Prologue
The
boy pulled the bundle of furs close as the last of his fire
rocks went out.
He
couldn’t stop shivering. It was getting colder and colder every day
now.
Outside
he could hear the Nagwhals calling, their shrill whine bouncing off
the ice falls, reaching deep into the cave.
He
was so hungry. He hadn't eaten in days.
Beneath
the pile of rotten fur he held onto his brother, now stiff with cold.
Down
the tunnel he heard a long, piercing shriek and a loud splash.
Moments later a big silver head followed by a long silver body
squeezed itself out of the darkness and slid towards him, its huge,
jagged teeth snapping at his rags.
A
yell and a lunge and it was all over.
He let go of his brother as the Nagwhal tugged his stiff body back
down the dark tunnel.
He was alone now - the last boy alive on a long dead planet.
The boy shivered, and waited for the Nagwhal to come again.
Jack
slammed the front door shut and quickly ran up the stairs. He went
straight into the bathroom, locked the door, and looked into the
small mirror by the sink.
It was worse than he feared.
There were swishes and squiggles of red, black, blue, green, and
orange marker pen all over his face.
He panicked.
Not wanting to be seen like this by his mum and dad he turned
on the taps and frantically began to scrub his face with a large,
yellow sponge. It took almost twenty minutes of feverish scrubbing to
remove every last mark.
After he finished dabbing himself with a towel, he walked across the
landing, entered his small, sparsely decorated bedroom, and slouched
down upon the bed.
He had lost another pen fight.
When it was other children fighting
though, they didn’t seem to come away as badly as he did. It
was supposed to be one against one, yet as soon as he said he wanted
to fight there were five or six boys and girls holding him down,
scribbling and scrawling all over his face. He kept shouting at them
to stop, but they just laughed and giggled, their pens thrusting and
jabbing.
Jack looked into the mirror one last time. Just for a moment he
half-hoped that his birthmark had been washed away too, but it was
still there: stretching all the way from his forehead to his chin
like a big red smudge of tomato ketchup. Wiping his blue eyes dry, he
put on his glasses, neatened his short brown hair, checked his face
again for pen marks and left his bedroom.
The
smell of food was now emanating from the kitchen and wafting up the
steep flight of stairs.
Eager to see what was for dinner, he quickly rushed down the stairs,
almost tripping over on the way and ran, much to the consternation of
his Mum, through the living room into the kitchen.
He was so hungry.
His mind raced with the many possibilities: hamburgers, roast
chicken, pepperoni pizza, sausages - anything so long as it was
delicious, and what was more - lots of it!
His heart sank.
Upon the kitchen table was a pan of burnt pork chops, along with some
equally burnt stringy onions as well as what looked like a big dish
of rather lumpy mashed potatoes and a pile of heavily-buttered white
bread. His dreams of coming home to a plate of crisp, chunky chips
and a moist, oven-cooked pizza, or else a plate of yellow, creamy
curry had vanished yet again. Why couldn't he get something better
for a change?
But
he was hungry, and so he sat down across from his mum and dad and
said nothing. He then grabbed a knife and fork from a small pile on
the table and began to eat. Though as the gravy lacked salt and the
mashed potatoes well everything, his dinner mainly consisted of
making some rather messy pork chop sandwiches. This was of course
after he had spooned-off the black onions, given the pork chops a
good helping of brown sauce, and pulled off some little bits of mold
from the bread.
A few minutes later and it was time for dessert.
His mum, cheeks reddening, put on some ragged, grey
oven gloves and brought out a hot, steaming dish of …gooseberry
crumble!
He couldn’t believe it.
Not gooseberry crumble again!
Jack hated gooseberry crumble. As far as he was concerned, it was
quite possibly the most disgusting thing on Earth, being nothing
better than sour, green, slimy goo.
“Why can’t we have something else for a change?” he suddenly
shouted out loud, anger rising in his chest. “I hate gooseberry
crumble. It’s horrible!”
“Nonsense Jack,” replied his mum, in a soft, kind voice. “It’s
good for you. It helps you grow into a big, strong lad.”
