by Rob May
‘Have you figured it out yet, Katherine?’ her mum had asked.
‘I think so … but it spells NUJV … and that’s not a word, is it?’
Her dad had laughed. ‘They didn’t have the internet back in the sixties to check. They could have done with your HELP!’
Kat had thrown off all her dust-soiled clothes and dropped onto the bed wearing just her Beatles T-shirt and pants. It was freezing cold, but she did nothing to try and discourage the goose bumps that sprung up on her arms and legs. She needed to feel some kind of pain. She needed to cry.
But she couldn’t.
The truth was, in recent years, Kat had felt like she hardly knew her parents. They were either at work all day (and all of most evenings) in the city, or abroad on luxury holidays, which they assumed (correctly) that their children had no interest in joining them on.
So instead of crying, she lay in bed dwelling on regret and lost opportunities instead.
———
Kat lost all track of time, and the sun was trying to break through the dust when she felt someone in the bed behind her, and felt hands encircle her waist. It was Gem.
‘Are you alright?’ the older girl asked.
‘I’ll survive,’ Kat murmured. She tried to stop feeling sorry for herself and think of others. ‘How’s Jason?’
‘He’s still down with the gang of guards. Letting off some steam in a shooting gallery they’ve got rigged up below decks.’
Kat tried to smile. She almost managed it. She wriggled up into a sitting position and turned to face Gem. ‘I take it that there were no …’
‘Survivors? There was one, actually. We picked up one guy out of the water before we left the scene—’
Gem shook head when she saw Kat’s expression. ‘No, it's not your dad, I’m afraid. Brandon, Saoirse and Doctor Chow are examining him in the infirmary right now. The water was full of thanafish … the guy’s got a cut, but he’s not sure if he actually got bit or just injured while trying to escape.’
‘And the whale? Why didn’t it take us down too, Gem?’
Gem shrugged. ‘I dunno. Maybe it had had enough. Or maybe … you know, Kat, the only difference between the Amphitrite and the Proteus, is that we have two unusual passengers on board …’
Kat nodded slowly. ‘Brandon and Saoirse. The thanamorphs are biological weapons, created in a lab, aren’t they? So maybe, since that massacre that Saoirse told us about, the one at the lab back on her homeworld, they’ve been engineered not to attack their creators anymore.’
She thought it over for a few minutes. Had the thanamorphs ever directly attacked Brandon? She couldn’t remember It wasn’t the kind of theory you’d want to put to the test.
‘Didn’t your brother want to come and see me?’ Kat asked Gem.
‘He wants to, but he feels a bit awkward,’ Gem said. ‘I guess he doesn’t know what to say in situations like this. Not that any of us do, of course!’
‘Go and get him,’ Kat said. ‘I know what I want to say to him.’
———
She pulled herself together eventually, then left the bed and got dressed. In one of the abandoned suitcases she found some tracksuit bottoms—black with three white stripes down each leg—and a blue cable-knit sweater. In a toiletries bag she found a plastic pot of ‘surf wax’, so she went to the mirror and spiked up her inch-long crop.
It’s a look … of sorts, she thought.
She sensed movement in the mirror. Brandon was standing behind her. He looked tired, his own mismatched clothes were worn and crumpled, and his hair was a mess. His violet eyes still shone brightly though, as they always did.
‘How are you?’ he asked cautiously.
Kat didn’t answer straight away. She went up to her boyfriend, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him hard on the mouth. His body stiffened and his eyes widened in surprise.
‘I’m alright,’ she said eventually. ‘Really! Don’t worry about me. How’s that guy you pulled out of the water?’
‘Oh, he’s okay, I think. I scanned him with the bionoids straight away and couldn’t detect any changes to his DNA. I had to pretend to run some blood samples, for the benefit of Doctor Chow though; I wouldn’t want the Captain finding out about my abilities. He would never let us leave the ship, let alone the planet … if I decided to go, of course. I’m still not sure—’
‘Bran,’ Kat interrupted. ‘I’ve decided something.’
‘What?’ he said, raising an eyebrow.
