The Infinity Trap

by Ian C Douglas

  “That’s very common. Every year I have newbies in here telling me there’s been a terrible mistake. They’ve been sent to the wrong school. The exams papers got mixed up, etcetera, etcetera. And I give them my professional diagnosis. They have a case of the cold feet, or homesickness, or just a plain old blue funk. But whatever their symptoms the treatment’s the same.”

  “Which is?” Zeke asked.

  “Believe in yourself.”

  “Believe in myself? What? Believe I can fly and I will?”

  “Principal Lutz flies everyday.”

  “BUT I’M NOT PSYCHIC!” Zeke didn’t mean to shout, the words just came out that way.

  “Keep saying that long enough and it will come true. But why don’t you try some positive thinking? Faith can move mountains, and I’m not talking psychokinesis.”

  Their eyes met. Zeke could see she was sincere. And Chandrasar was a doctor after all, no fool.

  Scuff cleared his throat. “That’s all our gifts are, anyway, Zeke. Faith. Whether it’s bending spoons or seeing the future. It’s all in the mind.”

  “Why isn’t everybody psychic then? Why isn’t Dr. Chandrasar a Mariner? Either you’ve got the gift or not.”

  The doctor smiled sweetly. “Well maybe I could if I wanted it hard enough. Science tells us all humans are born wired for extrasensory ability. Why only a tiny percentage go ahead to become full-blown psychics isn’t known yet.”

  Zeke wanted to speak but the words died on his lips.

  Chandrasar continued, “You know I did have a dream that came true once. That’s what brought me to Mars. People aren’t totally psychic or totally not. Everyone has potential. Imagine a line, a few people are at the low end, most are in the middle but a special few come right at the top. Those are the ones chosen to become Mariners.”

  Nobody spoke.

  Chandrasar stood up. “Well, you’re free to go, Zeke. Let me just get your clothes from the laundry. I can’t have you turning up to class in jim-jams.”

  Both boys laughed. The doctor left the room.

  “Tell me again how you faked your exam results?” Scuff asked.

  Zeke sighed. Earth and his old school seemed light years ago.

  “There was a psychic in my class. Felix Dyer—”

  “How did you know he was one of us?”

  “Um, he was forever doing tricks. You know, card tricks, think-of-a-number tricks—”

  “Sounds more like a conjuring act.”

  “A week before the exams I found him in the loos sobbing his heart out. Turns out he had vertigo and was terrified of going up the Televator. Never mind translocating to Mars.”

  “And?”

  “And I spotted my opportunity. To track down Dad.”

  “Yes I know all about your heroic daddy. Tell me about this Felix.”

  “We came up with a system. Foot tapping and coughs. A code for exchanging our pass numbers in the exams.”

  “The sealed numbers given out with the exam papers?”

  “Exactly. At the end of the exam he typed my number into his computer and I did his.”

  “So in effect you swapped your exam answers.”

  “Clever huh?”

  Scuff stroked his chin.

  “Seems kosher enough. Maybe you’re just a late developer. Hey, I’m late myself! Time to give Flounder another nervous breakdown.”

  “Thanks, by the way, for saving my life.”

  Scuff grinned from the doorway.

  “No sweat, Zeke. That’s what buddies are for.”

  As he left Chandrasar returned with Zeke’s clothes. Despite a long soak in the laundromac, Zeke could still smell the Martian bog on them.

  “If I hurry I can make Psychokinesis 101.”

  Chandrasar smiled. “Ah, about that. Orders from Lutz. Straight to her office for detention.”

  “Detention!”

  “You steal a Mariner’s Glow-Worm and nearly get yourselves killed? I’d think myself lucky if I were you.”

  “But detention. Can’t you tell her I’m still sick?”

  “Violate my Hippocratic oath? Thou shall not fib to the School Principal? Never! She’s planning an evening of great poems from the English language.”

  “Poetry! That’s inhuman. Not poetry!”

  “The last student caught stealing was handed over to the authorities. Lutz obviously likes you. Now scat!”

  Zeke had one last question. “What was your dream? The one that came true?”

