“Don't tell me what to do!” she shouted. “You’re not one of the masters. I can do what I want.”

  Jack was just about to ask her who these masters were when suddenly she leapt headfirst into the yawning gulf, arms and legs spread wide, her parachute opening as soon as she was clear of the ledge.

  Down and down she went, floating like a sycamore seed, until she disappeared in a flash of blinding light.

  “That'll take care of her!” said Ros.

  “What did you do?” asked Jack.

  “I blew her up. I mean she's so annoying isn't she and we're better off without her right?”

  “YOU WHAT?”

  “Fooled you,” he said, laughing. “Jack, you're so gullible sometimes.”

  “Well then what happened?”

  “I ejected her from this program. Permanently. If she has any sense she will leave us alone from now on.”

  “I guess,” said Jack, not sure if Ros had done the right thing or not.

  “Oh, come on Jack, she's so annoying – always whining and complaining about this and that. Forget about her, now do you want to play another game or not?”

  “Yeah sure, but...”

  “But what?”

  “Where did she go? Where did you send her to?”

  “Oh, stop worrying so much; I just plonked her back out in the corridor that's all. With luck she's probably well away from us by now. She can create her own program if she’s bored. You can catch up with her when we've finished.”

  “I suppose so,” said Jack, not sure if he should check on Kat or not.

  “Look, it will be fine. Besides, you'll love this new game I've got for you.”

  “Really? What is it?”

  “The best game in the universe.” said Ros, his teethy grin almost poking out of his face. “And you’re going to love it!”

  Chapter 10: The Best Game in the Universe

  “What is that?” asked Jack, pointing at the object Ros was holding. “It looks like one of those spheres we played with earlier. I told you I'm not good at these sorts of games.”

  “Yeah, yeah I know, don't worry about it,” said Ros. “It's not what you think.”

  “Really? Doesn't look like it.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Ros, clawing away at the air.

  In an instant the cavern was transformed into a deep purple sky, a huge gas giant complete with hundreds of rings towering up out of the horizon.

  “What is this place?” asked Jack, focusing on a red comet that arced through the sky like a streak of blood.

  “This is where we will play our next game. But before we do you might want to look down first.”

  Jack glanced down at once. There were banks and banks of silver clouds everywhere. They looked like huge cruise liners sailing on an ocean.

  He expected to plummet down to the surface, a great big Jack cannonball, but nothing happened.

  “But how?” he asked, eyes fixed on the clouds. “I don't understand. Am I going to fall?”

  “No, you're not going to fall. It's all part of the game.”

  “What game? Are we going to parachute down or something?”

  “No, of course not,” he said, tossing the white sphere from one hand to another. “That’s Vyleria’s domain. Perhaps this will explain things.”

  Arcing his arm like some kind of Olympic discus thrower, Ros launched the sphere high up into the air. It had travelled about a hundred feet when it suddenly exploded in a blinding flash of green light.

  Jack expected to see bits of the sphere tumbling out of the sky, only to see it multiply thousands of times instead.

  Set a few feet apart from each other, they came together over a distance of many miles to make up a ginormous super sphere. Each one was seemingly immune both to gravity and the strong wind that was blowing. The whole thing was as big as a small city.

  “What is this?” asked Jack, not quite believing what he was seeing.

  “This is the Sphere,” said Ros, grinning toothily.

  “But we played it before, didn't we?”

  “That,” said Ros, “was child's play. This tells you what you're really made of. Are you ready?”

  “What? No. I don't even know how to play.”

  “It's easy Jack. Even for you. There are four basic colours of sphere. Gold, silver, white, and red. Gold sends you upwards, silver down, white left, and red right.”

  “But I don't see any colours,” said Jack.

  “Oh really? Look again,” said Ros.

  Jack looked on in amazement as thousands of the spheres immediately changed colour, twinkling and shimmering in the late evening sun. It was like one big, star-pierced jewel.

  “Right come on, stop dawdling,” said Ros, nudging him in the back.

  “But… where do I go? What am I supposed to do?”

  “Oh right, sorry. There I go again,” he said. “I’m too eager, like always. I'm not sure if you can tell Jack but right now you are smack bang in the centre of the sphere. All you have to do is keep going until you get to the outside. Sound easy?”

  “No!”

  “Oh come on Jack! You can do it.”

  “But I've never done anything like this before. I might get lost.”

  “Okay, this will help you out.”

  Jack was just about to ask him what he was talking about when suddenly a long yellow beam extended out from Ros' holowatch, illuminating a long line of the tiny spheres miles off to his right.

  “There you go. Just follow that line as closely as possible,” he said, smiling the biggest smile Jack had ever seen.

  “Really? It's that simple.”

  “Yeah. Just follow the rules. Remember Gold equals up, silver down, white left and...”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve got it. I just hope that there's no hidden surprises.”

  “What's there to worry about?” asked Ros, still grinning.

  “Lots,” said Jack, as he stepped gingerly onto his first sphere. “Lots.”

