“Almost two.”
“Okay,” said Jack, “and how long will it take to get to the next solar system based on our current speed?”
“I… I don’t know,” said Ros. “Maybe three.”
“Days?”
“Months.”
“THREE MONTHS! Look, there is something we are missing here, I’m sure there is. Ros do you think I was picked up first or you?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Think Ros, how long were you aboard before you saw me?”
“I went around the level once looking for people. It was on my second pass that I found you.”
“And how long did it take you to go round?”
“I don’t know. Maybe thirty minutes, but I don't see how that's relevant.”
“Thirty minutes? So there was a thirty minute window in which I appeared. That tells me that after picking you up it came for me on Earth half an hour later, but in all probability it was less than that, far less. Which means…”
“That we are going too ssslow,” screeched Xylem.
An hour later and light speed still evaded them. No one could work it out how to do it. Now it was Jack’s turn to try.
“If we can’t work it out there’s no chance you will be able to do it,” said Ros.
“Yeah well, just you wait and see,” said Jack far more confidently than he’d intended.
He climbed into the pilot’s console. In an instant he felt the whole ship at his fingertips. A host of data popped-up before his eyes, all in English. It has to be here somewhere...
He had no trouble maneuvering the ship around space, firing the weapons and looking at the star map. But like with the rest the light speed button eluded him. There was nothing relating to it on any of the displays.
Then he had an idea. Could it be that straight forward? Could it have been right before their eyes all this time?
“Okay Jack, come out of there and stop wasting any more time,” said Ros from behind him.
“No, wait I’ve got an idea.”
“YOU’VE got an idea?” he said.
“Just give me a little more time, I’m almost there.”
Jack felt Ros and Xylem tugging at his ankles, trying to yank him out. He kicked as hard as he could, but still they held on.
He had no more time. He had to do it now.
He brought up the image of the star map and magnified it. Then he selected one of the planets at random: one with white, ghost-like clouds drifting over an emerald sea. Next he dragged the spaceship icon from the bottom of his vision and held it over the target.
Then he let go.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
The spacecraft shot through space like a silver dart.
Whole solar systems blurred past him in moments as they traveled at a gazillion times the speed of light.
Jack Strong, the first boy into space, had just become the first boy to discover interstellar travel.
Beat that Albert Einstein!
Chapter 19: Battlefield
It was the weirdest, most intense feeling Jack had ever had. When you were piloting the spaceship you literally felt like you were the ship. You could feel every little movement the ship made, every weapon, every instrument, even every star and planet you passed by. It was like you were a part of the universe itself.
It was like riding a bike on the intergalactic super highway.
Jack looked down at the bright green blob before him. It was so big. Far bigger than Earth. Jack thought that it was a gas giant until the swirling clouds parted to reveal a long spine of rugged mountains running all the way from the North Pole to the South.
He magnified the image. There was even snow down there too. And seas and islands and forests teeming with life.
He selected another planet from the star map and in a flash they were off again, stars and planets whizzing by in a fraction of a second.
At first he saw nothing but darkness. No stars, no planets, nothing. Then a huge black shadow slid into view.
He switched on the space beams.
Not a creature stirred, not a light blinked, its long avenues and boulevards were dark and silent. All the technology lay lifeless.
He didn’t stay long. The place gave him the creeps. He felt like there was something down there, waiting.
“It’sss my turn now,” hissed Xylem as Jack hovered above a red, syrup-like ocean.
“Yeah, then mine,” said Ros.
“Then me,” said Padget.
“Fine,” he said, saying goodbye to a string of smartie-like islands. “This is what you do…”
“Yeah thanks,” said Ros. “We already know. We’ve been watching your every move.”
“Well just be careful,” said Jack reluctantly stepping out of the pilot’s control. “You don’t want to go flying into a supernova.”
“As if,” said Ros. “We’ll be a lot better at this than you.”
“Oh yeah, then how come you didn’t star jump in the first place?”
“You got lucky that’s all.”
“Yeah well, we’ll see about that,” said Jack.
With Xylem and Ros more planets followed, each one seemingly more fantastic than the last. Some were huge seas teeming with life; others were great big multi-coloured balls of gas swarming with storms. Others were covered from pole to pole in vast, towering sand dunes a mile high. Then there were the jungles crying out and throbbing with life, full of all kinds of strange creatures. They also visited many planets that bore the trace and scar of civilisations. Some were built of wood, others of stone, yet more of steel and glass. On one a gigantic wall, complete with towers and battlements, stretched across the entire length of the equator as if to keep one half from the other. On another, sleek spaceships darted in and out of the atmosphere docking with a plethora of space stations. Only one planet was dead: the acid rain eating away at its metal skeleton like a tumor.
Never had Jack thought that the universe would be so colorful, so diverse.
It was like a huge painting, with every star-jump revealing something different.
Then it was Padget’s turn.