  “That, young friend, is a long story,” Chandrasar said, and with moist eyes showed him to the door.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The School Secretary’s Office

  Zeke felt as if his eyes were about to pop. He sneaked a glimpse of his watch. Only nine o’clock!

  “Miss, can I finish? My wrist is killing me.”

  The school secretary glared at him with all the compassion of a hangman. “Principal Lutz was quite specific. Ten copies of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. You, I see, have only done eight.”

  Zeke sighed. His fingers were throbbing. But he knew it was useless to beg for mercy. Marjorie Barnside had a heart of steel. Every student in the Chasm said so.

  “Where are you up to?”

  Zeke skimmed down the electrobook.

  “Um, ‘Like one that on a lonesome road, doth walk in fear and dread—’”

  “Ah yes,” the secretary said, interrupting. “And having once turned round walks on, and turns no more his head; because he knows a frightful fiend doth close behind him tread.”

  Zeke raised his eyebrows.

  “Ach, I have a photographic memory. And it’s the Principal’s favourite for detentions. Over the years an awful lot of bad boys and girls have passed through this institution.”

  Zeke looked at the silver frame on her desk with its hundred year old photo. “How long have you worked here, Miss?”

  “None of your business, young man. Now back to your efforts, please.”

  Zeke bowed his head and resumed copy writing. A few minutes elapsed.

  “Ach, are you making that noise?” the secretary asked suddenly, pushing her seat away from the computer. Zeke stared at her vacantly.

  “Listen,” she said, sweeping an iron-grey lock of hair back into place.

  At first there was nothing. Then Zeke heard it too! A whooshing sound, distant but coming closer. A lump of fear clogged up his throat.

  “Miss, lock the door and call for help!”

  Barnside stood up.

  “Don’t be a wee bairn. Concentrate on your lines.”

  The stocky woman stomped over to the open door. She peered down the gloomy staircase.

  “Nobody? Yet I hear something. Curious.”

  Zeke leapt to his feet. Panic was bubbling through his ribcage. He knew exactly what was approaching. “Lock the door!”

  The office photon lamps flickered and died. Zeke grabbed the magnophone from the desk. It was dead.

  “My goodness, what in the devil’s name goes there?”

  “COME AWAY FROM THE DOOR!”

  Zeke cast an eye over the secretary’s broad shoulders. The Dust Devil was marching up around the steps, a spinning cloud of sand with the luminous figure at its core.

  To Zeke’s despair the secretary remained resolutely in the doorway. The whirlwind reached the top, silhouetting Barnside’s hefty figure in its glow. She raised her hand in defiance.

  “Whatever you are I deny you access. This student is my responsibility and I am authorized by the office of the Ophir Chasma School to use force in his protection.”

  The creature made a noise like laughter.

  It walked towards the doorway and embraced her in its swirling chaos. For a moment nothing happened. Then, slowly, the stony-faced Barnside lifted off the ground and began rotating. Zeke watched helplessly as she gathered speed. Then the Dust Devil released her. The secretary flew through the air and crashed into the wall, collapsing in a shower of sparks. A jumble of wires burst fro
m her ruptured shoulder. Her limbs jerked in spasms and her lips twitched. Then, with a puff of smoke, her body came to a complete stop.

  “You’re an android?” Zeke gasped.

  There was no time to take it in. The Dust Devil was moving into the room.

  ESCAPE! screamed Zeke’s inner voice. But how? The window was a sheer drop of a hundred and fifty feet. The only other door led to Lutz’s office but that was locked.

  The head of the Dust Devil swivelled on its shifting neck. Although it had no eyes it was clearly searching for him. Perhaps, Zeke thought, it sees in another way. In any case it had found him. The monster glided nearer, two yards with every pace.

  The terror was too much.

  “GET ME OUT OF HERE!”

  For a split second he seemed to be at the bottom of a deep sea. Then, inexplicably, he was outside the office, on the landing! Wasting no time, Zeke hurtled down the stairs, three at a time.

  “Don’t slip. Don’t slip,” he cried through clenched teeth.