“No, it’s not!” he spat, getting angrier “I hate it, why
can’t we have something different for a change?”
“Now Jack,” interrupted his dad in a stern voice “Be nice to
your mum, she’s been cooking your dinner for a long time.”
“I don’t care! I’m sick of it. All we ever eat is gooseberry
and rhubarb crumble. Why can’t we have some ice cream for a
change?”
“It’s healthy,” his mum continued. “Besides we’ve loads of
gooseberry bushes in the back garden. We can’t let them go to
waste. You don’t know how lucky you are. People would love to have
what we have!”
Jack made a face, grunted again, but thought better about answering
back.
Besides, he was still hungry and there was a red hot jug of steaming
yellow custard on the table. Still not wanting to eat the gooseberry
though, he got hold of a large, wooden serving spoon and attempted to
scoop off the top of the crumble from the green goo underneath.
Immediately his dad stopped him.
“Jack, what have we told you about taking all the crumble?” Leave
some for us.”
“But daaaaaaad!” he whined.
“But nothing,” he said, his brown eyes almost poking through his
glasses “Stop being selfish, and think about other people for a
change.”
And that was the end of that. Sulking, Jack dejectedly put a small
dollop of gooseberry crumble in a chipped dessert bowl, followed by a
couple of large spoon-fulls of hot custard.
He ate it in silence, gulping it down, mouthful after mouthful. The
quicker the better he thought. In order to avoid tasting it, he tried
to surround as much of the disgusting gooseberry as possible with
either the custard or the crumble. This didn’t work very well
however and every now and again a big, slimy wedge of gooseberry goo
would get stuck at the back of his throat or else at the top of his
mouth, causing him to wince and grimace.
Once he had finished, he got up and tried to leave the table, eager
to watch some T.V, only for his dad to stop him. “Jack, don’t
forget it’s your turn to wash up today.” he said, irritated.
“Oh, come on dad,” he said. “Give me a break. I want to watch
some TV.”
“No, it’s your turn. Your mum has cooked the tea, so now you must
wash up after her. Besides, it's the summer holidays now; you’ll
have plenty of time to watch TV in the coming weeks.”
“Okay, whatever.” Jack muttered under his breath.
“What did you say?” barked his dad.
“Nothing.”
Jack made his way to the kitchen sink and gripped the washing-up
bottle tightly, squeezing out a green jet of washing-up liquid into
the sink. He then turned on the hot water, and watched as a mountain
of frothy, white bubbles arose like an island from the foaming sea.
“Jack,” his dad said again, “Don’t use too much washing-up
liquid. It all costs money. You only need to use a little.”
“I knooooooooooow!” he bellowed back sarcastically.
Still his dad continued. “Well then, make sure you wash them
properly this time. Last time you didn’t do a good job, and your
mum had to wash them all again.”
With that they both left for the living room.
Still annoyed, Jack began to wash-up, flinging the cups, plates,
pans, and cutlery into the sea of bubbles. Not wanting to think about
the pen fight again he did the wiping and scrubbing as quickly as he
could. He didn’t care about any correct order or way of doing
things; he just wanted to get it all done, and to get out of the
kitchen as quickly as possible. He just flung them in the drainer one
by one, stacking them haphazardly on top of each other until
eventually a Mount Everest of pots, plates and pans arose from out of
the drainer at least a foot high.
As soon as he finished, he burst into the small living room, eager to
watch some TV, where a man in a grey suit was talking on the news
about the latest tourists to blast-off into space.
He was just about to plonk himself on the sofa when a sound like
thunder came from the kitchen.
Craaaaaaaasssshhhhhhh!
Everybody sat up and turned around.
“JACK, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” his mum and dad bellowed at once.
They all rushed into the kitchen like a herd of stampeding
wildebeest. All over the sticky, yellow, lino floor were an
assortment of broken cups and plates as well as several pans and a
great many knives and forks.
“Oh, Jaaaaaack!” his mum whined, “How are we going to replace
all these? We haven’t got the money.”
