange' is teleported off the surface of earth to a distant planet in another galaxy. There, he meets a beautiful alien woman, Alanna. It was her scientist father's 'Zeta' beam that had transported him to her world. They fall madly in love and then the effect of the beam wears off and he finds himself back on earth, separated from his true love by gazillions of light years.

"That's really sad," Beth told her sister. "People read that for entertainment?"

"Not anymore," Béla said, disparagingly. "Everything's in tri-d, now, and it's much, much worse!"

Béla put on the other helmet and looked at her sister.

"Ready?" she asked.

They were about to teleport outside directly into the sunlight; far enough away from the cabin so that the dampening field around the structure would no longer be protecting them from the sun's electromagnetic radiation.

Beth nodded.

"Okay, here goes!"

They vanished from the cabin and reappeared out by the landing pad. Beth grimaced, expecting the insides of her head to explode. Nothing happened.

"Hey! I'm okay!" she cried.

She looked around, squinting in the brightness surrounding her, happy to be out in the sun again. She turned her face straight up into the sun, her eyes closed against its brilliance. Her head still didn't hurt.

"This is wonderful!" Béla said, smiling. "We can wear these almost anywhere!"

Then she doubled up in pain, holding her stomach. "Holy hell, what's happening?" Béla cried, dropping to her knees.

Then she realized the pain was coming from her fetus. She teleported back into the shielded safety of the cabin. An instant later, Beth appeared beside her.

"What happened?" Beth cried. "Are you all right?"

"I'm alright," Béla replied, groaning and holding her belly. "But baby doesn't seem to like the sun..."

The two sisters sat and stared at each other. Beth now had the freedom to go anywhere she wanted, day or night. Béla was trapped by her unborn baby into staying home during the day. She hadn't planned on staying home until the baby was born...

"Well, I guess you guys can go on our hunting trip without me," Béla sighed.

Because of the baby, she hadn't planned on being a target for Jake, but she had been looking forward to being outside in the sunlight again. It would be another year before the sun settled down enough to take the baby outside.

Something heavy landed on her distended stomach, crushing her awake.

"God, I thought you'd never go to sleep! What is that noisy thing with the weird images coming out of it?"

"Get off me, you idiot!" Béla yelled. "You're squashing my baby!"

Elaine backed up and sat down on Béla's legs. Béla was still pinned on the couch.

"Your dream-walking body doesn't look pregnant," Elaine replied haughtily. "And thanks! I'm glad to see you, too!"

Elaine sat frowning at her sister for a moment, then reached outside her image of Béla's living room and pulled a banana back into it. She began peeling it.

"Where do you get bananas in New Eden?" Béla asked, surprised.

"You don't," Elaine told her. "This is my dream ... I made it up!" She took a bite. It seemed so real that Béla could even smell it.

"And you know what else?" Elaine asked, cryptically. She sat, silent and waiting, eating her banana.

"Alright! What?" Béla finally demanded after realizing that her ditzy sister was planning on waiting however long it took for Béla to ask.

Elaine swallowed so that she could talk. "I can take it from my dream and make it real..." she said, her eyebrows raised like she didn't expect to be believed.

She was right. Béla didn't believe her! "Like Shit!"

"Really!" Elaine insisted.

She popped the rest of the banana into her mouth and threw the peeling at her smart-ass sister. Then she disappeared.