The Jovian Legacy

by Lilla Nicholas-Holt

  The Thebes government had pulled out all the stops to locate Megan. They knew the secret organisation well, and knew what it was capable of doing.

  Chapter 11

  Megan had not felt so scared and lonely in all her life. She had sacrificed her family in New Zealand to begin a new life on a different planet with Jack and his parents, and couldn’t believe that she was now in a completely different environment again. An alien environment. All she wanted to do was to go home, back in her mother’s arms, safe and sound. As reality set in Megan began to sob. But she knew she had to be strong, and felt better after a good cry.

  Maybe this whole thing is a dream and I’ll wake up in my own bed again, she thought optimistically.

  She was being held in some kind of clinical building with plain white walls and ceilings, the starkness broken only by a deep red colour around the architraves and skirtings. The décor was consistent right throughout the entire building. Vast corridors went on endlessly, with smaller passages branching off them.

  Megan was escorted by Sobek into a room and was asked to undress and put on a hospital gown.

  She was about to object when Sobek said, “Don’t be afraid. You will not be harmed. The doctors merely want to run some tests.”

  “How can you calmly stand there and say that? Even I know it’s illegal to be doing anything medically to me against my will. They have no right! Keep them away from me!” Megan protested, upset. Sobek touched Megan at the base of her neck and Megan felt drowsy, nearly asleep. She guided Megan to a bed.

  “I’m sorry,” Sobek apologised as she began to undress her and put the gown on her. She was genuinely sorry for Megan. She pressed a red square button by the door and left. Her duty was done; she had no participation in the rest of the procedure.

  Timos came in with five doctors and a nurse. One of the doctors pressed a button and Megan’s bed glided into a long transparent chamber. A white mist sprayed into the chamber and enveloped Megan, with rays of colour travelling up and down her body like iridescent hula hoops. She was kept in the chamber for six days, her sustenance being dispensed through a breathing apparatus. When the procedure was completed, Megan was taken into another part of the building and cared for by Sobek until she awoke. Megan had no idea that she had been asleep for six days and thought she was still in the throes of contesting her freedom, when Sobek placed a tray of refreshments beside her.

  Megan sat bolt upright. “Sobek, I’m not wearing that gown. Leave me alone!” Sobek handed her the hot drink, which Megan thought tasted absolutely delicious, calming her down instantly. She suddenly felt ravenous. Sobek sat the tray of food on her lap, and Megan ate hungrily amidst groans of appreciation.

  “I have to hand it to you people,” Megan softened. “Your food is incredibly delectable!”

  Sobek smiled back. “I’m glad you like it,” she said. Somehow, in a bizarre kind of way, Megan felt she had a friend that she could trust and confide in, even though she wasn’t supposed to. Sobek was with ‘them’, and was also Timos’s sister.

  A brighter Megan finished her meal and washed her hands. As warm soapy water sprayed onto her hands, Megan asked, “What’s going to happen to me, Sobek?”

  Sobek cleared away the tray. In her eloquent and articulate voice she explained, “They have already commenced the procedure. You have been unconscious for almost a week.” Her tone was sincere. Megan was dumbstruck.

  “You mean to tell me that these…these monsters have already tampered with my body?” Megan began to tremble. Sobek looked like she genuinely felt sorry for Megan, and touched her hand.

  Megan immediately felt calm again. She sat down on the bed and sighed. “Can I go home now? Please?”

  “Megan,” Sobek explained with empathy. “Our organisation has commenced the procedure of cloning you, and it intends to monitor progress over the next five years. I do not morally agree with what they are doing, but I am not at liberty to release you. I have been assigned to take care of your personal welfare, but I am unable to help you return to your family.”

  With an anguished expression Megan stared at her, then blankly at the wall, feeling completely and utterly helpless. Sobek looked saddened.

  Over the next few weeks Megan was submitted to various medical procedures by the organisation, while she and Sobek began to develop a friendship.

  During the evening, after Megan had eaten, she thought she’d go for a walk along the building’s vast corridors. She had walked for a while before passing an ominous looking doorway. Curious, she slipped inside and quickly and quietly shut the door behind her. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The room was filled with oval-shaped transparent cylinders, and inside each cylinder floated a foetus suspended in liquid and joined to an umbilical cord attached to the ceiling of it. Bizzarely it felt like she was looking inside a womb, her womb, as Megan knew these must be her clones. There were dozens of them. A shiver ran up her spine as she approached one of the cylinders. The foetus was curled up like a snail. At that moment one of its little, not-yet-properly-formed hands moved. Megan found it incredible to think that these were not an elaborate creation of life-like dolls; they actually were human beings.

  Megan beings! She was absolutely gobsmacked. Below the foetus was Egyptian wording, along with several symbols, which, she knew, interpreted to Clone 23. Megan surveyed the room again.

  “This is just craziness!” she said out loud.

  Chapter 12

  Jack had lost ten kilos and was the shadow of the man he once was. He’d returned to work where he went through the motions of his duties. Most of the time he focused on trying to work out how he could get back to Megan without going back in time. If only he had kept his Lucre Box. He cursed his father for secretly putting it in the garage sale.

