 
EPHEMERYS 575 A. L. BROOKS

E P H E M E R Y S

LOST WORLDS BOOK 1

Copyright © 2020 A.L.BROOKS

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_________________________________________________

This book is for:

My partner Sharon, my sister Elisa, and my mother Jenny.

Each of them have had to endure some fairly siginificant health, emotional and physical challenges in recent years. All while raising children, looking after family and going to work.

" _The world needs strong women. Women who will lift and build others, who will love and be loved. Women who live bravely, both tender and fierce. Women of indomitable will."_

\- Amy Tenney

COMING SOON

By A. L. BROOKS

STRANGEWORLD: DAWN OF SHADOWS

Out Now:

STRANGEWORLD: THE MORTIFERA

A Cornish village. A mysterious doorway. A monster hell bent on killing all it encounters.

Jake and Emily find themselves at the heart of an ancient mystery.

Can they find a way to defeat the Charon and shut the doorway before it's too late?

THE SHAPESHIFTERS: A STRANGEWORLD TALE

Arrabel Grean goes on the run from the Royal Lancers after she beheads the Hampton Baroness.

But having fled to the Dread Forests she is found by the Bonekeepers.

Will they hand her over to authorities? Or do they have something else in mind for her?

CLOUDFYRE FALLING

A mysterious event is wiping out all living things on Cloudfyre.

Gargaron the giant must travel to the ends of the world to find out why.

But will it be too late?

### CONTENTS

PART ONE: JUPITER

HOUSE ON LAST STREET

THE BARREN WOOD

THE STATION

THE RUSKSACK

HOUSE ON LAST STREET

THE EXCURSION

PERSEPHONE

THE STRANGER

HARVEST

DEAD TOWN

THE PORTAL

RETRIEVAL

THE RAID

ETERNAL KNIGHTS

PART TWO: FROGTOWN

INTO THE DEEP

THE CRAFT

PART THREE: OUTWORLDS

HOUSE ON LAST STREET

DEAD DAYS

CLOUDFYRE

LOST GIRL

THE SEARCH

THE UNTOUCHED

THE EXTRACTION

STRANDED

THE CENTAUR

EARTH TWO

NEW JUPITER

HOUSE ON LAST STREET

~ PART ONE ~

◦J U P I T E R◦◦

HOUSE ON LAST STREET

1

I WALK alone up Last Street. The morning sun is only just breaking the horizon. There's an odd feeling in the air though. As if it's always been dawn here, like the sun has never completely risen. Ever. It fills me with an unsettling sensation. Like I shouldn't be here. That I don't belong. But I need to keep going, I need to see the house, I've travelled too far to get here and I'm not turning around. I'm so close now. So close. Yet every instinct is telling me something terrible is about to happen.

There's no-one else around. All about me the street is empty, silent. The dawn breeze sweeps up the sidewalk, pushing leaves about and tipping the grass, curling its cold fingers about me, tingling my skin. Above the city, curious blades of sunlight appear to glitter and roll, as if they are being beamed down from an invasion fleet. Like the planet is being probed by unknown gods.

I ignore it. And push onwards, immersed in this morning twilight. Ahead now, on my left, I see the pear trees along the front fence of the house. I see the rusting gate. A burst of nerves and emotions grip me. A burst of fear. I don't really know why. I have been compelled to come here. To return home. Is it the fear of the unknown, that I don't know what I'll find?

The grass in the front yard has changed. I recall it being weedy, unkempt, hiding snakes or bite-worms or shadow cats. But it has been mown, the verge neatly clipped, and the trees pruned.

I slow a little now, still thinking that maybe I should turn around and run. Yet, I keep walking. Something compelling me. Some curiosity. Some longing. The full sight of the house slides slowly across my vision. I feel my breath shorten. I look around. Still there's no-one else in the street—except for the cars parked at the curb, it's completely empty, completely silent. I cannot even hear the muted roar or the screech of the Gens, the genetically altered creatures that live beyond the city boundary.

Before I know it, I'm standing right there at the gate, gazing up the garden path toward the short flight of stairs that leads to the porch and the front door. The door is shut. There's a light on in the front room. The curtain has been pulled closed but it holds a warm orange glow from the lamplight beyond. Is someone expecting me? Who are they?

Perhaps it's simply my father. I suddenly fear my absence has kept him awake through the night. No doubt he'll be angry. When I walk through the door he'll come stomping out to meet me, ranting and raving, demanding to know where I've been, asking me if I know what time it is, and then he'll tell me that I'm grounded again. Then he'll likely storm out and he'll be gone for two or three days like he's done before and when he eventually returns he'll look unshaven, red eyed, like a ghoul, like he hasn't slept, and he'll demand any items I might have earned from my harvesting work. Then if I'm lucky he'll leave again and be gone for weeks and I'll not have to contend with him. And maybe... maybe while he's gone, I'll simply run away like I've been planning. And I'll never return.