Even he for once was lost for words.
“B-b-b-but I didn’t mean it!” he finally stammered,
embarrassed, feeling sorry both for himself and for them.
“Didn’t mean it?” His mum bellowed back, “I’ve told you
before about not rushing the washing-up and stacking them properly.
Why can’t you listen, you STUPID boy?”
“I’M NOT STUPID!” He yelled back, the anger now becoming a
flood. “I was only trying my best!”
“TRYING YOUR BEST!” she spat. “You never try your best. All you
do is please yourself and make excuses.”
“No, I don’t. I’m always helping out with the washing up and
making cups of tea. Why can’t we have a dishwasher like everybody
else?” He demanded.
“Because we can’t afford it. I’ve told you bef..”.
“RUBBISH!” He shouted. “I’m SICK of being poor! I’m SICK of
living in this run down house! I’m SICK of these second-hand
clothes! I’m SICK of not going abroad! I'm SICK of SCHOOL! I'm SICK
of this FACE! But most of all I’m SICK of YOU!”
He didn’t mean to say this. It just slipped out. He couldn’t help
it.
“That’s enough, Jack!” demanded his dad “Stop shouting at
your mum. Apologise to her at once. She does a lot for you. Clean
this mess up and then get to your room!”
“NOOOOOOOOO!” He roared suddenly, “I’m leaving and I’m not
coming back!”
With that Jack stormed past them, knocking over a potted plant on the
way, and left the house, slamming the front door behind him. They
tried to follow, shouting and bellowing. But it was no use. Like a
fox he ran away into the evening as fast as he could and didn’t
look back.
He
would never see his parents again.
Frustrated and angry, Jack ran as fast as he could down a narrow,
winding country lane, which cut through a string of fields and woods.
Eventually he arrived at his Cousin George’s house, which was on
the sprawling Badgerton estate nearby. He grasped the shiny brass
door-knocker on the white PVC door and rapped it three times. His
auntie Margaret opened the door, her gold jewelry twinkling in the
evening sunshine.
“Oh, you’ve turned up I see,” she said, her skin almost as
golden as her bracelets. “Your mum’s rang and she says you’ve
to go back home at once and clean up all the mess you’ve made.”
“But I-I-I-wanted to ask George,” he stammered “If he wanted to
come out and p-p-play football with me?”
“No, he can’t,” she bellowed back, “He’s not allowed to
play out with you tonight. He's got homework to do, and besides
you’ve to go home and sort out that kitchen of yours.”
“Oh c-c-come on Auntie Margaret,” he begged. “Just for an hour,
then I’ll go back home and clean it up, I promise.”
“No! Your mum says you’ve to go home now, and that’s the end of
it.”
“O-o-okay, tell her I’m on my way,” he said, walking back down
the drive.
“Oh no, you don't,” she said, “I'll drive you. I'll just go and
fetch my keys.”
But Jack didn't want to go back with her. Not tonight. Not ever. So
as soon as she went back inside he ran off towards the football pitch
as fast as he could.
As Jack walked towards the side of the pitch he saw several boys
playing football. As he'd been so eager to run away from his mum and
dad he'd left his glasses behind, so he squinted his eyes in the
bright evening sun and scanned their blurry faces, trying to work out
who they were. He’d got to within a few feet of them when suddenly
he realised that the boy in front of him was Gaz Finch, the biggest
bully and self-proclaimed ‘cock’ of the school. One of the
roughest boys in Rockingdale he was constantly being caught fighting,
not just with other boys but also with some of the teachers too.
Thick-set, tall, and stocky, like a pit-bull terrier, he at once
turned towards Jack, his whole, ugly face snarling.
“Hey, look who it is,” he shouted to his friends, through yellow,
jagged teeth. “It’s Jack MONG!”
Immediately, his friends howled and shrieked with laughter.
“What d’you want Mongy?” He continued. “A new face and some
new clothes ha ha ha!”
“I-I-I don’t want anything,” Jack stammered. “I-I-I just
wanna play f-f-football.”
