Out of this World

by Susannah McFarlane

  ‘Oh, hello there,’ the prep teacher cried to Emma. ‘We’re rather busy here! We’re just getting ready for our excursion. You may want to try another toilet or come back later; there is rather a lot of us waiting to use the toilets, I’m afraid!’

  ‘Right,’ said Emma. ‘How long do you think they will be?’

  ‘Well, you know the preppies,’ said the teacher. ‘They can take a little time.’

  ‘Okay then,’ said Emma, slowly backing out of the room. ‘I’ll leave you to it, no problem, thanks.’

  But there was a problem. Emma needed access to the mission tube.

  Emma heard the mission alert again. She needed to report in and quickly. What was she going to do?

  Emma closed the door to the girls’ toilets. There was no way she could access the Mission Tube any time soon. She looked at her phone and the mission alert then hit reply on her phone and sent a text back to SHINE.

  Within seconds there was a reply back from SHINE.

  Agent KT30. Ms Tenga, Emma’s teacher and SHINE agent. SHINE knew that agents, particularly those in the under-twelve divisions, sometimes needed some help and so they deployed agents as teachers into their schools as back up.

  Emma walked back to the classroom.

  ‘Oh, you’re back,’ said Ms Tenga, looking surprised.

  ‘Yes,’ said Emma, looking straight back at her teacher. ‘The preps are in the girls’ toilets. It was impossible for me to get in.’

  ‘I see, right,’ said Ms Tenga, giving Emma the smallest of nods. ‘I think I can help with that. Come with me, Emma. The rest of you, keep going with your project work.’

  ‘Ms Tenga?’ called Isi.

  ‘One moment, Isobel,’ said Ms Tenga. ‘I’ll be able to help you as soon as I come back.’

  Ms Tenga and Emma left the classroom and walked across the playground to the three-storey building block on the other side. They stopped outside a door on the ground floor, the staffroom.

  ‘Wait here a moment, Emma,’ whispered Ms Tenga. She opened the staffroom door and went in. Seconds later she opened the door again and beckoned Emma in.

  ‘I’m going into the staffroom?’ said Emma.

  ‘Yes, but quickly before anyone comes. We need to get you to my access point.’

  As they walked through the staffroom, Emma could see they were headed towards a door with a picture of a woman on it. She should have known: Ms Tenga’s access point was through the toilets as well.

  ‘Okay, quick Emma, in here with me,’ said Ms Tenga.

  Emma followed. There was a nice sink and soap and a towel and three doors that went all the way to the floor. ‘You have much better toilets than we do,’ she said.

  ‘Yes,’ said Ms Tenga, smiling. ‘Emma, go into this door and lock it behind you. Then, behind the half-flush button, there is a small socket. Put your phone in there and sit down. Then you will be told what you need to do. The door will automatically unlock once you have gone up.’

  ‘Gone up?’ asked Emma.

  ‘Yes, it’s a rooftop access point. You’ll see,’ said Ms Tenga. ‘SHINE will send a message to your mum letting her know that you’re now OM and I will look after your school bag.’ Ms Tenga turned to leave. ‘Good luck, Emma!’ she added as she slipped back into the staffroom. ‘I need to get back into class now.’

  Emma went into the toilet and locked the door behind her and quickly found the socket behind the half-flush button. She plugged in her phone and entered her pin code. Her screen flashed.

  Strap in? On a toilet? But EJ felt up on the side of the toilet cistern and, sure enough, there was a buckle. She pulled it out and across her shoulder just like a car seat belt. EJ pulled it over her lap and then locked it in under the toilet bowl on the other side. Her phone flashed again.

  EJ didn’t have time to wonder what lift off was. She heard a noise above her and looked up to see a panel in the ceiling slide back. The toilet began to shake and then EJ felt her tummy lurch as the whole toilet was pushed up off the floor and into the roof cavity. And then it stopped. Once in the roof, the toilet tilted, the seat belt automatically released and EJ slid into a capsule, a bit like the sort on carnival rides. There were handles on both sides and EJ grabbed them just as the capsule shot off down a long metal tube, the SHINE Mission Tube.

