I shared a startled, nonplussed look with Weslee.   OUR Perki, SWEWET Perki, had killed several somebodies all at once in a callous, non-caring way?   Not Possible! Nevertheless, I felt constrained to ask, "Who?   How?   Where?   Why?" though not for a moment was I prepared to believe it.   And I could see, with a quick glance, that Weslee was even less prepared to believe it than me.

   Perki didn't answer me for a long moment.   Instead she played absent mindedly with a lock of her long red hair, staring off into some long ago past with a look of self disgust marring her otherwise beautiful features.   As I waited to see if she would speak and what her answer would be, I looked around the cantina we were sitting in, checking to see if any of the other patrons had overheard Perki's ridiculous claim.   No one seemed interested.   I looked back at Weslee again, hoping against hope that he could, would somehow refute this unbelievable statement, that he had just been going along with the gag.   He gave me a genuine helpless shrug, indicating by the look on his ursine face that he was just as clueless as me.   Weslee HAD known Perki much longer than me, but he had not known her forever, so it WAS possible that this was the first he'd heard her speak of it.

   Perki chose that moment to speak.   Looking at both of us with tortured eyes, she said, "I think it would be best if we left now!"

   "What?   And leave this excellent Purple Galaxy unfinished?   Why that would be --"

   "Weslee!" I cut him off sternly.   "That's probably the reason why Perki is inventing this ridiculous story in the first place!   Just a bit too much of the old fermented grape --"

   Perki cut me off in turn. "NO! Doc! I know what you're trying to do and I appreciate it."   She gave me a fond look that was quickly replaced with a look of supplication. "But I am not drunk.   I just meant that I need to go back to the scene of the crime and I want my two best friends there with me.   And I don't want to wait any longer.   I've already listened too long to their ghostly cries." She widened that look of supplication to include Weslee. "Will you go with me? Both of you?"

   I would go with her anywhere.   I owed her that much -- and more.   Back in the past and on earth where I'd come from, Perki had saved my life.   When the Annunaki, an evil race of aliens, and the avowed ememies of the Tauatha De Danaan; Perki's people, had come looking for me in an attempt to stop me from changing the future, Perki had sent Edgar the Elegant Elevator to whisk me out of their grasp.   Since then we'd had several adventures together and I had come to love her -- and she had come to love me too, despite the fact that we were two different species of humanoids.   I spoke up, giving Perki's hand a loving squeeze across the table, "Of course I'll go with you anywhere, how could you even doubt that?   But I think I have to ask why now?   I mean I know what you said, but still -- why now?"

   I had been away from earth for so long that I had to stop and think for a moment.   Then it dawned on me, "Christmas!   But what has -- I stopped, completely at a loss for more words!"

   Weslee gave me a mystified look then quaffed the last of his drink.   He looked over at the barmaid for a moment, longingly, as if he was seriously considering ordering another Purple Galaxy despite Perki's desire to leave.   But then he sighed, sat the empty glass down in the puddle of moisture in front of him and sat idly toying with the glass as he waited for Perki to clarify her comment.

   Perki lifted her head, flipped her hair back over her shoulder and down her back and tentatively looked at first Weslee and then me as if she was afraid that we would vanish at any moment -- running away from her like she was a pariah.   When neither of us made any move or sound, she drew in a ragged breath and managed to say, "It would be best if I show you.   Do you feel up to a trip into my misguided, to put it mildly, past?" Then she sat there and looked at us both with her bottom lip trembling as if she was going to burst into wracking tears at any moment

   This was getting, to paraphrase a certain well known children's author, murkier and murkier.   I stood up, came around the table, lifted Perki to her feet and embraced her. "We'll go anywhere you want and do whatever it takes to lay these ghosts to rest," I whispered gently in her ear.   She disengaged herself partly from my hug so that she could look me in the face.

   "You mean that?" she asked me tremulously, tears glistening on the surface of her eyes.

   I nodded solemnly, not trusting myself to speak.

   Without another word, Perki took me by the hand and, leading the way, started towards the door, her shoulders set resolutely, as if she were to hesitate now, she'd not go through with it after all.   After one last longing look at his empty glass, Weslee got up and followed us.

   Once outside, I paused a moment, letting go of Perki's hand.   I stood there and savored the cool night air of Whjeelir. I had not realized how warm it had been in the cantina, until we'd stepped outside.   But it didn't take long for the coolness of the night to lose it's charm.   This high in the only mountain range on the planet it was more than cool. Really, it was cold.   And that was ironic: The planet was otherwise covered by steaming jungle.   "Ah well," I told myself in my usual redundant/ersatz wise way, "That's the attraction of the place and why the rich congregate here: to get away from the heat for awhile." Idly, I wondered again for a few moments what had formed this mountain range on an otherwise flat planet. But then I snapped back to the matter at hand when Weslee spoke up.

   "If we don't get moving soon, Doc, Perki's tears are gonna freeze my fur to my T shirt!"

