Zeke banged the desk with his fist. “I don’t know but there’s one place we can find out.”
~~~
Zeke peeked through the circular window of the boy’s toilets and across to the stairwell leading to Lutz’s pinnacle. He glanced again at his wristwatch. It was eight o’clock, one hour into the curfew. The outer corridor was as pitch black as inside the toilets.
“Oh!” he gasped. The beam of a torch sliced through the darkness. He crept quickly back to one of the cubicles, sat down on the loo, and closed the door. If the torch belonged to Drufus Slatts he was safe. But it might be one of the Mariners. Lutz had hastily organised a night-shift patrol.
The main door creaked on its hinges. Zeke sucked in his breath. Who was it? The rendezvous with the senior student wasn’t till eight-thirty.
Drufus Slatts was a huge plank of a boy, not particularly bright but a solid translocator. He was however extremely broke, after using the weekend trips permitted to older students to lose a fortune at the Freetown casinos. Scuff promised him a handsome reward if he translocated Zeke into Lutz’s office. Neither Zeke nor Scuff had any further appetite for cockroach pills.
Footsteps padded towards Zeke’s cubicle. The light darted around the ceiling. Then came a knock.
“Drufus, is that you?” Zeke hissed.
Again somebody’s knuckles rapped on the door. Biting his thumb Zeke pulled back the door. A tall shadow before him aimed the torch back on its face.
It was Mariner Knimble, gloating from ear to ear.
Chapter Twenty-Five
An unexpected encounter
“Drufus Slatts will not be keeping his appointment.” Knimble grinned.
“So he’s a sneak as well as a moron.”
“Tsk, tsk. Such harsh words. Actually Drufus didn’t tell. He’s in my Translocation class. As soon as he walked through the door I knew something was up. His skull should be made of glass, it’s so see-through.”
“You read his mind? Isn’t that bad manners?”
Knimble stroked his goatee. “Normally yes, but in times of crisis the Mariners must do everything in their power to protect the Earthworms.”
Zeke hung his head in dismay.
“In any case it’s difficult not to with Drufus. Quite unlike—”
Zeke glanced up. Knimble was staring at him with that faraway expression. Zeke suddenly felt as though his mind were a book and the Mariner was leafing through its pages.
“Quite unlike other more unfathomable students. That’s an excellent thought-shield for a newbie. Have you been practicing?”
Zeke went to reply but bit his tongue.
“You didn’t know you were deflecting? Strewth. Must be instinct.”
Knimble leaned nearer. His eyes began to radiate softly. “I could break down that wall if I wished. Discover just what secrets you are so keen to conceal.”
He pulled back sharply. His eye sockets dulled. “Still, you’re entitled to your privacy. Where were we?”
“Detention and a one-way ticket back to Earth, I expect,” Zeke said with a scowl.
“Aha! Never make assumptions. Slatts’ deafening brainwaves told me you’re planning another trip to the principal’s office. Is it about that revolting Martian fossil?”
Zeke nodded.
“I see. And you need to translocate there, avoiding all the surveillance cams and security locks.”
Zeke nodded again.
“Well then, kiddo, why don’t you let me take you there. I’m the best translocator in the building.”
Zeke’s jaw dropped.
Knimble chuckled. “Your thoughts tell me you believe you’re telling the truth. With students disappearing we’ve got to investigate any clue, however farfetched it sounds.”
“Why won’t Lutz take my word, when you will?”
Knimble shrugged. “She’s been principal for a very long time. The idea she might be wrong about anything is beyond her.”
Or she’s in on the whole affair! Zeke thought.
“Isn’t it a bit risky? Helping the school bad boy?” he said.
“I wasn’t always a boring old Mariner. Did you know that as a boy I got expelled from the Chasm?”
“N-no.”
“Sure, mate. But keep it under your hat. Anyway, your father was a decent sort, and something tells me you are too.”
Zeke smiled. Knimble was okay for a teacher.
The Mariner straightened his back. “As I said, we’ve got to do everything in our power to save the students. Just swear you’ll never tell it was me.”
