Jack Strong and the Prisoner of Haa'drath Read online

  “Yeah, I’ve been thinking the same thing myself,” she said. “Remember that mountain we climbed a few planets back – the one with the blue glacier bulging out from the top? I thought nothing could top that with all the ice fields and crevasses and then there was that one point where the glacier stuck out its tongue from the cliff face, resulting in a ten-thousand-foot waterfall.”

  “Yeah, how could I forget?” said Jack. “That was quite a water slide! And then there were all those rainbows that shone whenever one of the four suns appeared from behind a cloud.”

  “Yeah I thought, that's it – nothing can beat that – this mountain, this glacier, this waterfall, is the single most beautiful sight in the entire universe and nothing we see afterwards will come near it.”

  “And yet,” said Jack, “we always find a mountain that's higher, a valley that's greener and more beautiful than the last, a forest that contains more life than the one before, an ocean that looks more and more like lava at sunset.”

  “We always will.”

  “Yeah, that's what I'm beginning to realise,” said Jack. “The universe is a shoreless sea, a room with infinite corners. There's no end to it.”

  “And all these secrets, all these new discoveries are ours forever.”

  “I'm not sure I ever want to stop,” said Jack. “I can't imagine going back to Earth now and living a normal life: going to school, getting a job. It would seem ...”

  “Mundane.”

  “Boring.”

  “The usual.”

  “A letdown.”

  “Jack, let's never stop, let’s keep on going forever. I know you want to.”

  “Yes, I do but...”

  “But what?” asked Vyleria.

  “Well what about my mum and dad? I can't just leave them. They’ll be waiting for me back home. Don't you have any parents?”

  “No.”

  “Oh, I'm sorry,” said Jack. “Are you an orphan? Did something happen to your mum and dad when you were younger?”

  “No,” she chuckled, “my parents didn't die. I never had any! Well, not like you I mean.”

  “What do you mean you never had any parents? I don't understand. How?”

  “It's quite a technical process, but when men and women on my planet reach maturity they have to donate their eggs and sperm twice a year. These are then brought together in some artificial ovaries and after that a baby is conceived and then born.”

  “And then what happens?”

  “After that the babies are transferred into a birthing machine that looks after and nurtures them until they are ten years old.”

  “TEN YEARS OLD?! You mean you were only born two years ago? But how? I don't understand.”

  “About how I can do anything?”

  “Well yeah, you seem really… err clever… but you can't have learnt all the stuff you know in two years, can you?”

  “No, of course not,” she chuckled. “When we are inside the birthing machine the computer gives us the necessary education and life experience so that when we are eventually born we hardly need any schooling other than a few orientation classes.”

  “You mean you never went to SCHOOL?”

  “Well no, not as you understand it. But like I say there are a few weeks of classes after we are born, although even I must admit that I bunked off a few of those.”

  “What's it like then?”

  “Growing up in a machine?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, you're not 'awake' so to speak. It's like you are in a constant dream, but it's not like a normal dream, in this dream you are quite conscious; you know you are alive. You are shown many different images, and are exposed to all kinds of sounds and simulations; you learn things. That way when you are born you know how to drive a car, fly a spaceship, socialise with people, or what the precise mass of a neutron star is for example.”

  “So it is kind of like school then?”

  “Well yeah, I suppose it is if you look at it that way. But it's one without any teachers ha!”

  “Cool. I would've liked that,” said Jack, remembering all the times he'd been shouted at and given detention at Rockingdale High.

  “I suppose you would,” she said, winking at him. “Although during the last year in the birthing machine you become increasingly aware that things are going to change and that you are going to be born into the world.”

  “That must be quite terrifying.”

  “No actually, it isn't. That's what all the education in the mechanical womb is for – to prepare you for the excitement and even the savagery of life, otherwise what would be the point?”

  “Yeah, I guess you're right. But hey, I've another question – what happens after you’re born? Since you’ve got no parents, who do you live with? Who looks after you?”

  “No one.”

  “NO ONE?”

  “Yeah, we all live on our own or else we share a flat with some of the friends we make in the womb. We all have access to each other’s machine you see via the synaptic circuits. That way we also become adept at socializing and making friends. It’s kind of like a multi-player computer game actually.”

  “But you're TEN YEARS OLD!”

  “It doesn't matter, Jack. We've all had our education and experience training in the womb. After that we are fully capable of living independently. Indeed, whilst ten years old is the normal birthing age for the majority of children there are a few every year who are allowed to be born earlier. The youngest on record was five.”

  “FIVE?” said Jack, imagining a five-year old kid walking up and down the street doing his shopping, paying the rent and zipping around in a space car.

  “Yeah, but there's a trillion-in-one chance of that happening. It usually only happens if the child has some sort of medical problem that can't be corrected by the birthing machine, or if they are some kind of extraordinary child prodigy that the Ministry of Space and technology has identified for promotion, but there have only been two of those in the last century.”

  “It all sounds so...”

  “Amazing? Well yeah it is, though a thousand years ago we gave birth and raised our children much like you do today.”

