Jack Strong: Dark Matter Read online

  “Our arena,” grinned Padget.

  “WRONG!” shouted Grunt behind him. “It’s my arena. Now, come on you’re ten one down already and I only lost that game because I took a snack break.”

  “Snake break more like,” said Padget.

  “Same difference,” shrugged Grunt.

  “Okay, so are you going to tell me the rules or do I have to wait all day?” asked Jack.

  “Oh sorry,” said Padget, tossing a basketball from one hand to another. “Now this is a…”

  “A basketball. Yes, I got that. I wasn’t completely idle during my thirteen years on Earth. Now will you hurry up and show me where the court is?”

  “What do you mean, the court?”

  “You know, the place where we play?”

  “You’re looking at it,” he said.

  “What? The moon?”

  “You betchya.”

  “But…”

  “Show him, Grunt.”

  Grunt grabbed the basketball off Padget, took a huge zero gravity-assisted leap and then slam dunked the ball through a glowing hoop in space.

  It had to be a hundred feet up, or more.

  “But I can’t do that,” he said. “It’s too high.”

  “Oh yeah,” said Kat, materialising in front of him. “Why don’t you give it a go?”

  “Okay fine,” he said, nabbing the basketball off Grunt. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  Jack jumped once, twice over the cratered moon, kicking-up clouds of space dust, before he made his final leap. He rose like LeBron James on steroids, soaring through the vacuum, before plonking the ball straight through the flaming hoop and gliding back down to the surface. He could do it. Maybe now his old classmates would select him for one of their teams. Perhaps even Vyleria would be impressed?

  “Right, come on then,” said Padget. “Time for a game.”

  “What you mean that wasn’t it? We aren’t just shooting?”

  “Of course not,” said Kat, grinning in a way that Jack didn’t like. “That would be too easy. Show him Padget.”

  “Okay since there’s four of us you can go onto Grunt’s side and…”

  “No way,” Grunt, looking at them as though they were dinner. “I can take all three of you.”

  “Fine, have it your way,” said Padget. “Right Jack, all we have to do is get the ball and put it into the basket. First to ten wins.”

  “And that’s it then,” said Jack. “No tricks or extra space rules?”

  “You’ll see,” said Kat, a huge grin spread across her face. “There is an extra dimension to this game, but you’ll find out about it soon enough.”

  Jack didn’t like the sound of that one bit, it usually ended-up with him sucked down the mouth of a black hole or else blown to pieces by a space laser.

  It all went well at first, they went one nil up after Padget passed to Jack, allowing him to leap up like some kind of intergalactic leopard and slam-dunk their team into an early lead. This was swiftly followed by a couple more baskets by Padget and Kat. It seemed to be one-way traffic. That was when the extra dimension showed itself. Jack was mid-leap and getting ready to shoot when a lump of space rock pierced the vacuum, slamming into his chest with all the force of a battering ram.

  “What was that?” asked Jack, coughing-up a lungful of dust.

  “A meteor!” gasped Padget.

  “I gathered that,” said Jack. “But what’s it doing in our game?”

  “It makes it more interesting,” said Grunt. “Otherwise…”

  “It would be too easy,” said Kat, grinning again.

  “Speak for yourself,” said Jack, slowly getting to his feet.

  “Now hurry up,” said Padget. “Whilst you were busy getting space-dunked Grunt scored a couple of baskets. It’s almost a tie.”

  “You mean there’s no timeout for that sort of thing?” said Jack.

  “Like I said that would make it too…”

  “Easy? Yeah, I got it Kat,” said Jack, spitting out a globule of moon dust. “Come on then let’s do this.”

  Jack span through the air like a comet, dodging Grunt’s titanic arms and a screeching meteor, before slamming the ball through the hoop with as much force as he could muster.

  “That’s ten-eight!” he yelled. “You lose.”

  “Well I am playing against the three of you,” said Grunt. “Besides, there’s something fishy about the meteors.”

