He wanted to ask about these things, but the Ark Lord moved swiftly along the corridor through door after door, from one bulkhead to the next. They passed half a dozen of the prison guard robots that had kidnapped Liam earlier. He remembered them from his last visit too. How many identical droids staffed this massive spaceship? They floated along with ease, their metal casing extremely shiny and mirrorlike. They reminded him of football players from the waist up, fully decked out in protective gear with large shoulders. Only with no legs.
He returned his attention to the eerie cells. “How many of these prisoners are smart like humans?” he finally managed to ask.
The Ark Lord made a scoffing noise. “Smart like humans? That’s an oxymoron, my young friend. But I understand your question. Perhaps a third of these subjects are intelligent enough to hold a conversation with. The rest are animals—but worthy, interesting animals, not just every critter in the forest. I’m selective, and in that respect my encyclopedia will never be complete. There are limits, you see. I can’t collect every single species of every family of every genus. I have to restrict my interest to notable examples.”
“Don’t they turn on each other before they’re gassed?” Liam asked, remembering how he’d still been able to move about in the weightless room while the yellow cloud was being pumped in.
“There are several entry points around each cell,” the Ark Lord said with a vague gesture toward the glass as they passed by a ghostly figure with outstretched arms. “I suspend the newest subject in an antechamber before my robots maneuver it inside. Occasionally I extract subjects in a similar way. Look.”
They had entered another section, and when Liam peered through the glass, he saw the hazy shape of two floating robots in the gloom, just fifteen or twenty feet in. They were gripping a subject in their mechanical arms and slowly turning it around, all three performing a silent pirouette. When they faced the left wall, the trio eased toward it.
“How come the robots aren’t suspended as well?” Liam asked, pressing his face to the glass.
“Because they’re robots.”
“Oh.”
A huge door slid open in the side wall. Without pause, the robots moved through it and disappeared from sight, taking their prisoner with them. The door slowly eased shut again.
“Here,” the Ark Lord said. He stepped back from the glass and placed his large, bony feet inside a faintly glowing ring on the floor by the opposite wall. It flickered and lit up white. “Don’t be afraid. Join me in the circle.”
Tentatively, Liam stepped into the four-foot circle.
The Ark Lord said in a loud, clear voice, “Upper Observation.”
Immediately the floor jerked, and Liam gasped as he found himself on a pedestal that rose higher and higher. He cringed, half expecting to be crushed against the ceiling . . . but a circular panel slid aside, and the pedestal shot up through the hole, stopping abruptly as the platform drew level with the floor above.
The Ark Lord gently pushed Liam out of the circle, and as the two of them stepped aside, the pedestal dropped silently out of sight. A panel slid across to cover the hole.
“Now observe,” the man said, steering Liam across a vast room.
It was the same size as the containment cell below only completely open—no glass wall and no thick yellow cloud, filled only with a few metal tables on wheels and a number of upright contraptions with folding arms and pointed gadgets. To one side, a long, rectangular section of floor rose slowly into view, bringing with it a faint yellow haze surrounding the robots and their limp, jet-black, oddly shapeless prisoner.
“Each containment cell has an upper deck where we more closely examine the subjects,” the Ark Lord explained, striding across the metal floor, his bony extremities clicking noisily. “Of course, some are too large to bring up on the platform lift.”
“Like that giant bug hanging off the ceiling downstairs,” Liam muttered.
The Ark Lord nodded. “Indeed. If we want to study that particular monster, we do so within its cell.”
“How did you get it in there?”
“Most of my subjects were teleported directly from their natural habitats.”
Teleported, Liam thought. Zapped with some kind of laser light through a wormhole. He shook his head. “I don’t get it. You can teleport all these things from millions of miles away—”
“Actually just a few hundred thousand miles, practically within orbit of their home planets. The range of a teleport is short even through a wormhole.”
Liam let that sink in. “Okay, but you have all this technology—huge spaceships, teleportation, wormholes—and you need me to do your dirty work?”
