They followed Andrew through the hallways until they came to an open underground cavern. There were many large cities they could see in the distance when the rocks were not obstructing the view. Large speakers were built into the walls that played very strange music leaving echoes through the caverns. Sam could see more of the underlings listening to the music and some stopped to watch them as they passed by.
Andrew guided them through one of these damp tunnels which opened up to another large cavern with a building standing in the rock ground. Sam's uncle had lead them inside to a room with radio and recording equipment. There was a window that had some seats in front of it and another room with a seat for one person to sit in front of a computer and control a row of speakers and computer monitors.
"This is our music studio where we use our brains as the instruments," A voice told them. They turned around to see that Vult Ravik had just entered the room.
Rufus jumped and June almost began to scream before Rufus covered her mouth quickly and smiled. There was a brief period of silence until Reegan spoke.
"I just prefer my flute here for making music," Reegan said.
Kenneth laughed at Reegan, he had been trying to hold it in for the longest time. Sam had noticed that Kenneth was being extra rude today and he suspected that Kenneth knew about whatever it was they had done to drug Reegan's food.
"Look at this guy and his funny flute and child's knapsack!" He said as he laughed and pointed at Reegan while giving June a nudge. June responded by kicking him in the leg as hard as she could which surprised Kenneth. Andrew gave Kenneth a glance as a warning to behave himself.
"Let's have one of the children try," Andrew commanded.
"No thank you!" said June.
Rufus seemed hesitant to sit in the chair.
Rufus shook his head and took a step back. This caused Vult Ravik to examine them as though he was not entirely convinced the mind control was working. Sam noticed this so he stepped forward to say "I'll give it a shot!" He entered the room through a glass door and sat in the chair. A pair of metal sensors extended out of the chair and positioned themselves on opposite ends of his skull. The Computer monitors turned on and showed a solid line wave.
"It's like a keyboard Sam think of a sound and will it to go to the speaker!" Andrew said.
Sam thought hard about making the line move, and as he did some squeals and squawks came from the speakers. He realized maybe these horrible sounds happened because he was too tense and trying too hard so he took a deep breath and relaxed.
Pleasant sounding musical notes began to come from the speakers not unlike electronic drumbeats and guitars. Sam began to experiment with different beats and how to loop them. He quickly figured out how to create a complete song by choosing sounds from his mind and placing them on separate wave lines layers each having its own speaker.
"Ow my ears that sounds terrible! You're really no good at music Sam!" Kenneth shouted through the intercom from the other room.
"Let me try again!" Sam said deleting his previous song. He was going to give it a real good attempt this time now that he had learned how the software worked. Sam focused, He remembered the catchy tune that would always come to his mind. The tune he had only ever hummed to himself when he was alone at his pond with the fish and other animals listening.
He focused on that song and soon the waves on the screen began to move and organize themselves into beats. The loops and instrumental wave lines figured themselves out from the song playing in Sam's mind.
The hum that Sam had in his head had become a full song with a pop music style beat which was what the computer had decided on by interpreting the melody of the hum. He turned his head to see what the others thought and they all seemed pleased. June and Rufus clapped and jumped up and down to the song while Reegan performed some break dancing moves to the beat.
"This sounds excellent I believe this will be high on the charts for weeks!" The underling manning the recording station said.
"Do you have any lyrics to go with this song?" he asked.
"I don't know any," Sam replied.
"I will have my Master Lyricist of the Virillian theater pen the lyrics for tonight's dinner show," Vult Ravik told them as he rushed them out of the room.
When they stepped outside they walked back the way they came through the damp tunnel but this time the song playing over the speakers was what Sam had just composed. It seemed to be catching on with the underlings that listened while they went about their lives doing jobs such as mining, tunnel digging and farming.
"Perhaps there's a Doctor here you can talk to that may have some answers for your current predicament Samuel, " Rufus asked Sam with a quiet voice.
"I didn't think of that! But I saw one last week," Sam replied.
"So you were examined by a Doctor?" Rufus replied.