  “Like what?” asked Jack. “That one nearly took my head off!”

  “Yeah, but I’ve been hit like eight times already. It’s like they are aiming for me… like they’ve been programmed in some way.”

  “Grunt, you’re being paranoid. Just accept that you lost. Tell him, Padget…”

  “Err…”

  “Padget?”

  “Well we had to stop him somehow. He would’ve won otherwise. Just like he always does.”

  “Told you!” said Grunt.

  “But Padget, that’s cheating,” said Jack.

  “What’s that?” asked Padget.

  “You know, where you win unfairly against the opposition.”

  “What’s wrong with that? How else could we win?”

  “By playing our best.”

  “Jack, he’s a giant. He could quite literally have us for breakfast!”

  “Then we lose. Honourably. Fairly.”

  “I don’t know Jack, it sounds awfully dispiriting,” said Padget.

  “I suppose it is,” said Jack. “But the idea is that you learn from it, you grow; that way you get better until one day you are good enough and skillful enough to win on your own without cheating.”

  “If you say so,” said Padget. “What do you think, Grunt?”

  “You don’t normally ask the opposition for their permission to cheat,” said Jack.

  “Oh…”

  “It’s okay, Jack,” said Grunt, the irritation from before missing from his voice. “He can cheat. Just a little bit though. I only have one head, remember, and besides I still have a headache from last time. It was almost like it was following me, seeking me out.”

  “Yeah, it was a heat seeker,” said Padget, grinning as much as Jack could remember.

  “Right then,” said Grunt. “No more heat-seekers. Do we have a deal?”

  “You betchya,” said Padget. “Jack?”

  “I suppose so,” said Jack. “Come on let’s get this over with. One more game and then I’ve got to take care of some things.”

  “Such as what?”

  “Oh, nothing. Just a special project that I’ve been working on, that’s all.”

  “Anything we can help you with?” asked Kat.

  “No, I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

  “Fine, keep your secrets,” said Padget.

  “What? I never…”

  “Relax, I’m joking,” said Padget. “Now let’s get this game on! All this talking is sending me to sleep.”

  Jack had never seen a game so one-sided in all his time on the spaceship, not even when Vyleria was defeating the entire universe at space-racing. Without Padget’s heat-seeking meteors to slow him down Grunt romped home to an easy ten-nil victory. So much for Jack the spaceketball hero… he wasn’t even able to get one shot on target, never mind score a basket or two.

  “Right, I’m off,” said Jack, after Grunt theatrically scored the winning basket from two hundred feet away.

  “Are you sure you don’t need any help?” asked Grunt. “If you need anything lifting…”

  “No, I’m fine,” said Jack, walking towards the now illuminated exit. “This is something that I need to do by myself.”

  “Suit yourself then,” said Grunt, his voice rumbling like a summer storm.

  Jack turned around, determined to speak to him, to see what was annoying him so much, but Grunt was already somersaulting through the air, slam-dunking a basketball through a ring of fire. It would have to wait. They all would.

  Jack ran down the corridor as quick
ly as he could, looking behind him every few steps. He had to hurry. He couldn’t afford to get caught. Not now. There was too much at stake.

  After about fifty feet he dove into a room on his right. The room instantly transformed into a huge ocean world, the sky the colour of blood. He could hear the dim rattle of explosions in the distance, two huge columns of smoke snaking-up towards the clouds. More weapons’ fire rang out, then he heard shouting, screaming. He ignited his rocket boots and thrust over the ocean, the explosions getting louder and louder.

  Jack swooped down into the middle of a battle. There were dreadnuts everywhere, explosions popped and crashed. It was like being in the middle of World War Three.

  He looked at the figure in the middle as it took-off a dreadnut’s head with one shot. Then another was cut in two, followed by three more, dissected by one laser blast. Still the dreadnuts kept on coming, the tide relentless. All of them went down to the bottom of the ocean, their metal carcasses smoking.

  Jack smiled.

