They had just survived another winter on the giant planet. Imagine a season of blizzards in Colorado magnified 12 times. Now imagine spending two of these winters on a strange planet full of people 12 times your size. That will give you an idea of what these seven people have gone through. For any not familiar with the people of whom I speak, I feel I should give an explanation.

On June 12, 1983, a ship known as the Spindrift departed from an American airport; it was bound for London. However, the sub-orbital flight never reached its destination, being instead drawn into a space warp. When the ship pulled out, it landed on the planet I have spoken of. As we pick up in this story, they have been on the planet two years. Having explained all of this, I feel you are well enough acquainted with the story to understand anything that might happen.

The last of the giant snowflakes had melted, leaving the forest floor almost like a marsh. As Steve stepped out of the Spindrift, the ground gave under his feet. "Careful," he warned Betty as she followed him out of the ship.

"I can't believe we survived another one," she mused.

"It almost seems impossible, doesn't it?"

"What is impossible is cramming seven people into one small spaceship for three months."

Steve, already upset with Fitzhugh, due to the latter's constant complaining the whole winter, snapped tensely, "Fine, Fitzhugh, next winter we'll let you sleep outside, where there's plenty of room."

Using his inherent blend of selfishness, indignity, and conning, Fitzhugh replied, "I was only suggesting, Captain, that we find more suitable accommodations…for the girls' sake, of course."

"Of course. Your gallant disposition never fails to impress me," Valerie said sarcastically as she joined them outside.

Suddenly Chipper, a little dog that tends to remind one of Benji, ran past them, pursued by Barry, his teenage owner. "Chipper, come back here!" Before Barry could reach him, however, Chipper leapt into a mud puddle in pursuit of a giant ant. "Now look at you, you're all wet," Barry said, annoyed, as he pulled Chipper out of the puddle. Slipping from Barry's grasp, Chipper ran over in front of Steve and shook vigorously, spraying Steve with muddy water. "I'm sorry, Steve, I don't know what got into him."

Laughing, Steve replied, "Forget it. I have to wash the uniform anyway."

Emerging from behind the spaceship, Mark told Steve, "The winter was rougher on the ship than on us. I think it destroyed the engines."

"The cold's never bothered it before."

"It was the moisture. Those engines weren't made to sit under a pile of snow for three months."

"There's no way to fix them?"

"Not with anything I can find here."

Ever the optimist, Betty replied, "Well, at least we can still use it for shelter."

"She's right," Valerie concurred. "It's not like we lost our home. I say we should go look for some food," she concluded, tired of the MREs they had eaten for three months.

Fitzhugh, who had been sitting on the steps of the ship, was suddenly alert once more. "I agree. All problems can be solved better on a full stomach."

"OK. Mark and Valerie, you try by the bakery on the edge of town. Fitzhugh, take Barry and see what you can find outside that fast food place they just built. Betty and I will check out the snack bar in the amusement park." Walking over to the ship, he called in, "Dan, you're on the radio."

The six then headed for their respective destinations, armed with their crude, handmade instruments of survival - a hatched fashioned out of a giant matchstick and half a giant razor blade; and a grappling hook made from a giant thread tied to a giant safety pin.

# *# * # * #

"Whose idea was it anyway to put roses by a bakery?" asked Valerie as she examined her torn skirt.

"Whose idea was it to use the roses to climb up to the window?" Mark queried, smiling.

"Well, I just thought it would be easier than trying to catch the grappling hook on the window latch."

Mark picked up the rope. "Shall we try it my way now?"

Valerie nodded and watched as Mark threw the rope up. Missing the window, it caught on the stem of the rose. As he tried to pull it off, the hook got caught and pulled the rose down. Apparently, the winter had destroyed the roots. The rose fell on top of Mark.

"Mark!" Valerie tried to push the rose off of him, and as she did so, she pricked her finger on one of the thorns. She then helped Mark to his feet, asking, "Are you OK?"

"I think so. Just a little bruised."

"I think we should just go back to the ship now. There's nothing here anyway."

Mark and Valerie headed back to the ship; the others arrived at the same time, with very little improvement on Mark and Valerie's discoveries. Betty took what they had found and made a small dinner out of it.

That night, Valerie awoke with a headache. As she went to the first aid kit to find some aspirin, she fainted, waking Betty. She tried to arouse Valerie by gently shaking her. When this failed she went outside to wake Steve. "Steve, I need help," she whispered frantically.

