Battle for Earth (26 page)

“The Krun,” said Johnny, sitting up. “He told them who he was. Sol—can you trace him?”

“Master Johnny—this is all the more reason to replace your lungs immediately. You cannot help the professor, let alone the rest of humanity, while you remain crippled.”

Sol's voice boomed all around. “It appears that will no longer be necessary. The new scans indicate Johnny is in perfect physical order.”

“Told you,” said Johnny, sliding off the bed. “Everyone to the gel pods.”

“We're leaving Earth?” asked Louise. “Now, of all times?”

“A preliminary analysis indicates Professor Bond's signal was last located in high Earth orbit,” said Sol.

“That settles it,” said Johnny. “Everything we've tried has just made things worse. We need to regroup. The answers aren't here on Earth. They're on Titan. I need the Monks … the thought chamber … I need to see Clara.”

Alf stayed aboard the
Spirit of London
rather than join Johnny on his “wild goose chase, given Earth is in such grave danger.” Louise, on the other hand, was coming with him to Titan. After their flight to Sydney she'd asked to begin pilot training in the Imperial Starfighter, but Johnny thought starting her off in the
Bakerloo
would prove safer. He hated flying with anyone else at the helm, but Louise landed the London taxi softly, settling on what appeared to be a rocky outcrop above a vast desolate plain under the dense orange methane clouds of Saturn's largest moon.

“What now?” asked Louise. “The atmosphere's almost completely nitrogen.”

Johnny was pleased she was a natural flyer, and was already getting the hang of the shuttle's sensors. He thought,
Doors open
, and laughed at the look of terror on her face. Before she could hit him, Johnny had jumped out of the passenger door shouting, “Follow me.” Louise raced after him, a murderous look on her face.

As Johnny crossed the invisible boundary that surrounded the Fountain of Time he stopped in surprise. Louise ran straight into him and they both tumbled over. The ground was soft and springy and they pressed themselves against it to avoid the cavalcade of scarlet-robed Owlessan Monks swooping over their prone bodies. The sheer number of them was what had
halted him in his tracks. He dared to lift his head and tried to count them—before there had been around twenty, now there were more than twice that.

Slowly Johnny got to his feet. Louise followed, clutching his arm to hold him tightly. “Don't you dare go running off again,” she said. “What on Earth are they?”

“We're not on Earth, remember?” said Johnny. Careful not to disturb the flying creatures, he led her toward the metallic golden lake filled with chronons that marked the Fountain of Time. “They're Monks,” he went on. “They worship the galaxy.”

“What do they do that for?” asked Louise. “That's a bit stupid, isn't it?”

“Shhh—they'll hear.”

One of the robed creatures chose that moment to hover directly in front of them, cloak billowing. Johnny had never seen an Owlessan Monk with such well-defined features. He could make out several of its eight eyeballs.

Louise screamed and gripped his arm so tightly he thought it might break. “It has no freakin' face,” she said. “How might it hear when it dosn't have any ears?”

“Sorry—I forgot,” he said. “It's … it's out of phase with us so you can't see it properly.”

“And you can?” asked Louise. “So what does it freakin' look like?”

“Trust me—you don't want to know.” It was almost as though the Monk understood their conversation, for at that moment Johnny caught sight of a broad grin spreading across its circular mouth, revealing a host of very sharp, extremely scary, needle-like teeth.

From under the red cloak, a long finger of bone reached toward Johnny and planted itself squarely between his eyes. The cold numbed his forehead and he staggered back, the finger following, as if drilling into his brain. He heard Louise's
voice, but she sounded distant. Then, from the point where the Monk's outstretched finger touched Johnny, light blue flesh began to appear, covering first the Monk's hand and then its arm, spreading across its face. For the first time Johnny could see the creature as it really was, almost perfectly in phase. A light glowed within its chest, flickering over the golden surface of the lake, casting beautiful patterns across the featureless surface.

The glow reminded Johnny a little of the time he'd seen his mom, the Diaquant, as she really was—a creature of pure power and energy—standing beside her old hospital bed at St. Catharine's. All around the lake Johnny could see more lights, glowing in the chests of the many Monks scattered throughout that beautiful, tranquil place.

The pressure on his forehead eased and the finger withdrew, once more becoming bone as the lights went out. Even though Saturn hung magnificently in the sky above, it now felt cold and dark without the Monk's touch. Johnny found himself on his knees beside the lake. He looked around and saw Louise curled in a ball on the ground a little way away. He went across. She was sobbing quietly. Johnny didn't know what to do.

“Are you all right?” he asked, prodding her at the same time.

“Do I look all right?” she replied. “What do you think?”

“I … I don't know,” said Johnny, a little scared. “Look—it's OK.”

“Oh, it is, is it?” said Louise, who had uncurled and was sitting up, eyes blazing with anger. “It's OK that one moment I'm holding your arm and the next it's gone … disappeared … totally freakin' vanished just like your freakin' friends. I thought you'd gone for good, like Clara.”

“I vanished?” asked Johnny, dumbfounded.

“Well, your clothes were still there, but you sure as anything weren't inside them.”

“Wow,” said Johnny.

“No, it's not ‘wow,'” said Louise. “Don't you understand? I was terrified.”

