The Hollywood Mission (3 page)

When Ben talked about cinnamon cake and tea, he forgot to mention the dinner that came with it. Normally, Max couldn't understand how they could eat meals that seemed big enough to power a small energy plant, but she hadn't eaten anything since the nori roll at lunchtime, so when the smells of a baked dinner wafted out of the kitchen, Max's appetite bit into her stomach like an overexcited chihuahua.

Mealtimes at Mindawarra were usually accompanied by the clanging and clattering of plates and cutlery, mingled with a sense of urgency that came with placing Ben and Linden in front of food. When they were up to their second helpings, Max had had enough of being patient. She needed to ask the one important question. ‘How's the Time and Space Machine?'

Ben had a mouth full of baked lamb, pumpkin and gravy. Max watched him chew it slowly and swallow before he finally said, ‘Good.' He smiled. ‘Want to try her out?'

Max knocked her tea cup across the table where it somersaulted into the mashed potato. ‘Yeah! Sorry.'

Ben wiped his napkin across his mouth. ‘Right, then. Follow me.'

Ben led the way down the long, musty hall to the loungeroom. He threw back a tattered rug to reveal a trapdoor, then he lifted the door and made his way down a set of spiralling metal stairs.

Max had no idea this room held anything more interesting than layers of dust. ‘What's down there?'

‘The lab,' Ben's voice came echoing back.

‘Ben's shed was a good lab for a while but we needed something more …' Francis tried to find the right word as he followed Ben. ‘… sophisticated.'

‘There's a lab under your house?' Max scowled.

‘Yes. Wonderful, isn't it?' Eleanor made her way down the stairs.

‘Why didn't anyone tell me?'

‘They did. Just now,' Linden answered as he too disappeared below.

Max took a deep breath. As much as she'd grown to love these people, they had an annoying habit of staying calm in the face of incredible news.

When she stepped down into the lab she immediately forgot her bad mood. It still had the usual messiness of Ben's old lab but underneath the books and newspapers, goggles, boxes, tubes and his miniature replica of Big Ben was a shiny, new lab. Above the polished white floor were chrome benches with beeping, humming lab equipment,
but the most exciting bit was a large round platform in the centre of the lab. Sitting under a soft pool of light was a glass cabinet that contained the new Time and Space Machine.

‘Sorry about the mess.' Ben picked up a lab coat and hung it on an already overcrowded hook. ‘But I think better this way.'

‘That's what he tells us, anyway,' said Francis, putting the cap on a tube of glue.

Ben walked over to the platform and stood by the machine. ‘Come and look.'

They all made their way past walls and tables covered with maps, diagrams and sketches of plans, strange devices and indecipherable ideas.

Ben spoke as if he was a tour guide in an ancient museum. ‘After years of tireless research carried out by Eleanor, Francis and me, we created the Matter Transporter which, with the addition of the Time and Space Retractor Meter and the Aurora Stone that Francis discovered in Scotland, was developed into the device you now see before you: The Transporter Mark II, a machine that holds the dream of scientists throughout the centuries: the secret to time travel.'

Eleanor and Linden burst into spontaneous applause as Francis blushed and again tried to
find somewhere to put his hands. Ben beamed as if he'd just won the Nobel Prize.

‘After making a few adjustments to the Time and Space Retractor Meter, we believe we've created the most efficient machine yet, and the good news for you, Max, is that we've fixed the glitch with the landings. From now on, you should land exactly as you left.'

‘That's a relief.' Linden rolled his eyes and sighed.

‘What are you worried about? You always have the good landings,' Max complained.

‘Yeah, but now when we're on missions, I won't have a partner who smells like the back end of a sheep.' Linden nodded as if he was simply stating the facts.

‘Is that so. Well I —'

‘But that's not all,' Ben interrupted with more to reveal. ‘Francis?'

Francis nodded and spoke with a smaller, less award-winning voice than Ben's. ‘When Eleanor and I analysed the chemical structure of the Aurora Stone, we knew its high density energy supply would enable the Time and Space Machine to move at the speed of light, thus allowing time travel. But we had to conduct thorough testing to
ensure the machine's safety before we could begin our first trials.'

‘When will you start the trials?' Max was eager to be one of the world's first time travellers.

