Martin King and the Prison of Ice (Martin King Series)

by James McGovern

  “It seems deserted,” said Martin, glancing around.

  “Yes,” said Agamon. “The surface of the planet is uninhabited. The Axis Lords reside within the Dome.”

  Agamon pointed towards a large glass dome in the distance, which was supported by a bronze skeleton. It was so large that Martin couldn’t see the whole of it.

  “But why?” said Martin. “This place is beautiful. Are there high levels of radiation or something?”

  Agamon shook his head. “No. And I wouldn’t mention beauty around the Axis Council if I were you. Discussion of aesthetics is illegal on Hope.”

  It felt strange that he was actually part Axis Lord. They seemed so different from humans. But then again, Martin had always felt different from everyone else around him. Perhaps he was more like an Axis Lord than he wanted to admit.

  “We need to head towards the Dome,” said Agamon. “Here, wear this.”

  “What is it?”

  “A teleport bracelet. They are already linked to the ship. If the Axis Lords try anything, I will activate the bracelets and we will be transported back to the Intrepid.”

  “Right.”

  Martin and the Axis Lord walked towards the Dome, their shoes crunching on the hard snow. Martin knew that if Darcy was there she would have a hard time resisting the urge to throw snowballs. The Dome loomed over them. They eventually reached it, and Agamon turned to Martin.

  “Now, the Council of the Axis Lords is the most powerful government in the entire universe. They rule over an empire that stretches across the entire Axis belt, and even beyond. Their dominion is spreading even outside the confines of the Blue galaxy and into yours. So, whatever you do, be respectful.”

  Martin nodded.

  “Put this on,” said Agamon, handing Martin a Deceiving Necklace.

  Martin put it on, and his appearance changed. He suddenly looked like a young Axis Lord. They entered the Dome. The interior of the Dome was filled with hundreds of pathways and staircases; it was almost like a maze. Millions of Axis Lords were moving about inside. The Dome stretched on for miles and miles.

  “Follow me,” said Agamon.

  Martin followed the alien as he led him towards the council room. A few Axis Lords greeted Agamon as they passed; evidently not everyone knew he was a criminal.

  “Agamon?” said Martin.

  “Yes?”

  “What happened to Falcon?”

  Last time Martin had seen Falcon, he had been captured by the Axis Lords to be put on trial for his actions.

  “He escaped,” said Agamon, smiling.

  Martin laughed with delight. “Really?”

  “Oh, yes. Nobody knows his current whereabouts.”

  “That’s brilliant! I wonder where he is now…” said Martin.

  He followed Agamon up a flight of moving stairs. They then walked along a narrow path. Martin looked down nervously. The path was over 100 metres from the ground. He wobbled unsteadily.

  Agamon turned, smiling. “Ah, I see that perfect balance is one Axis Lord trait that you don’t possess. But don’t worry. There’s a gravity net. If you fall off it will catch you.”

  “Oh.”

  Martin still didn’t feel very safe as he walked along the high path. But he didn’t fall, and they reached a large grey door.

  “The council room is through here,” said Agamon. “I used to be an important member of this council, and now I’m nothing but a castaway.” He turned to Martin. “Remove your Deceiving Necklace.”

  Martin did as he said. Agamon sighed. The Axis Lord seemed quite nervous. Martin could hear loud voices from inside; the council seemed to be arguing about something. The Axis Lord pushed the door open, and they stepped into the council room. The council fell silent.

  “Good fortune,” said Agamon. “We have much to discuss.”

  “You!” said Anova, looking disgusted. “And you have brought a human here?”

  “Like I say, we have much to discuss. May we sit down?”

  Without waiting for permission, Agamon waved a hand and two luxurious armchairs appeared. They sat down, facing the council.

  “How dare you come back here?” said Anova. “How dare you return after everything you have done?”

  “Enough, Anova,” said Nymon. “Speak, Agamon. Why have you returned?”

  “I have come to ask you to reconsider,” said Agamon. “I urge you to see reason.”