“It must have drawn me into phase with them,” said Johnny. “I could see them properly.”

“Well, don't ever do it again,” said Louise. “And help me up.” She held out her hand and he pulled her to her feet. She didn't let go and Johnny didn't want to in case she shouted at him again, so he led her around the edge of the lake while all the time a flock of Monks hovered above them.

They reached the crystal grotto surrounding the thought chamber and he guided her through the geometric forest of blue posts to its center, where the chamber stood with a clear dome atop the crystal plinth.

“So this is it?” Louise asked.

Johnny nodded. “It's meant to connect you to the things you're linked with—that you're closest to.”

“So if you look into it, you'll see Clara?”

“That's the plan,” said Johnny. “I've seen her in here before, but I need to hold it for longer … find a way to communicate with her.”

“Well, go on then,” said Louise. She nodded expectantly at the dome.

Johnny hesitated. He was terrified the Nameless One might appear again and was trying not to think about it in case that made it happen—which only made him think about it more. Several Monks settled on the ground, encircling them and closing in, until Johnny was forced right up against the plinth. With Louise pressed against him and peering over his shoulder, he leaned forward, his nose almost touching the top of the dome. He closed his eyes and pictured his sister, recalling moments when they'd been especially close.

He remembered sitting beside her on a riverbank beyond the
fold to St. Catharine's, just after their dad had been shot and then both their parents lost. He thought back to last Christmas and the joy on Clara's face when she opened his present of their dad's old journal. He pictured another time, in the garden deck of the
Spirit of London
, when Nicky's ship had blown up, but Clara had saved Johnny. It was at that horrible moment he had to sit down and somehow tell her about their brother.

In the here and now by the Fountain of Time, Johnny's hands moved over the controls that he had no idea how to work, and he opened his eyes.

“Zeta,” said Louise, slackening her grip on Johnny's waist.

Pacing up and down in the center of the dome was indeed Princess Zeta. She was near the seashore on Novolis, but the scene was very far from the idyllic one Johnny was used to. Waves pounded the grassy mounds beside the ocean and a fierce wind sent the princess's purple hair streaming behind her.

“How do you know?” asked Johnny. “She's the one who healed me.”

The princess stopped pacing and looked around, her tongue sliding rapidly in and out as if trying to sense something. From behind Johnny, a long bony arm reached past and a finger touched the very top of the dome. Ripples spread from the point of contact across its surface, before the dome itself faded away and Johnny caught a whiff of vinegar from the scene inside. Zeta looked up and said, “Johnny?” followed by, “Who's she?” The princess folded her arms.

“What?” said Johnny. “Can you see me?”

“As though through mist,” said Zeta.

“This is Louise,” Johnny said, “from Earth.”

“She is not important,” said Zeta. “I sense Clara is in terrible danger—we must go to her.”

“How?” asked Johnny. “If I could, I'd be there in a second.”

He looked down at the controls, wishing he could make sense of them, and then back to Zeta for help.

The princess sat, cross-legged, in a way reminiscent of Clara when she was folding space. “Perhaps your friend disturbs the mind-link? If you could see Clara, it might be stronger.” Louise's fingernails dug into Johnny's waist and her chin pressed into his shoulder. Zeta continued, “There is a place I have shown you before—a corridor between the worlds. Concentrate on me and you may follow there.” Although the waves still crashed over the shoreline and the wind bent the spiky blue-green trees a little way inland, Zeta's hair no longer flowed behind her. Everywhere else in the scene, waves of wind rippled across the grassy banks, but around the princess was a circle of calm so still that Johnny might have thought her a waxwork until she spoke again, saying, “There's a storm coming, Johnny. You must prepare yourself.” The scene within the chamber darkened, but Zeta, at its very center, was almost luminous.

“What's she doing now?” asked Louise, lifting her chin off Johnny's shoulder and moving to the side for a clearer view.

Johnny forced himself to look away from Zeta and saw the landscape had shifted. The seashore on Novolis had been replaced by an endless dark corridor, lined by doors of all shapes and sizes. He recognized the “No Entry” sign King Erin had fixed onto the one nearest her.

“Stay with me and I will lead you to Clara,” said Zeta, standing and walking away into the distance, a strange mist engulfing her. “You know this place, even though most doors have been closed to you.” The princess's voice was becoming fainter.

“No,” Johnny shouted. “You're fading.” He looked around and found himself face to face with the almost empty hood of an Owlessan Monk. “Help me,” he said, desperate.

The Monk lifted his arm and hooked a bony finger around Johnny's wrist. A scream from Louise beside him told Johnny he'd once again become out of phase and had vanished. The Monk's other hand was linked to a second of its strange kind, who was holding onto a third, the chain continuing toward the lake. Connected, Johnny felt their power. The view in the chamber crystallized and there was Zeta, opening a triangular door. Beyond was a backdrop of swirling black and purple hyperspace, against which Clara was falling forever. Only she was not alone. Fast approaching from the far side was a figure with a black mask covering his face, a single blazing white star painted upon it. It was the Nameless One and he'd almost reached Clara. Without thinking, and as easily as if he'd been doing it all his life, Johnny dived headfirst, folding himself into the thought chamber and taking the Monk with him.