‘We’re leaving. All of us. You, me, Jase, Gem and whatshername alien girl. We’re leaving Earth behind for good. There’s just no point in fighting these creatures anymore. Underwater cities are a stupid idea, I’ve realised: they’d get destroyed by an underwater earthquake, or invaded by thanasharks. There’s nothing worth fighting for here on Earth now anyway.’
Kat stepped back and looked him in the eye.
‘This planet is dead to me now, Brandon.’
13—ICE
Kat found Jason in the gym, down in the lower levels of the ship. He was sitting inside some sort of steel-framed contraption, pushing with both hands on a bar that turned a metal arm at a pivot, pulled on a rubber belt, and raised a stack of iron blocks a few centimetres in the air. Jason was going red at the effort involved.
Liam from engineering was standing by, watching—leaning in so that his face was right next to Jason’s. ‘Come on!’ he yelled. ‘Are you going to give up on the last set, with your little sister watching?’ Both Liam and Jason were filthy, not just with sweat, but with oil and grime from working on machinery below decks.
‘I’m his twin,’ Kat reminded Liam. ‘Don’t let my size fool you. I’m more than a match for Jason, so none of this little sister business, please! I bet I could lift that weight with one hand!’
Jason let go of the bar and fell back in the seat as the weights crashed down again. ‘Stupid machine,’ he gasped. ‘I can bench press eighty kilos on a bar bell, you’ve seen me, right Kat? These machines are stupid! Give me free weights any day.’
Liam rolled his eyes and grinned at Kat. ‘I’ve told him we can’t have free weights on board. If the ship rolled, and you were halfway through a squat, you might wind up throwing a hundred kilograms of iron on top of someone doing sit-ups!’
Jason laughed. Kat wanted to ask him if he was alright, but she knew that wasn’t the kind of question he would be comfortable answering, especially with his friend standing by. She could see though that he was getting through things the only way he knew how: physical exertion. God help any girl he happened to set his sights on—
Jason was staring across the gym. Over on the opposite wall, facing a bank of mirrors, several members of the crew were toiling away on exercise bikes. Saoirse was there too, and she seemed to be pedalling at twice the pace of the others. The alien girl wore a white one-piece bodysuit, and her white-blond hair was tied up in an artful bundle. She sat up straight on the bike, seemingly hardly out of breath, and waved at Kat cheerfully.
‘She’s like Superman,’ Jason fawned. ‘Her alien heart and lungs must find exercise easy on this planet or something. So I guess it will be the opposite effect for us when we get to Corroza. If you want to be able to keep up with her, Kat, you’d better hop on the bike!’
Kat’s legs were still sore from her run with Gem. ‘I’d rather train my brain and wits instead,’ she said. ‘By the way, it’s your move in Scrabble. I managed to get a Q on that triple-letter square!’
Jason screamed in mock-anger, and managed to push the bar of the chest press machine all the way in one smooth action. ‘Now keep it under control it all the way back!’ Liam urged. ‘Good man!’
‘Liam’s coming with us to Corroza,’ Jason told Kat once the weights had clanged back down again.
Kat looked at Liam and raised an eyebrow. So Jason had told his new friend all their secrets.
‘I can help fit out and maintain a spaceship, when you find one,’ Liam said. ‘And when it come
s to exploring the galaxy in search of adventure, Jason will need a wingman!’
‘Well, I was thinking of more like a father figure, actually,’ Jason said, extricating himself from the chest press machine and wiping his brow.
‘Father figure!’ Liam said, putting on an outraged tone. ‘I’m only twenty-five!’
Kat was pleased to see her brother happy, and it was a weight off her own shoulders too. She smiled, and was still smiling when Saoirse skipped over, looking all trim, pretty and fresh. ‘Five hundred Watts!’ the alien girl announced.
Liam tucked his long hair behind his ear shyly. ‘That’s great, Sersh. At this rate, the Captain might even let us watch a film in the cinema as a special treat.’
Kat looked across to the row of puffing cyclists. ‘You’re generating electricity from the bikes?’
