Paraworld Zero (31 page)

    “
Excuse me, Lord Vaylen
,” a voice from the intercom chimed. “
The Raiders have just entered our paraworld. General Mayham and Captain Drackus would like to
speak with you.
”

    The Guardian of the Crown bit his lip and snapped, “I’ll talk to them in my
office. Follow me, Merworth.”

    After a brisk walk through the tall and spacious corridors, the two men
entered Lord Vaylen’s office. Holographic images of both General Mayham and Captain Drackus stood
in an alcove in the wall.

    General Mayham spoke immediately. “Lord Vaylen, we demand that you release
Griffen Lasher into our custody at once. We know you have him, and we’re not—”

    Lord Vaylen raised the sneaker worm in anger and spat, “Gentleman, I believe
I
do
have something of yours… but it is
not
this man you are seeking.” With a sharp twist of his wrist, he cracked the worm’s
spine and threw it down. The worm convulsed sporadically about the floor and made a shrill
clicking noise as it died. “I do not appreciate being spied on.”

    “And we don’t appreciate being lied to,” Captain Drackus responded coolly.
“My security cameras filmed you destroying my holodroids.”

    “I assure you, gentleman, that I have never set foot on either of your space
carriers.”

    “But my cameras—”

    “Are inaccurate,” Lord Vaylen finished his sentence. “Check your security
system again, and you will find that it was not I who invaded your ship.”

    “But the intruder was wearing your black cloak,” Captain Drackus
argued.

    “Did he walk with a limp?”

    Drackus thought for a moment. “No.”

    “Then it couldn’t have been me. Now gentleman, I do not wish to discuss this
any further. I have pressing business to attend to. Good day.”

    Before the captain or the general could say another word, the transmission
cut out and the holograms vanished. Lord Vaylen pushed a button on his bracelet and said, “Please
inform me when the Raiders have entered the parastream.”

    “Yes, sir,” came the reply.

    The sly wizard walked to his desk and sat down. He pulled out a thin cylinder
of blue liquid from a drawer and poured himself a drink. That was when Merworth realized his
master’s limp had disappeared.

    “Your limp is gone, Master!”

    “Yes, but for how long? That is the question, Merworth. That is the
question.” He took a sip of the blue liquid. “But for now, I feel twenty years younger. Tell me,
doctor, what progress have you made with our patient?”

    “He recovers from every experiment remarkably fast. I can’t explain why. His
race is truly unique.”

    “
Ahh!
Yes, they are…” Contemplating what he had just said, Vaylen added quietly, “Yes, they
were
… If only the Raiders hadn’t destroyed them all. Imagine the power we could have
obtained.”

    “Do understand, Master, that the antibodies we extracted have a limiting time
factor. The side effects you’re experiencing will eventually wear off, and everything will be
back to normal… even your limp will come back.”

    “Yes, that is why you must discover his secret.”

    Lord Vaylen waved his hand, and an image appeared in the air. Several doctors
were busy running tests on a man strapped to a table. A sheet covered most of his body, but his
upper chest and neck were bare. The viewpoint of the image zoomed in and magnified the man’s
face, revealing him to be Griffen Lasher.

    “We haven’t much time, Merworth,” Lord Vaylen said calmly. He took another
sip of his drink. “Not much time at all.”

    

    

    Councilor Bromwell and Lady Cassandra walked through the lush, beautiful
garden just outside the castle walls. A flock of strange-looking birds blotted out the sunlight
for a moment as they flew by.

    “You don’t think the Raiders would dare to attack Imperial City, do you?”
Cassandra asked.

    “The heart of General Mayham’s hatred stems from the very ground we walk on,”
Councilor Bromwell answered. “I feel that he is taunting us… trying to make us lose our focus.
Now that we know the diabolical reason for his harboring of the electro-magical energy, it is
only a matter of time before the Raiders attack our paraworld.”

    “Can we defend ourselves from such a weapon?” Lady Cassandra asked with a
hint of desperation in her voice.

    The old man’s response was both blunt and dreadful. “No… In time, I’m sure we
could devise a countermeasure… but I fear that time is not on our side. Even now the Raiders are
powering up their weapon.”

    Lady Cassandra drew a deep breath. “And what do we know of this
weapon?”

    “Our E.M. Enforcers have just reported that Captain Drackus and General
Mayham have discovered how to unleash a deadly strain of electro-magical energy that is capable
of destroying an entire planet. That’s why they met at Centarious.”

    Lady Cassandra’s eyes widened. “But Drackus was born on Centarious.”

    Bromwell nodded. “If Drackus is willing to harm his own homeworld, there’s no
telling what he’s capable of doing. With such awesome power, I assume the Raiders would be forced
to charge their E.M. reactors to maximum capacity before they could fire. This being the case, I
would further postulate that they would hide themselves at a nearby paraworld to charge their
ships. This, my lady, would be our only window of opportunity to stop them.”

    “There are thousands of paraworlds just minutes from here,” Lady Cassandra
said despairingly. “They could be hiding in any one of them.”

    “That is why we must act now… before our paraworld suffers the same fate as
Centarious.”

    “Agreed,” Cassandra declared. “We shall disperse our fleet among the parallel
worlds until we find the twin space carriers. Meanwhile, we can send messenger probes to warn the
neighboring worlds of the danger and command them to cease all paratravel for the time being. If
only we had put more stock in Tabatha’s warning. Alas, she has fallen to the Raiders as
well.”

    “I hope you are wrong,” Councilor Bromwell said. “Tabatha has a fire within
her that breeds hope and determination. I pray we will have that same conviction in the next few
days to come.”