“Cross my heart.”
“Excellent. Now put your hands on my shoulders. That’s it.”
Zeke stepped closer. Knimble’s white uniform reeked of curry.
“Here we go.”
Emptiness yawned beneath their feet. Zeke’s stomach churned.
“Let go, Hailey.”
They were standing in Lutz’s office. The towering filing cabinets were lit by a silvery light.
“Phobos is overhead. How convenient,” Knimble said, craning his neck to the skylights.
“When we translocated from Earth to Mars, it was—”
“A more profound experience? Mass fainting, hysteria, etcetera?”
“Yep,” Zeke said.
“Well Earth to Mars is a very long distance. Downstairs to upstairs isn’t.”
“But then Mars is just down the street in comparison to Deep Space. I just can’t believe people travel that far by thinking.”
“Deep Space travel has assistance. Farships are fitted with biological amplifiers. You’ll learn about that when you’re older.”
Zeke thought for a moment. “Why are you helping me do this, Sir? Really?”
“Oh, just keeping my inner rebel alive.”
“What was it you did? To get expelled?”
“I hung a pair of knickers from the top of this very minaret.”
“Really! And they expelled you for that?”
“Master Hailey, can’t you guess whose knickers they were?”
“Gosh, you don’t mean?”
Knimble tapped his nose with his forefinger. “Some secrets are best left buried. Not to mention some people’s underwear.”
They both laughed. The Mariner aimed his torch at the engraving behind the desk.
“Lets see this Martian magic, then,” he said.
Zeke approached the picture. The runes were waiting to be read.
“Dthoth thla ryksi thngai bchrfft xgiishi dthoth thla gleqxuus jchzaa.”
The rectangle of stone remained unchanged. It wasn’t working. Then the torchlight faltered. Zeke turned back to Knimble. The man was perfectly still.
“Mariner Knimble?”
Something was wrong but in the darkness it was hard to see. Zeke reached out a finger. The teacher’s uniform disintegrated beneath his touch. It was sand!
“AHH!” Zeke shrieked, whipping his hand away. It was too late. The figure of his teacher crumbled before his eyes.
Zeke gasped, stepping backwards. And then another step. And then—
~~~
Zeke stopped falling. He was back inside the picture. Examining his geometrical body confirmed he was two-dimensional again. Triangles surrounded him. A row zigzagged above his head and another around his feet. They reminded Zeke of stalactites and stalagmites.
Zeke concentrated, conjuring up the Hesperian words.
“What’s going on?” His voice boomed through the empty cavern.
Silence. Zeke shouted out again. Black dots appeared all around him, expanding into circles with smaller dots inside them. They were cells, multiplying, dividing and sub-dividing. It was like drowning in frogspawn.
“Welcome back, Earth Child. We are pleased to see you.” The spawn pulsated as it spoke.
“Your command of our language is greatly improved. Well done.”
A hundred questions were burning in Zeke’s head. Fearful that this audience might be short lived, he pressed on. “Firstly, what are
you?”
“A recording. A collection of thoughts, memories and ideas.”
“Are you Hesperians?”
“As we said, we are their thoughts. Perhaps your culture does not preserve mental energy in the same way?”
“I’m confused. You make yourself sound like a computer. But you’re alive.”
“Are those things contradictory?”
Zeke decided not to get bogged down in the details. “So you contain data on the Hesperian race?”
“Less and less. Our memory atoms are corroding.”
“What?”
“Our makers never envisaged we would last such a very, very long time. Soon we will cease.”
“Tell me about that Dust Devil thing. How did you know he was after my friend?”
“He is dthpzpii, a guardian. We sense his movements.”
“What does he guard?”
“The Infinity Trap.”
The excitement was too much to bear. Finally Zeke was getting somewhere. “So tell me about the Infinity Trap.”
“It’s a shortcut.”
Zeke tried to make sense of it all. “Similar to translocation?” He used the earth word but the cells seemed to understand.