  The capsule shot down and into the SHINE Mission Tube like a bullet speeding through the tunnel. And then just as suddenly, it stopped. The bottom of the capsule opened and EJ fell out onto a beanbag in front of a small platform with a keypad. She had arrived outside a Code Room. Again she keyed in her pin code and waited, this time for the security check to commence. A digital voice spoke.

  ‘Please sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,’ said the voice.

  EJ smiled. SHINE always had different ways of confirming an agent’s identity before they could enter the Code Room. Voice recognition was often used but they changed the test all the time so no one would be able to know it in advance. EJ took a deep breath and began.

  ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star...’ She stopped, even by herself, singing a nursery rhyme was a little embarrassing. EJ hoped she had sung enough.

  She hadn’t.

  ‘Voice pattern tracking incomplete. Please continue,’ said the voice.

  Emma took another breath. ‘How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, like a...’

  Just as EJ was actually starting to enjoy herself, there was a beep.

  ‘A little off-key but agent identity confirmed. Please drop in, Agent EJ12!’

  There was another beep and the floor under the beanbag fell away and EJ dropped down into a small room underneath the Mission Tube. It was a SHINE Code Room. There was just a chair and a table and a clear plastic tube sticking out from the ceiling above the table from which EJ could now hear a whizzing sound. She knew what was coming and cupped her hands under the tube and waited. In seconds a small container popped out of the tube. Inside were a piece of paper and a pen. EJ read.

  EJ scrunched up her nose and scratched her head as she looked at the strange patterns on the paper. She hadn’t seen anything like it before. What on Earth was this message?

  EJ looked again at the cluster of shapes on the paper.

  They must mean something but EJ couldn’t begin to think what. It could be anything—a little bit like her project, arrrgghhh! Then EJ remembered her code-cracking training: ask questions, look for patterns and look for clues.

  Okay then, she thought. Let’s see, do any of the shapes appear more than once? Yes, lots of them do. So that probably means they stand for letters and that this code is an alphabet code of some sort. But what sort?

  EJ looked again, this time for a clue as to what the code was. She knew that there had to be one somewhere, otherwise the person receiving the code might not be able to understand the message either. It was simply a matter of finding it hidden somewhere. She looked at the SHINE message details again and saw that it had been ‘intercepted by the International Space Station’. Did that mean the message came from space? That was unusual but it was possible. If it was true, was that a clue?

  EJ opened her phone and slid to the next screen with her finger. She keyed in a password and a new screen appeared, the spy apps screen. EJ tapped on her code app and began to flick through the codes. She flicked through lots of codes but nothing looked remotely like the symbols on the message. Then EJ saw something interesting.

  Hmmm, she thought, might that be something? Moon, Space Station, and these circles do look a little Moon-like. EJ tapped on the screen to find out more.

  Oh, well there goes that idea, thought EJ. She was a little disappointed. Then she scrolled down to read the rest of the information.

  Interesting, thought EJ, who had cracked codes in Braille before. But does that help me now?

  EJ read on.

  EJ looked at the message again and there they were: curves, angles and lines. She scrolled down and keyed in ‘show full alphabet’. Her phone flashed and EJ smiled w
hen she saw what appeared on the screen.

  ‘Gotcha!’ said EJ. She took her pen and wrote the first word.

  ‘Tekcor? Is that a word? Maybe this isn’t the code, after all?’ wondered EJ aloud. ‘I’ll try a few more words to test it.’

  ‘That’s better,’ said EJ. ‘This must be the code, now I just need to de-code the rest of the message.’ EJ worked quickly, writing down the rest. When she had finished she looked at what she had written.