The words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop himself, and he sucked in a breath as the Ark Lord turned to face him with a scowl. “Before your tongue gets you into hot water, young man, let me show you what I want you to go after.”
“Uh, fine,” Liam mumbled.
They approached the robots, who were still hovering effortlessly but now holding their limp prisoner upright so it didn’t crumple to the floor. The jet-black creature looked to Liam like an overweight, four-foot-long eel with at least eight pairs of armlike appendages sticking out of the sides and two pairs of thin legs lower down, all of which dangled helplessly while the unconscious thing was dragged toward a metal table. Of course, eels were fish, and this thing had arms and legs; covered with fine scales and presumably land-based, it had to be reptilian or perhaps amphibious, though it had no webbing of any kind.
Its head hung forward, so it was difficult to see its face. It reminded Liam of a seal—a blunt head with no neck. Tiny ears stuck up, and whiskers stuck out a little farther than the width of its body.
“That’s the ugliest thing I ever saw,” Liam said, though actually it was hard to beat the floating, human-faced, tentacled gas-beast he’d rode the week before.
The Ark Lord reached out and clamped a hand on Liam’s shoulder as he spoke. “It’s a Gorvian time grub. The primitive tribes of its home planet call it a Maurk-Ta, which in their language translates to evil reborn. That’s not too far from the truth.”
“Wait, it’s a grub? Like a baby beetle?”
“Far from it. I don’t know why it’s classified as a grub, but who am I to question the wisdom of the Galactic Committee of Zoologists? It’s a newly discovered species though, and very hard to study, so I think the classification was a little, er, rushed in the interest of safety.”
“This thing is dangerous?” Liam said, suddenly fearful. He would have stepped backward if the Ark Lord didn’t have such a firm grasp of his shoulder.
“It’s deadly. Didn’t I say that already? This is, after all, why you’re here.”
Liam squirmed under the viselike grip. “Let me go.”
“Calm yourself, Liam. Your mission hasn’t started yet. I just wanted to show you what you’ll be up against.” Abruptly, the Ark Lord let go and barked an order at the robots. “Summon reinforcements. Let’s demonstrate for the boy.”
One of the hovering robots let out a beep, which Liam assumed was a signal to others. The two shiny guards dragged the limp body closer to the metal table and hoisted it up. Numerous thin limbs flopped about, and three-fingered hands fell open as the creature was laid out flat on its back.
Then it woke. With a high-pitched shriek, it twisted and writhed and lashed out with a long tongue. A spark of energy and a flash of light caused Liam to duck and backpedal, and even the Ark Lord reversed a couple of steps.
Something inexplicable happened. The Gorvian time grub vanished for a split second, then reappeared several feet from the table, standing upright. It staggered and fell, and as it tried to regain its feet, Liam snatched a glance toward the table. One of the robots—the one that had suffered the tongue-lashing—was turning completely white as though icing over. A second later, it crumbled into a pile of ash.
The second robot dashed closer to the grub and reached for it. The creature hissed and scu
ttled away, racing across the room, thankfully away from where Liam stood gawking. The robot smoothly caught up and reached out a metal arm to latch onto one of the grub’s. The multi-limbed reptilian shrieked again, twisting around to whip out its tongue.
Again that spark of energy and flash of light. The robot turned white, still hovering but slowing to a halt before crumbling into ash. The grub had vanished again, but it reappeared exactly where it had been moments before it had scuttled away across the room.
“You see that?” the Ark Lord breathed, clearly awed. “It’s resetting its place in time by a few seconds, leaping back to a safer point.”
Liam let out a trembling sigh. “It has a built-in undo feature.”
“Indeed! It generates the necessary energy by lashing out with that tongue, and anything it touches—well, you saw what happened.”
Liam had seen all too well. Two piles of ash on the floor were all that remained of two perfectly decent robots.
