“It is active,” said Slater, sighing. “The signal is now being transmitted throughout the five galaxies.”
“Do you think he’ll come?” said Darcy.
“I do not know.” Slater paused. “Abaddon is an infamous legend among my people. I suppose he stands for everything Axis Lords despise—idiosyncrasy, volatility, uncontrollability…”
Martin put his head in his hands. He was starting to get a headache. Strangely, Slater too seemed to be suffering. He rubbed his forehead.
“What’s the matter?” said Darcy, looking from Martin to Slater.
“Nothing,” said Martin. “Just got a bit of a headache, that’s all.”
“I am… I have…” Slater tailed off, and collapsed to the floor.
Martin and Darcy quickly knelt next to him. Martin took his pulse. It was very fast, but Martin didn’t know how fast Axis Lord pulses were supposed to be.
“Sir, sir,” said Martin, “can you hear me?”
Slater’s eyes flickered open.
“Michael,” he said weakly, forcing a smile. Then he suddenly cried out in pain.
“What can we do for you?” said Martin.
“Poisoned,” said Slater. “I… have been poisoned.”
Martin suddenly felt a horrible sinking feeling. The white powder, the powder from inside the red globe… they had all touched it.
“You need… to go to Valiant Star,” Slater croaked. “Go to the medical bay while you have… the strength. The computer will examine you.”
“Can you stand?” said Darcy.
Michael Slater shook his head. “Leave me. I am dying.”
“You can’t be,” said Martin. “Axis Lords have three lives, right? You haven’t used up all three already, have you?”
“No,” said Slater. “I am only in my first life. But it feels… different this time.”
Martin looked at the dying man. His face had become yellow, and his white hair was matted with sweat. His purple eyes had turned black. He turned to Darcy.
“We’ll carry him.”
Darcy nodded. Martin took hold of Slater’s arms and Darcy grabbed his legs.
“Just… go…” said Slater, but he was too weak to argue, and they began to carry him through the bright forest.
It was a long way back; they hurried on through the path that Slater had cut out through the jungle. Once, Martin nearly tripped over a tangle of vines, but managed to keep his balance.
Eventually, they passed through the large clearing from which they had first spotted the Ziggurat. It was filled with Hag-Mundi tribesmen. They pointed their bows at Martin and Darcy as soon as they entered the clearing. A tall man whose face was painted with white stripes shouted something.
Martin didn’t understand him, but he was gesturing downwards with his bow, and Martin guessed that he wanted them to put Slater down. With about thirty arrows pointed straight at him, Martin didn’t really have a choice.
They lowered Slater gently to the ground. The man shouted something again. Martin had an idea; he reached out towards Slater’s waistcoat pocket and pulled out his pocket watch. The tribesmen cried out in fear, but Martin slipped the watch into his pocket and held his hands up in surrender.
“We surrender,” said Martin.
The savages looked astonished. The pocket watch Martin was now carrying functioned as a translator—the Hag-Mundi could now understand him.
“What are you doing with White-Hair Man?” said the savage that Martin took for their leader.
“He’s sick,” said Martin. “We’re taking him to a doctor. You know—a medicine man.”
The savage nodded. He bent over Slater, but drew back in disgust when he saw the man’s eyes.
“He has Black-Eye disease!” shouted the savage.
The effect on the other savages was electric. They instantly dropped their bows and scrambled backwards into the jungle.
“Take him,” said the leader of the Hag-Mundi. “Take him away. Leave this place!”
The man looked as if he was going to be sick. He turned and ran after his fellow savages. Martin and Darcy quickly picked up Slater and carried him back towards the ship.
“I can see Valiant Star,” said Darcy.
“We’re nearly there, sir,” said Martin.
But Slater did not respond. Perhaps he was already dead. No, thought Martin, he can’t be…
Martin still wasn’t feeling very well himself. He felt faint and dizzy, and his headache was getting worse. Finally, they reached the ship and quickly carried Slater inside.