“NUTHIN? Don’t look like nuthin Mongy,” he yelled. “What do
you want to play football for? Yer RUBBISH!”
“N-n-n-no, I’m not, I’m … I’m…” spluttered Jack.
“N-n-n-n-n-n-n-n!” Gaz mocked back, to yet more howls of
laughter.
“G-G-Gaz …I-I-I.”
But Gaz interrupted him again, his voice even angrier. “YER WANNA
FIGHT? YER STARTIN’? Think you can show YOUR BIG RED FACE around
here do yer?”
Then he began to push Jack, inching closer and closer, spit spraying
all over his face.
Jack was terrified; he didn’t know what to do.
He held out his hands to try and prevent Gaz from getting closer, but
all he did was slap them away.
“N-n-n-no,” Jack begged again “I-I-I just wanna p-p-play
f-f-football, honest. I don’t want to fight yer Gaz, please!”
But his pleas only seemed to make Gaz angrier, and his pushes and
shoves and his barks and yells became more forceful and more violent,
as he brushed and slapped away at his arms.
“YEAH YER ARE, YER STARTIN’! He yelled again. “Think you can
take me do yer Mongy? I’LL SHOW YER!”
With that Gaz punched Jack just below his right eye.
Immediately, his skin stung and seared.
“Arrgghhh!” Jack screamed at the top of his voice. “It hurts!
It hurts! Stop! Stop! Stop! Please!” he begged, absolutely
terrified, trying to back away, his heart hammering like a pneumatic
drill.
But Gaz didn’t listen. He just kept on hitting him, his stinging
fists swinging like wooden mallets.
“COME ON! COME ON! LET’S FIGHT!” he yelled, punches landing all
over his face. “COME ON! COME ON!”
Then Jack spat out some blood. Gaz had bust his bottom lip.
“Stop! Stop! Stop!” he kept shouting over and over again, his
mouth stinging, blood dribbling down his bruised chin.
He didn’t know what to do. He was so scared. It didn’t seem real.
He was trapped in a waking nightmare and he didn’t know how to get
out.
Still Gaz's fists swung and clubbed away.
Finally, he did what he always did with the bullies.
He ran.
Gaz didn’t chase after him though. He didn’t need to. He’d got
his fun for the evening. Today it was Jack. Yesterday it was a
younger boy with ginger hair, glasses, and eczema. Tomorrow it would
be someone different.
Jack ran from the football pitch across some fields, and through some
bushes and trees, past flocks of startled sheep; leaping over mole
hills and piles of cow dung, until eventually he came panting to
Darnley reservoir.
There Jack sank down on one of its rough grassy banks and started to
cry.
He felt weak, lonely, and pathetic.
He was still bleeding from his bottom lip, and his shoes and jeans
were smeared with mud and cow dung. Thoughts whirred around his head.
How was he going to explain his bloodied clothes to his mum and dad?
Would he get black eyes? What would everybody say at school after the
holidays? No doubt Gaz would tell the whole school that he’d
beaten him up. Everybody was going to have a right good laugh at him.
He ran his fingers through his clammy hair, and then he started to
cry again. He felt humiliated. He hadn’t even fought back …
He sat there for about twenty minutes feeling sorry for himself,
until eventually the sobs subsided and the tears dried. He thought
about his mum and dad too. He felt sorry for shouting at them and for
breaking all those dishes. Though they were poor, he realised that
they always did their best for him. His mum was always buying him
t-shirts from the charity shops and his dad would often bring home
bags of chocolate from the chocolate factory where he worked. The
thought made him smile. He would go home and make it up to them, even
if it did mean getting told-off and being grounded for a few weeks.
He wiped his bleeding lip with his hands and now bloodied t-shirt,
and then he got up and trudged off towards home, spitting out a pink
mixture of saliva and blood every few paces.
It was now approaching nine o’clock and it was beginning to get
darker. The Moon had long since been visible overhead, resting on a
bed of red and orange, and now poking through the increasingly dark
sky were the first glimmers of a vast armada of stars.
