‘That is the town of Cheshunt below,’ said Skin, as the area erupted into an inferno. ‘Mathy has dropped his entire bomb load upon it. The destruction is enormous.’
As soon as the last bomb fell, the zeppelin turned and rocketed skyward. It was quickly out of range of the antiaircraft guns. But the British planes were not so easy to escape.
Now the chase was really on.
There were three planes in the air, blackened deliberately so as to be near-invisible in the night sky.
‘They are from No. 39 Squadron,’ said Skin. ‘But the one to watch is coming in for the attack now – a BE2c flown by 2nd Lieutenant Wulstan Tempest.’
As the biplane buzzed towards the zeppelin like a little black bug, Napoleon had a bright idea.
‘I want to get closer to the action,’ he said. ‘Lets join him.’
‘Inadvisable, BB,’ said Skin. ‘The professor cautioned against just such an activity.’
But Napoleon wasn’t listening. With Boot Boosters surging, he was soon flying in the slipstream of the biplane.
It dropped three flares to let the ground crew know that the attack was about to begin, and then pumped a few rounds of machine-gun fire into the zeppelin. But that made no difference. The airship continued to climb higher and higher, the tiny plane circling and peppering away at it.
‘The lieutenant’s machine gun is loaded with a special mix of tracer, incendiary and normal bullets,’ Skin explained as Napoleon hung in behind the plane. ‘The aim is to ignite the hydrogen in the gasbags. Once that happens it is all over for the zeppelin.’
‘He’s coming in for another attack!’ Napoleon shouted. ‘This might be it.’
Tempest swung his plane into position under the airship and fired with one continuous burst as he flew along the length of the zeppelin.
‘He’s emptied a whole drum of ammo into it,’ Napoleon yelled. ‘Oh no! I think he’s done it.’ The airship began to glow like a huge Chinese lantern. ‘It’s alight!’
As Napoleon watched the growing glow of the giant sky beast, he almost missed Skin’s beeps.
‘Danger! DANGER!’
A second later there was a thunderous explosion. The zeppelin erupted in flames and dropped from the sky. Napoleon stared in horror as one vast sheet of fire fell towards him in a roaring blaze.
Lieutenant Tempest stared as well, but not just at the burning zeppelin. A boy was flying behind him! That was impossible. He had to be imagining it.
The pilot banked his plane hard and corkscrewed it out of the way of the airship just in time. The zeppelin plummeted towards the ground, lighting up the countryside for miles around. But the boy was still there, hot on his tail.
Napoleon could see the airman staring back at him in total disbelief. He swung out from behind the biplane, pulling level with the pilot.
‘Who…? What are you?’ the lieutenant called out.
But before Napoleon could reply, everything stopped. The plane, the pilot, the flaming airship were all frozen like one big painting.
‘What’s going on, Skin?’
‘We are caught in a TimeFrame Trap — a kind of warp where everything stands still.’
Lieutenant Tempest sat in his biplane like a photograph. The blazing zeppelin was splashed across the night sky, a vast splurge of red and orange paint.
‘You mean like Epsilon Phase?’
‘Correct, except for one big difference. A TimeFrame Trap means that something catastrophic is coming.’
‘But everything is so still and quiet.’
‘Do not be deceived. This is the calm before the storm.’
Then a deep rumbling started, and everything began to shudder.
‘Is it an earthquake?’ said Napoleon.
An appropriate analogy,’ said Skin. A kind of tsunami is coming – a Time Tsunami – otherwise known as a No When Wave.’
The rumbling grew louder and the shuddering became intense. Cracks appeared in the TimeFrame. Then it suddenly crumbled, and everything was sucked backwards out of sight.
‘The tide of time is rushing out,’ said Skin. ‘But it will soon come surging back.’
‘As a No When Wave.’
‘Precisely.’
‘So why are we hanging about? Let’s get out of here now!’
‘Impossible. You cannot escape a No When Wave.’
‘But it will destroy us.’ Napoleon could already see the tsunami coming in the far distance.
‘The probability of destruction is certainly high. I can calculate the —’
‘Forget about calculating anything, Skin. That wave is coming fast, and it’s a towering monster. Just tell me how to make the destruction bit NOT happen.’
‘There is only one way, BB005. You must catch the wave and ride it out.’
Napoleon only just heard Skin above the roar of the Time Tsunami. He barely had time to take a deep breath before the wave was upon him.