"Yeah on my Dad's ship but she is my Dad's friend. And it was just my ears last week. Dad just told me not to tell anyone and keep wearing my toque," Sam told Rufus.
"And now you have a tail and claws to add to this peculiar metamorphosis. I still have not found references to such a case in any of my books. Can I ask did the Doctor take any blood samples?" Rufus asked.
"Nope," Sam replied.
"Wait! You think I might have an alien disease?" Sam was now worried. Rufus shrugged and replied "Calm down Sam. I would deduce that whatever it is, It can't be that bad and It's definitely not contagious as neither myself nor June have grown a tail!"
They both laughed but covered their mouths not to make a scene.
"How about a scan did the Doctor take any scans?" Rufus asked.
"I dunno?" Sam shrugged. "I think Reegan did last night though."
June activated her wrist computer once more and attempted to call her mother but she still could not get a signal. "Put that away no recording devices." One of the Virillian Underlings said as it grabbed her arm causing her to jump and shriek at the feeling of its cold scaly skin.
June ran up ahead to Sam's uncle Andrew and tugged on his uniform.
"Mr Gusterson, Mr Gusterson!" June yelled to get his attention. Andrew looked at June in disgust then turned to Vult Ravik.
"Oh look there is a cafe. Ravik I want you take the Ambassador on up ahead," Andrew directed Vult Ravik to take Reegan into the cafe before turning around to speak with June.
"Now don't be pulling on my uniform little girl!" Andrew scolded.
"I can't get a signal down here is there a phone somewhere I need to call my Mom!" June said. "I don't know! The engineers are still working on the gate," Andrew scolded and became impatient. "Why do I need to call my Mom through the gate?" June questioned.
"Just don't ask anymore questions and be patient they're working on it, Okay?! I don't know what's going on back there anymore than you do!" Andrew scolded June again and yelled much louder this time. June was shocked to be treated this way by Sam's uncle and Rufus stepped in to intervene.
"Um if you would perhaps excuse me sir but perhaps if you could please be patient with Juniper here she has been through a lot lately," He said in defense of June.
"What is going on here? Did you two eat your breakfast?" Andrew questioned them.
Rufus straightened up and then began to stare off into nothing saying
"Yes breakfast good yes!" But perhaps he over acted and appeared more like a zombie.
June looked up at Rufus and she clenched both fists, her face turned red and tears were coming down her face. Instead of crying she breathed in deeply and then yelled,
"What is going on here!"
She then screamed as loud as she could through the tunnel they had just walked causing an echo.
June was very upset and walked with her fist clenched stepping hard as they walked to their next destination through another damp tunnel into a much larger cavern that was lit by what appeared to be an artificial sun hanging from the ceiling. On the floor of this cavern stood a very large dome structure. When they walked inside they noticed the temperature changed immediately, it was a very warm tropical climate.
"Wow cool a water park!" Sam exclaimed as he looked around at the contents of the dome. There was an artificial beach and multiple pools, an enormous water slide and many trees that created a jungle like atmosphere.
"Drat! I forgot my bathing suit!" Reegan said with a blank expression on his face.
Andrew pointed to a plaza near the beach that had stores and ice cream shops, but there were no staff and it appeared to be abandoned for years.
"There are bathing suits in that shop over there!" Andrew said. It was a store with a colorful sign that said Island Surf Shop.
"Um Mr Gusterson sir we do not possess currency to purchase bathing suits and beach supplies," Rufus said meekly wondering if he would get yelled at.
"Right well just go in there and grab what you want," Andrew told them.
Just as they ran into the store Andrew and Ravik waited outside and sat down at one of the picnic tables that was built for the water parks restaurants over looking the beach. Andrew and Ravik both received a communication from the engineers working on the Wagon. Before the engineers could speak Andrew started the conversation.
"Do you have the gate functioning now? And what is the news from Earth?"
The engineers looked at each other and were very nervous it appeared they did not have good news.
