The Jovian Legacy

by Lilla Nicholas-Holt

  The blinds in her bedroom were still down. Her bed sheets were pulled down but not messed up, telling them that she had only had a brief spell in bed. Andrea spotted Megan’s satchel that she always took to school. In it were her books ready for that day. Her link phone was still sitting on her bedside cabinet, showing that Andrea had left a message and numerous other calls from Jack trying to reach her. Andrea and Jack looked at each other in silence, knowing that something was definitely wrong. Megan always had her phone with her. Then Jack noticed the Lucre Box. He picked it up and opened it. It was empty.

  “What…what is she doing with this?” Jack had turned white.

  “What is it?” Andrea asked, starting to feel a little scared herself after seeing Jack’s reaction.

  “It’s a Lucre Box, I had one once,” Jack answered, not knowing why he felt so terrified of it.

  “A Lucre Box? Oh my goodness!” Andrea exclaimed, staring at it and backing away.

  “What?” he asked quickly.

  “They’re…evil. They were introduced by the Jovian secret criminal organisation, who made a habit of presenting them as a gift to people who they wanted to use for their benefit.” Andrea had to sit down as she suddenly felt sick.

  She held her stomach and took a deep breath. “They told people that it would bring them discovery and make the recipient feel like they were lucky to have it. Once the box was handled by its recipient it would create a hold over them.”

  “Sweet Mother of Jesus,” Jack whispered, bracing himself before slumping to the floor. He buried his head in his knees. He had a flashback of his tenth birthday and the present he received from Nick Findlay. He didn’t want to think about what might have happened if his parents hadn’t taken the box away from him on the pretence of taking it back to the shop. In any case, he told himself, he had no right to be thinking of his own welfare at a time like this.

  “Poor Megan - what have they done to her?” he cried, feeling helpless. His parents heard their raised voices and rushed into Megan’s room.

  Within an hour the family had a visit by Thebes Government officials. A law enforcement agency didn’t actually exist in Thebes, or anywhere else on Jovian, due to little crime.

  “So how come some scum out of the seven percent of Jovian’s population of crims had to single us out?” Jack questioned them angrily.

  This was the second meeting with Premier Tiberius, the first being when they were officially welcomed by him to their new, crime-free home. When Premier Tiberius and his team of Government officials finished offering their assurances that Megan would be found and returned, Ben and Nancy Dunlop felt relieved, but Jack wasn’t totally convinced. He always had the opinion that people in high places enjoyed giving out false senses of security, especially at election time when politicians made rash promises to secure more votes. That was in his old home country though.

  Something about their manner bugged him, however.

  That night Jack lay in bed and thought about his beloved girlfriend. His heart ached and he wanted to hold her, wanted to protect her. He knew he should have been there for her.

  “She’s only fifteen!” he said out loud. “Oh, God please don’t let anything happen to her.” Jack felt so scared for her, scared that she might be hurting. He burst into tears and sobbed, crying so much that his eyes stung. He drifted in and out of sleep throughout the night, getting only a couple of hours of decent sleep.

  In the morning Jack felt like he’d been run over by a bus. He felt depressed, and wondered how these scientists could transport them all the way from home, thirty-five light years across the universe to an unknown world, and then let this happen. Jack was going to see to it that Megan would be returned to him. He struggled with his morning routine and didn’t even bother to look in the mirror. He didn’t care how he looked anyway. It was only Megan he was concerned about.

  Ben and Nancy Dunlop had prepared some breakfast for him.

  “Jack,” his father exclaimed when he saw him, “you look like a toilet brush!”

  “Why would I care about that?” Jack said, scraping his chair up to the table.

  “Son,” his father began, giving him some slack, “you really have to keep your wits about you. You have to be strong for Megan’s sake. What’s she going to think when she comes home to a unkept lost soul? She’ll take one look at you and get on the first rocket back home!”

  “Okay, Dad, you made your point,” Jack muttered, cutting into this toast and egg.

  The Thebes Federation of Science offered him compassionate leave, telling him to return when he felt he was ready. Jack was grateful to them as he wouldn’t have been in any fit state to apply himself one hundred percent anyway.