He stepped into the pilot's control, picked a big blue planet with his squidgy green fingers and
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” shouted Jack, Ros and Xylem.
Instead of appearing in front of a blue and green paradise they had somehow ended-up in an intergalactic scrapyard.
There were spaceships everywhere. Hundreds of them. Thousands.
They were all kinds of shapes, colours and sizes. Some were the same size as theirs, whilst others were as big as small moons. Some were fashioned into spheres, discs, tubes or else horseshoes, whilst others were far bulkier with bits of metal jutting out from their hulls. Many were silver like their own, but others were dirty grey, like they had just been dredged up from the ocean. Some were like the rainbow with all kinds of lights blinking into space.
But they all had one thing in common. They were lifeless, with signs of weapons-fire scorching their broken hulls. Some were even still in the process of blowing-up, with electrical fires spitting sparks and exploding deep into space.
“What should we do?” asked Ros. “Go back?”
“Let’s have a look around first,” said Jack. “We might find something.”
“Don’t be stupid,” said Ros. “It’s too dangerous, if we get caught by one of those explosions. This ship…”
“No, he’s right. There could be sssomething valuable,” hissed Xylem.
“Yes, or some THING,” said Padget.
“What can we possibly find?” asked Ros. “It’s a battlefield…”
“I’m captain!” hissed Xylem. “I decccide what to do.”
“You are only captain because you beat Vyleria,” said Ros, his black, lidless eyes glaring at Xylem. “You didn’t beat me!”
“Anytime!” screeched Xylem, staring back at Ros. “Anytime!”
“No, Xylem’s right,” said Jack. “There might be something out there we can use. We also might be able find out where we are and what we are doing here. Many of these ships look a little similar to our own.”
“Okay, have it your way,” said Ros. “But I’m warning you at the first sign of trouble I’m taking over and getting us out of here.”
“Okay, you’ve got a deal,” said Jack. “Padget take us in.”
“You’re kidding,” said Padget, clambering out of the pilot's control. “This is madness. We’ll die for sure. I can't do it.”
“We won’t die,” said Jack. “Look, I’ll tell you what I’ll guide us in. Will that make you happy?”
“Barely,” he said. “But it will do… for now.”
“Okay,” said Jack, feeling the spaceship at his fingertips. “Here we go.”
Jack banked this way and that, like a hawk in a flock of pigeons, steering past lifeless hulks and tangles of burning metal. Some of the wrecks had been completely chopped in half, whilst others were just dead in space as if all of the energy had been sucked from them.
Life had never felt so good. He felt so skillful, so powerful, so confident. He felt like he could do anything.
At first it seemed like there were hundreds of derelicts, but as they journeyed deeper and deeper into the graveyard the hundreds turned to thousands, then millions. It was like a swirling maelstrom of silver sand.
There were no calls for help or any mayday messages of any kind; nor did any spaceships come to life when they passed.
There was just fire. That and the infinite blackness of space.
Then as they went further Jack noticed something. The designs of the spaceships had changed into…
Their own.
There were thousands of them, sparkling in space like a great diamond tiara. Some looked to be even hundreds of miles long.
Where were these spaceships from? What’s happened here?
“Let’s get out of here!” whined Padget. “It's not safe.”
“I think he’s right,” said Ros. “There’s traces of dark matter everywhere. It isn’t safe. I’ve never seen so much in one place before. Besides, whoever did this might come back; it could be us next.”
“No, we’ve got to find out what happened here,” said Jack, stepping out of the pilot’s console. “It’s important, I know it.”
“But it’s too dangerous,” said Padget.
“Yes, it is dangerous, but sometimes you’ve got to be prepared to face up to danger; to look it in the eyes and not be afraid,” said Jack, remembering what Vyleria had said to him earlier. “There could be something in one of those spaceships that can tell us why we are here.”
“Err Jack,” said Ros. “What’s that?”
“What’s what?”
“THAT!” he said, jabbing away at the view screen.
A silver blob was slivering its way across the pitch black canvass, its tail spitting sparks like the mouth of a cobra. It moved slow at first, then it picked up speed.
It was coming towards them.
As it got closer Jack could see half a dozen holes in its hull. Fires burned in each of them. The whole thing looked like one big Chinese lantern.
Then it blossomed into an intense red, bright tongues of flame licking the vacuum. Showers of debris impacted all over their ship, fizzing away into nothing.
The answers Jack sought had just blown up right in front of him.
“Hel… hello.”
Jack spun around immediately.
In front of him was a tall man in a blue spacesuit with hair the colour of sand and piercing blue eyes.
Jack was about to reply when the man dropped to the floor, a red river coursing from his mouth.
“G-good,” he said, in between violent coughs. “You… made it.”
“Who are you?” asked Jack. “Is this your spaceship? What are we doing here?”
“We had…” cough. “No time. Plan. Moved forward.”
“I don’t understand. What plan? What happened here?”