"Uh well sir we still cant reach Earth. The device is functioning properly but none of the Earth jump gates are connecting. It's like Earth just isn't there!" Andrew was quick to reply, "How incompetent could you be it's not like you can lose a whole planet?" To which the engineers replied, "We were able to pick up a fleet of Earth Ships accompanied by another fleet we are unfamiliar with. They were in the location that Protolian Toido sent his signal earlier this morning," The other engineer then appeared much more nervous and was sweating as he reported. "They are heading this way and if they have the ability to increase the physical frequency of their vessels they will find us here," This was when Sergeant Holland entered the conversation. "We might have to disclose this base and its operations Admiral. I think they might understand but the Virillians could be in trouble and I don't think they would go down without a fight. It could be a war on our hands if those ships come too close."
Andrew thought about the implications of having to disclose the secrets of this planet and what the Stellar Overseer's Earth fleets had done in secret under Virillian command.
"What if we sent Reegan to them before they find out about this hidden world?" Andrew suggested.
"Not without wiping the ambassadors mind completely." Vult Ravik interrupted.
"You are sick Ravik but very well if that is the only way. I will see what ships we have that are space worthy," Andrew replied.
"And I will prepare for the Ambassadors brain to be erased later tonight after the dinner show!" Vult Ravik said.
A smile appeared on his small slit of a mouth as he stood up from the picnic table and left.
Andrew watched Reegan, Sam, Rufus and June with a worried look, He walked toward Kenneth who was checking out surfboards and wave riders lined up outside the shop. "Keep the ambassador and those children distracted until I get back!" Andrew ordered his son before leaving the water park under the dome.
The surf shop had two floors with a large open area in the center. The lights were still on and remarkably no dust was present even though nobody had shopped there for years. There were all kinds of knick knacks, sunglasses, necklaces, surfboards, T shirts and shorts. Sam found the swim wear section for boys and picked out a few items before heading to the change room to put them on.
There were about five small Virillian underlings that followed Reegan everywhere. They were commanded by Vult Ravik to be his servants and to make sure he was sufficiently drugged and remained under mind control during the remainder of his stay. Reegan ran through the store pulling from the shelves everything he saw that he liked and gave it to the underlings who were busy packing it for him. Both Sam and Reegan emerged from their change rooms close to the same time with Sam wearing a baggy shirt and baggy swimsuit with a swimming cap to cover his head and swimming goggles.
Reegan stepped out wearing a Hawaiian style shirt and Bathing suit with a pair of new sandals. He walked towards the exit with the five small underlings carrying the items he wanted behind him. On his way out to top off his new set of clothes he grabbed some sunglasses, his eyes then came upon a hat he really liked.
"OOOH It's A PANAMA HAT!" He exclaimed while grabbing the hat and putting it on.
Rufus had found a blue bathing suit he was very happy with, but June who did not try on any clothes, sat on the stairs in the middle of the store waiting as she was still very upset.
After they were finished in the store the Virillian guides directed them towards the pool with the big water slides. Sam and Rufus approached the water when Rufus suddenly had an uneasy feeling.
"How can we ascertain if the water is safe for physical contact," Rufus asked Sam.
"Lemme check!" said Sam and Rufus was surprised to see Sam pull out a small device for finding and removing contaminants from the environment. The same device he had used many times in the pond at his environmental cleanup zone.
"Brought my Proboflotter," Sam said as he dipped it into the water. The words on the small screen showed it was clean. "Clean!" Sam said and the next thing Rufus and Sam did was dip their toes in.
"Nice and warm!" Sam said with a big smile. He walked off the artificial beach and into the shallow water. Rufus grabbed some floating mattresses that were nearby and followed Sam.
Sam noticed Reegan was coming followed by the Virillian underlings. The Virillians handed him an inflatable tube and left him to swim in the pool while they ran to go get some more drinks for him.
Reegan was starting to look around, he was trying to figure out where he was. Sam thought this must be due to the drugs beginning to wear off, he figured since he was now alone it would be a good time to ask Reegan some questions.
But he was surprised when Reegan swam up to him and began the conversation.