  “What happened?”

  “Our scientists proved beyond doubt that the birthing machine – they had already demonstrated the supremacy of the education and experience components - was a far better, far healthier alternative to natural birthing.”

  “But what about the people, surely some of them wanted to have their own children?”

  “They did at first,” she said. “But then they got busier and busier and they wanted to spend more of their time enjoying themselves and the birthing machine gave them all that and much more because in a sense they were still having children. They were still passing a part of themselves onto the next generation.”

  “I see,” he said, wondering if this would ever work on Earth. “Well I hope you don't think I was laughing at you with the way I reacted?”

  “Nah, don't worry about it. Even I have to admit that it might seem a little strange to outsiders. Hey, all this talk is making me sleepy would you like to explore the bottom of the fjord? That'll wake me up for sure.”

  “Yeah let's,” he said, his face beaming.

  Jack and Vyleria were crashing down towards the white tips of the waves when a giant 3-D holo-image of Ros suddenly popped-up in the middle of the sky begging them urgently to come back.

  Apparently Padget was about to get eaten. Nothing different there then.

  Chapter 3: Space Safari

  Jack and Vyleria whooshed up into the air like a pair of Saturn V moon rockets. Quicker and quicker they went, higher and higher, as they banked and lanced through the clouds.

  “Come on Jack! Hurry up,” shouted Vyleria ahead of him. “I'm sure we can get these boots up to sixty thousand miles per hour yet.”

  Jack increased his speed and drew up alongside her, her bright red ponytail flapping in the wind.

  “It’s a good
job these spacesuits deal with the G-forces,” said Jack. “Otherwise I think my head would explode.”

  “Yeah and the cold too,” she said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Look at your holo-watch, Jack. It’s minus fifty degrees Celsius already and getting colder.”

  “But… how?”

  “I’m not sure,” she said. “I think either the spacesuits insulate us from the cold air or else there’s some kind of energy field surrounding us as we fly. Don’t worry, I’m sure it won’t melt you!”

  “I hope not,” said Jack, tenuously prodding the air around him.

  “I’ve been trying to find out what it is that protects us these last few months, but I’m still none the wiser,” she said.

  “Tell me about it,” said Jack. “This whole spaceship, this entire adventure so far is one big puzzle. I’ve still no idea why we are here or what we are supposed to do. All we have to go on is what the visitor in the space graveyard said: about us being found, and about something or someone called the Scourge. Do you have any idea what he was talking about?”

  “No, but one thing is for sure whoever created the space graveyard in the first place must be very powerful. My people, and I’m guessing Ros’ too, don’t have anywhere near that kind of firepower. No one should.”

  “You don’t think he could’ve been referring to the Xenti do you?” asked Jack.

  “No. They’re savage alright,” said Vyleria. “But as far as I can tell they don’t possess that kind of technology. They could barely damage our ship when we last encountered them and yet the graveyard was full of ships like our own. If they were capable of destruction on that order of magnitude, then they would’ve destroyed us ages ago. Whoever the Scourge are, they are someone else entirely.”

  “Well let’s hope we never meet them,” said Jack. “We have enough on our hands with the Xenti as it is.”

  “Don’t forget Padget,” she said.

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” he said, returning her smile. “How much longer do you think it will take to get to him? If we don't go back to the spaceship soon our rocket boots will run out of power. We’ve already broken the previous record from when me and Padget were lost amid the asteroid field.”

  “Don't worry about it,” she said, pointing at the rippling blue ocean below. “We'll be with Padget and Ros in another twenty or thirty minutes; we should be seeing the continent they are on soon. I think our boots will last at least till then and maybe even a little longer.”

  “What do you think Padget's gotten up to this time?” asked Jack.

  “I don't know, but I'm getting sick of his selfishness. All he ever does is please himself with his body-bots.”

  “Buddy-bots!”

  “What's the difference? I feel like they are kind of like an extension of himself these days anyway. Why walk when your seven-foot-tall robot can do it for you? Why use your gravity-sticks to eat when your robot can hold them and put the food into your mouth? Why bother speaking to us at all when your bloody-bots (Jack thought that was a good one) can be your friends and tell you how noble and how handsome and how charming and how great you are!”

  “I think we need to have a talk with him again,” said Jack.

  “Hah!” she scoffed. “Fat lot of good that will do – probably about as much as on the previous seventeen occasions that we've had words with him.”

  “Well we'll have to make him see reason this time.”

  “See reason? The only thing he sees is his own reflection in that flying mirror he carries – or should I say his buddy-bots carry – everywhere with him.”

  “Well, maybe we have to consider something else.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like…”

  “Yes?”

  “Like detention,” said Jack.

  “What's that?”

  “It's something the teachers do at school if a student doesn't do their homework or misbehaves in class,” said Jack, remembering all the times he'd found himself in just such a place whenever he got distracted by the other students, or when he didn't understand how to do his science or math’s homework.

  “How can that help us? We aren't at school now.”