“The Infinity Trap exists from the dawn of the Universe to its end, connecting up all times and realities.”
“Wow! Like parallel dimensions?”
“Among other things.”
Zeke tried to whistle through his geometric lips. It made translocation sound feeble. “What’s the Spiral?”
A tremor ran through the spawn. They were frightened. “The Spiral is the darkness in the depths of our soul.”
“Did it destroy the Hesperians?”
“We don’t remember.”
Zeke was stumped. That was not the answer he expected. “What has the Spiral got to do with the Infinity Trap?”
The cells paused. “We don’t know, but it’s a good way for the Spiral to return.”
“Return?”
“According to Hesperian mythology, the Spiral is a cosmic demon cast out of this Universe in the violent moments of its beginning. The Spiral is outside, ravenously hungry.”
“Hungry?”
“For everything living.”
With a shudder Zeke recalled his previous trip inside the Engraving and the simulation of the Spiral’s attack. “But the Spiral already came back. You showed me.”
“We showed you fragments, not the complete story. The Hesperians knew a way to stop it, but we have lost that information.”
Zeke stamped his diagrammatical foot in frustration. “So what can you tell me? What about the guardian? How can I—”
“More apologies, Earth Child. You have drained our power molecules. You must go, for your own welfare. It will be a few days before we can reactivate. And your next visit must be your last, regrettably.”
“Why? Why?”
“Our strength, like our memories, is waning. We will be unable to open up to you after that.”
Zeke panicked.
“WAIT! How can I overcome the guardian?”
The cells were shrinking rapidly, forming light and dark patches. They were metamorphosing into an image, like pixels. The image of a face. The face talked.
“Strewth, kidda, for a moment there I thought you were a gonner.”
It was Knimble, leaning over Zeke and checking his pulse.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Scuff’s dream
Scuff was swimming, fully dressed, through a warm, shallow sea. Metallic-green fish darted through the glassy waters. Cherry red clouds drifted overhead. Scuff’s favourite neighbourhood restaurant, Baron Von Burgers, lay ahead, bobbing like a boathouse on the gentle current.
“Odd,” he puffed between strokes. “Why isn’t that in Lakeville where it belongs?”
Scuff heaved himself onto the floating diner and pushed through the glass doors. A six-foot beetle was serving behind the counter, dressed as a World War One fighter pilot. As Scuff queued up he realised the creature’s face was more human than bug.
“It’s an insectoid, like an insect but not,” whispered another customer in his ear. Scuff turned to see Tiberius Magma, with a whizzing spiral where his face should be.
“Whaddaya want?” the insectoid boomed in a thick New York accent.
Scuff ordered Chicken X-treme with a side of fries and a jumbo soda. He sat by the window, opposite Trixie Cutter. She was too busy cramming burgers down her throat to notice him. Tomato ketchup smeared her face and her flowery-pink blouse.
THUMP!
The soda rippled in its plastic cup. The fries jumped on their plate.
THUMP!
This time the whole ocean trembled.
“Quit with the banging. You wanna start a tsunami?” the Insectoid bellowed.
THUMP!
A grey shadow rose on the horizon. A giant wave. The cust-omers began screaming, only they weren’t people anymore. They looked more like jellyfish, slithering around in blind panic. The room went dark.
THUMP!
“You wanna start a tsunami, bro?” a disorientated Scuff barked, waking up in his room.
A wide-eyed Zeke was banging at his door. “We’ve got to go NOW. Whatever transport you’ve been dropping hints about, is it ready?”
“Sheesh, bro, it’s five in the morning, can’t this wait till breakfast?”
“NO! Have you got the wheels?”
“Hah, kind of. I take it Drufus showed up. When’s he collecting his reward?”
Zeke slowed down. “Actually he didn’t. Mariner Knimble took me up, but swear you’ll keep it secret.”
Scuff’s eyebrows rose as high as they could. “A Mariner broke into the principal’s office? I’m shocked!”
Zeke grabbed Scuff by the upper arms. “We have to go NOW.”
“What about your father? Searching the school for more clues?”