  It all seemed to go well at first. Though the spheres were quite small he found that balancing on them was no problem. It was like they were assisting his centre of gravity in some way. Going from one sphere to the next was easy too; all he had to do was take the smallest of steps and he'd made it. Though he couldn't follow the route Ros had laid down directly, he still managed to stick more or less to it, gliding along on a succession of gold and red spheres, then a couple of silvers and a few whites, until in no time at all he was about half way along the course. It all seemed so easy. No sooner would he step onto a sphere before it would whoosh off through the air, all the other spheres making way as it buzzed and whizzed along.

  Then just as Jack had stepped onto one of the gold spheres it suddenly vanished beneath him. For the briefest of moments he seemed to hover, suspended in mid-air, but then he was falling… falling… falling, piercing a swathe of silver clouds, plummeting down and down into darkness.

  When Jack opened his eyes again he was stood on a silver sphere near to where he had fallen. He was so shocked by his sudden re-appearance that he almost fell off again.

  “Oops sorry, I forgot to tell you about that,” said Ros, zooming up next to him.

  “Forgot to tell me about what?” asked Jack, still catching his breath.

  “The spheres,” he said, his grin all teeth. “Just going back and forth on them would be too easy. There are fakes spread all around at random. You have a micro-second to jump to another one before you fall. I would have told you earlier but...”

  “But what?”

  “I wanted to see the look on your face when you fell,” he laughed. “And I've got to say that it was absolutely priceless. If I'd have known humans were going to be this entertaining I would've recommended giving the sphere to your people a long time ago.”

  “You mean you knew? But then how did I get back up here? I didn't even try to fire my rocket boots.”

  “That's how I programmed it. Normally, the player would have to come back up on their rocket packs to the exact spot where they fell, with the clock still ticking down. But with you I thought that that would take all day.”

  “Oh okay,” said Jack, taking the new information in. “Well then, can I carry on now?”

  “Really? You still want to?”

  “Yeah sure, why not? It's fun. I might not be the quickest...”

  “You can say that again!”

  “But I still want to show you that I can do it. I can't keep giving up whenever things get difficult. I’ve got to be tougher.”

  “Okay, off you go then. I'll meet you at the end. Don't go falling now.”

  Jack bounded onto the nearest red sphere as he zipped along from one sphere to the next. He felt like some kind of intergalactic surfer as he buzzed around in all directions. Though he fell a further three times, eventually after a little over two hours he made it onto the last sphere, a big splodge of silver cloud casting a halo around the huge gas giant in front of him.

  “Congratulations!” Ros beamed, as he flew up next to him. “A new record of two hours, seventeen minutes, and thirty-four point eight seconds.”

  “Really?” asked Jack, not quite believing it himself. “That’s a new record?”

  “Yeah, for the longest time ever!” laughed Ros. “Most Asvari can do these sorts of spheres in a little under twenty minutes. Though it is technically a new human record, so there is that at least.”

  “I suppose so,” said Jack, thinking it strange to be a record holder of anything. “Hey by the way, what do you mean by these sorts of spheres? What other kinds are there?”

  “Well there are bigger ones of course, as well as others that don't help you balance, and then there are also those that are placed high up in the atmospheres of gas giants like the one over there. Those can be rough.”

  “Gas giants? How do you not get blown off?”

  “That is kind of the aim of the game,” he said. “It’s pretty difficult, even for me. Do you want to have a go?”

  “Err… no thanks. Not yet anyway. I think I'll check up on Vyleria first and see what she's up to.”

  “Sure,” said Ros with a smirk on his face.

  “What's so funny?”

  “You.”

  “Me?”

  “Yeah, you and Vyleria – when are you going to say something to her?”

  “About what?” asked Jack, his face rapidly turning the colour of a beetroot.

  “About the fact that you like her so much.”

  “You mean you know?”

  “I think the whole universe knows, Jack. Even Vyleria. You are always asking me to look after Padget and Kat whilst you swan off with her. Did you think I wouldn’t work it out? You should go for it!”

  “But… what if she says no?”

  “I don't think she will, Jack. You’re always hanging around each other; it’s like you’re already dating sometimes. But if she does say no at least then you'll know where you stand.”

  “Yeah, I suppose so,” said Jack, not knowing if he had the courage to tell her.

  “Right, that’s it. I want you to go and find her right now and tell her how you feel.”

  “Really?” asked Jack, his stomach a swarm of butterflies.

  “Yes. Go!”

  Jack left the sphere program as quickly as he could and ran down the corridor.

  He was finally going to tell Vyleria how he felt.

  He didn’t know whether he felt excited or scared or a mixture of both. His stomach was doing somersaults, his mouth felt like sand.

  He arrived outside the room she was in. From the monitor outside he could see that she was in a simulation, space cars zipping in between asteroids like fireflies in the night. Should he race her first and then tell her how he felt or the other way round? He couldn't decide, his insides felt like a big bowl of blancmange.

  Jack entered the program, took one look at who Vyleria was racing and forgot everything.

  Then the hurricane started.

