Star Blaze (30 page)

With the solar system defense net reassuringly silent, Valdour's absence and Dr. Carrington's odd claims were the only clouds on the horizon, but after the game and spending so much time outside in the cold, fresh air, Johnny was far too tired to think about them now. It could wait till tomorrow, when
Johnny had decided he was off to the
Spirit of London
. Without school, uniforms and homework, it would be much easier to pretend he was simply away from Halader House during the day having fun. By showing his face briefly in the common room and messing up his bed to make it look slept in, no one would know he was actually living elsewhere. Of course he'd return for regular chats with the Tolimi and try Bram at the same time (and have Sol scan every frequency for a message from
Cheybora
). He was also planning a few upgrades to his bedroom that meant the Wormholes would not be left unattended.

Orion the Hunter took pride of place in tonight's sky. Its two brightest stars, Rigel and Betelgeuse, marked the foot and the head, but Johnny was drawn more to the constellation's center. The left-most star of the three forming the belt was Alnitak, whose fifteenth planet, Novolis, was home to Erin and Zeta. As soon as the Sun and Earth were out of danger, Johnny promised himself he'd go after the brother and sister pair. Briefly, he wondered where in the galaxy the
Falling Star
might have reached and if Bram had caught up with them.

His wristcom filled the bedroom with a faint red glow—Johnny couldn't remember the last time the lights were green. It seemed as though his brother was losing the fight against the nameless being from Andromeda that enslaved him. Johnny opened the locket, swinging from around his neck. There, standing in a line that had never actually existed, were Nicky, himself and Clara. When he'd first acquired the locket, it looked as though his brother's face was simply in shadow. Now he realized Nicky was hiding the mask that covered nearly half of his face—as though he were ashamed of it.

Johnny had always been more interested in the pictures of his family than the locket itself. Now he'd found out a little more about his mum, he wondered where the beautiful object she'd
given him came from. Was it forged in Lysentia? Might she even have made it herself? If she'd created the Fountain of Time, it seemed she could do almost anything. Knowing that to be true led him once more to the question he couldn't avoid—why had she not saved herself and her family that fateful night the Krun came and ripped Johnny's life apart, almost before it had begun?

Footsteps were clanging up the spiral staircase—Johnny slipped the locket under his shirt as someone rapped on the trapdoor. It was pulled down and in climbed Miss Harutunian, armed with a steaming mug of hot chocolate and some toasted marshmallows. There was no time to hide Bentley under the bed, but Johnny hoped she wouldn't tell him off.

“Bentley!” shouted the social worker, putting the food and drink down on the bedside table and fussing over the Old English sheepdog. “I haven't seen you for, like, ever,” she continued.

Relieved, Johnny said, “Hi,” as he slid his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, helping himself to a marshmallow—straightaway it started to melt on his tongue.

“Thought I'd come and ask how the last day of term went,” said Miss Harutunian. “Haven't seen you in the common room lately—I hope you're not avoiding me.”

“No, absolutely not,” said Johnny, his mouth still full. “Thanks, by the way,” he added as he sipped from the mug by his bedside. “I was there yesterday. I'm just tired from football—we had a match this afternoon.”

“You're back on the team? That's great news.”

“I scored with the last kick,” said Johnny. “It was a penalty, but I won that too.”

“I'm really pleased,” said the social worker. “And no more trouble at school?”

“No, all fine,” Johnny replied, crossing his fingers underneath
the marshmallow plate in the hope Mrs. Devonshire wouldn't return to Halader House any time soon to question his disappearances. “Can Bentley have one of these?” he asked, eager to change the subject.

“If it's just one,” Miss Harutunian replied. “It's good you're getting on so much better with Gilbey, too,” she went on, adding, “Mr. Wilkins,” when she saw the lack of comprehension on Johnny's face.

He had to try very hard to suppress a snort. It was incredible the cook had lasted so long at Halader House without his ridiculous first name being exposed. “Yeah, much better,” Johnny replied, a whisker away from bursting out laughing. He supposed that managing to walk a little way down the corridor alongside the huge bearded man without being beaten, shouted at or taken to see the Manager had to count as some sort of improvement.

“Excellent,” said the social worker. “Well, I also came to tell you that, now it's the holidays I've got to go home—just for a few days. New York …”

“New York,” Johnny repeated, not meeting Miss Harutunian's eyes.

“You promise to behave yourself when I'm gone?”

“Cross my heart,” said Johnny. This time he could meet her gaze as he absolutely meant it.

She seemed to believe him. “OK then. I'll see you in a couple of weeks,” she said, walking over to the trapdoor.

“So long,” said Johnny, remembering what Miss Harutunian had told him about American goodbyes.

“So long, Johnny,” replied the social worker, before making her way a little unsteadily down the stairs.

Johnny finished off the marshmallows, splitting them half and half with Bentley, before getting ready for bed. The last thing he remembered seeing before drifting off into a deep sleep was the left-most star of Orion's belt—Alnitak.

A door opened and light flooded into a darkened corridor, revealing endless other doors of different shapes and sizes as far as Johnny could see. Zeta stood in the entrance. “What are you doing out here?” she asked. “Come.” She took Johnny's hand and pulled him through the opening. The next moment, Johnny and the purple-haired alien were sitting on a soft, spongy plant right by a seashore. In front of them, the vast disc of a blue giant star, far larger than Earth's Sun, was sinking into the ocean. A band of turquoise stretched all the way from the horizon to where the waves lapped over their feet. Zeta only had four toes on each.