  Orbin sighed. “We have already discussed the matter and agreed on a solution. There can be no more debate.”

  “Why do you care so much about the humans?” said Ilyssa.

  “I care because they are intelligent beings,” said Agamon. “And I bring proof that they are not so much different from ourselves.”

  Agamon gestured to Martin.

  “I do not understand,” said Nymon.

  “This boy is a product of breeding between a human and an Axis Lord,” said Agamon.

  Anova snorted. “Impossible.”

  “See for yourself,” said Agamon. “Sorry, Martin, this might sting a little.”

  Agamon took a device from his pocket and attached it to Martin’s arm. Martin felt a sharp prick; the Axis Lord removed the device.

  “Observe,” said Agamon.

  The machine projected an image over the table. It was a DNA molecule, but it looked strange. One of one of the nucleotide strands was spiky and angular.

  Daniz gasped. “Half human, half Axis Lord.”

  “This does not change anything,” said Anova. “Bringing this abomination to us does not mean that we will spare the Earth.”

  Nymon stood up and walked over to Martin. He paused, staring at Martin. Slowly, he put his fingers to Martin’s temples.

  “You have the intellect of an Axis Lord,” he said quietly.

  Martin felt quite uncomfortable, but said nothing. Nymon sighed slowly. “It’s all coming true.”

  Martin shivered. “What is?”

  Nymon returned to his seat, slowly, and looked at Agamon.

  “A very long time ago, the Custodian of the Axis Lords made two prophecies.” He turned to Martin. “The first was that your parents, Charles and Aurora King, would bring about the end of the universe.”

  Martin nodded. “I heard.”

  “The second,” Nymon went on, “was that four Axis Lords and four humans would build an empire to rival the council’s supremacy. We have tried to keep both prophecies secret—that is why we banned the use of Foretellers.”

  “Why did I not know this?” said Agamon.

  “We kept it a secret from you, too, Agamon. You see, you are one of the Axis Lords involved in the second prophecy. You are prophesied to be part of that future empire.”

  Martin glanced at Agamon; the man’s face was white.

  “We hoped that by suppressing the prophecy we could prevent its fulfilment.”

  Agamon sighed. “Believe me, I have no wish to subjugate the council.”

  “And yet you will,” said Nymon. “Unless we stop you.”

  “Listen to me,” said Agamon. “I resigned from the council, but that was only to save the Earth. I have no wish to stand against you in any other respect.”

  “You lie,” said Anova.

  “Even if you are telling the truth,” said Nymon. “We cannot take that risk. I am sorry, but you brought this upon yourself by coming here.”

  Nymon took a gun from under the table and pointed it at Agamon.

  “No!” shouted Martin.

  “You cannot execute me without a trial,” said Agamon. “That would be a total violation of Axis Lord law. And I know that Axis Lord laws cannot be bent.”

  “Some things are so serious that rules must be broken,” said Nymon. “We cannot risk the downfall of our race.”

  “But killing me would be illegal!”

  “I know,” said Nymon.

  “At least let me have my last request,” said Agamon. “Show me that courtesy.”

  Nymon hesitated; then he nodded.


  “Very well.”

  “My last request is to be able to offer this gold bracelet as a gift to the council. I promise that it is not harmful.”

  Nymon nodded. Slowly, Agamon reached to his wrist. But instead of taking off the bracelet, he pressed a switch on the side. Suddenly, Agamon and Martin King vanished.

  *

  Martin and Agamon were back in the control room of the Intrepid. Agamon breathed out slowly and set a course for Earth.

  “I can’t believe they were just going to shoot you,” said Martin. “What do you think they’d have done with me?”

  “Studied you, I expect.”

  “So we’re going back to Earth now?”

  Agamon smiled. “Valdragor Slater is trying to disable the Axis missiles with your two friends. I doubt that they will get very far without my expertise.”

  “So how do we stop them?”

