agreed Dan playfully.
“You know, that reminds me of a joke,” said Regan. She paused for a moment to make sure she had it straight in her head. “A girl living in Pennsylvania sees a man dressed from head to toe in bright purple polka-dots,” she began. “The girl asks the man why he is dressed like that. The man says, ‘I’m dressed like this to scare off all the Kangaroos.’ The girl raises her eyebrows and says, ‘Kangaroos? But there aren’t any Kangaroos in Pennsylvania!’ To which the man replies, ‘Exactly! You see how well it’s working.’”
Both guards grinned from ear to ear. “Have we ever told you you’re our favorite young woman on the team?” said Dan.
“You have,” said Regan, her eyes twinkling. “And I keep telling you I’m the only young woman on the team.”
“That doesn’t make it any less true,” countered Dan lightheartedly.
Ryan shook his head. He had witnessed similar exchanges all of his life. Regan had a playful, friendly personality that was infectious. He had never known anyone who could just naturally charm people the way his sister could. But as much as he didn’t want to break up the fun, they were running a bit late and he was anxious to enter the alien city.
“Do you know if Carl is here today?” he asked Dan.
Dan nodded. “He’s inside Prometheus. He should be there until late tonight.”
“Thanks,” said Ryan as he and Regan headed toward the far end of the cavern and the only entrance into the alien city.
They soon approached a familiar array of high-powered lasers, microwave force emitters, high-tech generators, and other advanced equipment unleashing a furious assault on the opaque force-field wall. Ben Resnick had figured out how to precisely tune this energy to counter-balance the frequency of the shield, inactivating, or nullifying, a large, rectangular section of it and creating an entrance to the city. This massive onslaught of energy had to be applied continuously to prevent the gap in the force-field from instantly closing.
As always, an ever-changing rainbow of colors danced across the opening, obscuring what was beyond. They calmly stepped through it and into Prometheus, a magnificent city sprawled out farther than the eye could see in every direction, including up. By some miracle ofalien technology the city was immensely larger than the hole it had carved out deep in the earth of Pennsylvania.
A large row of top-of-the-line, electric-powered golf-carts were now parked beside the entrance: not only larger and faster than standard golf-carts, but far quieter as well. Beside these were parked a number of huge, electric trucks, all green, with rectangular cargo beds about three times the size of a standard pick-up. Four adults could fit comfortably in the vehicle’s large front compartment, either sitting or standing. The team called these unique electric trucks “Haulers” because they were used to haul heavy scientific equipment around.
Both kids loved driving the golf-carts, but it was Ryan’s turn, and he jumped into the driver’s seat while his sister sat beside him. No matter how often they traveled within Prometheus the unusual and spectacular architecture and the exotic alien vegetation never got boring. They passed buildings that shimmered and others that changed colors depending on the angle from which they were viewed. Buildings that appeared to be floating and others that sparkled brilliantly as though made of diamonds. Some of the buildings were simple and elegant while others were in the shape of awe-inspiring geometric figures, like impossibly complex three-dimensional snowflakes that had come to life.
They had agreed to meet their parents at three-thirty and they were running a little late. Ryan quickly accelerated the cart to its top speed, and before too long thefamiliar zoo building he and his sister had discovered during their first adventure in the city came into view. As usual, amazingly real-looking