I’m fed up with being treated like I know nothing. You won’t let me start flying lessons and you still expect me to do everything Sarsi2 tells me! It’s not fair! You’re nargy parents, you’re never here and when you are, you treat me like a baby!’ And he stormed out of the house before his parents could stop him.
‘Come back Skye!’ called his mother from the doorway as he bounded towards the beach. ‘It’ll be dark soon! It’s not advisable to go out at this time of crisis.’
‘There’s no curfew yet, so I’m going for a walk!’ he flung over his shoulder.
He soon reached the family’s private beach, fringed with whispering palms and shifting vegetation. The sea tugged gently along the shoreline and behind him, the massive sun was sinking behind the mountains. He could swear they had crept closer to the sea since last week. The Mother Moon of Isis rose swiftly over the horizon and gazed down at him, glimmering a pale green, the three purple rings rotating visibly round her. The next one appeared shortly afterwards, popping over the crags with alarming speed. It was much smaller, pitted with grey indentations. Skye was glad his Mother didn’t have to go to Sisyphus any more, even though he was annoyed with her at the moment. The next moon floated serenely into the night sky like a ship of gold, bathing the whole scene with a glowing light. Karma had a beneficial effect on everyone, and Skye began to feel calmer.
Suddenly there was a splash nearby and a dark shape broke the water. A Mermian had surfaced for some evening air. He hauled out and flipped his silver tail against the sand.
‘Skye!’ he heard a voice whispering. It sounded like the wind. Skye padded over to the dark shape and gasped in recognition. It was his Uncle Tilmo, except he looked almost unrecognisable now. His black spiky hair had turned green and trailed around his shoulders in seaweedy clusters. His skin had turned from turquoise to alabaster white.
‘Uncle Tilmo!’ gasped Skye. ‘You’ve come back!’
More Mermians joined him and lolled in the shallows. Tilmo flipped his tail playfully, splashing water at Skye and grinned. Tilmo was the black sheep of the family, a taboo subject in the household. Years ago he had fallen in love with a Mermian woman, the beautiful creature who was now lolling against him fondly. He had spent more and more time in the sea with her and had grown webbed feet. Eventually he had run away to sea – or rather, swum away to sea, and now it looked like he was a fully converted Mermian. Mermians were frowned upon by two legged species, as they were thought lazy, hedonistic and unsociable. Skye had missed him since he defected, and he wished he could hug him right now.
‘How are you Uncle? Are you happy?’
Tilmo began to speak, in a strange swishy language which Skye found hard to understand. It was Merspeak of course. It went something like this:
‘Swishchhhhcwoooww….’
Skye sighed and shook his head. It was no good - his Uncle had completely migrated into his new trans-species form. His lips could probably not form the words now.
Tilmo’s wife lifted a long alabaster arm out of the water and handed Skye a large conch shell. Skye waded into the shallows, took it and held it to his ear. There were more swishing sounds, but he listened harder and gradually began to make out some kind of language.
‘Sssssunev is in great danger….. He needs your help….they are trying to kill him….you must go to him….look for the mark of Sunev on his cheek. The circle with a cross beneath. Your parents have the code for his planet...…you must find it. Ssssave him and he will ssssave us.’
Skye stood up and handed the conch shell back to his weird fishy Aunty, his whole body tingling with fear, excitement and anticipation. Now he knew that his instincts had been right. There was a lot more to this than met the eye. The Chags must be planning some sort of pre-emptive assassination. It would be too late if they waited for Sunev to die naturally.
He bent down and touched his Uncle’s cheek. ‘Thanks Tilmo,’ he murmered, ’Have a nice life.’
Tilmo flipped his tail in farewell and the shoal of Mermians turned and swam off, rippling through the water in the moonlight. Skye strode back to his house. Now he knew what he had to do.
His parents had already gone to bed when he returned. He let himself in and stole into his mother’s office. He knew what he was looking for – the secret code for the planet that Sunev was now living on. Skye was a very good hacker and in no time he was in his mothers etherfiles. And there he saw what he expected to see. ‘Chagrinian warship detected leaving Realm of the Seven Galaxies, Venturian time stardate XxxV1111. Suspected plot to exterminate Sunev before Time of Prophecy. High Priest to protect his holiness until rescue can be achieved. Co-ordinates for location on rehabilitation planet, SU9 NE5.’
Skye stared at all the figures that came up on the screen and loaded them onto his holophone by air dragging. He loaded the ethertext Chokra had sent him, with all the latest starmaths figures. He might need them. Although it was school standard stuff it might come in handy. He placed his mother’s control armlet on his wrist; the one with the built in soul scanner, loaded up a map of the constellations and the galaxies and entered the co-ordinates. A holographic image of a solar system he didn’t recognise sprang out of the bank of winking dials and screens and machines, a 3D virtual model of nine planets revolving round a fiery sun. The third one out from the sun was a beautiful blue and emerald globe, with one moon orbiting round it. Electrowaves emanated from it, indicating that this was the planet he needed to head for. It was in another galaxy far away. So far away he could hardly fathom it.
Skye shrugged into his mother’s silver space suit, the one designed for intergalactic travel, and crept down to the spaceport via the service lift. His mother’s Spacepod stood in the corner, a small white interplanetary craft about the size of a delivery van, in the shape of a diving bell, planted on mechanical feet, with a round window at the front. If he fed all the right co-ordinates in, it might just make the journey. He had to take this chance, because if he didn’t, they would probably all perish.
He pressed the release button on the remote control armlet and the doors slid open silently. Climbing in, Skye strapped himself into the pilot seat and switched on the power. There was a low hum and hundreds of winking lights began to flash on the control panel. He had travelled with his mother in this pod many a time, and watched her carefully as she piloted the craft. He pressed another button and the spaceport doors slid open, revealing the night sky outside. Taking the joystick, he began to manoeuvre the craft out of the spaceport.
Once outside, he fed the codes and co-ordinates into the pod’s memory and pressed the lift off control. The pod hovered uncertainly above the ground. Skye pressed the intergalactic space travel button and the pod shot off into the night sky, heading for another world on the other side of the universe.
If he never came back alive, at least Skye would know he had tried his best to save his planet.
Skye’s journey continues in Goddess in Pyjamas……
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Skye's Secret Mission Page 4