Well... so perhaps that's where I've been. Perhaps I ran away and found it all too hard and here I come crawling back.

Still, that persistent voice in my head tells me I need to turn and walk away. That returning won't be worth it. Without realising it though I've already pushed through the gate. Its hinges used to squeal. But someone must have oiled them. This morning they're as quiet as stone.

Like the cut lawn, the pruned trees, it leaves me slightly suspicious, curious.

Still, I push on toward the front steps of the house. A large bat glides silently over the corrugated iron roofing and flaps off into the darkened morning. It is followed by another. And then another. Neon blue fireflies, without sound, whirl and loop lazily about the front porch. To the south along Last Street I see streaks of pinkish sunrise cutting through the high altitude night-clouds. Everything feels magical all of a sudden. It cannot be that my father awaits me beyond the door with his monstrous temper and his insane arguments.

I see the moon now for the first time this morning. Seeing it makes me feel dizzy. Seeing it makes me stop dead in my tracks. It's full. Totally and utterly full. Unbroken. One. A whole. It doesn't make sense. How can that be? I cannot take my eyes from it.

I try to ignore it. That big round moon. But I keep looking back at it as I press on up the garden path. And before I know it I've reached the short flight of stairs. I begin to climb. There are five in all. My breath comes short. I will myself to breathe deeply. To calm my state of mind. I shut my eyes and focus on my respiration. My head feels faint.

I open my eyes and climb each step slowly. As if any one of them, at any moment, might collapse under my weight and pull me down into some ghastly hellish underworld. At the top of the stairs, I don't take my eyes off the door. I stare straight at its centre point. The door is crimson, sun-bleached and peeling in parts, darkened with mildew in others, but under the dawn light it looks as black as the mouth of some ominous cave. I ignore the light glowing beyond the curtain in the window to my left.

I leave the railings behind and take two paces to the door.

I stop. A foot from it. A smell wafts from the gap beneath it. Is something cooking? Or is that the smell of raw slaughtered meat?

I tell myself all is okay. That my father might be an angry, troubled soul but he has never hit me. And if he screams and yells all I need do is turn around and leave.

I straighten my back, stand tall, raise my arm, reach out and knock...

I hear it first like some dark beast emerging from the depths of my thoughts. The footsteps. Whoever it is, whatever it is, they, it, is running. Fast and frantic and manic toward the door; feet, hooves, pounding the wooden floorboards. I sense great anger, rage, even madness in those footfalls. Even my father would not charge at the door like this. Mostly he is measured in his rage, calculating, not unhinged.

I realise it's too late now to turn and run.

The door suddenly bursts open...

What I see standing there, some hulking, shaggy creature with insane vacant eyes, steals my breath away...

It reaches out and grabs me, and all of a sudden Last Street is filled with the dying echoes of my screams...

THE BARREN WOOD

1

IT'S THE morning I plan to step beyond the city boundary for the first time. Something they say shouldn't be done. That it's too dangerous. That the denizens beyond will sniff us out and come running and tear us to pieces. Naturally I'm a little nervous. But a part of me is buzzing with excitement.

There's a spot on the roof where I sometimes sit and gaze out at the empty city. The air is crisp and dry this morning. There's a fresh breeze that lifts my hair. It carries the sweet smell of eucalyptus from the trees behind the house. I'm meant to be checking the nets. Instead I sit with my arms curled about my legs, my knees drawn to my chin, and I watch as the dawn sky slowly brightens, as the vacant skyscrapers emerge silently from night like almighty tomb stones.

I imagine in decades gone, perhaps a hundred years ago, the city buildings would still be sparkling with their nightlights at this stage of the day, and the streets already teeming with early commuters. Taxis and buses ferrying people here and there. The expressways packed with traffic, advertisements broadcasting loud from the audio billboards. But here now, as it has been for many years, the city awakens to its silence.

Behind the skyscrapers, the broken moon hangs in the pale sky. When it's "full" there are two distinct halves; one bigger than the other. Both are rounded along one edge, as round and unblemished as a saucer. But their opposite sides are jagged like smashed crockery. There are numerous other chunks that drift with them, and smaller pieces like a cluster of diamonds.

No-one knows why the moon broke apart. No-one can tell you. There are no records. There's no-one around who lived before the moon split up. They say by the time it happened, people had stopped recording things on paper or in books. Everything was stored electronically. And except for the odd piece here and there of Old World tech, all that sort of stuff perished.

They say after it happened, meteor showers bombarded Earth. That mighty portions of the moon tumbled into our atmosphere, hurtling to ground, destroying cities and countries, wiping out billions of people as colossal dust clouds blocked out the sun. They say the balance of the ocean tides was turned upside down. Billions of fish perished as regions of the oceans either froze or boiled. They say there are cities out there, across Earth, untouched to this day, that have known no living soul for a hundred years. That the dead still sit at their desks in tower blocks, that they still sit in their cars and trucks and busses in silent ungodly streets. That for them the Great Silence happened so quick they never knew. It swept across them in an instant, sucking the breath from billions upon billions of people in the blink of an eye.