  It was strange seeing himself in battle, watching himself kill other beings.

  But he hadn’t come here to watch himself, he’d come for him. Jorge.

  Jack watched intently as dreadnut after dreadnut flung themselves at his other self, trying to kill him, to make him one of their own. Why weren’t they attacking Jorge? They seemed to be avoiding him, bypassing him, letting him go…

  “What’s the meaning of this?”

  Jack turned round to where the voice was coming from.

  Vyleria and Jorge were stood behind him, floating God-like above the red, syrup-like ocean.

  “I…”

  “You were spying on him, weren’t you?” said Vyleria. “Admit it!”

  “Alright then I was. Someone has to. Something’s not right with his story, I know it. Why aren’t the dreadnuts attacking him?” he asked, pointing at the frozen melee of metal and flesh. “Why do they only have eyes for me? Why not him?”

  “You’re never going to trust me, are you?” asked Jorge.

  “No.”

  “Is it because we are dating now? Are you that jealous?”

  “What? Vyleria, you can’t be serious, what about…”

  “Of course I’m serious,” said Vyleria. “It’s been over between us for months. I thought you knew that.”

  Jack felt an invisible fist punch into his chest and squeeze it tightly. Had he known it was over? Had he truly believed?

  Jack looked into her red eyes, eyes that used to be so tender, so warm. What he saw astonished him. There was nothing there for him now. No care. No love. Only loathing and contempt.

  He ran.

  Chapter Seven: Dragon Mountain

  Jack flew up the rock face like a boy possessed.

  Handhold after handhold disappeared in a fluidity of grace. He was like a cross between a rock climber and a ballet dancer. Not even the wind could knock him from his perch on the rock, the snow neither.

  Still he climbed, a singleness of purpose tattooed on his heart.

  Ridges, arêtes and couloirs streamed by in no time at all.

  The rugged summit was swamped by legions of dark clouds when he pulled himself up the last bit of rock over an hour after he’d set off.

  He wiped what little sweat there was from his forehead and stared at the mountains, valleys and plains all around him. Lightning flashed in the distance like gunfire, followed by a growling burst of thunder.

  What had happened to him and Vyleria? How had it come to this? When they’d first climbed Dragon Mountain a year ago things had been going so well – the thought that this was it - the end - almost made his heart stop. He had always believed that they would be together forever – and now? Now he was all alone looking at a pitch-black sky on a planet that had fallen to the Scourge three months ago. Did it even look like this now? Were there even any living things left? Was it all just featureless, formless dark matter? How many more planets like this would fall?

  They are taking over the whole galaxy and there’s nothing that we can do about it. We have to fight. But how? We have the fastest, most powerful spaceship in the galaxy, but take on the whole dreadnut army and the Scourge by ourselves? It was crazy. The last three months of warfare had shown them that. They had been outgunned, outnumbered, outmatched, outthought in every battle. And when they fell – which they surely would - what then? Dominion, slavery, assimilation, then death. There was no hope. There never was.

  Jack took one last look at the lightning flashing in the East and started to clamber down the mountain. He may as well go and face the music, they were probably having a right good laugh at him, Jorge especially…

  Jack was half way down the mountain, the thunder still rumbling overhead like a chorus of drunken giants when he heard a voice.

  “Stay exactly where you are. Don’t move.”

  Jack looked left, right. Nothing but bare, boy-crushing rock. “Padget, are playing one of your pranks again?”

  “So I sound like Padget now, do I?”

  Jack jumped as a grey, translucent head poked out of the rock face in front of him. He slipped at once, crashing through the clouds at hundreds of miles per hour, the green smudge of land getting closer and closer.

  He hit the ground with all the force of a neutron bomb, only to spring back up into the air a thousand feet, before falling back down again, landing spread-eagled in a tangle of arms, legs and grass.

  “Climbing without mag-grips and mag-boots isn’t particularly clever, Jack. Even with the safety protocols enabled.”

