Disclaimer: Space Cases and all related characters, events, concepts belong to Nickelodeon, CISNAR and are the creations of Bill Mumy and Peter David. They are not mine! I am only borrowing them. They will
be returned intact after the end of the story. In any case, in the sequence of my stories, follows
“Diamonds in the Rough”. #3.  this would make four, the mind boggles

                                                “Glimmerings”  by Karen

 They wandered the narrow byways of the Barill IV marketplace, pausing now and then to examine a curiosity that caught the eye. Bova was almost sleep walking, throughout their search for a statue that Miss Davenport had ordered. Harlan led them down a blind alley, their tenth of the afternoon, forcing them to back-track their own route.

“We’re lost,” Bova yawned, listing to one side.

“No, we’re not, “ Harlan defensively replied, folding his arms across his chest. “I just don’t know where we are.”

“If you’d let me...”Radu began, but Harlan waved him aside,  trying to recall directions on the map from memory.

 Suzee wiped sweat from her forehead and glanced up at the sky.  She wondered how the marketplace managed to absorb so much heat. Rosie and Radu were looking at a collection of brass jars and plates, and a few pieces of pottery; oblivious to the heat. Thelma, whom they’d brought along as a reference source, in case no one remembered the ins and outs of Bariellan art, they’d been drilled during their last test, cocked her head to one side; as if listening to a distant voice calling out to her, attracted little attention.  All the same, Suzee glanced around at the variety of people frequenting the marketplace, the place apparently was a crossroads of trade, no one paid any attention to them, except the merchants, hoping for a sale.

She lost her train of thought when she was jostled by a caravan driver, whose cart animals broke loose from their traces and began caroming through the crowd, knocking people aside, left and right. Over the clamor of the swearing driver, outraged shoppers and merchants, she could hear Harlan’s good-natured laughter as he gave Radu a comradely slap on the shoulder. Radu had instantly dropped the bronze tripod he’d been showing Rosie, and clapped his hands over his sensitive ears as the soon as noise began escalating.

“I think that was worth every cent of the last dirhams we spent on the game’ guess which shell it’s under, “ Harlan laughed, pointing towards the irate caravan merchant, who by now had retrieved the reluctant animals. He narrowed his eyes to slits as he glimpsed a scrawny child make off with a man’s coin purse.
<Okay, so maybe Miss D wasn’t being paranoid, after all, when she told us to keep the money in our pouches and wear them underneath our clothes. Still, it is nice having ‘spending money’ for a change,
even if it is the local Bariellan currency.>

    “Maybe, maybe not, “Bova replied, We’ve been walking around this stupid marketplace all day, and
    we still haven’t found that malachite figurine Miss Davenport ordered.”

“You know, Harlan, I could hear exactly where the ball was being placed every time, if you had let me help you, you wouldn’t be out all those dirhams,” Radu said. I know that part of our emergency training means that we’re supposed to ‘blend in’ with the locals, whatever that means. But  why are we all dressed in these multicoloured robes? We’re decently covered, I suppose I should be happy about that>

“Yeah, maybe, Radu,but don’t you see, its the element of chance which makes it fun !” Harlan waved his arms about, which threatened to topple a precariouslystacked display of brass pots and wicker baskets.

While Harlan was going on about games of chance and odds, whether the game was ‘fixed’ Suzee picked up a gold necklace and held it up to admire how it reflected the sunlight. The one she picked looked as if someone had taken gold nuggets and polished them to within an inch of their lives, then strung them together with a wire-thin chain. She sighed longingly, mentally calculating how much the necklace cost in comparison with how many dirahms she had left. Without actually putting it on, she held it up to her throat just to see how it would lie against her neck <Goregeous, but way too expensive,” she wistfully thought, and placed it back into the velvet lined display box.
As she did so, the eager light of a possible sale faded from the merchant's eyes. *****

They moved on, finally locking onto the booth where the malachite figurine Miss Davenport had ordered was waiting for them,; made of malachite, a green stone streaked with white down its middle. It was a statue of a woman in flowing robes, and feathery white wings sprouted from her back.
Money exchanged hands, and the merchant produced a velvet box from underneath his booth, and wrapped the figurine in cloth, and handed it to Rosie.

“Okay, we found it. Can we head back to the ship now,” Rosie muttered, yawning.

;*****
“Thelma, can I look at the map again?” Suzee asked, as they took shelter from the blazing sun in a currently deserted stall where the absent owner had put up a leather awning for shade.