‘It was my idea,’ Jason said proudly. ‘The main generator is diesel-powered, so we don’t want to waste power on luxuries and non-essentials. The Captain loved the idea, too. He said it’ll also keep people from getting too restless. There’s a schedule on the wall so you can see when your turn is. Two hours after dinner, I think!’
Kat’s smile melted like ice under a blowtorch.
‘You’ll have to find me first,’ she said, turning and walking away, ‘little brother!’
———
Kat tried to lose herself in the maze of the Proteus. It seemed that for the remainder of the voyage, she was going to have to try and avoid the iron regime of the Captain. Luckily for Kat, she was an expert in dodging work. Whereas Jason found it easier to work alongside authority (so long as it suited him), Kat put so much effort into avoiding things like chores, homework and responsibilities, that it would almost have been easier to actually do them in the first place
She found her way to a large empty dining room at the back of the ship, overlooking what had once been a sun deck and outdoor spa. With crystal chandeliers and polished mahogany furniture, the restaurant had clearly been high-class, and so was now considered superfluous to the basic needs of the surviving crew.
In a storeroom next to the kitchen, Kat found a supply of tinned food and bags of rice and pasta. There were also lost of bottled drinks that obviously nobody wanted—i.e. non-alcoholic fruit juice concoctions. There was a walk-in freezer than had been allowed to defrost, but all the meat had long gone. There were enough scraps to live on for a few days, though: maybe she could hide out up here until they reached the rendezvous point. The only person who would find her would be Brandon, who knew the whereabouts of everyone on board thanks to his nanoscopic helpers, the bionoids. But that was cool; he could visit her and she’d cook them both a curry.
Grinning to herself at the thought, she carried a snack—a tin of peaches and a bottle of something called Jooce!—back to the dining room, and sat on a table by the window so that she could look out into the dust storm while she enjoyed her meal. It looked bleak and cold out there. Occasionally she caught a glimpse of a large bird gliding through the dust above the wake of the ship, seemingly following them. A giant thanagull? Kat shuddered. There was no way she was ever stepping out on deck again.
She heard a footfall behind her. Well, he had got here fast!
It wasn’t Brandon though; it was Saoirse. ‘How did you find me?’ Kat asked her.
‘Military training, remember?’ Saoirse said. ‘Tracking skills; your boots made distinctive impressions in the thick dusty carpets around here, and I saw your sweaty palm prints on the brass banisters.’
Damn, the girl was good! ‘Just … don’t tell anyone I’m here,’ Kat said.
‘I won’t,’ Saoirse said. ‘I just came to tell you that I’m sorry about your parents, and I can see that you want off this planet. Well, it won’t be long, Kat. Brandon tells me there’s some kind of space base in a place called Florida, and that’s not too far from the rendezvous point all the survivors are heading for. We’ll all steal a boat and head over there and see what we can find. The superluminal drive that Brandon’s carrying contains all the information we need to walk us through getting a ship launched and into space, and then it’s just a short hop through a twisting time tunnel to Corroza.’
‘Sounds simple enough,’ Kat joked.
‘Trust me,’ Saoirse said. ‘My people sorted space travel out centuries ago. It’s as commonplace for us as driving a car is to you. Honestly, flying across the galaxy is so easy, it makes going for a walk look like hard work.’
‘It’s not space travel I’m worried about. This ship we’re on now—I know it’s huge, but it feels small and claustrophobic. I don’t trust the Captain. I don’t know why the thanawhale left us alone. I feel like so many things can go wrong before we make it across the ocean.’ Kat shivered and tucked her hands in her sleeves. ‘And why is it so darn cold? Aren’t we supposed to be heading towards the tropics?’
‘Our latitude is forty degrees north,’ Saoirse said. ‘But you lost a moon. They balance the tilt and spin of planets. Without it, all your seasons are screwed. Your poles are going to start wandering randomly about, and that means ice and cold hitting the equator …’
‘I should have guessed,’ Kat said, remembering what Brandon had told her. ‘Blame losing the moon for everything. You know, I wouldn’t even be surprised if it meant that Godzilla burst out of the sea looking for the missing moon.’