Standing and taking a hold of her arms he said gently, "Betty, calm down. What's wrong?"

"Valerie! She fainted! I don't know what's wrong - I can't wake her!"

Steve followed her into the ship, followed by Mark, who had also awakened when Betty came out. Seeing Valerie, Mark pushed past Steve and carried her into the cabin, laying her on the bench under the view-port. Betty knelt by the bench and took Valerie's pulse. "It's so weak," she said, with a mixture of confusion and concern, "and her skin is clammy."

"Can you tell what's wrong?" asked Steve.

"No. But it's almost as if she's been poisoned."

# * # * # * #

Mark and Betty stayed by Valerie's side all night. Morning did not bring the change in her condition that they had hoped for; she hadn't been awake all night. "I'll get another cold pack," Betty said quietly, on the verge of tears.

At that moment, a group of visitors came upon the camp. "Captain Burton, it's great to see you again."

Turning towards the familiar voice, Steve saw Nicky and Joey, two of the boys the group had helped several months previously. "Hey, Nicky, it's nice to see you again. How did you find us?"

"We decided to search for you guys after we found Pete and Robbie. When we saw the ship, we came over to see if it was yours."

Having detected something in Steve's voice, Joey asked if anything was wrong.

"It's Valerie. She passed out last night and hasn't been awake since."

"Do you know what caused it?"

"No. That's what's really worrying all of us."

Thinking for a moment, Nicky asked, "Was she anywhere near the bakery yesterday?"

"As a matter of fact, I sent her and Mark there to find some food."

"Did she say anything about any roses by the building?"

"There were some roses there," Mark said as he came out of the ship. "Our grappling hook caught on one that had been killed during the winter; it pulled the rose down on top of me. Valerie pushed it off."

"Did it scratch her?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"Every year, the day it starts getting warmer, the giants who own the bakery cover the roses with some sort of bug spray," Nicky explained.

"Insecticide?"

"Yeah. That's why Dolph isn't here now. We found out too late."

"I'm sorry," Steve replied.

"Thanks."

"So this will kill her?"

"Dolph died because he tripped and a thorn went through his arm. Maybe a scratch won't be as bad."

Betty, who had heard them asking about a scratch, came back from examining Valerie's arms and hands. "She has a tiny prick mark on her finger."

"Would that be enough to put poison into her system?" Steve asked Betty.

"Well, it's like a rusty needle. It may be only the tip of the needle that goes through your skin, but if that's where the rust is…"

"…the poison's in your blood."

"Right."

"What's wrong?" asked Barry as he woke and approached the group.

"Valerie's very sick. We think she's been infected with some sort of insecticide."

"Well, then there's no need to worry," Fitzhugh said, also approaching the group. "Insecticide is harmless to people."

"Have you noticed the size of the bugs here lately?" Mark asked sharply.

"Mark, calm down. We're all worried about her."

"Well, no one's doing anything about it, are they?"

Placing her hand on Mark's shoulder, Betty said, "Mark, we're trying…"

Mark quickly pulled away from her and went back into the ship, roughly pushing past Dan.

"Well, you can't be too hard on him," Dan said as he exited the ship. "You know how he feels about her."

"I know, but that still doesn't give him the right to be so critical of us. I mean, does he think we're going to let Valerie die?"

"Of course not, Steve. But he's stressed out…just like the rest of us."

"Betty, what are you supposed to do for poison?"

After thinking for a moment, Betty responded, "The only thing you can do is flush it out of the system and hope for the best." She then re-entered the ship and got some milk. Moving over to the bench, she asked Mark, "Any change?"

Mark didn't even look up; he just shook his head.

"Well, we have to get this milk into her system somehow, to flush out the poison."

Mark nudged Valerie's arm; slowly, she opened her eyes and looked at them. "What…what happened?" she asked quietly.

"You just got a little…virus in your system," Betty explained, handing her the milk. "This should take care of it."

Valerie took the milk and sipped on it. She then handed it back to Betty and lay back down. "I'm so sleepy," she said.

"Just rest," Mark told her. "Don't rush anything."

"He's right, Val," Betty said. "The more you rest, the sooner you'll be on your…"

As Betty looked at her, she saw that Valerie was already asleep. "…feet." Smiling, Betty said to Mark, "See, I told you we were trying."

"I know. Look, Betty, I'm sorry for yelling out there…"

"Don't worry. Dan forgave you a long time ago. Let's go on out and let her get some rest."