“Certainly. One moment, “Thelma replied, then adopted that ‘faraway’ look she got when she was communing with the Christa, a moment later, she brought hers played fingers of both hands up to her mouth, and pulled several centimeters long of what looked like carbon paper, with the map printed on it. “I think we’re picking up eye tracks,” Bova whispered to Rosie, trying to read the map over her shoulder..

“You’re imagining things,” Rosie replied, turning the map right side up.

“I am not, I just got this creepy feeling that somebody's watching us,” Bova said, tapping her on the shoulder,  electricity sub-consciously sparking from his antenna.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Suzee said. “Why would anyone be following us?”

“We’re late for the rendezvous,” Radu said.

Whatever else he would have added was lost as the leather awning blew away in a cold gust of wind,
that was jarringly out of place in the stifling heat of the marketplace.

“Great, there goes our map,” Bova muttered.

“They call me the Guide, for I am come to offer you guidance on these treacherous byways.”  He wore
good quality cloth, dyed a blue-black shade, an intricate interlaced pattern in silver banded his chest.
He wore his black hair in short, no longer than the tips of his ears.  His eyes were coal black embers.

“What do you want in return?” Harlan demanded.

“In return? Why nothing, nothing except the favor of  anonymity with your company, of course,” he replied.
He bowed, with his hand over his heart, a vague thinning of his narrow mouth that passed for a smile.
“Ahmed al Medsera, at your service.”

“Harlan, I don’t think we should ,,,” Radu began, but was interrupted as Ahmed snatched the map from out of the air, and tore into thin strips.

“Irrelevant. Using that map,  you only would have become more lost then you already are. One of the endearing things about Baril, is that all roads are designed to wind about as circuitous a route as the winding of snakes. Inthe spirit of brevity, my friends, it means that the way forwards is often the way backwards. Unless you know how to avoid the pitfalls, you eventually meet yourself coming and going.”

“Huh?” they said as one.

“You’re saying this place is a maze?” Bova groaned,  “We don’t need this guy to tell us that,
I figured that out three hours ago.”

“In essence,  in order to get to a particular destination, you must act like you do not wish to get to that place, its is called disassociation, but I disgress. Follow me, my friends, as I said before, I shall guide along these treacherous byways,” Ahmed continued ignoring Bova’s pessimistic remark, moving off in another direction at a rapid pace, forcing everyone to stumble along after him.

*****
They came to a rock formation half-hidden by shrubbery and trees.
In the ground there was a brass ring about the same size as the plates they’d seen in the marketplace.

     “This can’t be a short-cut?”  Harlan gasped, out of breath.

    “This way, this way, “Ahmed encouraged, “Ah, we’re here.

     “Where is Here?” Suzee demanded.

     “You’ll see,” Ahmed replied nonchalantly, smiling.

     Suzee was seriously beginning to dislike that smile, it showed all of Ahmed’s very sharp,
    very white teeth.

 Ahmed turned his attention away from here  to Radu, “If you would,” he began,
 pointing to the brass ring in the stone that camouflaged the entrance to the rock
 formation.  Radu heaved a sigh that came from the bottom of his boots and
 ended up at the roots of his hair. He knelt down beside the ring and curled his
 hands around it, until he had a good grip.  Then he heaved at the ring until it
 came out, forcing him to stumble several paces back.  He dropped the ring,  and
 gasped in surprise, when Harlan helped back to his feet.

 With the lid removed, the entrance to the cave was revealed, and Ahmed waved
 everyone forward, and watched as everyone clambered through the narrow
 opening one by one.

 Rosie and Bova, being the smallest, fit through without any problem.
 Harlan and Radu were forced to do a slight wriggle, but made it.

 When it came Suzee’s turn, she balked at first, then glaring at everyone in visual
 range, she bit her lips and climbed through, <I am not claustrophobic, and I am not afraid
of some stupid cave> she angrily thought.

 Surprisingly, the interior of the cave was as wide as it was long, allowing them to
 stand upright. They followed Ahmed along the twisting paths, watching carefully
 where they placed their feet to avoid tripping over pitted cracks in the limestone
 rock floor.  Harlan had long ago shed his multicoloured robes in favor of the
 gray jump-suits issued to all Star Academy cadets, seeing the sense of that, the
 rest had followed suit, when they began ripping and snagging on stalagmites.
 

 ****
 Interlude

 “Hey, Rosie, check this out,” Bova called, lagging behind as usual, as she turned
 around and came over to him. They crouched down near a crevice in the wall. He breathed in out slowly, taking scientific interest in how his air test of the openings emitted a white fog just like one'sbreath does on a cold day.
“That’s odd, the temperature in here should be constant. Did you bring your Compupad?”  Bova asked,
 turning his head so that he faced Roise who hovered nervously as his shadow.

