Martin King and the Prison of Ice (Martin King Series) (13 page)

“Yes,” said
Agamon. “The surface of the planet is uninhabited. The Axis Lords reside within
the Dome.”

Agamon pointed
towards a large glass dome in the distance, which was supported by a bronze
skeleton. It was so large that Martin couldn’t see the whole of it.

“But why?” said
Martin. “This place is beautiful. Are there high levels of radiation or
something?”

Agamon shook
his head. “No. And I wouldn’t mention
beauty
around the Axis Council if
I were you. Discussion of aesthetics is illegal on Hope.”

It felt strange
that
he
was actually part Axis Lord. They seemed so different from
humans. But then again, Martin had always felt different from everyone else
around him. Perhaps he was more like an Axis Lord than he wanted to admit.

“We need to head
towards the Dome,” said Agamon. “Here, wear this.”

“What is it?”

“A teleport
bracelet. They are already linked to the ship. If the Axis Lords try anything,
I will activate the bracelets and we will be transported back to the
Intrepid
.”

“Right.”

Martin and the
Axis Lord walked towards the Dome, their shoes crunching on the hard snow.
Martin knew that if Darcy was there she would have a hard time resisting the
urge to throw snowballs. The Dome loomed over them. They eventually reached it,
and Agamon turned to Martin.

“Now, the
Council of the Axis Lords is the most powerful government in the entire
universe. They rule over an empire that stretches across the entire Axis belt,
and even beyond. Their dominion is spreading even outside the confines of the
Blue galaxy and into yours. So, whatever you do, be respectful.”

Martin nodded.

“Put this on,”
said Agamon, handing Martin a Deceiving Necklace.

Martin put it
on, and his appearance changed. He suddenly looked like a young Axis Lord. They
entered the Dome. The interior of the Dome was filled with hundreds of pathways
and staircases; it was almost like a maze. Millions of Axis Lords were moving
about inside. The Dome stretched on for miles and miles.

“Follow me,”
said Agamon.

Martin followed
the alien as he led him towards the council room. A few Axis Lords greeted
Agamon as they passed; evidently not everyone knew he was a criminal.

“Agamon?” said
Martin.

“Yes?”

“What happened
to Falcon?”

Last time
Martin had seen Falcon, he had been captured by the Axis Lords to be put on
trial for his actions.

“He escaped,”
said Agamon, smiling.

Martin laughed
with delight. “Really?”

“Oh, yes.
Nobody knows his current whereabouts.”

“That’s
brilliant! I wonder where he is now…” said Martin.

He followed
Agamon up a flight of moving stairs. They then walked along a narrow path.
Martin looked down nervously. The path was over 100 metres from the ground. He
wobbled unsteadily.

Agamon turned,
smiling. “Ah, I see that perfect balance is one Axis Lord trait that you
don’t
possess. But don’t worry. There’s a gravity net. If you fall off it will
catch you.”

“Oh.”

Martin still
didn’t feel very safe as he walked along the high path. But he didn’t fall, and
they reached a large grey door.

“The council
room is through here,” said Agamon. “I used to be an important member of this
council, and now I’m nothing but a castaway.” He turned to Martin. “Remove your
Deceiving Necklace.”

Martin did as
he said. Agamon sighed. The Axis Lord seemed quite nervous. Martin could hear
loud voices from inside; the council seemed to be arguing about something. The
Axis Lord pushed the door open, and they stepped into the council room. The
council fell silent.

“Good fortune,”
said Agamon. “We have much to discuss.”

“You!” said
Anova, looking disgusted. “And you have brought a human here?”

“Like I say, we
have much to discuss. May we sit down?”

Without waiting
for permission, Agamon waved a hand and two luxurious armchairs appeared. They
sat down, facing the council.

“How dare you
come back here?” said Anova. “How dare you return after everything you have
done?”

“Enough,
Anova,” said Nymon. “Speak, Agamon. Why have you returned?”

“I have come to
ask you to reconsider,” said Agamon. “I urge you to see reason.”

Orbin sighed.
“We have already discussed the matter and agreed on a solution. There can be no
more debate.”

“Why do you
care so much about the humans?” said Ilyssa.

“I care because
they are intelligent beings,” said Agamon. “And I bring proof that they are not
so much different from ourselves.”

Agamon gestured
to Martin.

“I do not
understand,” said Nymon.

“This boy is a
product of breeding between a human and an Axis Lord,” said Agamon.

Anova snorted.
“Impossible.”

“See for
yourself,” said Agamon. “Sorry, Martin, this might sting a little.”

Agamon took a
device from his pocket and attached it to Martin’s arm. Martin felt a sharp
prick; the Axis Lord removed the device.

“Observe,” said
Agamon.

The machine
projected an image over the table. It was a DNA molecule, but it looked
strange. One of one of the nucleotide strands was spiky and angular.

Daniz gasped.
“Half human, half Axis Lord.”

“This does not
change anything,” said Anova. “Bringing this abomination to us does not mean
that we will spare the Earth.”

Nymon stood up
and walked over to Martin. He paused, staring at Martin. Slowly, he put his
fingers to Martin’s temples.

“You have the
intellect of an Axis Lord,” he said quietly.

Martin felt
quite uncomfortable, but said nothing. Nymon sighed slowly. “It’s all coming
true.”

Martin
shivered. “What is?”

Nymon returned
to his seat, slowly, and looked at Agamon.

“A very long
time ago, the Custodian of the Axis Lords made two prophecies.” He turned to
Martin. “The first was that your parents, Charles and Aurora King, would bring
about the end of the universe.”

