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you
go?
    As our science books teach, the Fifth
Dimension is that passageway that connects different universes and
different times to each other. My first trip through the Fifth
Dimension, like that of most Saurians my age, was scheduled so I
could finish my science research for graduation. I’d been told what
to expect: It’s as though you’re moving through a kaleidoscope full
of colors, sometimes traveling in slow motion. You feel like you’re
surrounded by warm mud, a nestling back in the egg, yet the egg is
cracking at the same time, shaken apart at top speed.
    I was moving through the Fifth Dimension,
thinking about the various Earths described in our alternate
history and geography texts, and wondering which one I should
choose. There were the other known Saurian worlds such as Earth
Fanda Rex, ruled by the child king, Fanda, and Earth Hydro, that
planet covered almost entirely by water and populated by swimming
beings who engage routinely in aquatic competitions and
mermaid-themed costume balls.
    But these Earths have been reported on in
other classes, and I think one of my nest-mates even did his
middle-school project on Fanda Rex, so maybe it’s just as well
things worked out the way they did.
    Here’s what happened: I was in my timeship,
charting a course toward one of the known alternate Earths, moving
through the crosscurrents of the Fifth Dimension, when all of a
sudden there appeared in the seat next to me a boy.
    The boy was a growing hatchling like me. But
he had skin that was monocolored and odd fur on top of his head,
and he wasn’t really any type or species of advanced Saurian at
all. When I figured out what he was, I was as shocked as you will
be when you read my answer to question two. But first let me tell
you where I went.
    I call it Earth Orange, because that is where
I discovered you can taste colors! There, the color orange can be
found in a sweet fruit tasting like a bright afternoon, though it
can be hard on the Saurian stomach. The planet also reminds me of
the orange lava that flows from our volcanoes. Not only in color
but also because things always seem to be in danger of blowing up,
exploding, or otherwise falling apart on this version of Earth.
    The actual colors of this Earth, by the way,
are similar to the blues, greens, browns, and yellows of our own
planet. But I’m calling it Earth Orange because I want to, and
because I get to. As far as I know, I discovered it. It’s not
mentioned in any of our texts or histories or on our maps.
    Do I get extra credit for that?
    You might well ask how I got pulled into an
altogether undiscovered Earth. It turns out, I began my field trip
at precisely the same moment three of their people were discovering
the basic principles of time travel. On their Earth, they thought
they belonged to “different” times, but as we Saurians know, time
bends. They were actually working on opposite sides of a curve.
    Or maybe different sides of a triangle. I
entered the Fifth Dimension at precisely the moment a female,
Hypatia, who comes from the city Alexandria, and two males,
Sandusky and Eli the Boy, who come from Valley of the Moon, solved
the first basic step of rendering light into its component parts.
Just as their own signals sparked through the Fifth Dimension
toward each other, I entered the time stream in the ship I checked
out from the school supply room.
    At that precise instant, we were all fused
together. Separate Earths, separate times, but suddenly a single
destiny — that was how the moment was structured. We were like
Saurians making a triple-jump move over each other’s cranio-tops on
the field of battle during a particularly tail-curling game of
Cacklaw — a move that can never be taken back.
    The reason this Earth was unknown before was
because no one on it had deduced how to time-travel. Until now.
They aren’t aware of the alternate Earths that surround them in
multiple dimensions. On their planet, many act as if all truth