The air behind buzzed and, when Johnny turned, he saw little flashes of red light, suspended above strange plants with large triangular greeny-blue leaves. A long forked tongue shot from beside him, aimed at one of the flashes, before retracting into Zeta's mouth. Smiling, she picked a bulbous, beetle-like creature from between her teeth and offered it to Johnny.

“Try it,” she said. “Here on Novolis, Phosphoric Sulaflies are a delicacy.”

“Er … no thanks,” Johnny replied.

Alnitak was setting very quickly, making Johnny think they must be near the equator, or that the planet rotated especially fast. In the evening twilight, stars were beginning to twinkle in a pink, near cloudless sky. As he looked a little longer he could make out an almost perfect hexagon above them.

“Erin's stars,” said Johnny.

Zeta nodded. “He didn't mean any harm—it's important you know that.”

“Not much,” Johnny replied angrily, moving a little away from the alien girl. “He sabotaged my ship.”

“He was desperate to get away.”

“His mistake,” said Johnny. “No one messes with Sol.”

“The Emperor was coming. You said so yourself. We couldn't let him find us—we had to continue our quest. Everything depends on it.”

“Was it worth destroying my ship at the same time? And me and my friends with it?”

“You see that cross?” asked Zeta, pointing to a triangle of bright stars near the horizon, with an especially bright fourth one lower down, only just above the ocean.

Johnny nodded.

“Those are my sign,” she went on, “my Starmark.” She rolled up her trousers to confirm a matching pattern of dark scales along her otherwise pale leg. “I swear on my stars that neither I nor Erin were responsible for the self-destruct sequence.”

“Yeah, right,” said Johnny.

“I know it was wrong to force the takeoff—to head for Novolis. I've told Erin that, but he has sworn he didn't try to destroy your ship.”

Everything was fading, becoming darker.

“You have to believe me, Johnny. It's important,” said Zeta.

Johnny made to stand up, but Zeta placed an arm across his legs to keep him sitting beside her.

They were back in the corridor.

“Johnny!”

He awoke with Zeta's disembodied cry still ringing in his ears. For a moment, Johnny couldn't work out what was happening, but then he realized the pressure on his legs was only Bentley, and that he'd been dreaming, asleep in his bed at Halader House. Through the window Alnitak, which a moment ago had seemed so close, was no longer visible. Orion was out of sight. Johnny tried to remember his dream, but it began slipping away, like water running through his fingers. He turned over and, moments later, was sound asleep. When he woke up the next morning, he'd forgotten all about it.

After fixing up some new equipment in his bedroom, Johnny was late for breakfast. All the bacon sandwiches had gone, so he had to allow Mr. Wilkins to pour a large helping of runny gray porridge into his bowl. Johnny thought he'd get his own back by saying, “Thanks, Gilbey,” rather loudly—he couldn't resist it—but the joke fell a bit flat when the bearded cook simply replied, “No problem, Jonathan.” Worse, Spencer Mitchell and the rest moved their trays to ensure there was no room for Johnny at the older kids' table so he had to sit with the others. Clearly it didn't pay to be on first name terms with the massive chef.

With Mr. Wilkins's beady black eyes fixed on him, Johnny did his best to force his way through the watery gray sludge in his bowl. Never having eaten salted cardboard after it had been soaked in lukewarm dishwater for several days he couldn't be sure, but Johnny suspected this would be how it tasted—and what it looked like. Finally, the cook turned his back to do something in the kitchen and in a flash Johnny swapped his almost full bowl with an empty one sitting on an unattended tray nearby. As Mr. Wilkins looked round, Johnny pretended to savor a final spoonful before licking his lips and pushing the bowl away from him. Then he stood up and slipped out of the door before he could be ordered back to do the washing up.

He willed the lock to open on the next door along the corridor and heard the satisfying click well before he reached for the handle. Inside the Halader House computer room, Johnny walked over to the master terminal and switched it on.

“About time,” said Kovac. “I was wondering when you might deign to come and actually talk to me.”

“Listen—I've been busy,” Johnny replied.

“You think I don't know what you've been up to? It was you who tasked me with monitoring your records. I can only imagine
you've come in here to marvel at how a machine with a brain as immense as mine could survive a task that was quite so boring.”

“Well, I've got just the thing to interest you,” said Johnny hopefully.

“I doubt it—you'd have to go a long way to interest me,” the computer replied.

“I'm talking seriously further than even you can imagine,” said Johnny. “I want you to monitor transmissions from Pluto Base and, if that's not far enough, Melania—that's near the center of the galaxy. We could have to respond at a moment's notice.”

“May I remind you that the center of the galaxy is 27,182.28 light years away … approximately. Even someone with a brain the size of yours must realize that any communication will have originated more than 27,000 years ago—it's hardly likely to be urgent. You also appear to have forgotten that messages to and from Pluto take several hours.”

“Ah … that's where you're wrong,” said Johnny, smiling. “But if you're not interested in what happens on the galactic capital …”