‘Last week,' Ben said coolly.

‘Last week?' Max's mind flooded with the questions that cascaded into her brain. ‘But how'd you? … Where did you? … What kind of …?'

‘You're really going to have to finish some of those questions if you want an answer,' Linden advised before turning to Ben. ‘How'd it go?'

Ben looked at Francis and Eleanor. ‘I'd say it was a success.'

‘Alright!' Linden's mind was already flicking through history, trying to choose which parts he wanted to see first.

Max stared open-mouthed. She remembered when she met Ben and Eleanor and thought they were a pair of chicken farmers, and how when she went to London to find Francis, she thought he was a grumpy old man with bad taste in cardigans. These same relatives, who looked like regular people, were not only superspies but now time travellers as well.

‘Who went?' Linden asked as Max still hadn't managed to close her mouth.

‘Eleanor and I. Francis stayed here in the lab and monitored the test.'

‘Where'd you go?'

‘Norway in the Middle Ages.' Eleanor smiled. ‘I have a soft spot for Norway.'

‘What was it like being able to travel through time?' Max had unravelled her brain, regained control over her mouth and finally managed a question.

Eleanor thought about this carefully. ‘It's like history gets on with doing what it's doing and we get to see it up close as it's happening.'

Her explanation short-circuited Max's brain again.

‘Did you see? … But how do you? … Can you …?'

‘Let me help you out,' Linden offered. ‘Can you touch things?'

‘Not exactly. It's like walking around in a virtual movie,' Eleanor clarified. ‘Objects do have a dimension but we only experienced some of their mass, so that our hands slightly passed through the surface of them.'

Linden's eyebrows arched. ‘So if you can pick things up, does that mean you can change the past?'

Francis's face took on a serious look. ‘We think
so, but we're working on a program to stop humans being able to do just that. That is the one factor that makes the Time and Space Machine so brilliant and so dangerous. Even with the best intentions we're not sure of the ramifications.'

‘And in the wrong hands, that function could prove disastrous,' Ben warned. He'd changed from tour guide to Hollywood actor.

‘Were you scared? Did anyone see you?' Linden imagined wielding a sword against knights twice his size.

‘We've incorporated a protective coating into the machine that makes you invisible,' Eleanor explained. ‘It'll be safer for you that way.'

‘And less freaky for the people you run into. You won't have to explain
when
you're from and how you got there,' added Ben.

Linden moaned. ‘So the people of history won't get to see how good-looking I am. Doesn't seem fair to go all that way and not give them a thrill.'

‘They'll get over it.' Ben ruffled Linden's wild hair.

‘How does it work?' Max was keen to get to the part where she could use it.

Francis took the Transporter Mark II out of the cabinet as if it was a rare gem.

‘Much the same as when you transport through space. You write the destination on the LCD screen using the rod at the side, but add the extra dimension of time. Say or write
transport
and, provided the address exists, you will be transported directly.'

It sounded too simple. ‘Is that it?' Max's face creased into a frown.

‘Yep. Now that it has the power of the Aurora Stone.' Ben hitched up his trousers. ‘And when you want to return to the place you transported from, simply write
return
in the screen.'

‘Can we try it now?' Max asked.

‘Do you feel up to it?' Ben looked at her sternly.

Max straightened up, her chin tucked in, her eyes firm, her mind buzzing with the fact that she was facing one of the most important moments of her life. One to be taken seriously. One to be faced with bravery, dignity and courage.

‘What, are you crazy?' she blustered as her hands flew to her hips. ‘I've waited for this moment ever since I heard about the Time and Space Machine. I've lived for this moment for a whole year. It's amazing I stayed even half sane just thinking about it!'

‘I'd take that as a yes,' Linden translated.

‘Where would you like to go?' Ben asked her as if he was driving a tour bus.

Max went to open her mouth but Linden cut her off. ‘Prehistory,' he blurted. ‘With dinosaurs. Maybe Late Jurassic.'

‘Prehistory it is.' The air tingled with night-before-Christmas jitters.

Francis gently handed Max the Transporter Mark II and a leather belt with a pouch and gold clasp in the middle. ‘We've had this special belt made that's lined with titanium. It will keep the machine safe. Time travel can be a rough ride.'

Max put on the belt and nestled the transporter snugly inside.