  As soon as EJ saw the word ‘SHADOW’ she knew she had the right message but she didn’t at all like the idea of SHADOW being over the Moon about something—that normally meant bad news for SHINE. ‘Over the moon’ written in Moon Writing, that was clearly someone’s idea of a joke but who was that someone? And what was Tekcor? Tekcor, that was a strange word but oddly it sounded familiar to EJ. She felt that she knew that name, that she had heard it before. EJ thought hard, sifting through her mind—and then she remembered. Tekcor wasn’t a what, Tekcor was a who. Professor Tekcor was a SHADOW scientist who had been the mastermind behind a SHADOW attempt to dry up a city’s water supply. EJ had managed to save the water supply but she never saw Professor Tekcor, who had recruited a celebrity actor, Sydney Radisson, to do her dirty work. EJ had caught Sydney but Tekcor was nowhere to be found. And now it seemed she had a new scheme but what was it? It was obviously something to do with OS1 and the SHINE data load but EJ didn’t know what that meant either. She did know, however, that if it was coming from a SHADOW agent it wouldn’t be good.

  EJ may have unlocked the code but there were still too many things in the message that didn’t make sense. She quickly rolled up the paper she had written the de-coded message on, put it back in the container and pushed it back up the tube. It was sucked up immediately and EJ knew where it was going—to the same place she now needed to get to, the SHINE Operations Room.

  EJ left the Code Room and re-entered the Mission Tube. Within seconds she was whizzing her way through another tunnel that stopped sharply in front of two large silver doors. As EJ stood up, the Operations Room doors slid open. But EJ could see immediately that something was wrong, very wrong.

  The SHINE Operations Room was the heart of the SHINE agency and at the heart of the Operations Room was the Light Screen, a giant, voice-activated plasma screen that accessed the Internet, all SHINE’ s classified files, radio and television channels and all the data libraries of the world. It allowed SHINE to quickly find information, track its agents—and keep an eye on SHADOW agents using state-of-the-art GPS satellite technology. It was extremely important in keeping SHINE one step ahead of SHADOW but today, it didn’t seem to be working properly. The Light Screen was made up of many smaller screens that enabled you to view many different images at once. But not today it seemed. Many of the smaller screens were flashing ‘disconnected’. This isn’t good, thought EJ.

  ‘No, it’s not good at all,’ said a smallish woman turning from the Light Screen to face EJ. The woman had long white hair swept up in a messy bun and she was wearing a black suit, white shirt and a large, bright yellow pendant around her neck. It was A1, head of the SHINE Agency, and she had a very disconcerting habit of seemingly knowing what her agents were thinking. ‘Good morning, EJ12,’ said A1. ‘Good to have you back but as you can see, we have a problem.’

  ‘Good morning, A1,’ said EJ. ‘What’s wrong with the Light Screen?’

  ‘We have a connection problem but we are not completely sure why.’

  ‘Connection to what?’ asked EJ.

  ‘The Light Screen is driven by our two secret satellites, OS1 and OS2,’ said A1. ‘Both were launched into space some time ago and have been responsible for delivering much of our intelligence and running our communication systems. One satellite, OS2, is high up in space and orbits the Earth taking photos for us. OS1 is closer to the Earth and runs our weather and communications systems—as well as our GPS programs, which is how we track our agents. So you see, EJ, the Light Screen pretty much relies on our satellites. They are so important to us that their location in space has always been top-secret, on a strict NTK, need-to-know, basis.’

  ‘OS1,’ cried EJ. ‘That was in the message I just de-coded.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said A1. ‘Good work on thinking of Moon Writing!’

  ‘Thanks,’ said EJ. ‘I knew it had to be some kind of alphabet so I kept asking myself which one.’

  ‘You know the motto,’ said A1. ‘Questions...’

  ‘Are the answer!’ broke in EJ. For once she knew what A1 was thinking!

  ‘Indeed, EJ12,’ said A1, smiling. ‘Now let’s look at the message. I think it explains quite a lot. Light Screen,’ continued A1, ‘show decoded message.’

  The Light Screen flickered and the message that EJ had returned to SHINE flashed up in the centre of the screen.

  ‘Tekcor,’ said EJ. ‘Not Professor Tekcor who was behind the plot to destroy the city’s water supply?’

  ‘Correct, EJ,’ replied A1. ‘We may have caught Sydney Radisson but Tekcor was the real mastermind of the operation and it seems she has moved on—and, possibly, up. Before the Light Screen stopped sending data, we had managed to find out a few things about Professor Tekcor. Light Screen, show spy file.’