"Go ahead. I'll just stay with her."

"OK."

The rest of the group was standing dispiritedly outside the ship; they all looked up when Betty exited the ship. "She's OK. She's just sleeping right now," she told them, allaying their fears. But the tension remained the rest of the day. Mark left the ship only once to get something to eat, but immediately re-entered the ship afterwards.

# * # * # * #

The next day, Valerie awoke as the sun streamed in the view-port. Mark was instantly by her side. "How do you feel?"

"My brain feels like it's swimming in the bayou, but other than that I feel great." Looking around, she asked, "Where is everybody?"

"Outside, eating lunch."

"Lunch?!"

Smiling, Mark explained that she had been asleep half the day. "Well, have you ever known an heiress to get up before noon?" she joked.

"We have some visitors that wanted to see you as soon as you felt up to it. When should I tell them to come in?"

"I feel fine. I could use some company right now."

"Thanks a lot," Mark said as he went outside. He was back in 5 minutes with Nicky and his brother.

"Hey, chick, what's up?"

"Nicky! When did you guys get here?" Valerie inquired excitedly.

"Yesterday morning. They told us you were sick."

"I'm doing a lot better now. Did you ever find Pete and Robbie?"

"Finally. They're back at our camp."

"I can't wait to meet them."

The boys withdrew from the room, leaving Mark and Valerie alone once more. Noticing that Mark was quieter than usual as he stared out of the view-port, Valerie asked him what was wrong.

"I just keep thinking about the last two days. When you didn't wake up - Well, I thought…"

"…that I wouldn't?"

"Right," Mark responded, moving away from the view-port. Reaching the middle of the cabin, he turned back to Valerie and said, "For the first time in my life, I felt…scared, Val. Like something was happening that Mark Wilson couldn't control. What scared me most though was that I thought I had cost myself something."

"Why?"

Sitting on the edge of the bench and taking Valerie's hand, he explained, "I thought I had waited too long. I knew that if you died, you would never know how I really felt…feel…about you."

"I think everyone knows," Valerie replied, giggling.

"No, they don't. They didn't know I was planning on asking you to marry me."

Tears formed in Valerie's eyes; she barely got out, "Oh, Mark," before she started crying. "I thought you'd never ask," she said as she hugged him.

"Is that a yes?"

Valerie could only nod, totally speechless and overcome with emotion. When she had regained her composure, she asked, "When should we tell them?"

"As soon as you're on your feet again?" he suggested.

"Perfect."

Over the next three days, Valerie slowly regained her strength. Betty noticed the remarkable improvement immediately. "It's amazing how fast you're bouncing back from that insecticide!"

"Insecticide?" inquired Valerie, confused.

Betty had forgotten that she had told Valerie it was a virus. "Well, we didn't want to alarm you before you were stronger. There was insecticide on that rose that pricked you."

"You mean, I could have died?"

Betty merely nodded. "Oh…" responded Valerie, not quite knowing what to say. "Well, I'm glad I didn't."

"Us, too."

Noticing that Betty seemed even more cheerful than usual, Valerie inquired, "What are you so happy about?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. You just seem…I don't know…extra perky today."

"You'll find out tonight, if you're strong enough to join us for dinner."

"I think so."

"Great!"

That night, Valerie came out of the ship for the first time in nearly a week and sat down next to Mark. It was just a bit crowded with Nicky, Joey, Pete, and Robbie there (Steve had kept true to his word, having promised the boys they could stay with the Spindrift group), but no one was complaining. After they had all eaten, Mark and Valerie decided to make their announcement. "Steve," Mark started, "Val and I want to ask you to marry us."

There was a moment of silence before a round of congratulations for both of them. "Of course!" Steve replied. "I would be happy to."

"Well," Dan spoke up, moving over by Betty, "if it's all right with you, and of course Mark and Val, Betty and I would like to make it a double wedding."

"We'd be happy to share with you!" Valerie said.

Steve asked, "So, when are we going to have this wedding?"

"What about tonight?" Mark responded.

"Tonight?" the girls said in unison.

Mark turned to them. "Why not? I don't want to sound pessimistic, but anything could happen before tomorrow morning, and," he softened his voice, "I want to be married to Val if anything does."

"Well, I have no objections," remarked Betty.

Dan agreed, "Neither do I."

"I'm not about to say no to an aerospace engineer/tycoon. Count me in."

"OK, then, tonight it is," Steve replied, smiling.