It was at that moment that he saw out of the corner of his eye a
small, bright, circular object moving across the horizon.
“It must be a plane,” he said out loud, but even so he continued
to follow its course as it cut a path through the increasingly
populous night sky.
His mind swirled with the possibilities: Could it be a satellite or a
space station? Or perhaps it’s one of those new rockets taking
tourists into space?
But just at that moment it suddenly turned around, changed course,
and headed in his direction with incredible speed. He watched
disbelievingly as it became an increasingly large, bright dot in the
sky. In a matter of seconds this dot had then changed into a large,
silver, elliptical-shaped object.
All
the time it was getting closer and closer. Then suddenly in a matter
of seconds it swooped down across the wide sprawling valley, close to
where he was standing. He tried to run away, but it was no use. In no
time at all it had whooshed over his head settling beside a dark,
shadowy clump of trees about twenty feet in front of him.
It
was absolutely massive, easily swamping the football pitch that he'd
just run from. It was bright silver and shaped rather like a
triangle, only more aerodynamic, being curved around the edges. It
was absolutely silent and there were no windows, lights, panels,
insignia, cockpits, engines, or mechanical instruments of any kind
that he could see. It glimmered brilliantly in the cool moonlight;
the moon, clouds and the stars reflecting off on its shiny, metallic
surface.
Jack’s
heart was beating wildly. For a few moments nothing happened - it
just hung there suspended above the field, casting not even the
slightest bit of shadow. Maybe it doesn't know I'm here? He
thought.
He
should have been terrified, he should have been panicking and running
away in the opposite direction like he always did. But for some
reason he didn't feel scared at all; if anything he felt calm and
relaxed, welcome even.
He
walked towards it, its size appearing all the more gigantic the
closer he got, the battered image of the crescent moon glinting off
its huge nose.
In no time at all, he was directly in front of it, the wavy image of
the grassy field reflecting back at him. It had still not moved, and
no landing ramp or steps of any kind had come down. It didn’t
appear to know he was there.
Then for some unknown reason he had an idea to try and touch it. He
stretched out his fingers, running them over its soft, fluid-like
surface. And then, as if someone had pulled a lever or flicked a
switch, he was inside, standing in a long tube-like corridor, his own
awe-struck reflection staring back at him.
Jack Strong, the boy who had gotten an F for his latest science
report, had just become the first boy inside an alien spaceship.
Jack looked down the corridor as it curved away into the distance.
It was bright and well-lit, and like the outside of the spaceship it
was silver-looking, without any recognisable panels, buttons, or
instruments of any kind. Indeed, he couldn’t even see where the
light was coming from. There were no light bulbs, filaments, or even
switches in the ceilings or walls. It seemed to come from everywhere
at once.
The whole ship was absolutely silent. No engine purred and roared. No
machinery whooshed and rattled. Not even his footsteps made a sound
on the soft, shiny floor. All he could hear was the sound of his
chest rapidly sucking in and out lungfuls of air.
Jack looked around frantically as he felt the fear rise in his chest.
He reached out and touched one of the walls. Like the floor, it was
hard and smooth, and yet it seemed softer than metal. When he ran his
fingers over it, he could press the material down by about half an
inch. The whole corridor seemed to be covered in this strange
sponge-like material.
He stood there for a few minutes not knowing what to do. The whole
ship seemed deserted. Not for the first time tonight he was alone and
frightened. What had happened? How had he got inside? Would he ever
be able to get out?
He turned around and tried desperately to find a way out - anything
that he could open and escape through. He couldn't find anything. He
attempted to grip the smooth silk-like walls, trying to prise open a
non-existent door or hatch, but his hands just kept slipping off.
Then his fear and frustration began to boil over, his screwed-up
fists pummeling the walls.
“WHO ARE YOU?” he shouted out to whoever might be listening “WHAT
AM I DOING HERE? LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!”
But there was no answer, only the echo of his own trembling voice.
Then suddenly, as if he'd pressed some hidden switch, a huge portion
of the wall vanished.
Before him appeared a giant image of the Earth.