  Never had a stairwell seemed so endless. His shadow ran before him, cast by the light of the demon at his heels. Zeke tripped at the last step, landing in a heap. Instantly he picked himself up and tore down the corridor. Thanks to Lutz’s curfew it was deserted. Had she set the whole thing up? Trap Zeke at the top of her tower and make sure there were no witnesses?

  He glanced back. The Dust Devil was advancing, incredibly fast despite its leisurely strides. Zeke’s mind raced, but there were no answers. He hadn’t a hope of outrunning it.

  Zeke rushed past a couple of cleanomacs, plugged into the wall circuits and recharging. The robots couldn’t help him, but supposing—?

  Zeke skidded to a halt. Grabbing hold of the closest mac he flipped its manual control button. The powerful engine in its belly groaned into life as the Dust Devil closed in. Desperately Zeke yanked the suction tube out from the robot’s brush-feet.

  “Abduct this!” he shouted, aiming the suction tube at the Dust Devil. The creature shrieked. The tube began sucking in its powdery body. Zeke was winning. But then the creature pulled back. With a violent jolt the machine wrenched free of Zeke’s grip. The Dust Devil effortlessly lifted the cleanomac and hurled it away, smashing it to pieces.

  “Oh-oh.”

  Zeke pivoted on one foot, about to run. Too late! The Dust Devil grabbed him by the hand. Cold, stinging sand blasted Zeke’s skin. His foothold gave way and he tumbled onto the polished stone. Frantically he scrambled back from the monster, staring up at its empty face.

  “STOP!” he hollered with all his strength.

  The monster ignored him, reaching down again.

  THINK! Screamed the voice in Zeke’s head.

  “Mnthax!”

  The Dust Devil froze.

  “Mnthax!” Zeke said again, just to be sure. The creature understood Hesperian! The word meant stop. But what now? Fired by adrenalin, Zeke dredged the vocabulary he needed from his subconscious.

  “Who are you?” he said in the alien tongue.

  The Dust Devil stirred. A slit of a mouth opened and a tongue of dry sand coughed out primeval syllables.

  “New Master calls me Caliban.”

  The new Master? That had to be Magma.

  “What’s your real name?”

  It didn’t answer.

  “What are you?”

  “Something forgotten.”

  Zeke’s mind flashed back to the Orb of Can-do and the Hesperian text Magma was so determined to translate.

  “What is the Infinity Trap?”

  The living twister groaned.

  “A secret.”

  It jerked its head to one side.

  “You are maker. Cannot take maker. Must find other.”

  “No-o-o!”

  The monster slid past him towards the dormitories and quickly disappeared.

  Briefly, Zeke lay panting like racehorse. He pulled himself together and ran through the corridor, bawling one word as loud as he could. “INTRUDER!!!

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Scuff’s Room Again

  Henrietta Lutz’s face emerged from the computer screen, as if she were about to climb through. But it was merely the holographic bulletin. The lips began moving.

  “It is with heavy heart that my office must announce the disappearance of another student, fourth year Yong-Ho Moon. He is an exemplary young man with an academic record many of you might wish to aspire to. I want to reassure the School that everything is being done to end this crime spree.

  “I have spoken to the Governor of Mars who promised to send a security detail immediately. In the meantime I must extend the curfew indefinitely. All students are to be locked in their rooms by seven PM. Please activate your intruder alarms. I suggest you put this time to good use by revising for the end of term exams.

  “As is often the way in times of great concern, a false rumour is circulating the corridors. Let me make it clear that my long-serving secretary, Marjorie Barnside was not injured in last night’s incident. Indeed she is here with me now as steadfast and industrious as ever. Anyone claiming otherwise is a victim of mass hysteria and will be detained for treatment.”

  The face faded.

  “Wow oh wow oh wow.” Scuff said, sitting on his bed. “Wow, oh wow, oh wowee!” he sang, totally off key.

  “Put a sock in it,” Zeke snapped.

  Scuff continued caterwauling. Zeke picked up two of Scuff’s stinky socks from the floor. He rolled them into a ball and lobbed them at his friend.

  “Typical of you. Always so literal.” Scuff smirked.

  “It’s no laughing matter.”