It really was huge. He couldn’t even see the top; it disappeared into a cloud of spray and mist way above him. He rose up the front of the wave for what seemed like ages, until he finally hit the lip. It was about to break.
‘Okay, Skin,’ Napoleon yelled. ‘Let’s do it!’
Napoleon’s Boot Boosters gave a mighty surge and sent him hurtling down the face of the wave. At the bottom he carved a sharp left turn and sliced across the face, the wave closing out only metres behind. Then up he went again to the top and prepared for a second assault.
‘Not bad!’ he yelled, and speared down the wave again. ‘Yeehaaa!’
But the second ride was identical to the first. Identical! So was the next ride. And the next. All the rides were exactly the same.
‘What’s happening, Skin?’ Napoleon said as he cut across the same wave in the same way for the fifth time.
‘It is what I feared most.’ For one of the first times ever Skin actually sounded scared; that made Napoleon scared as well. ‘We are trapped in a time loop and I cannot see any way of escape.’
‘What!? Are you saying this could go on forever?’
‘Correct. Everything will be the same. Forever and ever.’
‘So we just keep taking off, dropping down the wave, turning left and —’
A moment,’ Skin said, interrupting Napoleon. ‘A certain theory is forming.’
‘What are you talking about, Skin?’
‘We are turning the wrong way. You must turn right next time at the bottom of the wave, not left.’
‘No way, Skin,’ Napoleon said as he shot across the wave. ‘That would be madness. Just take a look behind us – the wave is closing out, big time. If we turn right, we turn into a nightmare.’
‘I disagree, BB005.’
‘Trust me, Skin. That’s a barrel. Going in there would be suicide!’
‘Not necessarily. On a No When Wave that is called a TimeLine. And unless I am very mistaken, it will take us out of this MetaBook, all the way back to the present, to our own time. I am 90 percent certain of this, BB005.’
Napoleon shot back up to the top of the wave. ‘Ninety percent?’ he said, skimming across the lip. ‘You want me to risk my life on 90 percent?’
‘There is no alternative. Unless you intend to surf this wave for eternity.’
Napoleon thought for a while. ‘I guess you’re right,’ he said eventually. ‘I mean: I hope you’re right!’
He banked hard, kicked off the lip, and rocketed down the face of the wave.
The bottom came sooner than he expected. He gulped, and carved a sharp right turn.
At once a dreadful sense of foreboding swept over Napoleon. He was staring at what looked like a huge mouth. A second later he was inside that mouth, swallowed.
We’ve made a mistake,’ he yelled.
But it was too late. No turning back now. He was speeding straight down a long tunnel that seemed to go forever, growing narrower and tighter and darker the deeper he dived.
Soon the walls were closing right around him with a suffocatin
g, vice-like grip.
‘Help, Skin,’ he gasped, as he felt the last shreds of life being squeezed from him. ‘Can’t breathe. Can’t move. Can’t…’
A dark airless void wrapped around Napoleon, crushing him, sucking him down, deeper, ever deeper, until…
… until there was nothing.
‘Feeling better?’
Napoleon was lying inside a RestoraCapsule, staring through the glass at Professor Perdu. He nodded and smiled. His many cuts and bruises had healed already and he wasn’t sore any more.
The professor opened the capsule and held out her hand. ‘Congratulations on a most successful mission, BB005.’
‘It didn’t feel very successful,’ he said, sitting up slowly. ‘I seemed to be fighting for my life the whole time.’
‘You were. But you pulled through in the end, and Skin recorded everything. We now know a great deal more about MetaBooks and how they work. Mission accomplished with flying colours.’
Napoleon climbed from the capsule and stood for a moment. He felt fine on the outside; all his aches and pains had gone. But he didn’t feel quite so good on the inside. For the first time ever he’d seen how easy it would be to lose his own life. He’d come close in this mission, and that scared him.
‘It was a great assignment, Prof, and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. But I don’t think I want to go back into a MetaBook for a little while, if that’s okay?’
‘I understand, Battle Boy,’ said Professor Perdu. ‘And you don’t need to worry. I have to design several new gadgets before you enter that territory again.’
Napoleon sighed with relief.
‘I concur, BB005,’ said Skin. ‘Analysis indicates that there are numerous Battle Book missions lined up for our attention in the near future.’
Sky Wars Page 3