Ben started to get this funny look on his face, kind of scrunched up like he was about to cry. ‘You may feel a bit funny when you land. Make sure you give yourselves a few minutes to adjust.'

‘Right.' Max entered the destination on the LCD screen.

‘It's like you're bending time, making it different from how we know it.'

‘Excellent.' Linden imagined it before him.

‘And make sure your visit lasts no longer than five minutes,' he sniffed.

‘Okay.' Max took Linden's hand before Ben could say any more.

‘And be careful …'

Max said, ‘Transport' and left her uncle's sentence floating in midair as she and Linden were flung through space and time back to somewhere in prehistory.

Max and Linden appeared in a flash of fluorescent light with tiny sparks of colour falling around them like fireworks. They hung suspended in the air for a few seconds before floating gently onto the thick grass of a vast escarpment.

‘Now that's what I call a ride.' Linden's unruly hair had become even more unruly and his shirt and pants were twisted round his body.

‘Yeah.' Max's dazed brain nestled beneath her hair which was standing on end, swaying from side to side in the breeze.

In the past, when they'd transported through space, it had felt like being picked up by a giant hand and placed somewhere else. Travelling through time felt more like being flung into a long twisting tunnel at a million kilometres an hour by a giant as big as Jupiter.

Until they stopped.

Small bubbles of images floated in front of them, re-forming bit by bit, until a picture of where they were formed around them. A lush rainforest spread out below them with a clear blue sky above. There were vivid green trees, huge ferns and large pools of clear rippling water. And there was something else.

‘Can you smell something?' Linden was
having trouble getting his clothes to cooperate with his body.

‘Maybe this is how prehistory smelt,' Max winced. ‘Which would be just my luck.'

Linden was trying to focus on the object forming next to him. ‘Or maybe we landed right next to a … a … huge pile of dinosaur poo.' His hand flew to his nose as the breeze smacked a soured whiff into his face.

‘Dinosaur poo?' Max said nasally as she held her nose too. ‘We're in the middle of prehistory, I've got the whole world to land in and I'm sitting next to a pile of poo the size of a house.'

Linden looked around in awe as the last of their surroundings pieced itself into place. He was standing in one of his favourite parts of history with a giant pterodactyl swooping over his head. ‘Wow!' he breathed.

Max watched as its huge wings whomped through the air and flew away. Then her eyes widened. ‘What's that?'

Linden looked behind them and saw a greenish stony wall. ‘It looks like … like …' Then he realised. ‘It's the rear end of a dinosaur and I think he's about to let another one go!'

An enormous bulge of brown disgusting mush
appeared and fell towards them.

‘Aaaaaahhh!' They rolled quickly down the embankment only just escaping the deathly poo splat but not its squelchy spray.

‘Oooph!' Max's roll was stopped by the trunk of a giant tree fern. ‘Errr! Even at the dawn of time I can't last five minutes without bashing into something.'

She pushed herself away from the trunk and saw her hand partially soak into the outside layer.

‘It's just like Eleanor said!'

Her amazement was cut short by the whiff of poo splattered on her.

She untangled herself from the fronds, took out a hanky and wiped down her clothes. ‘Why couldn't we go somewhere less smelly for our first journey through time?'

Linden looked up from the grassy mound that stopped his roll.

‘Max?'

‘Or somewhere where I wasn't welcomed by giant lumps of yesterday's lunch.'

‘Max?'

‘We had the whole of history to choose from, but you wanted to go to the land of the dinosaurs. What's so fascinating about a bunch of old stegosauruses anyway?'

‘Apatosauruses, actually. Previously known as brontosauruses. One of the largest land animals ever to have existed. We're in the Late Jurassic Period.'

Max was trying to wipe a stubborn piece of muck from her jacket. ‘I don't care what period we're in as long as it doesn't slime me again.' She frowned. ‘Great. Now there's a really hot breeze.'

‘It's not a breeze.' Linden had this strange look in his eye. Max followed his gaze. Rising out of the tree ferns, the apatosauruses had stretched out its long neck and was hovering over Max as if she was an ant under a microscope. Its teeth were as long as she was tall and its nostrils were like two openings into very warm, very smelly caves.

Max did the only thing she could.

She turned and ran.