  As time progressed Jack became increasingly impatient and frustrated. He knew the authorities were doing all they could, but to Jack it wasn’t enough. They had still not tracked down Megan’s abductors. He decided to take matters into his own hands. He had to make his own contact with them, but the only way he knew was through the Lucre Box. His Lucre Box, as obviously Megan’s Lucre Box was no good to him.

  How am I going to do that? It was somewhere on Earth. Jack had to think hard.

  That evening he stood out in his garden looking up at the night sky. It was ablaze with stars ten times bigger and brighter than the stars seen from Earth. He had an idea. Without wasting any time he threw his coat on and climbed into his utility air vehicle.

  Outside the Thebes Federation of Science building Jack swiped his card to let himself in. He ran up the internal rampway, the elevator slides earlier being switched off, and swiped his card again to enter into the restricted area where he worked. His nimble fingers flew over the keys, logging in to a program where he was able to initiate the link to his brain via the transmitter that he fixed to the base of his head.

  Jack typed in the date ‘20th July 1994’, the day his parents had held their garage sale. He had remembered the date because it was the first day his father had let him drive the car on the road, and had driven to the dump when they were clearing out their house. Jack was only twelve at the time, but the dump was close by up the road and he’d been nagging his father to let him have a drive on tarseal.

  Jack thought about the conversation he’d had with his father about the Lucre Box when they’d visited the Supreme Council of Antiquities that day. His father had told him that instead of taking it back to the shop he’d put it in a box in the garage sale.

  He pressed the ‘enter’ key.

  Jack finds himself behind the wheel of the car, his father in the passenger seat. It is an old Holden station wagon with a V6 motor so has plenty of grunt. And because Jack had inadvertently cast himself back into the middle of driving he automatically hits the brake. Bud, who is sitting in the trailer, lurches forward and slams his head into the front of the trailer, yelping in pain. Fortunately Ben has quick reflexes and shoots out his legs to brace himself.

  “Cripes, Jack, steady on!” his father shouts at him, “Whyja do that?”

  “Sorry, Dad, I…I thought I’d run over a cat,” Jack stammers, searching for an excuse. He slows right down and drives on, aware that his father is still glaring at him. He thinks he might have blown his father’s trust with the car.

  When they return from the dump, Jack quickly goes looking for his Lucre Box. His father finds him ratting around in amongst the stuff that he’d already put out for the garage sale. Still annoyed with his son Ben tells him to stop messing things up and go and help his mother with the other boxes. Jack thinks he can afford a little time, as he had keyed in two hours, and doesn’t want to upset his father any further, so he leaves the garage boxes alone, making a mental note of where he’d already looked, and goes inside.

  Nancy is pushing cardboard boxes of linen across the floor to be stacked up against the passage wall. Jack helps her empty out the linen cupboard, keeping an eye on the time. He needs to find the Lucre Box, and begins to hurry. Nancy is surprised that her son is being so helpful, and so q
uick. Pleased, she sits down and lets him do all the packing, all the while wondering what has gotten into him.

  When the last of the boxes are stacked Jack wipes his hands on his jeans and asks if there is anything else to do, hoping like crazy that his mother says no. When she does, Jack goes to see if the coast is clear. He sees his father busy on the phone so seizes the moment, slipping back into the garage and begins rummaging through the boxes again. So focused on searching is he that he doesn’t notice a car stopping outside his house, nor does he hear the men approach. Jack hears someone clear his throat, and thinking his father has caught him out, becomes annoyed.

  Without looking up he says, “Look Dad, I really have to find something that shouldn’t have gone into these boxes.” There is a pause before he hears that thick accent again.

  “Are you looking for this?” asks the stout little man. Jack jerks his head around to see the two men from the black Volvo Estate. In the man’s hands is his Lucre Box. He stands up, cautious, brushing himself off.

  “I think so,” Jack says, eyeing them warily.

  “And may we ask why you wish to have it?” the taller man asks.

  “What’s it to you?” Jack snaps, but then thinks better of it. “Sorry, but I don’t even know how you’ve come to have it, but if you must know, I have to use it to reach my friend.”

  “Aah, yes, your young friend, Megan. She’s lovely, isn’t she?” The man has a greasy sneer across his face.