He jumped back, expecting to be sucked out into the vacuum of space
at any moment. But nothing happened.
Then he reached out, his hands shaking. The image of the Earth
rippled under his touch like a reflection on water. The wall was
still there however, but it now seemed to be some kind of transparent
window.
Looking down he was now high above Africa, with the pale yellow sands
of the Sahara desert clearly visible next to the lush, green
rainforests of Western and Central Africa. White and grey bands of
clouds were drifting over South Africa and parts of Eurasia, and
around all this was the bluest ocean Jack had ever seen.
When the spaceship had taken off he'd no idea. He hadn’t felt any
acceleration, or heard the rush and boom of any rockets. It was like
it had magically disappeared in one place and then re-appeared in
another.
Not only was he the first boy to go on board an alien spaceship, but
he had now become the first to fly into space too.
Then almost as quickly as the Earth appeared it dissolved into
nothing, leaving Jack alone in the corridor once more.
Still too afraid to move, he sat in the corridor for a long time not
knowing what to do.
After a while boredom and curiosity got the better of him and he
decided to explore further down the corridor, turning around every
now and again just to make sure he wasn’t being followed by some
hairy, ugly space critter.
Where was everybody? Why weren't there any aliens or robots to greet
him? That was what happened in the movies, right?
The corridor seemed endless. Every now and again he would pass some
brightly-lit rooms that like the corridor were lit by a non-existent
light source. On each of these there were no doors of any kind, nor
no windows either. He could only guess as to what they were used for.
He thought about going into some of them to explore, but thought
better of it.
As far as he could make out there were no other levels to the ship.
He saw no elevators, escalators, or stairs that led anywhere else. He
saw no signs either. The only things he did see were some 3-D
pictures of what looked like the Milky Way galaxy set against an even
larger star. They seemed to be part of the wall itself. When Jack
touched one it came alive, the shimmering stars revolving around the
sun in the centre. He could even put his hand into the picture and
feel the glow of the stars tingling on his fingertips.
He kept on walking for well over an hour, but he couldn’t find a
way out.
Then he saw something brown on the floor in front of him. He bent
over to have a look. It was dirt – his own. He'd gone round in a
circle. He must have brought it onto the spaceship when he came
aboard.
Not only was he on an alien spaceship thousands of miles above the
Earth, with no way to get off, but he was also lost and without the
faintest idea of where to go next.
Panicking, he began to run frantically around the spaceship; in the
hope that he had missed something, or perhaps had taken a wrong
turning. He hadn’t. About forty five minutes later he found himself
back where he had started, next to several crumbs of dry mud and a
few twisted blades of grass.
He slumped to the floor dejected, ran his hands through his clammy
hair, and wondered what he was going to do next.
He was just about to go and explore one of the larger rooms when
something large and heavy fell on top of him.
He crashed to his knees and fell over, his right cheek bouncing off
the soft, spongy, floor.
Something was on top of him holding him down.
Whatever it was it was alive. He could feel its hot breath on the
back of his neck and what felt like sharp claws or fingernails
digging between his shoulder blades, ripping and tearing at his skin.
He managed to squeeze one of his arms out from under his body. He
flapped and flailed at whatever was on top of him, grasping nothing
but air. Eventually, he managed to grab what felt like tough dry
leather, and wrenched-off whatever was holding him down.
Jack gasped. Facing him was a pair of big, round black eyes
surrounded by a pale, milky head, and a mouthful of sharp, white
teeth.
He barely had time to breathe but what the creature attacked him
again, its sharp fingernails poking and jabbing at his eyes as its
small nose twitched and prodded as it sucked in his scent. Within
moments it was on top of him again, its gleaming teeth locked in an
angry grimace as it tried to strangle him.
Then he heard the sound of laughter from the other end of the
corridor. He turned around instantly.
Before him was what looked like a young teenage girl.
The first thing that he noticed was how red she was. She had bright
red hair and eyes, crimson lips, light-red, pinkish skin, and she was
even dressed in red, wearing a tight-fitting red suit that stretched
all the way from her neck to her feet.