  Then he had an idea. It was a long shot, but it could work.

  He drove home, went straight to Megan’s bedroom and picked up her Lucre Box. He lifted the lid and looked inside. It was lined with the same red felt fabric as his had been. He placed the box in his carry bag and drove back to the Thebes Federation of Science, swiped his entry card and locked the door behind him.

  Jack sat down at his computer, placed the transmitter at the base of his neck, and quickly typed in a date and a duration of time of only five minutes. Within moments he was back at his old house again on his tenth birthday, when Nick Findlay had given him his Lucre Box. He found himself sitting on his bed and went over to the chest of drawers where he’d left his Lucre Box. He then held onto the box tightly and waited. In a couple of minutes he was back in his computer room. Jack hoped and prayed that his plan had worked. He looked down to see his box still in his hands.

  “Yes! I did it!” he cried, “I did it!!”

  He then wondered if his next hunch was going to prove correct. On his worktable he placed his box beside Megan’s, and, with bated breath he eased them close together though not touching. He was right. Her box was so shaped that it formed one half of his box, his one shaped in the opposite fashion, so they fitted perfectly together. Jack was so excited that he started moving his hips around in a queer way. (He never really knew how to dance.) There was something else he noticed. When he pushed the two Lucre Boxes close together they formed an Egyptian symbol. He hadn’t picked up the language as quickly as Megan had, and had to refer to his Egyptian Dictionary tablet. After a while, Jack deciphered the symbol.

  Soul mates.

  A shrill of excitement shot through him. “Awesome!”

  “We’re meant to be together after all. We’re meant to be!” he repeated, dancing again.

  His little discovery put him at ease, a feeling that had become alien to him over the last few weeks, ever since Megan had disappeared. It was like he knew that they’d be together again soon. He felt sure of it now, even though there was no way they could ever get around this cousin thing.

  Jack became aware of his poor state of health and appearance, so he began to pull himself together. After all, he couldn’t let Megan
see him like this. With Jack’s state of mind on the mend, things started to fall into place. In a few weeks Jack gained his weight back to his normal self and his skin developed a healthier colour from better eating. Jovian food was especially healthy and tasty, so it wasn’t a particularly hard thing to achieve.

  Now it was only a matter of time.

  He waited until he was fully prepared for his next venture. The plan was to reach Megan and bring her back with him. Jack felt reasonably sure of how he’d get to her, but wasn’t totally confident about the return. In fact, he didn’t have any idea of how he would get back to Thebes let alone bring Megan back with him. If he was able to travel with the boxes joined together then it could work, but there was no guarantee.

  He knew it was definitely worth trying.

  Jack told his folks that evening of his plan, as he didn’t know whether or not he would see them again if he was unable to return.

  “Son, you don’t know who you’re dealing with and what these people are capable of. They’re evil. Please don’t go near those damned Lucre Boxes,” his father pleaded.

  “I have to do this, Dad, it’s the only way,” Jack said adamantly.

  “The Government of Thebes is investigating. They’ll find Megan and bring her back,” his father pressed.

  Jack spoke in a softer tone. “It’s been two months now, and I can’t wait any longer. I know this is hard for you to hear, but Megan is my life, and I owe it to her. I brought her to Jovian for a better life and now she’s in captivity to be used at the will of these madmen as a model for cloning.”

  “I have to do this,” he repeated.

  With tears welling up, Nancy Dunlop embraced her son like she had done so the day of their farewell for their sailing adventure. Jack hugged his mother back and then his father. It was a difficult decision for him, but over the past few years Jack had become a stronger, independent person. He’d grown up fast as a result of being left orphaned in his formative years. Now it was his choice, proving to him that his love for Megan outweighed that of his love for his parents.

  The feeling of losing his parents for a second time round was gutwrenching, but was somewhat diluted by his excitement of being together with Megan again. He went to bed early that night in readiness of the new day.

  Chapter 13

  Megan was awoken by the sound of alarms ringing. Her heart raced at the sudden noise, and sat bolt upright. Sobek burst into her room wearing her bathrobe and told Megan to throw something on quickly.

  “Is the building on fire?” Megan asked, the words catching in her throat.

  “No, it is much worse,” Sobek answered. “Here, put this on, I will tell you on the way.”

  “Okay,” Megan agreed, sliding her arms into an overcoat.

  Everyone had gathered in the foyer of the building, most of them in medical uniforms.

  They must’ve gotten up early. They’re such freaks they probably don’t even sleep, Megan regarded.

  “What’s going on?” she asked Sobek again.

  Sobek looked somewhat distraught. “Every so often the alarms sound. It is when there has been an interference with the tropopause layer that covers our compound, an area of five miles across,” she hastily explained.

  “An interference with a what?”

  Sobek’s face was ashen. “Well, basically our compound has a dome over it. The dome is actually just a fragile skin called a tropopause layer, which controls our technological system and has to be maintained at a temperature of ninety-eight degrees Celsius. A change in temperature can cause an interference to our entire system, which could spell disaster.”