‘Max!' Linden cried, but she didn't hear him. The beast lumbered after her with great leaden thumps. Max leapt over thick roots, skirted around ponds and scrambled across fallen moss-covered tree trunks.

‘Please, don't let my life end in the jaws of an animal that doesn't exist.'

‘Max!' Linden called again, but it was no good. She couldn't hear him. The pasta-whatever-a-saurus was bearing down on her, thumping its way
towards her inevitable and premature demise. Very premature. Like sixty-five million years before she was even born.

Then she saw her escape. She ran towards a small cave and with the prehistoric giant toe seconds away from delivering certain death, she scrambled through its narrow entrance.

Max heaved and panted and sank into the muddy floor of the cave as the dinosaur thumped by. She wiped a muddied hand across her forehead and smiled. Ben and Eleanor had made time travel sound safe, but luckily Max had used her wit and intelligence to outsmart the giant lizard.

‘Hi.' Linden appeared at the mouth of the cave.

‘Did you manage to give the dinosaur the slip too?' Max gasped as mud started seeping through her pants.

‘No, he kept running towards the large fern he was heading for,' Linden said. ‘Apatosauruses are herbivores. Don't take it personally, but he wouldn't have eaten you if you'd been roasted and served with gravy.'

‘I knew that.' Max's feeling of victory slipped away.

‘And they can't see us,' Linden reminded her. ‘We're invisible, remember?'

Now she felt really silly. She squeezed through the cave mouth and stood her poo- and mud-stained self next to a clean-looking Linden. ‘How can you be sure? Ben and Eleanor don't know everything about time travel yet.'

Linden walked towards the dinosaur. ‘Hey, big fella, look at me.' He danced between the dinosaur's toes as bits of fern it was munching fell around him. ‘Hey, lizard-breath! Why don't you take that big toe of yours and get rid of me?'

‘Alright, you've made your point.' Max sulked, but when Linden offered her a huge grin, she softened. ‘That's all my stomach can handle of your dance moves, anyway.'

Max looked at her watch. ‘It's time to go back.'

‘I'm not sure I've had a good look around yet.' Linden gazed at the nearby lagoon and waterfall and the thick jungle with crocodiles, turtles and all kinds of flying pterosaurs he'd never even read about.

Then he saw Max. She gave him a look that said she was done. ‘Actually, maybe I am ready,' he reconsidered.

Max opened the clasp of the belt with the Transporter Mark II and wrote
return
on the screen. As she grabbed Linden's hand, they saw the
apatosaurus drop another huge poo before walking off into the sunset.

‘He must have had a curry for dinner,' Linden chuckled. Max said, ‘Transport' and they were gone.

Ben, Eleanor and Francis watched anxiously as the time travellers appeared from a flash of sparks and fluorescent light and floated before them.

‘They're back!' Ben cried.

Max and Linden hovered in the air before safely coming in to land. Ben ran at them, his face a flood of smiles and tears. His arms flung open like a singer from an old musical welcoming home a long lost son.

Until he smelt something.

‘What's that smell?' He stopped dead.

‘We had some problems with a dinosaur and a deadly case of diarrhoea,' Linden whispered as Ben sniffed at Max's muddied look.

‘Oh.' Ben sighed guiltily. ‘I was sure we'd fixed the landings.'

‘The landing was the cleanest part, it was everything after that got messy.' Linden smirked until he caught Max's expression, which made him feel like a cat that had just lost one of its nine lives.

‘Congratulations!' Eleanor clasped her hands. ‘You did it!'

‘How was it?' quizzed Francis.

‘It was incredible. When can we go again?' Linden could hardly ask fast enough.

‘Max?' Ben sensed her bad mood.

‘It was great,' she said unenthusiastically. ‘I just don't get why even in the middle of prehistory I have this habit of attracting filth.'

Ben smiled. ‘Let's get you upstairs so you can clean up. Then I want to hear all about it.'

Linden began talking rapidly as Francis put the Transporter Mark II safely away and they all made their way upstairs. Max followed slowly behind and as she reached the top of the stairs, she turned towards the glowing cabinet. A smile curved into her lips. She'd done it. She'd travelled through time, and apart from a little dinosaur poo and some prehistoric mud, she couldn't wait to do it again.