  Fear shoots through Jack like a knife. “You know her? You know where she is?”

  “Don’t worry,” the little man assures, “she is in safe hands. She will not be harmed in any way.” Somehow it doesn’t cut it with Jack.

  The taller man speaks again. “We are representatives of Jovian. My name is Tutankhaten, and this is Tutankhamen.”

  More like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Jack thinks, unimpressed.

  Tutankhaten continues talking, “If you wish to see your friend again you may, but your friend, or should I say cousin, is now under our jurisdiction. We have great plans for her.”

  Now anger shoots through Jack. “You miserable piece of crap, you obviously aren’t human!”

  The two men look at each other and pretend to be offended. “Well, I’m sorry that you feel that way. Do you wish to be with your friend, or do you wish to remain here?” Tutankhamen says, holding out the Lucre Box.

  Jack sees his father peering out the window at them and has to think on his toes. He takes the box.

  As the men disappear down the driveway Jack holds the box in both hands. His father is hurriedly making his way across the lawn. Jack stares anxiously at his father as he approaches. He runs his fingers over the gold inscription of the Lucre Box and a luminous green light shines over his hand. He feels a tingling sensation run up his arm and overcome his body. Jack is being levitated off the ground. When his father reaches the garage door he stops short, in disbelief to be seeing his son suspended in mid air. Ben Dunlop watches in horror as a bolt of green light shoots towards Jack from the heavens and envelope his body. Jack and his father are still making eye contact when Jack liquefies and dissolves into thin air.

  For a few moments Jack experiences weightlessness in blackness, then feels his feet make contact with a carpeted floor. He finds himself in a dimly lit room, unbeknown to him the same room that Megan had found herself in. At that point a tall woman with flawless skin and shiny black hair with a blunt fringe strolls into the room.

  Cleopatra? Jack asks himself, amused. She is exceptionally beautiful. The young woman smiles at Jack and introduces herself as Sobek. Jack instantly feels at ease with her; to him she possesses an aura that exudes warmth.

  “I believe your name is Jack and you are a friend of Megan’s, yes?” Sobek speaks with great eloquence.

  Jack isn’t concerned at all about the situation he is in, he merely wants to reach Megan. And this woman in front of him is talking to him in a manner to which he isn’t accustomed. She is talking down to him, but in a nice way. At that moment Timos wanders into the room.

  “Hello, you must be Jack. I’m Timos,” he greets, holding out his hand. Jack looks at the extended hand and offers his own for a half-hearted handshake. Timos glances at his sister and they smile at each other.

  “I believe you are here to see your cousin,” Timos states coldly, his hands clasped in front of him.

  “Where is she?” Jack abruptly asks, ignoring the fact that this man had called Megan his cousin.

  “Hold on, Son,” Timos replies. “She’ll be here in a minute or two, but I think you are both in for a surprise.” He grins at Sobek again. Jack becomes annoyed with them. They obviously have some little secret going on between them which he isn’t privy to nor does he have time for. And it riles him to be talked down to. They make him wait for ages before he hears voices approaching the door. It is the familiar sweet voice of his Megan. She sounds frantic to be allowed into the room. Jack strides towards the door as it opens and Megan rushes in. Jack’s heart jumps as their eyes meet. He starts to move towards her when she shows surprise, staring at him blankly. She takes a step backwards. She then moves around him and looks frantically around the room. Jack is confused.

  Oh my God! he thinks, they must have brainwashed her. My poor Megan!

  Megan turns to Timos and asks in a desperate voice, “Where is he?”

  Timos grins at Sobek once again and gestures towards Jack. Jack, in turn, looks keenly at Megan, who stares at him like she doesn’t know him. His heart does pirouettes in his chest. She looks so lost.

  “What cruel game are you playing?” Megan cries, “this isn’t Jack! What have you done with him?” Her expression changes to one of exasperation.

  Feeling confused himself, Jack begins to reassure her that he is who they say he is, when it hits him.

  “Of course! Oh Man!” Jack cries out. He finally comprehends that because he’d gone back in time to retrieve his Lucre Box, he is only twelve years old! He looks up in vain at Timos, who is snickering to himself with his hand over his mouth. Sobek is actually looking quite saddened by it all.