   I realized I had only been stalling, having second thoughts.   I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go through with it.   Did I really want to be party to something that would only open old wounds and would probably be no more practical than that?   My hesitation was made even more heinous seeming when I looked towards them.   Perki was clinging to Weslee like she would if he was a tree and she was hanging on for dear life in a hurricane.   This was much, MUCH more serious than I had previously thought!   My caution had helped nothing.   Obviously Perki was thinking that my promise to her back inside the cantina had meant nothing and that I was going to back out on her after all.   Still, I HAD to be sure.   I stepped over near them and said, gently, yet firmly, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

   I thought for a moment that Perki was going to get mad at me!   Then I realized that wouldn't be our Perki, our patient, even natured Perki -- she'd never get mad at me, no matter what. Instead she gave me a stricken look. "Of course I don't want to do this, Doc.   But I have to!   I can't hold it in anymore!" Her large blue eyes pleaded with me as if her soul was bleeding through those wide open eyes.

   That settled it once and for all!   I stepped to her side and engaged her and Weslee in a group hug, whispering, "What ever it takes.   WHATEVER it takes!"

   After a few long moments, while we all huddled together there in the semi-dark front lawn of the cantina, Perki finally broke the hug.   Looking up at me, after wiping the tears from her face, she whispered back, "All I want is your understanding, Doc.   Can you promise you'll try real, real hard?"

   What could I say?   I had no idea what she was going to show us and I had no idea why it had come up at this time -- despite her clue about the coming season.   But I knew I couldn't turn her down.   I nodded solemnly, promising her that I would keep an open mind, at least.   On that note we headed for Edgar.

   Since Perki had hinted about Christmas I half expected her to direct Edgar towards earth's past -- the past beyond my own.   Instead she told Edgar that she wanted to go to a planet I had never heard of.

   Edgar replied -- after a moment in which he was obviously checking his spatial and temporal astrogation programs -- in his usual mellifluous, cultured voice, "As you wish, madam.   But might I point out --"

   "No you may not, Edgar.   I do know what I am doing and where we are going", Perki interrupted him firmly, but sweetly.

   Edgar made no further comment.   Instead his holographic eyes above the door gave me an inquiring look.   I shrugged.   By this time Weslee had changed his T shirt.   This time it read, "If the Grinch stole Christmas he probably had a real good motive!"   I chuckled a bit at Weslee's attempt to lighten the mood a bit.   Perki, however, was lost in whatever world she had retreated too.   Weslee looked grim as he muttered sotto voce, "It's bad, Doc, it's real bad!"   I couldn't agree with him more.   And without further ado we were on our way.

   When you're traveling faster than time and faster than light the time it takes to get anywhere is almost minimal.   However, due to relativity, there is a bit of time involved.   During that whole trip, as short as it was, Perki stayed withdrawn into that world she had retreated into.   Weslee and I passed the time just checking occasionally to see if she was OK, without trying to breach that shell she had erected around herself and conversing quietly with Edgar.   Weslee and I figured, in silent consensus, that she would come out of it when we got where we were going.   At least we were pretty sure she would.

   At last our destination came into sight.   From space the planet seemed pretty nondescript.   As we drew nearer the surface my original impression was more than borne out.   The world was more than nondescript, it was a dead world.   There was no water in any form.   No rivers, no ponds, no lakes, no seas, no oceans. And, of course, the lack of water meant no flora or fauna.   The only colors apart from the iron oxide of the sandy plains and the gray basalt of the cliffs was green and white.   Those colors, seen in Edgar's monitor, were provided by the white walls of the many buildings and the green tiles of the roofs of those buildings.   The only thing that made the world unique was the lack of something.   There was no sun in the sky.   Or more properly, there was a sun, but it was not much more than a burnt out cinder.

   Edgar brought us to a gentle landing a few yards away from what obviously was once a very large city.   Edgar informed us that there was no atmosphere and that, consequently it was also really cold outside.   I hadn't thought there would be any atmosphere and that it would be really cold.   However this was no problem for any of us, once we knew what the conditions truly were. Weslee and I were enhanced human beings and could regulate our body temperatures and could optimize our oxygen useage. And Perki, being an alien could do the same in her natural state.   Once Edgar had opened his doors and we were free to get out, Weslee and I stepped out onto the red sandy soil.   We had already decided, by silent mutual consent, that as long as we were here that we were going to get out and take a look around and hopefully prompt by example.   Presumably Perki would then rouse herself and follow us and would then tell us why we were here.

   We were right about the prompting by example thing.   Perki did, after a moment, join us outside.   But the rest of it did not go as simple as her then telling us why we were here.   Why I and Weslee thought it would go that simple, I'll never know.   Certainly with our luck and record, we should have known better.   Nothing ever went that easy for us -- even if it was a friend we were dealing with this time.

   I suppose we would have made a strange sight -- if there had been anyone left alive to see us.   Imagine if you will: A bear wearing nothing but a T shirt, a naked, red haired woman, and a dark haired man, equally naked, all standing on the surface of a dead, airless, cold planet as if we were a small group of tourists who had no reason to be concerned about the conditions surrounding us.   But the strangest thing would have been the woman's reaction.

