by Geoff Palmer
He collapsed against a rough wall to catch his breath. Behind him, at the top of the street, the thing hesitated, wavering slowly as if tasting the air, then swung in his direction. He started up and ran.
Left, right, then left again, on and on through the maze of streets, finally pausing in the shelter of a doorway. He crouched, gasping, straining to hear above the furious pounding of his heart, pressing himself deep into the shadows as a growing sense of dread told him the thing was drawing nearer.
Closer and closer. He jammed a fist into his mouth to stop himself from crying out as the faint slurping, sucking sound of it oozing along the wet roadway grew louder. Its shadow fell over him and he glimpsed the outline of a bulbous head with two gelatinous antennae swaying from side to side. It resembled a gigantic slug yet was at once more liquid and more scaly, and it moved with surprising speed. He bit his knuckles and held his breath against the choking stench of mould and decay.
It slithered past, slowing as it reached the top of the road, its antennae swaying and straining wildly, sensing it’s lost him. It didn’t turn. It didn’t need to. Instead, the bulbous head oozed back inside its body, emerging at the other end ready to resume the pursuit.
Tim leapt up and ran, heading back the way he’d come. On and on through the endless maze, sensing the thing behind him all the while, blind, yet tireless, and slowly gaining ground.
22 : Nightmares
Morning sunlight played on a feathery stand of toi toi as Coral slumped against the letterbox. ‘Come on Errol!’ she moaned, yawning mightily.
Tim stifled a yawn of his own as he shielded his eyes to peer up the rutted road. ‘He’s coming,’ he said, picking out a grey-brown dust cloud in the distance.
Coral reached for her backpack and took out a battered looking notebook and a well-chewed biro.
‘Bit late to start your homework,’ Tim said.
‘I’m adding him to my list.’
‘What list?’
‘The Thanatos set up a trap, right? Out here,’ she gestured, ‘in the middle of nowhere. You’ve got to ask yourself why, yeah?’
Tim hadn’t thought of that.
‘Because it’d be easy to spot strangers in a place like this,’ she continued.
That seemed sensible.
‘And how would you spot them? You’d have someone keep an eye on things. So,’ she tapped the notebook, ‘I’ve started a list of suspects.’
Tim peered over her shoulder. At the top was Frank Townsend followed by Emma Townsend. The Robinsons from next door were next, then Millicent Millais and Roderick Millais. Coral added Errol’s name.
‘How does he qualify?’
‘He’d be perfect. He comes past twice a day so he could keep a check on the microwave, and he travels from one end of the district to the other so he’s bound to notice new arrivals.’
The old green bus changed down a gear as it approached before halting in a choking cloud of dust.
‘Morning Coral. Morning Tim,’ Errol called.
‘Morning Errol,’ Tim said, giving the grinning, gap-toothed driver a second look, and wondering ...
* * *
Norman Smith looked up from his book to where the Kattflapps and Townsends once again occupied Mount Moron. There really was a difference between country kids and town kids, he thought. It was probably all that extra time they spent together on the bus.
A shadow fell over him. He looked up to see Tyler Thuggut, arms crossed, standing staring at him.
Norman pretended not to notice and went back to his book but the words had stopped making sense and he found himself wishing his mum owned a farm instead of that stupid store.
* * *
‘I’ve been thinking about how to get hold of the microwave,’ Tim said, finishing his sandwich. ‘It’s got to look natural, right? Not suspicious?’
Coral, Alkemy and Ludokrus nodded.
‘So borrow it. To fix it. Albert’s a handyman.’
‘Small problem, Timmo,’ Coral said. ‘It isn’t broken.’
‘But what if it packed up when they come to dinner tomorrow night?’
A slow smile bloomed on Ludokrus’s face. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Albert say he fix and we take her with us. Simple.’
‘But it isn’t ...’
‘Ha. That.’ He waved dismissively. ‘No problem. I make something for the short circuit. Big short circuit.’
‘Not too big,’ Alkemy cautioned.