Chapter 5
The Gorvian time grub scuttled one way then another, whiskers twitching frantically as it tried to find an exit. Liam prayed it wouldn’t come rushing toward him. One lash of its tongue and—
The Ark Lord seemed oddly calm. “Remain still, Liam. One thing about these creatures is that they never attack unless provoked. It won’t come near us, and if it does, one of the droids will emit a high-pitched squeal to distract it.”
A large door slid open on the far side of the cavernous metal chamber, and more robots streamed in. Liam counted ten, and they spread out around the grub and advanced as the agitated creature twisted this way and that. Once in a while, a droid let out one of those squeals the Ark Lord had mentioned, and sure enough, the grub spun toward the sound, giving other droids a chance to move closer.
The attack was brutal, a series of flashes and sparks accompanied by shrieks and hisses. Amid the confusion, half the robots turned white and crumbled away. Each time, the grub flickered out of sight and reappeared in a slightly different position. By then, the others had clamped their robot pincers around the grub and restrained it in such a way that it could no longer reach them with its tongue—and without the tongue lashing, it couldn’t reset time.
“Back downstairs,” the Ark Lord called, jabbing a bony thumb downward.
The robots whisked the struggling grub across the floor and onto the platform lift, which descended in a hissing, billowing yellow cloud. Liam guessed the creature would be back in suspended animation long before it was shoved into the containment cell.
“What a waste of robots,” Liam said when his nerves had settled.
The Ark Lord scoffed. “I have hundreds. And it wouldn’t be much of a demonstration without a sacrifice or two. Now, do you see why those grubs are considered so dangerous? The tongue dispenses a pocket of accelerated time, instant death. I know you will not fall to any of their attacks as you have already foreseen that you live to a ripe old age. Do you see? This is good news for you, Liam. It means you can rest assured you won’t be harmed in even the smallest way.”
That’s a bit optimistic, Liam thought. I could get hurt in lots of different ways. I could run and trip, breaking my neck. I could get shot at by one of these other soldiers I’m supposed to work with. And anyway, what if it’s possible to change the future? Or create alternate realities? What if I live in one universe but die in another? What if I—
“And now it’s time to send you back home,” the Ark Lord said, grinning down at him with his weird, dough-rolled face. “You’re the last recruit. The others are already prepped and waiting.”
“Waiting for what?”
“For a break in the migration. I see a possibility ahead, an abandoned town where the grubs may rest. That will be the time to strike.”
“But . . . but if you want more grubs, why not just zap them up with that white-light teleport thing you used to bring the Ark prisoners back on board?” Liam said, wringing his hands and looking around for a convenient exit to escape through. “You have one already. Why do you need others? I don’t understand.”
“I don’t want just any old grub. I have a particular target in mind, and it’s surprisingly wily. Now, go home and await my summons.”
As the Ark Lord raised an arm, a silvery object appeared under his wrist with a faint buzz. It was a wormhole wand, apparently drawing power directly from his robotic body.
“Wait, what?” Liam sputtered. “What migration? I don’t even know what the mission is yet! I have so many questions! I haven’t even decided for sure that I’m going to do this for you!”
“Oh, but you will, young Liam Mackenzie, because you know what will happen if you don’t. Put simply, if you don’t come when I summon you, then I’ll dump a cell full of monsters on your house, including that Gorvian time grub, and I’ll recruit Madison instead.”
“But—but give me a clue at least! Just tell me what I—”
“You’ll receive a briefing. Now, enough talk. Go home and let the nanobots do their job.”
Liam blinked. “Nanobots? What nanobots?”
“The ones floating around in your system.”
After that ominous statement, the Ark Lord’s smile vanished. He had been fiddling with the silver wand, and now it glowed blue. A lightning flash directly behind Liam made him flinch, its brightness visible even in his periphery. He swung around as a new wormhole spread wide, perfectly circular, flickering with electrical energy before steadying into the usual swirling tunnel of light.