  Chapter 11: The Prisoner

  Vyleria walked hurriedly down the corridor until she was sure Jack and the others were well out of sight. Then she closed her eyes and transported down to one of the lower levels. When she opened them again she was staring straight at Xylem.

  As soon as he saw her he tried grab hold of her only for an invisible force to throw him back against the walls of his cell.

  “Nice try Xylem, but I’m afraid you can’t hurt me in here. The ship won’t allow it. The force field activates whenever it senses violence by the pris...”

  Xylem rushed at her again, clawing angrily at the air, feet kicking wildly.

  “I told you you can’t hurt me,” she said, his blows landing inches short.

  Still Xylem swung and clubbed away, his tooth-filled jaw set in a permanent grimace.

  “Fine, have it your way,” she said, landing blows to his abdomen, then to his kidneys.

  Xylem collapsed into a gasping heap, one claw-filled hand clutching at his side. “Now are you going to listen to me?” Vyleria asked. “Or do I have to hit you again? It’s your choice.”

  “Let me OUT!” he screeched, still gasping. “NOW!”

  “No,” she said, swaggering over to him. “You'll have to stay here for the rest of your life for what you did to Grunt. Unless...”

  “Unlesss what?” he hissed.

  “You and me have some unfinished business. You probably don't remember since you were so busy last time trying to kill me and take over the ship and all but...”

  “You want to raccce!” he hissed.

  “Yes, I want to race!” she said. “You cheated last time and now I want my re-match.”

  “NO!”

  “What do you mean NO?”

  “Let me out firssst.”

  “Never.”

  “Then find sssomeone elssse,” he hissed.

  “Okay fine,” she said, as she sauntered back towards the door. “Have it your way. Since you are having so much fun in here, I'll leave you alone. See you next year.”

  “No wait!” he hissed, his face as red as a boiled lobster.

  “No, that's okay – I'll see you in a million years or so. Have a nice life!”

  “Come back!”

  Vyleria stopped at the huge steel door, a huge grin forming on her face, and then spun around. “What was that you said? All this freedom and doing exactly what I want, whenever I want, has turned me a little deaf you see.”

  “I sssaid wait,” he hissed. “I will raccce you!”

  “I knew you would,” she said, trying to mask her joy as best she could. “But let me first tell you the rules...”

  “No rulesss!”

  “When it comes to the race – yes you can try all the dirty tricks you like – I'm still going to beat you and wipe that horrible smirk off your face. But don't even think of trying to escape – you are still in quarantine – escape is impossible and so is any act of violence against a member of this crew. And since all of your privileges have been revoked thinking your way off the ship is out of the question too. You’re mine now.”

  A few minutes later and Vyleria was tucked securely inside her space car, a huge asteroid field jutting out before her.

  Overhead a giant flashing screen began the countdown.

  Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five…

  Just as the screen was about to count down to 'zero' Xylem suddenly roared off in front of her in his jet black space car as he screeched away into an early lead.

  He'd cheated. Again!

  She pressed hard on the accelerator immediately, trying her best to catch up.

  It took her almost one lap before she caught sight of his space car as it dodged an ice-blue comet that came out of nowhere before it crashed into a huge, potato-shaped asteroid sending a shower of rocks and ice exploding all over the race track.

  She edged closer still, and with just over one lap out of the three remaining she was confident that she would beat him at last.

  But every time she gained an inch on him he would find some way of clawing it back.

  She had to do something. And fast.

  As they entered the last lap she began to feel more and more desperate as Xylem’s lead increased bit by bit, asteroid by asteroid. Then just as he was turning into the second-to-last bend a boulder-sized asteroid appeared in his path, forcing him to climb upwards out of the way, giving Vyleria the opportunity to bend around the lump of space rock and narrowly take the lead.

  “I've got you now!” she screamed, as her space-car shot towards the brightly-lit finish line, only to see Xylem find a little bit of extra acceleration and pull level.

  He'd rammed her off the space track the last time they'd raced so she wasn't going to let that happen again. So as soon as he veered up next to her, she banked her space car left, trying to ram him off the track.

  But just as she was about to crash into him, he pulled his space car upwards, causing her to veer off the track and crash headfirst into a dark crater on a small moon.

  She didn't need to look back to know that he'd won – he was screeching the news in her ear. “Vyleria! I won… AGAIN!”

  That made it two out of two. She was determined there wasn't going to be a third so she raced him once more, only to find herself losing to him again, this time by a whole lap as he forced her space car into a barely navigable asteroid storm, before he sped off to cross the finish line as her space car exploded in a shower of sparks behind him.

  And then three became four, and four became five, until everything blurred into a succession of easy Xylem victories. She was never going to beat him at this rate.

  As they were lining up for their tenth race Vyleria told herself that this time things would be different, this time she would win.

  As soon as the countdown began she pressed hard on the accelerator and whizzed off to take an early lead.

  Round and round she went, up and under asteroids, over craters, through the tails of exploding comets, shimmying around dwarf planets. No matter what Xylem did though there was nothing he could do to catch her.

  Three laps became two, and then one, until finally she was in the final straight with the finishing line blinking before her in all its intergalactic glory.

 

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