  “Axis missiles are incredibly powerful, Martin. It may not be possible even for me to stop them. Valdragor Slater’s plan is probably the best—to divert them into the City of Serenity. I just don’t know how he plans to divert them.”

  Martin paused. “Those prophecies—the ones that the Axis Lords mentioned—do you think they’re true?”

  “Possibly, Martin, possibly.”

  “So you, three other Axis Lords and four humans are going to start some kind of empire?”

  Agamon smiled. “So the prophecy says. Intriguing, isn’t it?”

  “And the other one,” said Martin, speaking more quietly, “the one about my parents destroying the universe. What about that?”

  “It might be true,” admitted Agamon. “But at the moment neither prophecy makes that much sense. First we must focus on the issue at hand—we must stop the Axis Lords from destroying Earth.” He smiled. “Then we can worry about the prophecies.”

  Michael Slater, Tommy and Darcy were all sitting in the lounge of Slater’s ship, Valiant Star. They were all leaning over a large wooden table that was covered with maps, charts, and other documents. Slater smiled when Martin and Agamon entered the room.

  “Ah, hello! Any luck?”

  “No,” said Agamon. “The Axis Lords refused to change their course of action. They even threatened to kill me.”

  Slater sighed. “It is unfortunate, but hardly unexpected. It looks as if war is unavoidable after all.”

  “We haven’t made much progress,” said Darcy. “We can’t work out any way to divert the missiles.”

  “It is true,” admitted Slater. “You see, all of the thirty missiles are connected on the same network. If I could just hack into one missile—well, I could alter the course of all of them.”

  “Then what’s the problem?” said Martin.

  “I cannot even hack into one. The network has so many layers of security, and they’re all quantum-connected. Even if I managed to break one layer all of the others would shift to compensate for it.”

  “Damn,” said Agamon.

  “The frustrating thing is that the actual code to change the direction of the missiles is so simple.” Slater held up a small device that looked a little like a memory stick. “The code on this device would do it. But there is no way of getting the code into one of the missiles.”

  Martin suddenly had an idea.

  “How easy would it be to physically put the code in?” he said.

  Slater smiled. “Are you thinking what I think you are?”

  “I can fly to the missile,” Martin explained, “and put the code in manually.”

  “Wonderful,” said Slater. “It just might work. I can enable wireless transmission, so all you would need to do is attach this device to the missile.”

  “I’m not sure about this,” said Darcy, grabbing hold of Martin’s hand.

  “Trust me, Darcy,” said Martin.

  Darcy sighed.

  “When will the missiles pass into the Earth’s atmosphere?” said Agamon.

  Tommy glanced at a small screen that Slater had asked him to monitor.

  “About two hours,” he said.

  “Good,” said Martin. “I’ve got time for a coffee first, then.”

  *

  Two hours later, Martin was standing on the roof of Valiant Star, staring up at the sky. It was getting dark, and stars were beginning to shine through the black. The Axis Lord ships were still hanging in space like tiny golden dots. But there were other shapes, too—burning blue ones. Martin knew that the blue shapes were the Axis missiles. It was only a few seconds before they broke through the Earth’s atmosphere. Then Martin had to disable them.

  Martin slipped the oxygen mask over his face that Slater had given him. He knew that Slater, Agamon, Darcy and Tommy were all still in the ship beneath him. None of them could fly, so it was all down to Martin—if he failed, the Earth would be completely destroyed.

  Martin took a deep breath.

  I can do this, he thought. I’ve done things like this before. Last year I saved the world from Moonstone. I’m the reason everyone on this planet is still alive.

  He glanced at his indestructible watch. Five seconds to go. He took another breath. Five, four, three, two, one—

  Martin took off into the sky; he travelled sharply upwards at the highest speed he could manage. He had never flown so fast before. He felt the wind rushing past him; even with the oxygen mask he was finding it harder to breathe, but he didn’t have time to stop. He reached the blue missiles. They were hurtling towards Earth at a remarkable speed. He remembered what Slater had told him.