  “When you say ‘disaster’ do you mean like a civil emergency?” Megan asked, anxious.

  “No…I mean like devastation. A radiation explosion is possible and we could all be annihilated within a matter of seconds. It is similar to us being located near the heart of a nuclear bomb.” Megan was gobsmacked. She couldn’t believe her ears. Her heart thumped out of her chest.

  “I just want to go home,” she said in a child-like voice. “Please, Sobek, let me go,“ she pleaded, crying.

  Although Sobek showed sympathy, her expression told Megan she was unable to help. “It is all right now, the alarms have stopped,” Sobek assured. “We can go back to our rooms.”

  Though, as Sobek took Megan’s hand and led her back to her room, she wondered how she could help her. She genuinely wanted to. In fact, she wanted to get out herself. She’d lived in fear of being disintegrated into ashes for far too long now. Her brother’s farfetched mission could cost her dearly. It was too much for her to bear.

  Chapter 14

  Jack was sleeping when his watch alarm went off. He’d continued to refer to his own watch, still unable to get a proper grasp on the Jovian Babylonian time system. However, he was in such a deep sleep that the bleeping of the alarm was incorporated into his dream. He’d forgotten about his egg that he’d put on to boil for breakfast that morning, turning the element up high, and left for school. His flat was full of smoke on his return, with the charred piece of egg stuck to the bottom of the blackened pot. The smoke alarm was sounding off so Jack grabbed it off the wall, taking it outside and smashing it on the concrete. It simply wouldn’t turn off. Only then did he wake up.

  He quickly turned his alarm off and flopped back on his pillow, heart racing, trying to gather his thoughts. Then he remembered why he’d set the alarm in the first place, and what he was going to be doing today - getting his Megan back, safe and sound.

  Jack showered and dressed, spending some time deciding what he was going to wear for the occasion. After he’d eaten breakfast (not an egg) Jack picked up both the Lucre Boxes and carried them into the kitchen, placing them on the table. With a deep breath, he pushed the boxes together, holding onto them tightly. An unusual sensation overcame him, a tingling and a feeling of weightlessness, being levitated off the floor and enveloped by the luminous green light. Everything went black, and within a few seconds he found himself in the room where he’d travelled to earlier, only this time he was his grown-up self.

  “Yes!” he exclaimed, and checked the boxes. They were still intact. But as he was about to sing his jubilations his thoughts turned to despair when the still-joined Lucre Boxes suddenly felt ice cold, then shattered into tiny fragments and fell through his fingers! Jack was speechless, and helpless, and now trapped in this alien place.

  As he stood there looking at the floor in shock, Megan walked in the room accompanied by Sobek. Still shaken by the events of the morning Megan became overwhelmed when she saw her beloved boyfriend. She ran and jumped up on him, wrapping her arms and legs around him, crying and laughing with joy, the two of them ecstatic.

  “Even if we can’t get back, we’re finally together,” Jack cried. He looked over Megan’s shoulder and saw Sobek smiling at them.

  “Hello again,” she greeted. “Nice to meet you as the Jack I’ve heard so much about, although I’m sorry for the circumstances in which you have arrived,” turning her greeting into a polite apology. “Come, have a hot drink and something to eat,” Sobek invited. Although Jack had only had breakfast, he felt strangely hungry and couldn’t understand why.

  Must be all the excitement, he thought.

  Megan led the way to Sobek’s dining area, holding tightly onto Jack’s hand, just in case he disappeared again.

  In her dining room a sumptuous feast was awaiting them. It was almost like the dining hall management had been expecting company. It was still morning, or so Jack thought, but when he checked his watch the time was 5.20 p.m.

  No wonder I’m starving, he thought, realising he’d lost some time somewhere along the way.

  The food was so good that Jack found himself dribbling, and quickly reached for the serviettes before anyone saw. It was as good as the food in Thebes, so reasoned that even if they were stuck here forever at least they wouldn’t be missing out.

  Megan, on the other hand, knew she had to tell him they were in danger
of perishing at any given moment, but for now she was simply going to relish his company. Her boyfriend had the ability of giving her a sense of security, and she felt safe, even though they were certainly far from being safe.

  They lay together that night cuddling, totally comfortable with one another, devoid of the awkward feeling of knowing they could never be lovers. They fell asleep, spooning.

  In the morning Megan decided that she’d sneak Jack in to see what she had discovered the other night. At breakfast she explained to Jack what she was going to do, just to prove to him the Jovian Underworld were serious about this cloning thing.

  When the coast was clear they made their way along the corridors, and found the door to the laboratory. Anxious of being seen, Megan quickly and quietly eased the door open and she and Jack slipped into the expansive room. They were both taken aback with what they set eyes on. No foetuses were suspended in liquid-filled cylinders. Instead were lined up cribs filled with babies, and not one of them was crying.

  “But it’s only been a few weeks,” cried Megan. “How can they grow so fast?”