*
Martin and Darcy lifted Slater onto what looked like a hospital bed. The ship’s medical bay was comfortingly clinical; the room was lit by a bright white light and the whole place smelled like antiseptic.
“The… the green button,” said Slater, without opening his eyes.
Thank God he’s alive, thought Martin. He glanced at the control panel. There were many smaller buttons and switches, and a large green button in the centre. Martin pressed the button. A blue laser light swept over Slater.
“Scanning, scanning,” said the medical computer. “Scan complete. Patient has been poisoned.”
“Poisoned by what?” said Martin.
“Information unavailable. Commence purification.”
A green light moved slowly over Slater; it took about five minutes to make a complete sweep. Then the same light swept over him again. Martin fidgeted restlessly. Slater wasn’t moving or speaking at all now. Finally, the light switched off.
“Purification complete.”
Slater still didn’t move.
“Sir?” said Martin.
“Michael,” said Slater. He grinned, and sat up in the hospital bed. “All cured.”
Martin and Darcy both sighed with relief.
“I thought you were going to die,” said Darcy.
“So did I,” said Slater, “and I would have done without you two. Thank you.” He paused. “Strange kind of poison. It seems to have only affected me—I’ve never heard of a poison that only works on Axis Lords.”
“I’m feeling a bit ill, to be honest,” said Martin.
“Really?”
Michael Slater made him lie on the hospital bed while the computer scanned him.
“Patient has been poisoned. 50% poison concentration detected. Commence purification.”
Slater watched, fascinated, as the green light cured Martin’s poisoning. As the light swept over his body, Martin’s headache slowly vanished, and he felt much better again.
“Now you,” said Slater, pointing at Darcy.
Darcy lied down as the medical computer scanned her.
“Subject is healthy. No detected abnormalities.”
“Intriguing,” said Slater. “Only Martin and I were affected.”
They retired to the lounge and sat down in the comfortable armchairs.
“It’s funny,” said Martin. “The savages called it “Black-Eye Disease”. They were terrified when they saw that you were affected.”
Slater laughed. “Yes, the Hag-Mundi probably did not know that they could not catch it themselves.” His eyes darkened. “Someone has designed this,” he said slowly.
“What do you mean?” said Darcy.
“Well, think about it. That poison was in the relay device, ready to be distributed to all of the Axis planets. The poison must have been developed specifically to poison Axis Lords. Someone wanted to commit genocide.” He sighed. “I assume the poison is what killed all of the Axis Lords on Wormwood. The plan must have gone wrong, so the poison was never distributed, but still managed to wipe out thousands of my people.”
“I’m sorry,” said Martin.
Slater waved a hand. “Oh, it all happened a long time ago. We will probably never find out who was behind it.”
The man fell silent and fixed his purple eyes on Martin.
“The question is,” said Slater quietly, “why were you affected by the poison?”
Martin shrugged. “Ju
st unlucky, I suppose.”
Suddenly, Michael Slater cried out with pain.
“What’s wrong ?” said Martin.
“The poison did more damage than I thought,” said Slater weakly. “It is starting.”
“What is?” said Martin.
“It is time for me to start my second life,” said Slater.
He cried out again. Martin tried to go to him, but he held out a hand.
“No, stay back.” Slater closed his eyes. “This body was getting a bit old, anyway.”
The man’s face began to glow. And then the glow faded. He looked the same, except he was… younger.
Michael Slater leapt to his feet, and grinned at Martin and Darcy.
“Now that feels excellent!”
CHAPTER 7: GOLD RUSH
Tommy and Fire Opal were riding on horseback through Colorado. The trees were becoming sparser as they neared the Elk Mountains. The sun was hot and bright; it was almost mid-day.
“I need to rest soon,” said Fire Opal. “And so does my horse, I think.”
“OK,” said Tommy. “You’re such a girl.”