   The minute Perki focused, really focused on the dead vista before us, lit mostly by spotlights provided by Edgar, she broke out in convulsive, wracking, majestic sobs.   The way she was carrying on, it seemed at first, she looked like the relative of someone who has just arrived at the scene of a recent disaster.   Yet from the looks of the buildings in front of us, the world had been dead for some time.   None of the buildings were completely whole.   The roofs of many of the buildings had partially fell in. &nbp Where the windows had been were, mostly, empty holes.   And there were many buildings who had walls that were either collapsed or about to collapse.   But then some quality in the way she was crying gave me another impression, idea, feeling entirely, one that made me shudder to the bone.   She was NOT crying the way some hopeless relative would over a recent disaster.   Instead, eerily, her crying, I thought, had a lost, repenting god, awesome sorrow quality to it -- if you can picture that.   I half expected her to cry out, "Jerusalem, OH, Jerusalem!"   As it later turned out I wasn't too far from the truth.   But at that moment Weslee and I just stood there stunned at the force of her grief.   The depth of this thing's hold on Perki just kept getting more murky and more disturbing.

   Finally, when I thought I was going to start weeping and wailing and gnashing my teeth right along with Perki if she didn't stop it (even though I would have no idea what I was wailing about) I went to her side, enfolded her in my arms, rather forcibly, I admit, and shouted, "Perki!   Stop this!   Talk to me!   What IS the deal here?"

   Perki stopped crying so convulsively immediately.   It was eerie the way she cut it off.   It was if she had never been crying at all!   I guess that is just another of the things about aliens I will never understand!   In humans the crying would have died down in fits and gasps -- as everyone knows.   At any rate, she stopped crying immediately, as if a switch had been thrown in her brain, stepped easily out of my suddenly limp grasp and clasped her hands together as if she was begging for forgiveness from someone other than me, her eyes on some far off vista.   Sighing, after a moment she unclasped her hands and, turning to me, regarded me with an icy calm.   That calm was so icy that it nearly frightened me to death.   I had never seen Perki so cold.   "C'mon, Doc.   You too, Weslee!   I want to show you guys something!" She said, starting towards the nearest building.   Weslee and I had to get portable lights from Edgar before we could follow her.   Granted, we could see in the infrared spectrum, but because there was no life here to provide ambient light there was no infrared and thus the need for the portable lights.   Perki being alien, needed no such help.

   After getting the lights, Weslee and I shared another baffled shrug and took off after her.   As we walked in Perki's wake, Weslee slightly ahead of me, I noticed that the back of his T shirt now said, "Are Runes and Ruins the Same?"   That was good question I thought and might even highlight the situation here very well.

   Closer up to the city and now that I was paying more attention to it and less to Perki's strange behavior I saw that the architecture of the buildings was not as uniform as I had first thought, seeing the city from space. From space I'd had the impression that the buildings were all villa like, as if the city was a collection of villas, nestled by some long lost sea.   True there were some buildings that DID look villa like.   But there were also very tall buildings that looked, oddly, like countrified skyscrapers.   Then there were the wide, low, rambling buildings that looked vaguely like a collection of villas hooked together, at first, cursory glance, but which, upon closer examination looked more like buildings as a maze or a maze as buildings.   There was also buildings that seemed to be a little more utilitarian, buildings that seemed to be government/public buildings but which had been decorated to make them seem a little less forbidding.   And scattered here and there were buildings whose shape gave no hint to their purpose.   I figured unless Perki knew what those buildings were for and chose to enlighten me that I would never know what purpose they'd had!

   By this time Perki had almost reached the doorway of the building she'd been been aiming for.   This building framed one side of a large square. The building directly facing the building Perki was heading for was nothing more than a pile of rubble.   The building to the right of that one was obviously once an imposing edifice, several stories tall and severe in it's architecture.   The building directly across the square, facing the tall, imposing edifice was, by contrast, a low rambling building that looked like it might have been a merchants mall.   I based this on the colorful facade and the fact that it had what looked like the remains of banners hanging here and there.

   Perki had finally stopped.   She was standing before the open double doorways of the largest building in the square.   To me it looked somewhat like a temple or palace because of the marble, gold, silver and diamond it was constructed of and ornamented with.   Stopping for a moment before the open double doorways, Perki took a deep breath and stiffened her spine as if she needed to steel her resolve before going into the chamber of some enemy.   Without looking at Weslee and me, she stepped inside.   It sure seemed like Weslee and I were doing a lot of baffled shrugging lately, but we did it again then followed her inside.

   Once we were inside, by the light of the portables, we saw Perki was standing in the middle of a huge room with a vaulted ceiling.   Weslee and I approached her side, trying to see what she was looking at.   Apparently nothing was there, though!   At least nothing we could see.   Turning to look at Weslee and me as if one of us had voiced a question, we saw that her eyes were haunted pools where shattered spirits seemed to swim just below the etheral surface like ectoplasmic sharks.   Without any preamble, she turned again and pointed to a spot only she could see, "This is where it all began and ended.   And this is where I must return. To that fine spring morning when the world went all cold and hard!"

   Trying to get a handle on what she was talking about, I said, "So? What does that mean?"

   "It means that we need to go back to Edgar now and take a journey into the past that should have stayed the way I found it!"

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