Coral frowned. ‘But what’s going to happen when you take it?’
‘For this we have already many plan. Big problem has been how to get but still make look natural that we should take. Now we can.’.
‘Problem sorted then,’ Coral sighed, laying back on the grass and unleashing a mighty yawn.
‘You are tired?’
‘Didn’t get much sleep last night.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Tim muttered.
Coral’s breathing deepened and the others lapsed into silence. Tim spotted Norman in the distance, sitting reading in the quadrangle outside their class. Norman. He’d love to hear about space travel, time storage and distant planets, and he might have let him in on the secret if it hadn’t been for that odd coincidence of the dual geography lesson yesterday. Now he realised they’d have to be careful. If the microwave really was a trap, the fewer people that knew the truth about Alkemy and , the better.
‘Wah!’ Coral shot bolt upright making them all jump.
‘What happened? Something bite you?’
She shook her head. ‘A bad dream. It seems to come back every time I close my eyes.’
‘I’ve been having bad dreams too,’ Tim said. ‘I had a nightmare last night, a really scary one.’
‘I keep dreaming this big ... thing ... is after me,’ Coral said. ‘I can get away all right but it just keeps coming and coming and I just get more and more tired.’
Tim stared at her. ‘Me too!’ he said slowly.
‘What?’ She frowned. ‘Where are you? I’m in this really old street with rows of brick houses all close together ...’
‘Yeah! It’s like a maze. And the road’s all bumpy ...’
‘Cobblestones,’ she said. ‘Wet cobblestones.’
‘I hid in a doorway while the thing went past and it’s ...’
‘... all scaly and slimy. Like a great big slug ...’
Coral gawped at Tim who gawped back at her.
‘Oh. My. God,’ she pronounced. ‘We’re having the same nightmare!’
23 : Mind Parasites
‘What’s he doing?’ Coral asked as they approached the caravan. Albert was halfway up a ribbonwood tree, edging along a branch clasping a small metal dish in one hand.
‘Radar,’ Alkemy said. ‘When we take microwave, we will connect to calculator. See everything for two kilometre all around.’
They watched as he carefully fixed the metal dish to the branch above him. When Ludokrus beckoned him down, Albert simply leaned back and dropped off.
Tim and Coral gasped as he executed an effortless mid-air somersault before landing like an acrobat.
‘Show off,’ Ludokrus muttered.
They told him about the shared nightmare and how they thought it might be important. Albert listened attentively, firing innumerable questions at Tim and Coral before breaking into a smile. ‘Got them!’ he said.
‘Who? How? What does this mean?’ Alkemy said.
‘Sentinels,’ Albert replied. ‘The Thanatos are using Sentinels!’
* * *
‘Let me get this straight,’ Coral said. ‘Those slug things in our nightmares are called Sentinels ...’
Albert nodded.
‘... and you thought the Thanatos might be using them to keep an eye on the microwave but till now you’ve had no proof.’
Another nod.
‘But ... what are they? Who are they?’
‘The Sentinels are an ancient race like the Thanatos, but for much of their existence they lived without technology. You’ve seen
them. There’s no way that what is essentially a gigantic slug can manipulate tools, so the Thanatos helped them; they built devices that the Sentinels could manipulate. With these they were able to kick-start their own technological revolution, and now they’re amongst the best machine-makers in the galaxy. And very good friends to the Thanatos.’
‘But why did the Thanatos do that?’ Tim asked.
‘Because of their lack of tools, the Sentinels developed powerful mental energies instead. They can get inside the heads of other creatures. They’re mind parasites.’
‘You mean they read your thoughts?’
‘That and more. There are three basic stages.’ Albert counted them on his fingers. ‘First they can read your thoughts. That’s easy. Second they can infiltrate your mind so that they see what you see and hear what you hear. Finally they can take control, but only in a limited fashion. They can’t make you do what you wouldn’t normally do, for example.
‘The last two stages take time to establish — as long as six months — but the first takes only a few days.’