Fire Opal pretended to look offended. They rode towards Maroon Bells. The place, which was the most photographed spot in Colorado, was made up of two peaks, Maroon Peak and North Maroon Peak. But Tommy and Fire Opal were not there to take photographs. The year was 1849, and they were there to find some gold.
They stopped the horses by the glassy lake to let the horses drink. Tommy knelt down by the water and cupped his hands to take a drink. As soon as he touched the water, the entire lake shimmered strangely, becoming pixelated.
“Ha!” said Tommy. “I found a bug!”
“Well, it’s still in beta,” said Fire Opal.
They were actually still sitting in Fire Opal’s house in Florence. Her father, Laser Wolf, had become fascinated by the history of the American West, and had written a new program for the VDS machine. The VDS was a sort of virtual reality system invented by one of the Axis Lords in the City of Serenity.
“I just hope there are no dragons this time,” muttered Tommy.
Last time he had entered the VDS, it had been hijacked by Moonstone, who had tried to kill them by sending a dragon after them.
Fire Opal laughed. “No, no dragons.”
As soon as the horses had finished drinking, they sat in the shade of a row of trees, waiting for the hottest part of the day to pass.
“This is really cool,” said Tommy. “I can’t believe your dad designed this whole thing.”
“The system’s actually quite simple once you get the hang of it,” said Fire Opal. “I’ve been dabbling with it myself, actually—I’ll have to show you one of my programs some time.”
“Cool,” said Tommy.
They lied down beneath the trees in comfortable silence. Fire Opal rested her head on his chest. There was hardly a sound except for the light rustle of the breeze through the orange trees. Tommy sniffed.
“I found another bug,” he said, grinning.
“What?”
“I can smell pine trees, but look—there aren’t any pine trees. Just those weird orange ones.”
Fire Opal glanced at the trees without moving her head.
“These are Nissen trees,” she said. “They’re really common on Hope, but they don’t exactly belong in Colorado. Looks like father’s been cutting corners with the design.”
He laughed, and they fell silent again. Tommy stroked her hair slowly. Fire Opal raised her head to look into his eyes. Her eyes were bright and innocent, and her face was perfectly symmetrical.
“You’re perfect,” said Tommy, and kissed her.
Fire Opal blushed. “Tommy?”
“Yes?”
Then Fire Opal said the last thing that Tommy expected her to say.
“Will you marry me?”
Tommy choked. “What?”
“I… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to…” The girl sat up suddenly. “Did I say something wrong? I don’t really know much about human marriage customs.”
“Well, usually it’s the guy that asks the girl,” said Tommy. “And usually when people get married they’re quite a bit older than 16.”
“I’m sorry,” said Fire Opal, turning away.
Tommy put a soft hand on her arm and she turned back to face him.
“I didn’t say no,” said Tommy. “I would like to… you just took me by surprise, that’s all. I’m still at school. What would people think? Plus I hardly think my parents would—”
“Marriage is different on Hope,” said Fire Opal. “On Earth when you get married you’re expected to start living together straight away, maybe get a mortgage and think about having children. But we aren’t like that.” She held Tommy’s hand. “Axis Lords from the City of Serenity often get married when they are 15 or 16. For us, marriage is simply a way of making a promise to a person we love very much.”
Tommy stared at her, enchanted. He knew that he loved Fire Opal; there had never been any doubt about that. All throughout his life, Tommy had always felt somehow… unreal. As if he was just a caricature drawn by someone else, or an actor in someone else’s play. It was only after meeting Fire Opal that he finally felt like a real person; it was as if she completed him somehow.
“Yes,” said Tommy suddenly.
“What?”
“Yes,” said Tommy. “I would love to marry you, Fire Opal.”
Fire Opal’s eyes moistened with happiness.
“Oh, that’s…” She tailed off. “How old do you think I am, Tommy?”
He paused. “Dunno? About my age, I suppose. I’ve never really thought about it. 16?”
“I’m 21.” She looked down. “Does that… change anything?”
Tommy grinned. “If anything, it just makes you even hotter.”