“We’ve got to put that aside! Magma doesn’t know what he’s tampering with. If I’m right we’re all in danger.”
“You mean the entire School?”
“I mean the entire galaxy.”
Scuff’s lips stuck like glue. He wished he were back at the Baron Von Burgers.
“Okay, bro, get your copy of Albie and meet me here in ten minutes.”
~~~
It was still night when the two boys crept from the Southern Entrance. The courtyard was dark and quiet. The sky was as crowded with stars as always. The school Millipede was parked across the gravel, a great, slumbering robot.
“You’ve hired it? Bought it?” Zeke asked.
Scuff chuckled. “Our mode of travel is parked behind.”
They hurried around the silver legs.
“Oh!” Zeke cried. “A helicopter!”
A red mottled two-seater was tucked behind the Millipede. A long mast rose above the bubble of its cockpit, blades unopened. A huge fan propeller was bolted onto the rear.
“Bro, it’s an autogyro to be precise. A Red Admiral.”
“Isn’t that a butterfly?”
“A species from your neck of the woods, I know. But their mechanical namesakes are built here on the Big Pumpkin, specifically designed for the local environment.”
Zeke whistled. Scuff aimed a key at the bubble, which unlocked with a welcoming beep.
“How much?” Zeke asked, with a rush of guilt.
Scuff threw him a wink. “Used aircraft come very cheap in Mariners Valley. No warranty of course, but it made it all the way from Yuri-Gagarin Freetown.”
“The Noctis Labyrinthis is much further Scuff, can—”
“It’s the best I could do, bro. Don’t get picky on me.”
Zeke sighed and scrambled into the dirt-stained interior. The upholstery reeked of Martian beer and tobacco. Not a good sign, Zeke thought.
“You do know how to fly this death trap?” he asked.
Scuff gave him his are-you-nuts look. “Sure, with your Albie as automatic pilot.”
Although the original Albie ha
d sunk without trace into the quicksand, Zeke had prudently made a back-up copy.
Zeke inserted the back-up disc. Worryingly it took Albie less time to configure the Admiral that it had the Glow-Worm.
“Upgrade Operational, Master Zeke.” Albie chimed through the gyro’s speakers.
“Albie, launch when ready. Noctis Labyrinthis, maximum speed.”
“Affirmative, Master Zeke.”
The blades unfurled and began spinning. Every nut, bolt and screw in the Red Admiral rattled ominously. It lifted a few feet. Then, with a sudden, sickening jolt, it lurched back to the ground.
Scuff gasped and Zeke muttered something foul in Hesperian. Principal Lutz was standing where a moment before there was nobody. She had brought them down by sheer willpower. The blades slowed to a halt,
“Bringing a gyro into the School without either a pilot license or a permit from me. Truanting. Putting your lives at risk. I expect this kind of criminal behaviour from Hailey, but you, Mr Barnum, what a bitter disappointment you are.”
Scuff hung his head in shame.
“Your School Medal of Honour is hereby rescinded. This time it really is the end, for both of you, regardless of that oafish lieutenant! Give Hailey a free reign, he said. No longer. Zeke Hailey you are once and for all expelled from this School.”
To Zeke’s surprise her words didn’t sting. “You’re expelling me?”
“Totally and irrevocably, mon cherie.”
Zeke felt a gush of excitement. She wasn’t vanquishing him, she was liberating him!
“In that case, you old trout, you can go jump in a black hole.”
Lutz stared at him as if he were talking in a foreign language. One that even she, the formidable linguist, didn’t speak. Zeke turned to his friend.
“Come on Scuff. We’ve got more important stuff to do.”
“Aye, aye Skipper!” Scuff said with a salute.
Still Lutz couldn’t fathom what was happening.
“I order you to get out. Out! Out of that silly contraption.”
“It’s an autogyro, to be precise. Now stand clear, we’re taking off.”
Lutz’s jaw dropped low.
“Mutiny is it? I might have seen it coming. I’ll just drag your silly whirligig down.”
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