‘And the nightmares?’ Coral asked.
‘That is how they get in. Your mind tries to resist them so they wear you down by constantly interrupting your sleep. The less you get, the more tired you become until eventually you give up and let them in.
‘Ew!’ Coral said. ‘I don’t want a slug in my head!’
‘So what is to be done?’ Alkemy asked.
Albert thought for a moment. ‘The best solution would be to move out of range for a few days. A few hundred kilometres should do it. But failing that we could always try an hour under Switch.’
‘You mean ...?’ Ludokrus began then broke into a grin. ‘Yeah, might work!’
‘What’s Switch?’ Tim asked.
Alkemy got up and beckoned to them. ‘We will show. But first we need our spaceship.’
* * *
They pushed their way through a dense band of native bush behind the caravan and came to a broad clearing, roughly circular, deeply shaded by the surrounding forest. It was filled with low ferns whose bright green fronds reached as high as Tim’s shoulders, forcing him to stand on tip-toe to look around.
‘You must go in front,’ Ludokrus directed them. ‘And hold the hands.’
‘Why?’
‘Trust me, it will help.’
Tim took Coral’s hand. She scowled at him but didn’t withdraw it.
‘Go straight ahead.’
And that’s what they meant to do, except ... except a hundred reasons to not go straight ahead occurred to them both. Tim veered left, Coral veered right, and if it hadn’t been for Alkemy and Ludokrus steering their shoulders they’d have walked away from each other in a broad semicircle.
‘No, no, keep straight,’ Tim heard Alkemy’s voice as she angled him back more firmly and he, in spite of himself, tried to turn away.
They’d been warned to expect this but the warning wasn’t much help. Tim had the sudden urge to run. It must have hit Coral at the same time because she jerked in the opposite direction and if it hadn’t been for Ludokrus’s steadying hand she would have pulled him off his feet.
It was ... it was weird. He knew where he wanted to go, he could see the destination dead ahead, but his whole body resisted the idea and begged to flee. It was like trying to walk into a hurricane-force wind.
‘Almost.’ Ludokrus’s voice sounded distant. ‘Nearly to the mid-point.’
And then it vanished. Like a hefty weight lifted from their shoulders or an incessant noise that suddenly stops.
They staggered to a halt, shaking loose their aching hands.
‘You have done well!’ Ludokrus congratulated them. ‘Next time will be easier, the ship will know you. Now we rest. From here it get more difficult.’
‘More difficult!’ Coral moaned.
‘Different difficult,’ Alkemy said. ‘You can walk against it but you will feel ill.’
‘Oh great!’ Coral slumped on the grass.
‘How come you guys aren’t affected?’ Tim asked.
Ludokrus laughed. ‘Is our ship. It know us so does not push us away. Look, watch.’ He pointed south to where a large flock of birds had risen from the cliffs and was heading their way. As it approached, it split in two, taking opposite paths around the clearing before joining up again on the other side. ‘You see? If you ask them they will not know why they do that. The ship whisper, “Maybe you don’t go this way” and they change their course with no thinking. Only if you fight does it get hard. Good protection, no?’
‘What d’you call that? Whatever it’s doing, whatever it is?’
‘Is called Revolt-O-Ray.’
‘What about this spot? There’s nothing here.’
‘The not-this-way part has reached its limit. It may not work on all creature. After here it do something different.’
‘Makes us sick,’ Coral snorted.
‘No, only make you feel sick. Is all in your mind.’ Ludokrus offered her a hand up. Coral took it. ‘From here is best to run. Ready?’
This time all four of them linked hands in a widely spaced line.
‘Three, two, one, go,’ Ludokrus called and charged ahead.
At first it was all Tim could do to keep up with the straining arms that were dragging him forward. He had no choice but to concentrate on running. But that soon became more difficult as a dizzying, rolling sensation overcame him, as if he was a small boat tossed about by a wild storm.