Martin nodded.
“I heard.”

“The second,”
Nymon went on, “was that four Axis Lords and four humans would build an empire
to rival the council’s supremacy. We have tried to keep both prophecies
secret—that is why we banned the use of Foretellers.”

“Why did I not
know this?” said Agamon.

“We kept it a
secret from you, too, Agamon. You see,
you
are one of the Axis Lords
involved in the second prophecy.
You
are prophesied to be part of that
future empire.”

Martin glanced
at Agamon; the man’s face was white.

“We hoped that by
suppressing the prophecy we could prevent its fulfilment.”

Agamon sighed.
“Believe me, I have no wish to subjugate the council.”

“And yet you
will,” said Nymon. “Unless we stop you.”

“Listen to me,”
said Agamon. “I resigned from the council, but that was only to save the Earth.
I have no wish to stand against you in any other respect.”

“You lie,” said
Anova.

“Even if you
are telling the truth,” said Nymon. “We cannot take that risk. I am sorry, but
you brought this upon yourself by coming here.”

Nymon took a
gun from under the table and pointed it at Agamon.

“No!” shouted
Martin.

“You cannot
execute me without a trial,” said Agamon. “That would be a total violation of Axis
Lord law. And I know that Axis Lord laws cannot be bent.”

“Some things
are so serious that rules must
be broken,” said Nymon. “We cannot risk
the downfall of our race.”

“But killing me
would be illegal!”

“I know,” said
Nymon.

“At least let
me have my last request,” said Agamon. “Show me that courtesy.”

Nymon
hesitated; then he nodded.

“Very well.”

“My last
request is to be able to offer this gold bracelet as a gift to the council. I
promise that it is not harmful.”

Nymon nodded.
Slowly, Agamon reached to his wrist. But instead of taking off the bracelet, he
pressed a switch on the side. Suddenly, Agamon and Martin King vanished.

*

Martin and Agamon were back in
the control room of the Intrepid. Agamon breathed out slowly and set a course
for Earth.

“I can’t
believe they were just going to shoot you,” said Martin. “What do you think
they’d have done with me?”

“Studied you, I
expect.”

“So we’re going
back to Earth now?”

Agamon smiled.
“Valdragor Slater is trying to disable the Axis missiles with your two friends.
I doubt that they will get very far without my expertise.”

“So how
do
we
stop them?”

“Axis missiles
are incredibly powerful, Martin. It may not be possible even for me to stop
them. Valdragor Slater’s plan is probably the best—to divert them into the City
of Serenity. I just don’t know
how
he plans to divert them.”

Martin paused.
“Those prophecies—the ones that the Axis Lords mentioned—do you think they’re
true?”

“Possibly,
Martin, possibly.”

“So you, three
other Axis Lords and four humans are going to start some kind of empire?”

Agamon smiled.
“So the prophecy says. Intriguing, isn’t it?”

“And the other
one,” said Martin, speaking more quietly, “the one about my parents destroying
the universe. What about that?”

“It might be
true,” admitted Agamon. “But at the moment neither prophecy makes that much
sense. First we must focus on the issue at hand—we must stop the Axis Lords
from destroying Earth.” He smiled. “Then we can worry about the prophecies.”

Michael Slater, Tommy and Darcy
were all sitting in the lounge of Slater’s ship,
Valiant Star
. They were
all leaning over a large wooden table that was covered with maps, charts, and
other documents. Slater smiled when Martin and Agamon entered the room.

“Ah, hello! Any
luck?”

“No,” said
Agamon. “The Axis Lords refused to change their course of action. They even
threatened to kill me.”

Slater sighed.
“It is unfortunate, but hardly unexpected. It looks as if war is unavoidable
after all.”

“We haven’t
made much progress,” said Darcy. “We can’t work out any way to divert the
missiles.”

“It is true,”
admitted Slater. “You see, all of the thirty missiles are connected on the same
network. If I could just hack into one missile—well, I could alter the course
of all of them.”

“Then what’s
the problem?” said Martin.

“I cannot even
hack into one. The network has so many layers of security, and they’re all
quantum-connected. Even if I managed to break one layer all of the others would
shift to compensate for it.”

“Damn,” said
Agamon.

“The
frustrating thing is that the actual code to change the direction of the
missiles is so simple.” Slater held up a small device that looked a little like
a memory stick. “The code on this device would do it. But there is no way of
getting the code into one of the missiles.”

Martin suddenly
had an idea.

“How easy would
it be to
physically
put the code in?” he said.

Slater smiled.
“Are you thinking what I think you are?”

“I can fly to
the missile,” Martin explained, “and put the code in manually.”

“Wonderful,”
said Slater. “It just might work. I can enable wireless transmission, so all
you would need to do is attach this device to the missile.”

“I’m not sure
about this,” said Darcy, grabbing hold of Martin’s hand.

“Trust me,
Darcy,” said Martin.

Darcy sighed.

“When will the
missiles pass into the Earth’s atmosphere?” said Agamon.

Tommy glanced
at a small screen that Slater had asked him to monitor.

“About two
hours,” he said.

“Good,” said
Martin. “I’ve got time for a coffee first, then.”

*

Two hours later, Martin was
standing on the roof of
Valiant Star
, staring up at the sky. It was
getting dark, and stars were beginning to shine through the black. The Axis
Lord ships were still hanging in space like tiny golden dots. But there were
other shapes, too—burning blue ones. Martin knew that the blue shapes were the
Axis missiles. It was only a few seconds before they broke through the Earth’s
atmosphere. Then Martin had to disable them.