    “Caves are supposed to keep a constant temperature, “ Rosie nodded.

    “Yeah, so where’s this cold air coming from?”

    “I don’t know,” Rosie shrugged.

When they finally straightened up, stiffly, they discovered everyone else had moved on without them.
    “Typical,” Bova muttered under his breath.

“Guys! Wait up!” Rosie jumped as the sound of her own high-pitched voice floated back to her. Glancing at each other, Bova and Rosie ran in the direction they had last seen them, calling out to wait for them. But either the acoustics of the place, or the distance, for no one answered.

“You know, this reminds me of the time I discovered that phase through program, okay,  okay,
  Radu and Catalina found it, hidden behind the walls.”

    “Bova, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Cat used her sonic powers to bounce sound off the walls, and Radu used his Andromedan hearing to
determine where the sound that bounced back was hollow, and that’s where the secret room was!” Bova shouted.

“Radu will hear us!” Rosie exclaimed.

******
 Meanwhile, Ahmed kept leading them deeper and deeper into the cave system; a chain of interconnected
caverns that were linked by pools of crystal blue lakes.

 “Did you hear something?” Radu asked, as Ahmed led them to the shore of the
 biggest lake yet, it was so wide across that he couldn’t  even see the far shore.

 “Nah?” Harlan  replied, as he started to yawn.

 “Where are Bova and Rosie?” Suzee asked.

 “Dunno, they were right behind me,” Harlan said.

 “Maybe we should wait for them to catch up,” Radu said.

 “Is it just me, or is Thelma acting weirder than usual,” Suzee asked, glancing
 at the android who had remained silent throughout the entire trek through the caves.

“I think you’d better ask our Guide,” Harlan remarked.

Ahmed disappeared from sight for a moment, his form swallowed up by the odd contrasting shadows and pockets of light; he came back with a skiff with a dragon-headed prow, and a set of paddles. He handed the paddles to Radu and Harlan, and indicated with a nod where they were to take their places. Ahmed had Suzee help him push the skiff into the lake.

When it came Thelma's turn the brief splash off water on her ankles seemed to momentarily break her out of her trance, but she still remained silent.

***

A while later, Harlan stopped paddling, slapping the water with the narrow end of the wooden stick, he glanced at Radu, whose strokes, a having longer reach were causing them to be out of synch with each other.

"Uh, maybe we could get some kinda groove, Radu.
That way we don't end up tipping over into the water," Harlan said.

"Agreed, what's a groove? And as for going into the water, I'm not that eager to find out if we could
go swimming here," Radu replied.

Suzee had refused to paddle, stating how it would blister her hands, and now sat in the stern assigned the task of watching out for boulders hidden beneath the waters. She proved very good at it, until her attention wandered, distracted by the glare of the ice walls,  causing the wooden hull to screech over the rocks with the sound akin to nails being run down a chalkboard.

Radu winced, unable to cover his sensitive ears while holding onto the paddle.

Harlan almost found out what it was like to go swimming in the like, as the rocking motion caused him to stumbled backward. When he regained his balance Harlan, took one hand of the paddle, and gave Radu a comradely pat on the shoulder. "Hang in there, buddy."

Suzee blushed scarlet, "Sorry about that, guys."

"Hey, it's okay, just don't let it happen again," Harlan grinned.

Ahmed, perhaps forgetting his role as guide, or perhaps just expanding on it,
 started in on lecture mode,  explaining how the caves had been discovered by
 some legendary Bariellan explorers.  Those first explorers had come across animal
skeletons that had once inhabited the caves.

    “Patience, my friends, we shall arrive at our destination soon. In the meantime,
 admire the view, the most beautiful part of the caves are the lakes and stream
 passages which are accessible only by boat,” Ahmed sighed, trailing his tapered
 fingers in the water.  “The calcite barriers that hold back the lakes that make
 Kirzna Jama are unique because of the calcium carbonate that is carried into
 the waters of two streams sinking all the way to the bottom. “
 Ahmed took his hands out of the water and came away with them glittering with
 silver dust.

 The flare of a torch glittered back at them, as it reflected from walls of ice ,
 the vaulting ceiling overhead was blue streaked with silver rimed with a million
 stars.  Trying to stare up at it, proved impossible, since all they got for their
 efforts where stiff necks. The chamber was enormous, the waterfall,  a frozen
 spray, whose endless, changeless flow had worn a white groove in the rock of
 the cave, giving them the impression that it had grown directly out of the water.

 “It’s beautiful,” Suzee whispered wistfully.

 “Yeah, but why did you bring us here,” Harlan demanded, trying to hold back tears, himself.

