The Jovian Legacy (16 page)

“She’s
only fifteen!” he said out loud. “Oh, God please don’t
let anything happen to her.” Jack felt so scared for her,
scared that she might be hurting. He burst into tears and sobbed,
crying so much that his eyes stung. He drifted in and out of sleep
throughout the night, getting only a couple of hours of decent sleep.

In
the morning Jack felt like he’d been run over by a bus. He
felt depressed, and wondered how these scientists could transport
them all the way from home, thirty-five light years across the
universe to an unknown world, and then let this happen. Jack was
going to see to it that Megan would be returned to him. He struggled
with his morning routine and didn’t even bother to look in the
mirror. He didn’t care how he looked anyway. It was only
Megan he was concerned about.

Ben
and Nancy Dunlop had prepared some breakfast for him.

“Jack,”
his father exclaimed when he saw him, “you look like a toilet
brush!”

“Why
would I care about that?” Jack said, scraping his chair up to
the table.

“Son,”
his father began, giving him some slack, “you really have to
keep your wits about you. You have to be strong for Megan’s
sake. What’s she going to think when she comes home to a
unkept lost soul? She’ll take one look at you and get on the
first rocket back home!”

“Okay,
Dad, you made your point,” Jack muttered, cutting into this
toast and egg.

The
Thebes Federation of Science offered him compassionate leave, telling
him to return when he felt he was ready. Jack was grateful to them
as he wouldn’t have been in any fit state to apply himself one
hundred percent anyway.

As
time progressed Jack became increasingly impatient and frustrated.
He knew the authorities were doing all they could, but to Jack it
wasn’t enough. They had still not tracked down Megan’s
abductors. He decided to take matters into his own hands. He had to
make his own contact with them, but the only way he knew was through
the Lucre Box. His Lucre Box, as obviously Megan’s Lucre Box
was no good to him.

How
am I going to do that?
It was somewhere on Earth. Jack had to
think hard.

That
evening he stood out in his garden looking up at the night sky. It
was ablaze with stars ten times bigger and brighter than the stars
seen from Earth. He had an idea. Without wasting any time he threw
his coat on and climbed into his utility air vehicle.

Outside
the Thebes Federation of Science building Jack swiped his card to let
himself in. He ran up the internal rampway, the elevator slides
earlier being switched off, and swiped his card again to enter into
the restricted area where he worked. His nimble fingers flew over
the keys, logging in to a program where he was able to initiate the
link to his brain via the transmitter that he fixed to the base of
his head.

Jack
typed in the date ‘20
^th
July 1994’, the day his parents had held their garage sale. He
had remembered the date because it was the first day his father had
let him drive the car on the road, and had driven to the dump when
they were clearing out their house. Jack was only twelve at the
time, but the dump was close by up the road and he’d been
nagging his father to let him have a drive on tarseal.

Jack
thought about the conversation he’d had with his father about
the Lucre Box when they’d visited the Supreme Council of
Antiquities that day. His father had told him that instead of taking
it back to the shop he’d put it in a box in the garage sale.

He
pressed the ‘enter’ key.

Jack
finds himself behind the wheel of the car, his father in the
passenger seat. It is an old Holden station wagon with a V6 motor so
has plenty of grunt. And because Jack had inadvertently cast himself
back into the middle of driving he automatically hits the brake.
Bud, who is sitting in the trailer, lurches forward and slams his
head into the front of the trailer, yelping in pain. Fortunately Ben
has quick reflexes and shoots out his legs to brace himself.

“Cripes,
Jack, steady on!” his father shouts at him, “Whyja do
that?”

“Sorry,
Dad, I…I thought I’d run over a cat,” Jack
stammers, searching for an excuse. He slows right down and drives
on, aware that his father is still glaring at him. He thinks he
might have blown his father’s trust with the car.

When
they return from the dump, Jack quickly goes looking for his Lucre
Box. His father finds him ratting around in amongst the stuff that
he’d already put out for the garage sale. Still annoyed with
his son Ben tells him to stop messing things up and go and help his
mother with the other boxes. Jack thinks he can afford a little
time, as he had keyed in two hours, and doesn’t want to upset
his father any further, so he leaves the garage boxes alone, making a
mental note of where he’d already looked, and goes inside.

Nancy
is pushing cardboard boxes of linen across the floor to be stacked up
against the passage wall. Jack helps her empty out the linen
cupboard, keeping an eye on the time. He needs to find the Lucre
Box, and begins to hurry. Nancy is surprised that her son is being
so helpful, and so quick. Pleased, she sits down and lets him do all
the packing, all the while wondering what has gotten into him.

When
the last of the boxes are stacked Jack wipes his hands on his jeans
and asks if there is anything else to do, hoping like crazy that his
mother says no. When she does, Jack goes to see if the coast is
clear. He sees his father busy on the phone so seizes the moment,
slipping back into the garage and begins rummaging through the boxes
again. So focused on searching is he that he doesn’t notice a
car stopping outside his house, nor does he hear the men approach.
Jack hears someone clear his throat, and thinking his father has
caught him out, becomes annoyed.

Without
looking up he says, “Look Dad, I really have to find something
that shouldn’t have gone into these boxes.” There is a
pause before he hears that thick accent again.

“Are
you looking for this?” asks the stout little man. Jack jerks
his head around to see the two men from the black Volvo Estate. In
the man’s hands is his Lucre Box. He stands up, cautious,
brushing himself off.

“I
think so,” Jack says, eyeing them warily.

“And
may we ask why you wish to have it?” the taller man asks.

“What’s
it to you?” Jack snaps, but then thinks better of it. “Sorry,
but I don’t even know how you’ve come to have it, but if
you must know, I have to use it to reach my friend.”