  ‘Professor Tekcor worked with Caterina Hill?’ asked EJ. ‘At SHADOW?’

  ‘No, we don’t think so,’ said A1. ‘In fact, we are not sure how they met but they certainly worked together on the AAA cream.’

  ‘What is that, the AAA cream?’ asked EJ.

  ‘As you know, EJ, there is no gravity in space and while she was working at the International Space Station, Tekcor studied the effects of zero gravity on the astronauts. She found that it made their skin age more quickly and so, working in the zero gravity environment of the International Space Station, she developed a cream that protected the skin. As you can imagine, such a cream would be very desirable to many people.’

  ‘Like Sydney Radisson,’ said EJ. ‘She said she decided to work for SHADOW because they could give her anti-wrinkle cream. Is it the same cream? Does that mean the Professor left the International Space Station?’

  ‘Correct, EJ. AAA stands for Amber’s Anti-Ageing Cream and Tekcor left the Space Station and took the formula for the cream with her. Then she vanished. AAA cream hit the market and millions of tubes have been sold. We believe that Tekcor was using that money to fund her next project and that somehow Caterina was also involved. What we didn’t know was what her new project was but now I think we do.’

  ‘We do?’ asked EJ, trying to keep up with A1.

  ‘Yes, EJ,’ replied A1. ‘Look at the first line of the message: “Tekcor Over the Moon.” If I am not mistaken, Professor Tekcor is back in space. Now let’s look at the last part of the message.’

  ‘This is very serious, EJ,’ said A1. ‘Tekcor has found our communications satellite, OS1, has accessed its code and is about to commence transferring our data. It seems she is just waiting for payment from SHADOW and I am sure they would pay anything to access our files.’

  ‘But I thought you said you had hidden the satellite,’ said EJ looking a little confused now. She thought outer space was a rather large, empty place to hide something in.

  ‘So did we, EJ,’ replied A1. ‘We set the satellite within a cloud of space junk.’

  ‘Space Junk?’ said EJ. ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Space junk is all the stuff that people have abandoned in space,’ said A1. ‘When things fall off spacecraft, when astronauts drop things, it all keeps spinning around in space. There is now so much space junk you can see it orbiting around Earth. Light Screen, show Earth from 20,000 metres.’

  The Light Screen flashed and there was a picture of Earth, a blue-green ball with what looked white snowflakes ringing the entire planet—it was almost as if Earth was in a snow globe. Now this is interesting, thought EJ. Suddenly, EJ had a thought about her project but now was not the time to be distracted. She needed to focus on the mission.

  ‘It looks
sort of beautiful, doesn’t it?’ said A1. ‘But it is rubbish, a cloud of dangerous rubbish. Even though most of the bits of space junk are quite small, because they travel so fast, they become like mini-missiles. Even tiny flecks of paint can cause terrible damage. We were counting on that to protect our satellite. OS1, however, is protected by an electro-magnetic force field that repels any object coming towards it. That includes both space junk and anything else—or anyone—trying to get to it.’

  ‘So how did Professor Tekcor manage to get to it?’ asked EJ.

  ‘That’s what you need to find out, EJ.’

  ‘But how did she even know where to find it?’ asked EJ.

  ‘Ah,’ said A1. ‘I don’t think she found it, I think she knew where to look. I don’t think she was working alone.’

  ‘But surely no one outside SHINE knew the location,’ said EJ.

  ‘Think, EJ. Who used to work for us but then worked for SHADOW?’

  ‘Dr Caterina Hill,’ answered EJ. ‘But she is under guard in SHINE security, isn’t she?’

  ‘Yes, she is now,’ said A1, ‘but I wonder if she is somehow working with Professor Tekcor again. It is the only explanation. Either way, Professor Tekcor has found OS1, been able to fly through the space junk and managed to unlock OS1’s onboard computer and then re-locked it so we cannot access it from Earth. If she succeeds in downloading our data, our entire organisation will be at risk.’