"I have my reasons, young man.  And rest assured I intend to keep my end of the bargain," Ahmed
tossed over his shoulder.

    "What bargain?'  Radu demanded.

    "Perhaps a demonstration is in order.  Madam, if you will?" Ahmed insinuated his arm into
    Thelma's and together they strode towards and ice rimmed crevasse in the center of the
    cave they had entered.  Harlan, Suzee, and Radu scrambled forward to peer over the age.
    They watched Thelma and Ahmed descend into the shaft.  A few seconds later they began
    sliding down.  Ahmed, all the while maintaining his grip on her hand.  Once they reached the
    bottom, Ahmed snapped his fingers wit the the same silver dust outlining his palm.

    ****
    "No reward is without cost, no prize so great its takes precedence over other needs.
    Take this lesson into your secret heart," Ahmed whispered to Thelma.

    Thelma nodded, "I am prepared."

    Ahmed released her hand and removed a miniature silver hammer from his pockets, holding
    it pincered between his fingers.  He gave the walls of the well a few experimental taps producing
    a pinging echoe that reverberated through the cave like a entire orchestra of instruments.

    Ahmed smiled in satisfaction then tapped Thelma's logic crystal with the hammer, which
    caused a flurry of  sparks, 'Phantom quartz," he absently remarked,  tapping each of the four-sided
    pyramid in a series of repeated patterns, once, twice, which made the crystal vibrate, as the jagged
    crack which had caused sporadic malfunctions ever since, sealed up, the dark layers of green and
    black vanished.  Thelma's logic crystal was once more whole, the pyramid spiral arrangement was
    whole with no discoloration.

    Ahmed then produced a rope from thin air, and through it upwards, Harlan and Radu hauled
    them back up.

    "No worse for wear, note to self, have the Christa gave them a full medical scan," she thought.

    Suddenly Rosie gasped in astonishment when she saw Thelma who had again changed color.
    Just like when they had crash-landed on the jungle planet, at that time she'd been chipped gold
    like the ship, then become silver, now she was white with black highlights, like the cave and her
    logic crystal no longer had a crack in  it.

    "What happened to you?" Rosie gasped.

    "Do not worry, Rosie. I am operating at optimum performance and we can now return to the
    Christa," Thelma replied.

    "Man, Goddard is going go ballistic when he hears about this," Harlan muttered loudly, then
    cringed as the echoes of his voice bounced back to him. "Let's get the hell outta here."

    No felt inclined to argue with him, instead Ahmed led the way up a flight ouf stone steps
    then through a crack in the wall.  They clambered through and emerged on the other side,
    where they saw a sight that absorbed the shock and strangeness of the past hours.  Below
    the ledge they were standing on, was the spaceport where the Christa was docked.

    Not bothering to wait for Ahmed, they made a mad dash off the slope and ran to the ship.

 Conclusion

    "I don't believe in wish-fulfillment scenarios. And I would have thought our recent experience
    with the Laumes would have clued you guys into that Ahmed was trouble," Suzee sniffed, she
    had caught a cold while down in the caves.  She snuffled and sipped the warm broth Rosie had
    made for her.  She squirmed around a bit for a more comfortable position on the circular couch
    in the Team Room.

    "Well, we couldn't have repaired Thelma's logic crystal ourselves, so maybe Ahmed did us
    a favor," Radu said, brushing back a stray lock of hair away from his eyes.

    "He didn't have to be so sneaky and devious about it," Harlan complained.

    "You ask me, the whole thing was a scam," Bova added, then glared at Harlan, "Devious, huh?
    I guess it takes one to know one," he muttered,  then turned his attention back to his own meal,
    when his teasing dig failed to penetrate Harlan's preoccupied stare.  <Maybe he's given up playing
    practical jokes on people, especially when he can't get away with it>

    "I mean, I don't see any harm in it, not serious harm anyway.
    He was trying to help us," Rosie added.
  .
    "Now that her logic crystal is fixed, this is supposed to be an improvement?" Bova asked.

    "I guess so, ever since it was cracked," Radu began.

    'Why are you staring at me? It was an accident," Harlan muttered, and went back to punching
    the seat cushions with his fork. <Maybe this is all my fault, I should have taken more responsibility:
    I should have seen through Ahmed's scam>

    "Well, it if make you all feel better, the Commander and Miss Davenport gave Thelma a full
    diagnostic.  Except for the change in coloration, she's fine," Rosie said, yawning. "I'm exhausted.
    G'night, guys, I'm going to sleep."

    "That's the first sensible thing anyone has said all day," Bova jumped up and followed Rosie
    to the bunk rooms.