How to Save the Universe in Ten Easy Steps

by Allison Rushby

  Molly and Hale look at each other again. ‘Well, sort of,’ Hale answers for them both. ‘You see, the thing is, it wasn’t a crack. It was a wormhole – a sort of shortcut through space-time.’

  ‘A wormhole. You didn’t know the lucky crack was a wormhole?’ I look at Molly.

  Molly gives an embarrassed shrug. ‘It was dormant.’

  Hale continues on, ‘It turns out your lucky crack was going to be used as the entrance to a wormhole, through which the Terlaedians were going to send quite a powerful weapon. A sort of … bomb, as you’d say.’

  I attempt to take in even part of this. ‘And how much did you know about this bomb thing?’ I glance at Molly. I mean, she’s been banging on at me forever about how idiotic and superstitious it is to touch the lucky crack. Surely she knew something if she was trying to get me to stop?

  ‘No!’ Molly answers. ‘Of course I didn’t know! It’s like we told you. All Hale and I ever knew was where you needed to be transported to and when.’

  I shake my head as much as my headache will allow. ‘Oh, everything makes complete sense to me now.’

  ‘Really?’ Molly says.

  ‘No,’ I zip back at her. ‘Not at all.’

  ‘As Molly said,’ Hale continues, ‘all we knew was the time and place. Everything else was up to you.’

  ‘So I …’ I shake my head again. I can’t believe it. I seriously can’t believe it.

  ‘Yes,’ Hale says. ‘You did it all yourself. You saved the universe.’

  I frown. ‘But … it can’t be real. It can’t. I mean, I’ve never been in the right place at the right time before. I’ve never even won a raffle.’

  ‘I know,’ Molly nods, equally hard.

  Despite my aching head, I throw her a look.

  ‘Sorry,’ she says, meekly. ‘I didn’t mean it that way.’

  ‘Of course not.’

  ‘No, really, I didn’t.’ Molly glances at Hale in a knowing sort of way.

  ‘What is it?’ I watch her carefully.

  ‘Well, there might be a reason you knew what to do and when to do it,’ Hale says.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Do you remember that feeling you had, at the sphere?’

  ‘Yes,’ I say slowly.

  ‘That’s right.’ Hale reads my mind. ‘That’s it exactly. The thing is, we think that you might be … well, more than just time perceptive. We think you might be an interceptor and that the Terlaedians knew this. Somehow.’

  I sit up a bit. ‘What? So I’m not human after all?’

  ‘Oh, yes, you’re human,’ Hale replies.

  ‘Just with a little extra something,’ Jack adds.

  Molly nods in agreement. ‘I did wonder sometimes. But checking could have proved fatal if I’d been wrong.’

  ‘I have no idea what that means,’ I tell all three of them. But I’m already not liking the sound of it.

  ‘An interceptor,’ Hale tells me, ‘is someone with a gift. A gift for the timing of events.’

  I laugh a weak-sounding laugh at this. ‘Well, you’re wrong, then. That’s so not me.’ I shake my head. ‘You should have seen me when I tried skateboarding. I had no timing at all.’ But then I remember Molly and me playing tennis. Jack in the sphere. And I pause. ‘Yeah, well …’ I say, still not believing him. Anyway, wouldn’t Molly have worked it out by now if I was one of those interthings or whatever it was Hale said?

  ‘They’re very rare,’ Hale adds. ‘There are many who are gifted with time, but there are very few interceptors.’

  ‘Like, how many?’

  ‘Three. In the multiverse.’

  ‘Oh,’ I reply, not quite knowing if this is a good or a bad thing. ‘So,’ I look up and down the hall. I really want to get up and see Mum and Dad and Ethan, but I still feel kind of flattened. By both the boom and the interceptor news. ‘Where are we now?’

  ‘Earth,’ Hale says. ‘And they’re all fine, by the way. Still frozen, however.’

  ‘Wait. Earth? Is that safe?’ I hope they’re not relying on me to do anything else, because I don’t think I’m up to it.

  ‘It is now,’ Molly says.

  ‘What about the Terlaedians? Won’t they have another go?’

  Hale grimaces. ‘Doubtful, considering the Menterons, with your help, turned around the energy that was headed here and blasted them into another universe.’

  My eyes widen. ‘Wow, um … I guess they should have been better losers.’

  There’s a long pause.

  ‘Er, so I suppose that’s it, then? We’re finally back. On Earth. Our real home.’

  They all nod.

  ‘What about everyone else who was stuck in Peregrination?’ I ask. ‘Like Mrs Tippler and Mr Gregory and my teacher, Mr Henderson? And the kids from school?’

  ‘They’ve gone home. Ethan’s is the only other human family. It will be easy to create a backstory and establish a new home here for his family and yours.’

  ‘Huh,’ I say. How about that. ‘I guess that’s the universe saved and my duty done. The only question left to ask is – what on Morillius – I mean Earth – do I do now?’

  ‘Well,’ Molly starts, ‘first we need to choose somewhere to set down the house and start a life. I was thinking maybe Australia, if that’s okay with you. We could hang out. Be human. Hale’s even thinking of joining us.’

  ‘Really?’ my eyes widen.

  Hale shrugs slightly. ‘Well, you two are always talking up this human thing so much. I thought I might check it out. I believe I’m starting to get the hang of it.’

  ‘Even if it is messy?’ I ask.

  ‘Molly’s trying to convince me that’s what makes it – as she puts it – “so awesome”.’

  I laugh at this. ‘She’s probably right. You should listen to your sister more.’

  ‘That might very well be a good idea.’

  There’s a pause. ‘So, that’s it?’ I ask. ‘We’re all done?’

  Another pause. Then …

  ‘Well …’ Above me, Hale and Molly’s eyes meet and they speak in unison, with eerily perfect timing, ‘Now we know you’re an interceptor, there’s this little problem going on in another universe that needs sorting out …’

  Fear grips my body.

  And then, they laugh.

  ‘Only joking,’ Molly says, with an uncharacteristic grin …

  ‘Sort of.’

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thanks and extra pellets go to my usual crowd of guinea-pig readers – David, Mum and Dad, Nilly and Paul. And to the new, baby guinea-pig readers in the hutch, a big dish of chocolate-coated pellets for their thoughts – Joseph Visser and Daniel Aziz, you were a great help! Thanks also to the Morey family from Brisbane Boys’ College. Thanks to Anna McFarlane for all her support throughout the publication process. Thanks to Sara Megibow for always being only a quick email away. And, finally, thanks to the two Devon Rex cats who kept my lap constantly warm whilst writing this book – dignified Violet, who passed away halfway through and manic Claudia, the new kitten on the block.