“Aah,
yes, your young friend, Megan. She’s lovely, isn’t she?”
The man has a greasy sneer across his face.

Fear
shoots through Jack like a knife. “You know her? You know
where she is?”

“Don’t
worry,” the little man assures, “she is in safe hands.
She will not be harmed in any way.” Somehow it doesn’t
cut it with Jack.

The
taller man speaks again. “We are representatives of Jovian.
My name is Tutankhaten, and this is Tutankhamen.”

More
like Tweedledum and Tweedledee,
Jack
thinks, unimpressed.

Tutankhaten
continues talking, “If you wish to see your friend again you
may, but your friend, or should I say cousin, is now under our
jurisdiction. We have great plans for her.”

Now
anger shoots through Jack. “You miserable piece of crap, you
obviously aren’t human!”

The
two men look at each other and pretend to be offended. “Well,
I’m sorry that you feel that way. Do you wish to be with your
friend, or do you wish to remain here?” Tutankhamen says,
holding out the Lucre Box.

Jack
sees his father peering out the window at them and has to think on
his toes. He takes the box.

As
the men disappear down the driveway Jack holds the box in both hands.
His father is hurriedly making his way across the lawn. Jack stares
anxiously at his father as he approaches. He runs his fingers over
the gold inscription of the Lucre Box and a luminous green light
shines over his hand. He feels a tingling sensation run up his arm
and overcome his body. Jack is being levitated off the ground. When
his father reaches the garage door he stops short, in disbelief to be
seeing his son suspended in mid air. Ben Dunlop watches in horror as
a bolt of green light shoots towards Jack from the heavens and
envelope his body. Jack and his father are still making eye contact
when Jack liquefies and dissolves into thin air.

For
a few moments Jack experiences weightlessness in blackness, then
feels his feet make contact with a carpeted floor. He finds himself
in a dimly lit room, unbeknown to him the same room that Megan had
found herself in. At that point a tall woman with flawless skin and
shiny black hair with a blunt fringe strolls into the room.

Cleopatra?
Jack asks himself, amused. She
is exceptionally beautiful. The young woman smiles at Jack and
introduces herself as Sobek. Jack instantly feels at ease with her;
to him she possesses an aura that exudes warmth.

“I
believe your name is Jack and you are a friend of Megan’s,
yes?” Sobek speaks with great eloquence.

Jack
isn’t concerned at all about the situation he is in, he merely
wants to reach Megan. And this woman in front of him is talking to
him in a manner to which he isn’t accustomed. She is talking
down to him, but in a nice way. At that moment Timos wanders into
the room.

“Hello,
you must be Jack. I’m Timos,” he greets, holding out his
hand. Jack looks at the extended hand and offers his own for a
half-hearted handshake. Timos glances at his sister and they smile
at each other.

“I
believe you are here to see your cousin,” Timos states coldly,
his hands clasped in front of him.

“Where
is she?” Jack abruptly asks, ignoring the fact that this man
had called Megan his cousin.

“Hold
on, Son,” Timos replies. “She’ll be here in a
minute or two, but I think you are both in for a surprise.” He
grins at Sobek again. Jack becomes annoyed with them. They
obviously have some little secret going on between them which he
isn’t privy to nor does he have time for. And it riles him to
be talked down to. They make him wait for ages before he hears
voices approaching the door. It is the familiar sweet voice of his
Megan. She sounds frantic to be allowed into the room. Jack strides
towards the door as it opens and Megan rushes in. Jack’s heart
jumps as their eyes meet. He starts to move towards her when she
shows surprise, staring at him blankly. She takes a step backwards.
She then moves around him and looks frantically around the room.
Jack is confused.

Oh
my God!
he thinks, they must
have brainwashed her.
My poor Megan!

Megan
turns to Timos and asks in a desperate voice, “Where is he?”

Timos
grins at Sobek once again and gestures towards Jack. Jack, in turn,
looks keenly at Megan, who stares at him like she doesn’t know
him. His heart does pirouettes in his chest. She looks so lost.

“What
cruel game are you playing?” Megan cries, “this isn’t
Jack! What have you done with him?” Her expression changes to
one of exasperation.

Feeling
confused himself, Jack begins to reassure her that he is who they say
he is, when it hits him.

“Of
course! Oh Man!” Jack cries out. He finally comprehends that
because he’d gone back in time to retrieve his Lucre Box, he is
only twelve years old! He looks up in vain at Timos, who is
snickering to himself with his hand over his mouth. Sobek is
actually looking quite saddened by it all.

At
least she’s showing some compassion,
he
considers.

Jack
begins to explain to Megan how the only way he could’ve reached
her was through his Lucre Box, and in order to reclaim it he’d
had to go through his computer, and back in time.

Megan
thankfully understands, but it is still upsetting for her, and it
becomes too weird for her to hug him. Another thing dawns on Jack.
He had only keyed in two hours, so that meant…

Oh
shite! What a mess. How do I get Megs back now when I’m not
myself!
He looks appealingly at
Sobek, who quickly looks away.

She can help us, I know she can,
thinks Jack staring at her, willing her to become aware of how he
feels. He comprehends that Timos is summoning him up. It is as if
he is reading his mind.

Timos steps in between Jack and Megan,
announcing, “Your cousin is here to stay.” His
expression is packed tight with menace.

Megan
becomes frightened.

Jack’s
anger explodes. “You have no right to keep her here against her
will, you piece of shit!”

“Settle
down, boy, she’ll be fine,” Timos patronises him. “We
have big plans for your cousin. When you come back and visit again
you’ll have your choice of, well, Megans…” he says
with a stifled laugh.

“W…what
the hell are you talking about?” Jack asks him. His face
drains of colour.