They kissed again, and lied back beneath the alien trees.
*
Tommy and Fire Opal were riding through the wilderness, heading towards Treasure Mountain. Its original name had been Citadel Mountain. However, legend tells of a mission financed by Napoleon Bonaparte in the 1700s. In need of funds, Napoleon had sent around 300 men on a mining expedition. The men had left New Orleans and passed through Kansas towards the Rocky Mountains. Legend says that the men found a large amount of gold near Wolf Creek Pass. However, they were hunted by Native Americans who wanted a share of the gold. The Frenchmen had buried all of the gold near Treasure Mountain, which was supposed to be an easy marker to help them find it again. However, the Native Americans unthinkingly killed all of the Frenchmen, and so the secret of the treasure’s location died with them.
At least, that’s how the legend goes. Either way, Laser Wolf had designed the VDS program with the assumption that the legend was true. That was the point of this particular game—find the treasure and you win.
Eventually, Tommy and Fire Opal arrived at Treasure Mountain. They put down their packs by the nearby trees, and Tommy pulled the map from his pocket. It was an interactive map; an “X” marked the area where the treasure was buried, and a small blue arrow marked their current position.
“It’s really close,” said Tommy, “look.”
He rotated the map, getting his bearings. According to the map, the treasure was buried only a few metres away. He walked a few paces north, and stopped when the blue arrow was right on top of the “X”.
“It’s here,” he said, grinning.
“Here?”
Tommy nodded. “Right beneath my feet.”
Fire Opal pulled a pouch from her pocket. Inside were two small blue discs.
“I have two Tokens left,” she said. “Shall I use one?”
“Yeah, OK.”
Fire Opal crushed the Token between her fingers; it crumbled into pixels, and was transformed into some kind of glowing blue spade.
Tommy took the spade and pushed it into the dry earth. It was like magic; the spade slipped through the ground as if through tissue paper. Within a few seconds, Tommy had dug a very dee
p hole, and he could see a wooden box poking through the dirt. He scraped away the earth, and pulled the box out of the hole.
“I’ll let you open it,” said Tommy.
Fire Opal smiled, and opened the wooden box. It was filled with rocks. Tommy picked up one of the rocks. There were clearly large pieces of gold in the rock. He smiled.
“Looks like we did it.”
Suddenly, there was a rustle from the nearby trees. A man stepped out. He had a thick beard, a shiny belt, and leather-heeled boots.
“What’re yah doin’ with mah gold?” said the cowboy.
Tommy shrugged. “Stealing them, I suppose, if they’re yours.”
“Yah… yah… yah…” The man stuttered, his head jerking strangely. The game was obviously glitching again. “What’re yah doin’ with mah gold?” he repeated.
Tommy grinned at Fire Opal. “He’s not very realistic.”
“Realistic enough to point a gun at you,” said Fire Opal.
Tommy looked back; sure enough, the cowboy’s pistol was pointed straight at Tommy. Quick as a flash, Tommy whipped his gun from his holster and raised it.
But the cowboy was too fast; before Tommy could shoot, the man had already fired. As soon as he heard the gunshot, the world shimmered, and was replaced by the familiar sight of Fire Opal’s bedroom. Tommy groaned, and removed his yellow VDS helmet.
“So close,” he said. “Ah, well, I suppose we can give it another go some time. I need to be quicker on the trigger. But I’ll be ready for him next time.”
His girlfriend smiled. “Well, it was fun.”
“Yeah, it was.”
They sat back. Tommy still felt a rush of adrenaline. It was amazing how terrifying it was to have a gun pointed at you, even in a game.
“Sorry I didn’t have your back,” said Fire Opal. “I’ll have to use one of the Tokens to get a gun of my own next time.” She paused, smiling. “Do you still want to marry me even though I let you die?”
Tommy took both of her hands and kissed her.
“Of course. I love you, Fire Opal.”
“I love you, Tommy.”
Martin King and the Prison of Ice (Martin King Series) Page 6