  “Whatever you do, do not touch the front of the missile. If you do, it will detonate and you will be blown into pieces. Approach the missiles from above and attach the magnetic device to the top of one of the missiles.”

  Martin followed Slater’s instructions; he passed the missiles and flew above them. Then he began to descend. The missiles were fast, and Martin struggled to catch them up. But he managed it, and dropped down onto one of the missiles. Riding it like a horse, Martin reached into his pocket and pulled out the magnetic device.

  Struggling to keep hold of the missile, Martin placed the device on the missile. It stuck firm, and Martin grinned. He jumped off the missile and began to fly higher. From his vantage point, he could see the missiles heading for Earth, spreading out. A few missiles were aimed at every continent.

  Then, amazingly, the missiles began to change direction. Martin climbed higher, wanting to see their course more clearly. The missiles were all starting to head in the same direction. It had worked. They were all heading towards the City of Serenity! Breathing a sigh of relief into the oxygen mask, Martin began to fly back towards Valiant Star. He landed on the roof of the ship and climbed back inside.

  “It worked!” he said. “The missiles are heading into the city.”

  “Then we’re safe!” said Slater. “The explosion will be contained. Oh, well done, Martin.”

  “Er… seems like we’re not out of trouble yet,” said Tommy. “Look.”

  He pointed at the monitor. Martin had a horrible sinking feeling. All of the missiles had changed course—except for one.

  “The missile is heading straight for Valiant Star,” said Slater. “They must have managed to override my code.”

  “Damn!” said Agamon.

  “What are we going to do?” said Tommy, starting to panic.

  “Leave it to me,” said Darcy suddenly.

  “Why, what are you going to do?” said Martin.

  “Don’t argue—any of you. Just let me up, now!”

  Slater flicked a switch and the ladder leading up to the ship’s roof appeared. Darcy climbed out onto the roof; Martin followed her. The missile was close. In less than a minute they would all be obliterated.

  “What are you doing?” said Martin.

  “Something desperate,” said Darcy.

  She raised both arms and powerful streams of fire shot from her hands. Martin had never seen her create such intense fire. The fire engulfed the missiles… and they vanished. There wasn�
�t even an explosion. The fire had been so powerful that the missiles had turned to dust.

  “Nicely done!” said Martin. Then he noticed the dust from the missiles falling towards them. “We’d better go in.”

  Darcy and Martin dropped back inside the ship.

  “Quickly,” said Martin. “Darcy’s stopped the missiles but now radioactive dust is falling from the sky.”

  Michael Slater leapt to his feet and activated a control on a keypad; there was a sound like a huge fan from outside the ship.

  “Valiant Star is cleaning up the air,” Slater explained. “The humans below will be perfectly safe.” He smiled at Darcy. “Well done!”

  Martin sighed and collapsed into one of the leather armchairs.

  “So we’re safe now?” said Tommy.

  Agamon laughed. “Hardly. The Axis Lords will not give up that easily. They will simply try another tactic.”

  Slater nodded. “That’s true. I suggest we join Mulciber in raising support. We need as much help as we can get if we are to stand against the Axis Lords.”

  “So we’re raising an army now?” said Darcy.

  “Yes, Darcy,” said Agamon. “We are.”

  CHAPTER 13: THE BATTLE ISLAND

  Martin switched on the television. It was nearly time for the broadcast. He was sitting with Darcy and Tommy in his apartment. The entire world was waiting to watch the broadcast; it was going to be translated into every major language.

  The people of Earth had not forgotten about Moonstone, or the inexplicable storms. And then the Axis spaceships had arrived. Martin glanced out of the window. There were two ships suspended over London. They were silver-coloured and disc-shaped. The Axis Lord ships were hovering over every major country in the world.

  The humans had finally realised how small their planet really was—and how defenceless they really were.

  And they were terrified.

  A broadcast to every country on Earth had been organised, which was due to be shown in a few seconds. Martin and his friends did not speak. The BBC 1 presenter looked at the camera.