  “I know,” said Jack, thinking that this was the best part about being stuck on a spaceship. “But we could do something similar. We could tell him that if he doesn't behave himself then we'll lock him in one of the prison rooms or something.”

  “Lock him up?” said Vyleria. “He's not our prisoner – he's not like Xylem!”

  “I know, but if he doesn't change – and soon – he could end up getting himself in trouble and us along with him. Personally speaking, I'd rather have him in detention than me squished against some continent or torn apart by a monster because that's what's going to happen eventually.”

  “Okay,” said Vyleria. “I'll think of something. First of all, we have to get down there and see what's going on with him and then after that we have to find Kat.”

  “Oh, I'd forgotten about her,” said Jack.

  “Forget? How could you? I mean she's…”

  “Uncontrollable. Rebellious. Mischievous. Dishonest. All of the above.”

  “Yes and she's always answering back and doing whatever she wants too.”

  “I can't believe how much she's changed,” said Jack. “I can't believe she used to be the shy, quiet girl who used to tip-toe about the ship invisible - and now?”

  “What must Ros be going through down there?” chuckled Vyleria. “Actually, I'm surprised he volunteered to look after them in the first place.”

  “He was doing me a favour.”

  “A favour – what for?” she asked.

  “Oh nothing,” he said, his cheeks reddening as he stared into her eyes for a few seconds before looking away. “Hey there it is,” he said, pointing towards the horizon.

  Rearing up out of the distance was a long line of rugged cliffs that rose up from the sea like a procession of stone giants before tapering-off at about five thousand feet to reveal a long, wide, bumpy plateau that stretched eastwards for a thousand miles. Its knobbly mound of a summit was etched with snow, its rugged edges marked by a series of thin, slivering waterfalls that flicked out from the rock face like long, white tongues.

  Beyond this was a vast jungle full of all manner of plants and animals that stretched half way across the continent followed by a wide swab of savannah that was five thousand miles in either direction. They rocketed towards a long, jagged peninsula that jutted out from the rest of the land like a dragon's tooth. Like a pair of fighter jets, they pierced the last layer of clouds and zeroed in on a large swathe of tall yellow grass, the dragon's tooth getting bigger and bigger until eventually it flattened out, stretching from horizon to horizon like a long streak of custard.

  They made for Ros' position as quickly as they could, hurtling faster and faster, almost whooshing past him as he reared up out of the grass to greet them.

  “Am I glad to see you!” said Ros, his sharp, little teeth no longer seeming as frightful as when Jack first met him. “I can't control him. He won't listen to me. Every time I try to talk to him and get him to behave he just ignores me, and gets one of his buddy-bots – we were mad letting him keep those – to form a ring around him and shew me away!”

  “Where is he now?” asked Jack, landing with a soft thump. The smell of grass and flowers flooded up his nose. It was almost like being home.

  “I don't know exactly, somewhere near that small wood,” he said, pointing towards a clump of trees a few miles distant. “He won't let me near him.”

  They were about to discuss what to do next when they heard cries of panic from what could only be Padget and the even louder roars of what sounded like some large terrifying animals. He was in trouble by the sound of it. Big trouble.

  Jack waited for the inevitable rush and roar of his rocket boots. Though their boots were designed to be silent, Padget had re-configured his to make a frightful noise, scaring o
ff any living thing that might just happen to wander in his path.

  But nothing happened; all he heard were more shrieks of alarm from Padget, more loud and terrifying roars from whatever was attacking him and the distinct sound of crushing, grinding metal.

  “Why doesn't he just fly away from whatever is attacking him?” asked Vyleria.

  “Oh, he's taken his boots off,” said Ros. “He says they make his feet feel puffy and sweaty, and that someone with royal blood such as himself should be carried around. Flying apparently is too much like manual labour. I tried to reason with him that he was being silly, and that it was too dangerous with all the wildlife on this planet but he just ignored me and pleased himself so in the end I left him to it. If he gets eaten it's his own fault.”

  “But we have to rescue him!” said Jack. “I know he can be a bit difficult sometimes.”

  “That's putting it mildly,” said Ros.

  “But we have to try,” said Jack. “We can't just let some animal eat him. Vyleria?”

  “Ros has got a point,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Look, I don't mean that we should just leave him to his fate and let whatever animal it is to have its very own Padget burger - of course not - what do you take me for?”

  “Then what?” asked Jack.

  “I don’t know, but we have to do something. We can't continue like this. Perhaps we have to think of some kind of detention like you said, otherwise one day whatever animal is chasing him could bump into us and have us as a happy meal instead.”

  “Okay,” said Jack, “so let's rescue him this time – agreed?”

  “Agreed,” said Ros through gritted teeth.

  “Fine,” said Vyleria. “But then we talk about a punishment of some kind.”

  “But he'll never agree to it,” protested Ros.

  “Well then, we'll have to think of something else,” said Vyleria.

  “Like what?” asked Jack. “Like a trick of some kind?”

  “Yes that's it Jack, you're right - a trick,” said Vyleria, nodding her head. “Good idea.”