“Is that how you practice first contact on your planets?” she
chuckled.
Jack laid there quietly not knowing what to say as the jawstrocity
on top of him glared at her with its tar-like eyes.
Then suddenly it opened its mouth, snarling back at her, “No, of
course not, I was just …I was just…”
It glared in the direction of Jack again, “I was just protecting
myself. I thought that HE was going to attack ME!”
“No I wasn’t.” Jack yelled, still gripping its arms. “He
attacked me, I did nothing to him, I swear.”
“I don't care, you can believe what you like,” it said, as it
thrust him once more to the floor.
Then it got to its feet and walked quickly over to the red girl.
“Where did you learn my language?” It demanded, the dark green
veins in its skin almost popping out of its forehead.
“What do you mean? I was going to ask you the same thing. Where did
you learn Rennish?”
“Very amusing,” it said, “Stop messing around and tell me where
you learnt Asvari. Your accent is perfect.”
“Look,” she continued in a slightly arrogant tone “if you want
to believe that I am speaking Asvari or Astar or whatever you want to
call it then fine, but you might want to ask your friend over there
how he can understand the both of us too!”
“He’s NOT my friend!” it spat, glaring at Jack who was still in
a heap on the floor. “I ...”
Then it abruptly stopped. “What language are you speaking?” it
demanded.
“What do you mean?” asked Jack, a little flustered.
“L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E!” It spelled out sarcastically. “What language
are you speaking?”
“English, of course!” Jack replied, getting to his feet.
“See, I told you!” said the red girl triumphantly, her cheeks
glowing.
“But how? It doesn’t make sense,” it said, looking confused.
Now it was her turn to spell it out, “We aren’t speaking each
others' languages, but we are hearing them! That’s what I’ve been
trying to tell you. Somehow in this spaceship we are able to
understand what other people say.”
“But that’s impossible!” said Jack. “How…”
“I don’t know how,” interrupted the red girl. “All I know is
that it IS happening. Perhaps there’s something on board the
spaceship that makes it possible. Maybe it’s the spaceship itself,
or maybe our brains have been re-programmed in some way.”
Upon hearing that Jack immediately touched his head, worried that it
might explode at any moment.
“Don't worry,” Vyleria continued, “I'm sure it's fine. By the
look of it this spaceship is very advanced, so I'm sure it can handle
a teeny-weeny bit of brain surgery. By the way what happened to your
t-shirt? It looks like he's hurt you.”
“I didn't do anything to him!” protested the mouthful of teeth,
its silver-grey spacesuit shimmering as his arms danced about in
protest.
“No, it wasn't him,” Jack said, looking down at his blood-soaked
t-shirt. “It was … it was … I fell.”
“You fell?” asked the red girl, not quite believing him.
“Yeah, I was playing football and I tripped and I fell and I hurt
my lip.”
“And your cheeks and your nose and your forehead too?” she
chuckled.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Jack replied, shuffling his feet and
fidgeting.
“See, I told you!” barked the mouthful of teeth “What do you
take me for – some kind of monster?”
“No, of course not what do you take me for some kind of
narrow-minded speciesist?”
“How did you both get here?” Jack asked, seizing a chance to
change the subject and to stop them from arguing. “I’ve been
walking around this corridor for ages but I didn’t see either of
you.”
“I..I..” started the creature with the milky, green face, but
again the red girl interrupted him, “I’ve been exploring some of
the other levels. There’s some amazing stuff down there, you should
check it out. I got around by using one of the transportation rooms.
I found it by accident actually.”
“What do you mean the transportation rooms?” Jack asked.
“You know the transportation rooms!”
Jack looked at her blankly.
“Oh,” she said, reading his expression “You mean you haven't
found them yet? What have you been doing you two? Come on, I’ll
show you,” she said, chuckling to herself.
They followed her down the corridor and into one of the rooms that
Jack had passed before. It didn’t look like anything special - just
white and empty.
“What do you do?” Jack asked, staring at it as a monkey might do
a computer “How does it work?”