  At least she’s showing some compassion, he considers.

  Jack begins to explain to Megan how the only way he could’ve reached her was through his Lucre Box, and in order to reclaim it he’d had to go through his computer, and back in time.

  Megan thankfully understands, but it is still upsetting for her, and it becomes too weird for her to hug him. Another thing dawns on Jack. He had only keyed in two hours, so that meant…

  Oh shite! What a mess. How do I get Megs back now when I’m not myself! He looks appealingly at Sobek, who quickly looks away.

  She can help us, I know she can, thinks Jack staring at her, willing her to become aware of how he feels. He comprehends that Timos is summoning him up. It is as if he is reading his mind.

  Timos steps in between Jack and Megan, announcing, “Your cousin is here to stay.” His expression is packed tight with menace.

  Megan becomes frightened.

  Jack’s anger explodes. “You have no right to keep her here against her will, you piece of shit!”

  “Settle down, boy, she’ll be fine,” Timos patronises him. “We have big plans for your cousin. When you come back and visit again you’ll have your choice of, well, Megans…” he says with a stifled laugh.

  “W…what the hell are you talking about?” Jack asks him. His face drains of colour.

  “I’m sure your lovely cousin will explain,” Timos gloats.

  “Jack,” Megan begins, “they intend to clone me…over and over…” Her voice trails off.

  Jack feels his blood boil. “You maggot!” he shouts at Timos. “Let her go! Who the hell are you? What the hell are you?”

  “Just a med student who knows his stuff,” Timos proudly states. “By the way, I’m not alone in this. Your friendly visitors Tutankhaten and Tutankhamen front our organisation. We have a large team of highly skilled scientific medical intellectuals who will be perfo
rming the five-year cloning program.”

  “Five years?” Jack cries.

  “Why me?” Megan protests.

  “You are of superior stock my dear,” Timos announces emphatically. “The Jovian scientists who cloned you in the first instance did a brilliant job, and it has led the way for our team to carry out our mission - to create our new ruler.”

  “What? With a whole lot of minnie mees?” Megan angrily asks, though at the same time thinks it a little humorous, even a compliment, to be referred to as ‘superior stock’.

  Timos observes her expression. “I’m so pleased you are finally thawing out my dear. After all, we won’t be needing to do it the old-fashioned way, with frozen eggs, now will we?”

  Jack yells without thinking, “You leave her eggs alone!” He glances sharply at Megan who had uttered a stifled laugh, but then gives him a look that shows a great deal of love.

  Megan wants her Jack back so badly, and she wants to go home.

  Jack also wants his old self back. He approaches her and holds out his arms. With some hesitation Megan welcomes his embrace, wrapping her arms around his neck, even though to her at that moment it is like hugging a much younger brother.

  Jack found himself back in the restricted room where he worked at the research centre. “Oh cripes, my time ran out!”

  How the hell am I going to get Megs back now? he frantically wondered.

  He sat in the room until late, his whole being filled with dread. Jack fell asleep right there at his computer desk, woken by a colleague arriving for work the next morning.

  “Jack Dunlop. What? Did you sleep here?” his colleague asked, surprised. Jack merely looked at his workmate, forlorn and dishevelled.

  “Go home Jack,” he told him. “You’re not going to be of any use to us in this state, are you? By the looks of it you need a thoroughly good sleep. Go home, Son.”

  That’s the second time in as many hours I’ve been called ‘Son’, thought a disgruntled Jack, but did as he was told.

  It proved to be one of the most serious crimes that the Government of Thebes had encountered. The disappearance of a person, especially a newcomer such as Megan, was taken very seriously indeed. Within a few days Megan had become a household name. A huge spherically-shaped image of her, ten stories high, was cast over office buildings in the middle of the city. It that showed a three-dimensional image of Megan’s smiling face, along with wording beneath in English and Egyptian, giving details of Megan’s circumstances. Everyone seemed genuinely concerned for her well-being. Strangers approached Jack and his family in the street, offering their help. People of all ages came knocking on their door offering support. His work friends that called in on him were especially supportive, although one of them said he looked like a hairy stick insect. At least it made Jack lighten up a little. No-one else was able to cheer him up.