He stumbled, waves of nausea crashing over him. For an instant the ground looked a pleasant place to rest. He could lie there, curl up into a ball and wait until he felt better. ‘But I’ll never feel better’, he reminded himself. ‘I’ll still be in the path of the Revolt-O-Ray.’ And somehow that realisation proved enough distraction. He focussed on the ground ahead and thought about their destination, now just metres away.
The next thing he knew he was lying under a low punga, gasping, recovering his breath, and staring at the side of the Eltherian spaceship.
24 : Blue goo
Small; that was Tim’s first impression. About the size of two cars parked side-by-side. It was perfectly round and looked like a pair of giant saucers, one turned upside down and set on top of the other. It didn’t gleam majestically with strangely coloured lights, there were no odd symbols or markings on its surface, and no weird music or sound effects as they approached. It had, presumably, once been white but its underside was now pitted and blackened, reminding Tim of an enamel jug that had been left sitting on a barbecue.
‘Is that it?’ Coral let her disappointment show.
‘She is just escape pod,’ Alkemy explained. ‘Proper ship is park beyond the edge of your solar system.’
Ludokrus grinned. ‘Close your ears,’ he said. ‘Secret knock.’
He tapped sharply on the hull, paused then knocked three times more in quick succession. There was a faint click and the upper saucer parted from the lower one. Grasping the edge, he gave it a heave and it sprang back on a hinge.
‘Ta-da!’ he pronounced.
Most of the interior was given over to two pale blue slabs that looked like warped camp beds. They sat opposite each other, following the curve of the hull and were fringed with wires, blocks, pipes and tubes that fed into and ran underneath them. Tim looked up and saw they were mirrored on the lid, as if they closed together and formed some sort of ... what?
He peered closer and saw they were actually a sort of dense semi-transparent gel.
‘We lie here,’ Alkemy indicated the slabs, ‘this close on top,’ she pointed to the lid, ‘and we are safe.’
‘What about Albert?’ Coral asked.
‘He is syntho. He does not need such protection. He go here.’ She pointed to the hollow between the slabs.
‘But how d’you breathe?’
‘With a walrus.’
‘A what?’
‘Here.’ She reached into one of the slabs — which was the consistency of half-set jelly — and drew out a
gooey object which she handed to him.
‘Urgh!’ said Coral.
‘Place on your face,’ Alkemy instructed.
Tim took the slimy blob in both hands. It felt pleasantly cool and smelled of the ocean but as soon as it touched the tip of his nose it leapt from his hands and spread itself across his face. He stepped back in panic, clawing at it as the blue goo swiftly crawled up his nostrils and filled his mouth. He gasped in fright, then realised he could breathe quite normally in spite of it.
He raised a hand to feel what seemed to be a series of stubby whiskers growing from its surface. Glancing at his sister, he saw her look of disgust turn to one of amusement.
‘Good name,’ she chuckled. ‘You look exactly like a walrus now.’
‘Do I?’ Tim tried to speak and found he could. The blue goo filled his mouth and throat but he could talk through it somehow, though his voice did seem a little muffled.
‘Your turn,’ Ludokrus said, handing Coral a ball of goo.
Tim laughed — it came out as an odd sort of gurgle — to see his sister with what looked like bristling walrus whiskers emerging from the blue goo on her face.
‘These,’ Ludokrus brushed a finger against them, ‘connect into the ship when the top is close. They give you sight and sound and smell and touch. Please try.’
Coral and Tim gave each other whiskery looks as Ludokrus opened a storage compartment and lifted out a large metal cage. Inside were the two mice Tim had first seen dancing by Aunt Em’s microwave. ‘Meet our friends,’ he said. ‘We call them Pipi and Paua. Which would you like to be?’
‘Be?’ Coral’s voice gurgled through her mask.
Apart from powering through solar systems, one of the escape pod’s other functions was the ability to perform what Alkemy called Switch. ‘Imagine we are land on some planet where we cannot breathe or live. Switch allow us to become local creature so we may explore without danger to ourselves.’ It also meant they could explore friendly planets without attracting attention.