“Here, I’ll show you,” she said, confidently. “First, you
step inside and then think of wherever you want to go on the space
ship. Wherever you think of, it sends you there.”
Then with that she stepped inside, turned round, closed her eyes and
promptly vanished.
Jack was searching the room for her when suddenly he heard a voice
behind him.
“Hi there!” said the red girl, tapping him on the shoulder.
He jumped about a foot in the air.
“Where did you come from?” he asked, gasping for breath.
“I simply thought of the next room along this corridor and it sent
me there. You should try it; I've been having so much fun!”
Jack stepped forward, only for the other creature to elbow him out of
the way. Then it stepped inside the room, closed its eyes, and
vanished, before re-appearing moments later.
When Jack stepped inside the room he found he couldn’t concentrate.
His head was a whirl of thoughts and feelings. He thought of the room
next door, then the long corridor, Gaz Finch, the football pitch,
arguing with his parents, the pen fight, the spaceship, seeing Planet
Earth, how to get out, and then and then …
He found himself close to the ceiling.
He fell down immediately, bouncing lightly off the soft floor.
Then he heard the sound of laughter.
“Stop laughing at me!” he shouted.
“Sorry Jack,” said the red girl. “I can’t help it. I never
thought that you’d be so funny!”
“I did,” snarled the mouthful of teeth, its green veins almost
poking out of its cheeks.
I’m not going to be laughed at here as well as school, Jack
thought to himself, so picking himself up he went back into the
transportation room, closed his eyes, thought of the room next door,
and vanished again.
He opened his eyes on a large white room. “Yes, I’ve done it!”
he shouted, but when he went out into the corridor he realised
that instead of re-appearing next door he had in fact ended-up in an
identical room more than a hundred feet away.
He trudged back to yet more howls of laughter. It WAS like school all
over again!
It took Jack five more attempts to get it right. Each time he got
closer and closer, though once he ended-up in a room so far away it
took him almost thirty minutes to walk back.
Eventually he got it right, though they still sniggered at him.
“Where should we go to?” the other creature asked the red girl,
ignoring Jack completely. “Where haven’t you been to on the
ship?”
“I came on board several floors down so I’ve been making my way
up ever since, trying to see if anyone else was here,” she said.
“I’m not even sure how many levels there are, let alone how many
remain up or down. We could always keep going up I suppose. Maybe we
will find others too. By the way my name is Vyleria. Vyleria Romen.”
“I’m Jack … Jack Strong,” Jack stammered.
“Number six hundred and thirty four, Alpha wing, Andromeda sphere,”
replied the other creature, matter-of-factly.
“That sounds more like a room in a space hotel than a name,”
Vyleria chuckled. “What can we call you for short?”
“You can call me six hundred and thirty four, Alpha wing, Andromeda
sphere,” it replied, glaring at them both with those big, black
eyes. “That's my name!”
“Yes, you're right,” said Vyleria, with a hint of sarcasm in her
voice. “I didn't mean to laugh at you. I just thought that if for
example we are fleeing from an exploding supernova (Jack didn't like
the thought of this) or are caught up in a solar hurricane (or this)
for the sake of simplicity calling out Number Six Hundred and Thirty
Four, Alpha Wing, Andromeda Sphere, might be a bit too long and
complicated, and perhaps even a tad dangerous. Do you have a nickname
(Jack thought of a few at this point); something that we can call you
for short?
For a moment Jack didn't think it was going to work, but then after a
few seconds the jawstrocity stopped glaring at them. “Call me Ros,”
it said.
“Ros?” asked Vyleria.
“Yes, Ros.” it punched back. “There do you like it? Can we move
on now?”
“Okay, Ros it is then,” said Vyleria, smiling “Let’s go up to
the next level and see what we can find. Try to concentrate Jack; you
don’t want to end up in outer space!”
With that they stepped into the transportation room, vanishing one by
one. Vyleria first, then Ros, and then finally a worried-looking
Jack.
If you want to read how Jack gets on in his adventures please check out the link below:
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