“The… cough… Scourge are coming… cough. You must pre…”
Then his chest started to rasp for air. His face turned purple, then indigo blue.
“It’s okay, we can save you. We have a hospital on board. We...”
“You already have Jack.”
“Wait, how do you know my name?”
But he didn’t answer. His last breath hissed out of his chest like wind escaping from a cave.
Then something strange happened. The blonde man’s appearance changed before his eyes.
He was no longer blonde, he wasn’t even human.
His skin was now bright yellow and hairless, and his eyes were a mixture of blue, green and turquoise, like a futuristic brand of sweets. The blood that formed a mini-lake around his lifeless body looked like chocolate sauce.
“I wonder why he chose human?” asked Jack.
“What do you mean?” said Ros. “He was an Asvari.”
“What are you talking about?” said Padget. “He was one of the ancient kings from Paldovian legend.”
“No, he was a fierccce Xenti warrior,” screeched Xylem.
“So let me get this straight. You all saw an image from your own race,” said Jack. “Someone that you trust and hold in high regard?”
“Yes,” said Ros. “Why? Who did you see?”
“Oh, no one really, just someone I saw in a movie once.”
“What's a moo-vie?” asked Padget. “Sounds like the sound an animal makes.”
“But how is that possible?” asked Ros, completely ignoring Padget’s question. “It doesn't make any sense.”
“I don’t know how he did it,” said Jack, “only that he did.”
“What was he talking about anyway?” asked Ros. “What’s this 'scourge' do you think?”
“I don't know,” said Jack. “Perhaps he means whatever did this to them, or even the black oily stuff we encountered before. It could be anything.”
“Well, whoever it was,” said Ros, “let’s hope they don’t come back. The sooner we get out of here the better.”
“Wait, what shall we do with him?” asked Jack. “We can’t just leave him here.”
“We could give him a space burial,” said Ros. “That’s what my people do for our dead.”
“Eat… hungry,” screeched Xylem.
“Urgh!” said Padget. “You can’t be serious. That’s disgusting!”
“You mean to say you eat the dead on your planet?” asked Jack.
“Yesss. Deliciousss.”
“Well, he’s not one of your kind so you can’t eat him,” said Jack. “If you’re hungry you’re just going to have to imagine up a big pile of slugs or whatever else it is you eat.”
In the end they went with Ros' idea and blasted him into space. It was the best, most human, most alien, thing they could do.
“I wonder what he means about us saving him?” asked Jack, watching his corpse disappear into oblivion. “And how did he know my name?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” said Padget. “What does it matter if we’re dead? We’ve got to get out of here before we’re the next ship sliced into a million pieces and blown to smithereens.”
“Hang on,” he said. “Just a little further. How far in do the ships go?”
“Who cares?” snapped Ros. “What does it matter if we’re dead?”
“No, we could find sssomething important,” said Xylem.
“What could there possibly be apart from more destroyed ships?” snorted Ros.
“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out,” said Jack, climbing back into the pilot’s console.
They had been flying for about half an hour, weaving in and out of the wreckage, when Jack saw something in between the exploding hulks.
Something large.
Something massive.
Something bigger than the entire fleet combined.
Jack couldn’t believe it. Before his eyes
a huge flat disc of red gas was being sucked into a gaping black chasm, closely followed by bits of spaceships as they were broken off and eaten up by the void.
It was the biggest thing he had ever seen. Bigger than the whole solar system combined.
“Jack, let’s get out of here,” whined Padget behind him.
“It’s okay,” he said. “I’m in full control. We’re in no danger. Look, I’ll show you.”
He tried to reverse course.
Nothing happened.
Maybe he’d done it wrong…
He tried again.
Still nothing.
He tried over and over, but the spaceship didn’t respond. Inch by inch, second by second, they were being pulled towards the hungry mouth of the black hole.
He tried to turn left and right to see if that would help, but all it did was make the spaceship spin out of control. He had to do something – and fast!
Before them he could see the mouth of the black hole opening up like an intergalactic space monster as it gobbled up a stream of spaceships.
He could hear everyone yelling behind him.
What could he do?
Star jump, of course!
He brought up the image of the star map, selected a planet at random, dragged the spaceship icon over it and let go.
He expected to see a stream of stars and planets whizz by in seconds, but nothing happened.
There must be something wrong.
He tried again.
The same result.
“Ssstar jump,” screeched Xylem behind him. “NOW!”
“I just tried that,” he shouted. “But it’s not working.”
“What do you mean it’s not working?” yelled Ros.
“I mean it’s NOT WORKING!”
“Oh no,” said Padget. “We’re done for.”
BANG!
“What was that?” asked Padget.
“I don’t know,” said Jack. “I think something just collided with the spaceship.”
Jack looked ahead as a jagged piece of metal sliced through the vacuum, bouncing off their hull, before fizzing off into the debris stream.
Then there was another and another. It was like a rain of arrows.
Jack Strong and the Red Giant Page 13