“Don’t fight the change, Liam,” the Ark Lord said with a stern expression. “Let the nanobots enhance you. Allow the robot blood to circulate around your body. You’ll appreciate the changes when you start your mission. And don’t worry—the effects are completely reversible.”
“What effects?” Liam cried desperately as the Ark Lord advanced on him. He could feel the wormhole tugging at him, pulling him in. But he couldn’t go yet, not before he had some answers. “Why are you talking about nanobots? I don’t have nanobots in my system! I don’t understand—”
Just as he started to tumble backward, the Ark Lord reached out and grabbed the front of his shirt, arresting his fall. The man smiled and tilted his head in an almost tender, fatherly way. His other hand came up in front of Liam’s face, and from one finger protruded a delicate needle. “These nanobots,” he said.
And with that, he plunged the needle into the side of Liam’s neck.
Horrified, Liam tried to slap it away, but it was too late—the contents had already been injected. The Ark Lord let go of Liam’s shirt and stepped away.
Liam spun backward into the wormhole.
****
Liam shot out of the swirling tunnel of light and landed heavily on his bedroom floor. In the sudden stillness, he spied Ant crammed into the corner, looking like he’d rather be elsewhere. Madison was facing the door, holding onto the handle with two hands.
A second later, the wormhole silently broke apart in a display of flashes that zigzagged in all directions like an infestation of fireflies.
Before Liam could say anything, a hard knocking caught his attention. “Liam! Open this door!” his mom demanded.
Madison jiggled the doorknob and called through the door, “It’s stuck, Mrs. M, like it’s gotten jammed in a half-locked position. Hang on a sec.” She gestured urgently for Liam to help her.
“Let me get it,” Liam said loudly, catching onto her delaying tactics. “You’re not twisting it right, Maddy. See, you need to push in, then wiggle, then—”
The handle turned, and his mom instantly flung the door inward and stormed into the room, looking angry. “What is going on in here?”
She froze, her mouth falling open as she took in the mess. Liam did, too. His shelves were empty, everything that hadn’t been sucked into the wormhole now on the floor. His bedsheets hung askew, hanging by one tucked-in corner. Only a couple of frayed posters remained on the walls.
“I was tidying, Mom,” he said. “Sorry about the noise. I just kin
d of went crazy and started doing a cleanup.”
She opened and shut her mouth a few times, but it was a few more seconds before she spoke. “Liam—what in the—Look at your room! What was all the crashing and banging earlier?”
That was the suction from an intergalactic wormhole yanking on the door and making it rattle in its frame, Liam thought. No, best not to say that out loud.
“I let it pass the first time,” his mom went on, “but then it started up again just now. Why was your door locked?”
“It jammed,” he murmured. “Sometimes it sticks. Sorry. I guess we all got a bit slapdash with the tidying. Look, I pulled my posters down. You always said they were ugly, and I—”
She held up her hand to stop him, looking fierce. “Enough. You three need to calm yourselves down or go outside. Except you’re not going anywhere, Liam, until this room is cleared up. Do you understand?”
He nodded vigorously. “Sure, Mom. I’ll fix it.”
Looking around the room, she put her hands on her hips. “Where are all your books? And the things from your desk?”
“It’s all under control, Mom,” Liam said, crossing to the bed to extract the Frodo sword from under the mattress.
“And your dirty laundry, Liam!”
He glanced toward the open closet door where the tall, white laundry basket had toppled over. His underwear and dirty shirts were strewn in a line across the floor. He hurried to scoop everything up.
“Honestly,” his mom said, shaking her head as she turned to leave. She continued mumbling all the way along the hall toward the kitchen, her words inaudible.
Liam quietly closed the door and leaned against it. In the silence that followed, he breathed a long sigh of relief.
Ant peeled himself out of his corner. “That. Was. Close.”
Madison pushed her hair back and sat on the side of Liam’s bed. “Okay, so I underestimated the amount of mess a wormhole would make. I knew it would cause a draft, but I—”
Impossible Mission Page 3