  Jack stared at the pale grey figure in front of him, two almond-shaped eyes looking down at him like lumps of onyx. Two rows of dagger-like teeth glimmered in the sunlight. “Ros?” he said. “Is that you?”

  “The one and only,” he grinned. “So you can stop gawping.”

  “What… what are you doing here? When did you come back? And why can I see through you? Are you dead? Are you… a… a… ghost?”

  “You Earthlings and your bizarre superstitions,” said Ros, making a clicking sound with his teeth. “No Jack, I’m not dead; this is an astral projection. I’ve used this form to contact you before, if you remember.”

  “But…”

  “There’s no time for that right now. What I need you to do is listen. I don’t know how long I have left before I’m discovered. You’re my only hope Jack, in fact you’re all our hopes. Do you remember what I said months ago about the reckoning?”

  “Err… you said that your people were going to attack Earth; but after what happened to Nevada I’d forgotten about it. Is it still going ahead?”

  “I’m afraid so,” he said, a black mass of clouds visible through his stick-thin body.

  “When?”

  “I don’t know. Soon.”

  “That’s hardly any help.”

  “I’m sorry I can’t be clearer, but it’s all I’ve managed to find out in the three months since I’ve been here. It’s their top secret.”

  “Whose?”

  “The cabal’s.”

  “Who are they?”

  “They are the ones in charge now, they are a faction… of sorts.”

  “Don’t you have anything else to go on?”

  “No, only…”

  “Yes?”

  “From where I am I can see a close-up of Earth. It can’t be more than a hundred thousand miles away.”

  “Maybe you’re on the moon or else a nearby asteroid?”

  “No, I can see the moon behind me and we’re not far enough out to be on an asteroid or a comet.”

  “But that doesn’t make any sense, we checked that entire area months ago, but found nothing, not even so much as a wisp of bacteria.”

  “I don’t know what else to say, Jack. We are here, and you have to find us, or else…”

  “Or else what?”

  “Or else the Earth will be destroyed, or worse…”

  “What’s worse than being blown-up?” asked Jack, picturing the Haa’drath as it was sucked to
its death as the Xenti homeworld disappeared into a black hole – a black hole that Jack was now sure the Scourge had detonated.

  “I hope you never find out,” said Ros, paling slightly in the afternoon sun. “The cabal have some strange notions right now, they are gathering legions of new followers all the time.”

  “First the Scourge and now the cabal, this war is unrelenting. Earth won’t be able to cope, we can barely cope as it is. Ros, we’ve lost every engagement with the Scourge so far, they are overwhelming us; I’m not even sure we have the energy, we are exhausted.”

  “But you must come, for Earth’s sake and for the Asvari’s.”

  “It’s not as simple as that. Things have changed since you’ve left, Ros. The rest may not want to come. Vyleria barely even listens to me these days and as for Jorge...”

  “Convince them, Jack. You must!”

  “I’ll… try,” said Jack. “But I can’t promise anything, how can I contact you to let you know if we’re coming?”

  “Just…”

  “Yes?”

  Suddenly Ros contorted with pain, his thin ghostly body flickering in and out of sight, eyes marked with agony. “Jack, you’ve got to come before it’s too late, before…”

  “Before… before what?”

  Ros shivered violently one last time, then vanished. He didn’t come back.

  Jack looked at the dark thunderheads overhead. Lightning scoured the sky, thunder clashed incessantly. Then he switched off the computer program, left the room and headed down the corridor. Would they believe him? Probably not, but he would try his best anyway. There was nothing else he could do.

  Chapter Eight: Falling Down

  “Where are you running off to? To her again?”

  Jack turned around to be swamped by shadow.

  “Grunt,” he said, straining his neck. “What do you want?”

  “You’re going back to her aren’t you, after all that she’s done to you?”

  “I…”

  “She’s laughing at you, making you look a fool. Jorge especially.”

  “No, it’s not that. It’s something else, something Ros just told me.”