  “No it ain’t, bro. You’re probably the first ever human to talk with an alien. You discovered batty Barnside is an illegal android. You’re totally fluent in Martian and can translocate. It’s a most exciting matter, that’s what it is.”

  “Are you sure Barnside is illegal? Mars is outside Earth’s authority, after all.”

  “Dunno. But she’s certainly hot contraband on Earth. All fake humans were outlawed ninety years ago, following the Dummy Presidents Plot.”

  “Oh, we did that in History. Some loony was replacing the world’s top leaders with android copies.”

  “Yep. The worst thing was the androids made a better job of world peace than the real life presidents.”

  “Maybe that’s what’s happening here? The real Lutz has been replaced with an android. That’s why she’s working for Magma.”

  Scuff leant forward.

  “No way, bro. I’ve seen that woman translocate and levitate. No such thing as a psychic robot, remember. Anyway, it’s your dust devil creature that’s the biggie here.”

  Zeke chewed on his pen. “He was pretty amazing. Wish I’d had more time with him. He must know where Pin is!” He flushed and snapped his pen in two. “WE’RE DOING NOTHING TO SAVE HER!”

  “Keep cool, bro. You’re right. And the School doesn’t seem to be lifting an extrasensory finger, nor his highness the Governor of the Big Red Zero.”

  “It’s up to us.”

  “It’s up to us. But Noctis Labyrinthis is way too far to reach by mountain bike or solar scooter. We need serious transport, something hardcore. I’m working on it, bro. Just trust me for now.”

  “Why don’t we ask the older students to translocate us there.”

  “I’ve tried. No one would do it. Translocation takes years of practice to cross vast distances safely. Sidestepping reality from inside to outside an office is one thing. Leaping a thousand miles is quite another.”

  “Do you really think I translocated?”

  “Totally. One second you’re inside then the next you’re outside. That was your subconscious responding to a life-threatening situation.”

  Zeke clenched the broken pen between his teeth. “It’s not the first time. The day Pin-mei was abducted. I was running to the bike stands. All I could think about was how desperately I needed to get there. Then suddenly I was. But why doesn’t it work when I try. I’ve been p
ractising for hours.”

  “Okay, let’s have a go. Put that sad, sorry pen you’re abusing on the desktop.”

  Zeke obeyed. Scuff fixed him with a confident stare.

  “Breath deeply. That’s good. Empty your mind. That shouldn’t be too tricky for you. Focus on the pen. Visualise it rising, ever so gently. Just a few millimetres for starters. Lift it with your mind. Focus, that’s it, focus. Harder.”

  Nothing.

  “Bthphrx!” Zeke cursed and flicked the pen halfway across the room.

  “I won’t ask what that means,” Scuff said, aiming the remote at his computer. It whirred into life. “I’ve spent hours trawling the Mars-Wide-Web, The Encyclopaedia Marius, even the School’s electro–library. And not a clue about Spirals, sentient whirlwinds, or orbs. The only information I could access was the school test results. Look at this.”

  Scuff opened a holo-cube and brought up rows and rows of figures.

  “What on Mars has that got to do with anything?”

  “These are the end-of-term psychic exam scores.”

  “So?”

  “I put every total from last year into one chart. Now, look at the top ten students.”

  Zeke wolf-whistled.

  “Three of the kidnapped students are on the list.”

  “Right, bro, the only name missing is Pin-mei, who hasn’t done any exams yet. But she’s an outstanding precog, and knew something about Magma’s plot.”

  Zeke whistled again.

  “Look here, Trixie Cutter and her sidekick Alonzo are also top tenners.”

  “Right,” Scuff replied. “And no doubt Magma offered them protection in return for working for him.”

  “What is it she does for him?”

  “Information gathering. I heard her say that.”

  “Spying more like. And she set up Pin-mei’s abduction.” Zeke’s brow creased. “I was just thinking, Magma asked me to translate that Hesperian for him. ‘The key is a brain’. Maybe that’s why he’s kidnapping the best psychics. Something to do with the Infinity Trap.”

  “Maybe, bro. But what is an Infinity Trap? What does it do?”

  “It’s connected to the Spiral. I just know it.”

  “Which is what exactly? A machine, an alien?”