Saoirse looked blank.
‘Never mind,’ Kat said. She made a decision there and then to try and start liking the alien teenage soldier. ‘Hey I have an idea. Why don’t you go and fetch Brandon and Gem. They’re down in the medical centre, I think. We’ll try curry night for four!’
———
The electric hob was working, so Kat soon had two pots simmering away. Into one she had tipped a pint glass full of rice and two pint glasses full of water (following a formula her parents had taught her), and in the other she had mixed four tins of baked beans and sausages with two large tablespoons of extra hot chili powder (following a formula she had just made up). She had performed a taste test already, and was desperately trying to rinse her burning tongue under the cold tap, when she heard her first guest arrive.
‘Kat?’ Gem called.
‘In here!’ Kat replied.
Gem entered the kitchen. ‘Have you seen Steve?’ she asked, apropos of nothing.
Kat was confused. ‘Who’s Steve?’
‘Sorry. The guy we pulled out of the water when the other ship went down. He’s gone missing.’
Kat spread her palms. ‘I’ve not seen him,’ she said. ‘But can’t Brandon use the bionoids to sense him?’
‘That’s the problem,’ Gem said. ‘Brandon can’t sense him anywhere. So he’s either dead, or …’
Turned into one of those thanamorph creatures!
Kat shook her head. ‘No way. Bran said that the guy was clean. But I bet that the Captain didn’t believe him. Maybe he’s got Steve out of the way, just to be on the safe side. You know what that guy’s like about new people coming on board.’
‘You think the Captain killed him?’ Gem said. ‘He’s mean, I know, but would he actually kill someone?’
Kat was thinking, back to the other day when she had been sneaking around the bridge and had overheard the Captain and Doctor Chow talking.
‘No! I’m not killing them! I’m not that ruthless, Doctor. They might be … valuable to us …’
Kat’s eyes went wide. She had thought at first that the Captain had been talking about her and her friends. But now she realised …
‘No, he hasn’t killed Steve, or the others … Gem, I know where they are!’
‘Others?’ Gem said. ‘What others?’
Kat told Gem what she thought. Gem’s expression turned bleak. ‘We have to do something about this!’ she said firmly.
‘Oh, no, no,’ Kat said. ‘No, we don’t. It’s none of our business, really, is it? All we have to do is keep our heads down for a few more days and—’
‘No way,’ Gem said. ‘Can you honestl
y say you’ll be able to sleep now, knowing that they are all down there? We can’t let this ship get to the rendezvous point now. It’s far too dangerous.’
Gem had found a new mission, and she was taking charge again. There was nothing Kat could do but follow as Gem stormed out of the restaurant.
So much for the quiet life!
———
The medical centre was a small consulting room at the back of the ship’s pharmacy. As Kat and Gem approached down an aisle full of creams and lotions, they could see, through the glass windows of the partition wall, Brandon arguing with Doctor Chow . At one point, Chow put her hand to her head as if she was in pain, then she snapped out of it and slapped Brandon across the face.
He stormed out moments later, anger and fury in his eyes. ‘Bran, stop!’ Kat yelled, grabbing his arm as he stormed past them. ‘What just happened in there?’
‘The doctor knows where Steve is, I’m sure of it,’ he fumed. ‘I tried to use to use the bionoids to read her mind. Stupid idea, I know. It didn’t work; it’s far too complicated, even for them. I deserved that slap! Come on, the Captain will tell us. I’ll make him tell us!’
Gem took his other arm, and they steered Brandon in the opposite direction to where he wanted to go. ‘Kat knows were Steve is,’ Gem said. ‘Come with us instead!’
Thankfully he soon cooled down, and let the girls lead him below decks, rather than up to the bridge. They took a service elevator down to the cargo hold. The storage bays were dark and cold, and connected by a maze of tight corridors. Brandon looked uncertain as Kat led him and his sister along. ‘Um, where are we heading exactly?’ he asked.
Kat pointed out a sign up ahead: