Jack Strong and the Prisoner of Haa'drath, page 4
part #2 of Jack Strong Chronicles Series
“But we'll never keep dry in there, it's bucketing it down now.”
“Won't we?” asked Vyleria, with a glint in her eye.
“What the? How?” spluttered Jack when he entered the tent.
“That was what I was trying to tell you, Jack. The outside of the tent is protected by an invisible force field that keeps out the rain and I can also control the amount of sound we hear using this,” she said, pointing at her holowatch as she brought the sound back up to normal.
If Jack thought that was surprising that was nothing compared to the size of the thing. The inside of the tent was easily as big as a football stadium, and like as on the spaceship there was also an inbuilt computer that could be used to imagine up all manner of food and equipment, as well as all kinds of spaceships and machinery.
The thunder bellowed and roared outside like warring giants as they talked about what to do next over a plate of chips and mushy peas and several steaming cups of hot chocolate.
“It's too dangerous to carry on now,” insisted Jack. “We don't know what animals are out there, and besides if we get hit by that lightning.”
“We won't,” said Vyleria.
“How do you know that?” asked Jack.
“I just… you know.”
“No, I don't know.”
“Oh crikey, where's your sense of adventure Jack?” she laughed.
“It's hibernating,” he chuckled. “Look, I understand.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. You want to get out there, have some fun, explore, go on an adventure, find Kat and then if there's still time after that have some more excitement; but there's no reason why we can't bed down for the night and do all that tomorrow. If one of us slips on a wet branch and breaks their leg then it's going to take time to get the spaceship to come and fix it and in that time anything could happen to Kat. We are best off getting some sleep, waiting for the storm to pass, and then set off in the morning when visibility is better and we have a higher chance of finding her and not getting maimed and injured in the process.”
“I agree with Jack,” said Ros. “We should wait till tomorrow.”
“What? There used to be a time when you'd do the exact opposite of what he'd say just to spite him,” said Vyleria.
“Yeah well, things have changed,” he said.
“Yes, they have,” said Jack, laughing. “Now come on, you're outvoted! Let's get some sleep and get started again early in the morning.”
“Early, you promise?” asked Vyleria eager-eyed.
“Yes, as early as you like it,” yawned Jack, not realising what he was letting himself into.
Chapter 5: The Plateau
When Vyleria said early she meant early. Like stars in the night sky and the twin moons overhead early. Jack bounced along from tree to tree, yawning broadly, the light from the moons bathing the forest in an eerie, silver glow. No matter how quick he went though, he couldn't keep up with Vyleria. He wasn't sure if she was desperate to find Kat or if she was just jumping and bounding around for the sheer fun of it.
“Vyleria!” he shouted at the dim silhouette in front of him. “Hang on. We've got to wait for Ros.”
“Okay then slow coach,” she hollered back, finishing her leap with a double somersault like an Olympic gymnast.
“Am I glad to see you,” he said, catching up to her. “I can’t see Ros anywhere. Ros! Ros!”
“What have you done to him?” chuckled Vyleria, after he received no reply.
Jack was just about to shout out again when Ros blasted out of the moonlight, his rocket boots firing him along the tops of the trees like a giant, silver candle.
“You've given up I see,” said Jack as Ros landed on a table-sized leaf next to him.
“It's no good,” he said. “I just can't get the hang of all this bouncing around, especially in this twilight. I'll have to have another go when it's light. But it's okay though, you two can go on – I'll follow you on these.”
“Okay, let's get moving then,” said Jack.
“No, wait here for a second. I've got a surprise for you,” said Vyleria.
“Surprise? What kind of surprise?”
“You'll see. Look over there,” she said, pointing into the black cauldron of the east.
Jack didn't see anything at first, but then slowly but surely he began to see a bright light rise up out of the darkness like a ring of fire. At first it was nothing more than a thin crack on the horizon, but then as time passed this transformed into a giant fireball floating on a golden sea of clouds. It burned brighter and brighter and got larger and more massive, getting higher and higher in the sky, until eventually the sun was high enough to bathe the entire forest in light. He had never seen anything quite like it.
Within a few minutes of the sunrise they were off again, bounding and flying over the tops of the rubber trees, calling out Kat's name far and wide.
They searched for hours and hours but they found no trace of her.
“She's dead,” said Ros.
“No, I don't believe it,” said Jack.
“Then why haven't we found her?” asked Vyleria.
“I don't know. Maybe she's hiding,” said Jack. “She can turn invisible after all.”
“Well she's doing a good job if she is! At this rate she will elude us forever – and we have to go soon. The Xenti…”
“We can't leave her Ros!”
“He's got a point Jack,” said Vyleria.
“What? You can’t be serious,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I am. We'll keep searching for now, but we can't carry on like this indefinitely. We have to consider that maybe she doesn't want to be found.”
“Or that’s she’s lying under a rock somewhere,” sneered Ros.
“I… I don't believe what I’m hearing,” said Jack. “We owe her for saving the ship and rescuing us from the Xenti and the Red Giant – we can't just leave her.”
“Yes, I know that. I'm not saying we go right now.”
“I am,” quipped Ros, his arms folded like a pair of creeping vines.
“But what I am saying,” said Vyleria. “Is that we have to consider our options in the event that we can't find her.
“Yes, like leaving!” said Ros.
“We're not leaving!” shouted Jack. “Look, perhaps it will be better if we split up. We may have more luck that way.”
“But then what happens if we still don't find her?” asked Ros.
“Then we keep looking,” said Jack. “Until we do.”
“No Jack,” said Vyleria, grasping his arm. “Ros is right. This can’t be allowed to go on forever. We can’t afford to waste much more time.”
“Then what?” he asked.
“I think we should give it a week at least from when she disappeared before we consider leaving. That gives us six days,” said Vyleria.
“I suppose that’s fair,” grunted Ros.
“And if we’ve still not found her by then?” asked Jack.
“Then we leave,” said Vyleria. “Kat or no Kat.”
Jack leapt from tree to tree, the broad, inch-thick leaves trembling in his wake. He felt like a trampolinist or a diver or both.
He was searching the narrow strip of land that bordered the massive plateau that dominated the western portion of the continent. In order to speed up their search Vyleria had used their magic tent to make an army of robotic drones that could swoop over the forest and search for life. So far though all their scans had proved fruitless.
Tired-out from all the endless searching and from the unceasing glare of the afternoon sun, Jack rocketed down to the forest floor and in the shadow of a giant rubber tree drank a cool glass of Vimto, whilst munching on the largest hot dog New York had to offer. Where was Kat? Had she been eaten? Or had she been hit by a rock?
The rocks… of course!
Jack rocketed instantly through a layer of wispy clouds, to where a thin sliver of a waterfall spouted from the cliff towards the forest below.
“Kat!” he shouted as soon as his feet touched the cold, icy rock. “Kat!
The only answer was the soft murmur of the waterfall as it gushed towards the edge.
He was just about to fly off and search another part of the plateau when he heard footsteps behind him.
“Vyleria? Ros?” he said, spinning round.
All he saw was a fleecy web of rock and snow. Perhaps he had imagined it?
“Vyleria!” said a bodiless voice. “That's all you care about.”
“Kat? Is that you?”
“Yes, not that you care.”
“What do you mean? Of course I care. I've been looking all over for you.”
“You have?” she said, materialising before his eyes, her auburn skin twinkling in the sunshine.
“Of course. We've been looking for you all day and all night.”
“So, it's we now is it?”
“What do you mean? Look Kat, you can't keep doing this, we were worried sick. The others...”
“I don't care about the rest!”
“What? How can you say that? Kat, they've been looking everywhere for you.”
“That's not… that's not what I mean,” she said, her deep, brown eyes locked onto his. “How can I say this?”
“Say what? What are you on about?”
“Oh nothin'!” she said, looking away from him and then running towards the waterfall. “It doesn't matter now, does it? Let's have some fun. Would you like that?”
“Sure I would,” he said, following her.
“Cool, now do you want to go first or shall I?”
“What do you mean?” he asked. “Go first at what?”
“Jumpin' of course!” she said, pointing towards the waterfall as it cascaded off the edge.
“You can't be serious!” he said, looking down at the green blur beneath him.
“Of course I am. What do you think I’ve been doing all day? Besides, it's what Vyleria would do.”
“Vyleria? What's she got to do with it?”
“If it was her instead of me you would do it in a second, admit it.”
“What? No, of course I wouldn't. Why would you think that? It's too dangerous. It’s got to be thousands of feet to the bottom at least.”
“Please yourself then,” she said, before she turned towards the edge, spread out her arms like an eagle and jumped.
Jack's heart sank as she shot out from the cliff and plummeted through the air like a missile as she zeroed in on the onrushing forest below, before looping up into a huge arc upon impact. There were a few more arcs and bounces before Kat finally came to a stop a few hundred feet away from the base of the cliff. He was just about to fire his rocket boots to see what was left of her when her tiny blue dot arose like a jet plane, before zooming over and landing next to him.
“Come on!” she said, a huge grin stretched across her face. “It's your turn now.”
Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing. “Kat – you're crazy – I'm not jumping down there. If you’d have missed any of those leaves…”
“I’d have been fine and you will be too. Really it’s not that hard…”
“Look, this is stupid. We've got to get going. We’ve wasted too much time as it is.”
“You would've done it if it was Vyleria!”
“No, I wouldn't, I’ve already told you that. I would've said that she was crazy too. It's too risky.”
Jack was about to argue with her further when Vyleria and Ros whooshed down from the sky like a thunderstorm.
“Where've you been?” shouted Vyleria before she’d even landed, anger purpling her cheeks.
“Nowhere,” said Kat.
“Nowhere?” flashed Vyleria. “Is that all you've got to say for yourself? We've been looking for you in this forest for over a day now. You've got to be more responsible.”
“I… I...”
“I, what?” barked Ros, his teeth flaring for the first time in ages.
“I'm sorry, I thought...”
“Yes?” he barked. “You were saying?”
But Ros didn't get an answer. Just then something in the sky caught their eye – something quick - something large – something silver.
Before they knew it their spaceship had cut through the sky like a flaming dart, ploughing into the ocean at an incredible speed, sending a huge tidal wave slopping all around the entire planet.
Chapter 6: Spaceship Down
When the tidal wave had finally run out of steam (it had sloshed around the planet four or five times) Jack and the others dived into the sea, their rocket boots propelling them along like a flotilla of mini-submarines.
“I don't believe it!” said Vyleria, her voice perfectly clear despite the small breathing apparatus around her mouth and nose. “How can Padget have been so stupid?”
“I don't know,” said Jack, trying his best to breathe normally. “Perhaps there was a malfunction of some kind. It might not be his fault.”
“The only malfunction is in his head!” she said, her cheeks glowing even under the sea. “There's nothing wrong with the spaceship and there never will be. He did this on purpose. That’s why we can’t beam back on board.”
“Then why hasn't he flown off again?”
“I don't know,” she said, disappearing into the blue murk. “But I'm going to find out.”
“Wait up!” said Jack, struggling to keep up. “We don't know if it's even safe to go this fast. Or this deep. The pressure…”
“Is negated by your spacesuit, Jack. I thought you would’ve worked that one out by now. This ocean could be a million miles deep and it wouldn’t even tickle us. Welcome to the new age.”
“Oh I see,” said Jack, feeling a little stupid for the umpteenth time since he’d come aboard the spaceship.
Deeper and deeper they went, the ocean getting murkier and murkier, until eventually they plunged into a dark and gloomy trench. It had to be a mile wide at least, it’s craggy walls marked by volcanic vents that coughed out lungfuls of Sulphur every few seconds.
“Switch your torches on,” said Vyleria, as a yellow beam of light shot out from her holowatch like a long golden sword, brightening the sea for miles around.
“I don’t believe it,” she said, looking at their blank faces. “You mean to say you haven’t discovered the torch app yet?”
Jack and the others frantically shook their heads.
“It’s one of the watch’s basic functions,” she said, leaning over towards Jack. “Okay fine. Just press that button and swipe that screen and hey presto you’ve got yourself a magic torch. Now show the others.”
A few seconds later and four daggers of light were piercing the gloom. In an instant Jack saw millions of multi-coloured sea creatures flashing and swimming all around them. It was as if the whole ocean was one big squirming, squiggling rainbow with them in the middle.
Still they dived, the waters now as black as oil. Jack was just about to ask Vyleria whether they were looking in the right place when suddenly a gleaming silver nugget jutted out in front of them. Their spaceship was wedged tight between the walls of the ocean trench, all manner of creatures squirming about on its surface.
“PADGET!” Vyleria called out, not wanting to put her fingers anywhere near the blobs of goo that coated the outside of the ship. “We're outside – let us in!”
“Why isn’t he answering us?” asked Jack. “Come on Padget! Wake up!”
“What's he doing?” yelled Vyleria. “SLEEPING?”
“Perhaps there's something wrong,” said Jack. “Maybe he's hurt.”
“The only thing wrong with him is that he can't eat and sleep enough!” scoffed Ros.
“Come on Ros,” said Jack, “that’s not fair.”
“Why not?” laughed Ros.
“Because it's BULLYING!” he said.
“What's that?” asked Ros.
Jack was just about to tell him about all his encounters with Gaz Finch when Kat suddenly yelled out behind him. He turned around as several giant, orange blobs rushed out at her from the trench wall, a mass of squirming tentacles wrapping themselves around her arms and legs.
“Jack, help me please!” she screamed as they tried to drag her off into the gloom.
Jack seized one of her arms in an attempt to stop them pulling her away, only to see two more come round his side and grab hold of him too, their long, translucent tentacles wrapped tight around his knees and elbows.
He was just about to fire his rocket boots when he felt a sharp, stabbing pain in the base of his back. He turned around to see a needle-like bit of bone jutting out from a mob of tentacles, a few red wisps of blood drifting off towards a rapidly gaping mouth. The energy seeped from his body as the creatures swarmed all over him, dragging him further and further away from the spaceship, towards a long, black crack in the trench wall. Darkness followed.
Jack woke up in the control room, a few bits of orange gunge stuck to his face. He could feel a strange, tingling sensation in his back. He felt faint, groggy; like he’d taken a spin on the waltzer ride at the local fairground.
He looked around just in time to see a golf-ball sized hole closing up in his lower back. He tried not to vomit as his spine re-attached itself; his muscles, blood vessels and skin all re-forming. Then he felt a gush of warm air wash over his body, drying him in less than a nanosecond.
“What the?” he said to no one in particular. “What happened?”
“I rescued you again!” said Vyleria, jumping out in front of him. “You were about to be that blob-thing's dinner when I shot them with this,” she said, holding what looked to be some kind of space laser.
“What's that?” he asked.
“It's a space pistol. I got it from the armoury a couple of months ago though I didn't actually expect I'd get to use it so soon.”
“The armoury?”
“Yeah, it's massive. All you need to do is go into any room and think of weapons and then the armory appears. It’s a good job Xylem never found it, otherwise we’d have been toast.”
“But how? I didn't see you with it earlier.”
“Yeah, that's another cool thing about the armoury. Once you've chosen a pistol or a space bazooka or something like that you don't need to put it back. It becomes invisible once you've stopped using it, re-appearing whenever you need it.”