    “As do I,” the woman said, looking at the beautiful buildings that housed the
governing body of the known paraverse. “For all our sakes.”

    

    

    Enveloped in a blue energy field, a tiny spacecraft, bearing the royal
insignia, raced down the parastream at full speed. Except for the quiet sound of a woman crying,
the inside of the cockpit remained silent. Tabatha Burke sat alone in the dark, mourning the loss
of her friend.

    The woman had not eaten or slept for two days, but she didn’t care; she had a
lot on her mind…

    

    

    “Scan for life signs,” Tabatha had said just two days previously.

    Her ship floated above the remains of the destroyed Centarious moon. Minor
fragments of Griffen’s ship drifted aimlessly in space.

    The computer’s response echoed in her ears.
“Zero life signs,
” it had said.

    “Can you find any trace of him—any trace at all?” she begged.

    “
Zero life signs,
” came the cold reply.

    “How about on the planet?”

    “
Zero life signs.”

    Tabatha gasped in dismay. “What?”

    “
There are zero life signs on the planet,
” the computer expounded.

    “How did this happen?” she cried.

    As if quoting from a science lecture, the heartless computer said, “
Because of the deteriorating orbit of the moon fragments, the tidal force of the oceans has
eroded the continents, thus fracturing the outer crust of the planet and allowing volcanic
eruptions to melt the polar caps. Sensors indicate that, with the moon’s current rate of descent,
the estimated time of impact will be—
”

    

    

    “Enough!” Tabatha yelled herself awake.

    She looked at the thousands of portals whizzing by. Her ship was still
cruising through the parastream. Reprimanding herself for falling asleep, she vowed not to rest
until she reached her destination.

    Her destination, however, was still undetermined. Her ship headed in the
direction of home—as she was instructed to do by Lady Cassandra—but it also followed the trail of
the twin space carriers. Tabatha figured she could catch up with the Raiders in a day or
two.

    The white-haired woman urged her ship to go faster. She couldn’t decide what
her final destination would be. Where did her loyalties lie? The crown or a friend? She continued
to stare at the mystical walls of the parastream. The hypnotic waves of orange and red seemed to
force her eyes shut. Sleep took her within moments.

Chapter 20
    

    

    Simon opened his eyes. A soft white light penetrated everything around him.
He felt extremely disorientated, even dizzy, to the point of not knowing whether he was lying
down or standing up. As his eyes focused, the boy noticed that a thick blanket of mist
encompassed his entire body.

    His gas mask was gone and so was the throbbing pain in his head; however, his
dizziness remained. A warm breeze gently touched his face, amplifying his lethargic state, and a
peaceful feeling swept throughout his body, giving him the strong desire to go back to sleep…
Sleep? Maybe he was already asleep.

    Feeling the presence of someone familiar close by, Simon focused his eyes
more deeply into the white mist and realized the woman from his dreams was desperately trying to
speak with him. Although the thick vapor swallowed up most of her form, he could still see the
concerned look upon her delicate face.

    Riding atop her majestic beast, the young woman quickly drew near—so near, in
fact, that Simon could see the urgency in her eyes. She was trying to tell him something, but the
boy couldn’t make out her words; he saw her lips move, but no sound came from her mouth.

    “What?” Simon whispered hoarsely.

    She spoke again, but he heard no sound.

    “I can’t hear you,” Simon said with a yawn.

    He felt so sleepy, his eyes began to close involuntarily. The young woman
hopped off the animal and glided across the floor to where Simon lay. As she knelt down, the
steam curled around her long hair and engulfed her face.

    She brought her soft lips to the boy’s ear and, with a sense of urgency in
her voice, whispered, “
Simon, wake up!
”

    Simon opened his eyes but wasn’t quite sure if he was still dreaming or not.
The white mist had vanished, but what he saw in its place was strangely familiar. Two little
knives vibrated above his glasses—just like in his daydream back in Mr. Bartholomew’s English
class. However, this time Simon saw tiny words floating in his peripheral vision.

    
Weight: 591.32 lbs… Height: 7.69 feet… Species: Arachnid
.

    Simon suddenly realized he wasn’t dreaming anymore. The two daggers removed
themselves from the telescopic eyepieces of his mask, allowing him to see the faint outline of a
giant spider above him. Its sharp fangs came crashing down again but stopped abruptly when they
entered the mask. The tips of the fangs scratched against Simon’s glasses, trying to penetrate
his head.

    Shocked and horrified, he cast the first spell that came into his mind: “
Voluminous!
”

    Simon brought his hand to his mouth, as if to erase the spell from being
cast. “Oh, no! What have I done?” he cried aloud.

    The gigantic spider trembled. Black hair sprouted from its soft abdomen and
grew like a terrible weed. Its legs became the size of tree trunks. Shaking and convulsing, the
spider repeatedly hit its head on the cave ceiling as it underwent a grotesque
metamorphosis.

    Simon grabbed the little red book next to him and rolled out from underneath
the creature’s legs. Quickly, he ripped the shattered gas mask from his face and sprinted down
the dark tunnel.

    Illuminating gold and green as he ran past them, the ancient runes gave Simon
just enough light to maneuver through the cave. He glanced back and wished he hadn’t. The
ever-growing spider dragged its swollen abdomen across the floor as it charged. Fortunately for
Simon, the narrow passageway hindered his assailant from moving its expanding legs. In fact, the
spider had grown so large that its tough exoskeleton ground against the ceiling and walls.