I stay here on the roof till the rising of the sun tinges the buildings of the city, pink and orange. The small flying ants flap about silently, emerging from the grass as they do this time of day, this time of year, settling on the pear trees, making their nests in the leaves. The feathered sparrow-mice dart across the sky, squealing and whistling. I smell the thick, delicious aroma of fresh baked bread drifting up from the kitchen below. I sigh and stand and take a deep, fortifying breath, nervous and excited about the day ahead.

As I head back toward the lattice I check the insect traps, the large web-nets strung across the roof between the Central #2 antenna and the old SkySpeaker (which they say once communicated with satellites roaming around Earth). It doesn't work anymore. Neither do any of the satellites. I find large bugs snared there, stick insects, grasshoppers, moths, all wriggling in futile fashion. I take hold of their thick, spiny bodies and work them from the netting, their legs and spiky feet protesting, scratching my wrist and knuckles. I push them through the crude opening in the mesh lid and drop them into the bucket.

I check the second net now, the one cast across the space between the SkySpeaker and the solar mast. I pick off another handful. In all, a good haul. An assortment of seventeen bugs; fat and juicy. Plus a handful of night hoppers. There are also some red acid beetles. Too bitter and poisonous for us to eat but we use them to bait the lizard traps in the back garden. The glowing, wriggling fireflies I pull free and let go. They flap away dreamily, liberated.

I check the time on my wrist com. I have an hour before I need to be at the city fence. I cast my gaze out across silent Jupiter City one last time. I take another deep breath and listen to the chirping bugs hidden away in the grasses around the house. Then using the steel lattice, I climb down from the roof.

2

Mum's in the kitchen, pulling a steaming fresh loaf of bread from the Aga oven. She's listening to Elvis Presley's Angel on the sound-trap. A beautiful and haunting song.

'Morning sweetheart,' she says, kissing me on the forehead. 'Sleep okay?'

I nod. 'Yep.' It's a fib. Mum sees through it. I can tell by the look in her eyes. I'd been up late, too late, chatting with Morgan Latterly over the communicator. Then afterwards, I lay there staring at the ceiling, my mind consumed by the thoughts of what we might find beyond the city, my body tingling with a mixture of anticipation and fear and excitement. I'd stood at the window for a little while watching the broken pieces of moon, watching the stars beyond, watching the shadow cats prowling the streets and the tall automated members of the city Watchguard patrolling the darkness. Every now and then I'd heard the hoot of some hidden night critter.

'So, classes again today?' Mum asks as she spreads strawberry preserve on the steaming slices of bread. 'Or harvesting?'

'No, classes.' I don't look at her. I'm at the fridge pulling out mango juice. I feel her eyes drilling me. I ignore it. I fetch a glass and fill it. Then I find my place at the table. The window there looks out across the side of the house where the dying grass spreads out toward the hill's hoist clothes line and the eucalyptus trees. 'Wonder when we'll have rain.'

I still don't look at Mum. She doesn't know what I'm planning, of course. If she knew, she'd be in fits. She sits opposite me with a steaming mug of tea. She pours in goat's milk. I don't know how she can drink the stuff. I won't touch it. Not since the day I saw the meat and dairy halls and the genetically enhanced goats they use there. They're nothing more than limbless, headless torsos hanging from racks with nutrient tubes poking into their bellies and milk-extractors on their teats.

Mum watches me. 'There's something on your mind?'

'No. Why?'

'You seem a bit... quiet this morning.'

'Do I?'

She nods.

I shrug. 'Don't mean to.'

She eyes me for a while. Then she says, 'I know where you're going, you realise.'

My skin goes instantly cold. How on Earth could she know?

'You're not usually up this early. And if you were you'd not be so eager to get out the door.'

I stare at her. Have I not hidden my tracks? Has she overheard something? Has she witnessed us stashing the gear we'll be taking with us?

'It's that boy isn't it?' There's a smile hiding in her eyes

I blink, puzzled. 'Boy?'

She sends me a look like it's obvious. 'Oh come on. Reid. Why else would you be sneaking away in the dark?'

I relax. She doesn't know. She thinks I'm sneaking off to meet up with Reid.

Well, I am sneaking off to meet up with Reid, but not for the reasons she's thinking. I smile. 'Mum, Reid and I are just friends.'

She smiles back. 'I was young once, Skye. I know what it's like to be young and in love.'

I roll my eyes. 'I'm not in love, mum. We're just friends.' I feign annoyance. 'And I don't wanna talk about it.' I eat my breakfast. I eye the floor. I do think of Reid however. I can't help it. How close we've become lately. I can't deny the fact that he's put a warmth in my heart that hasn't been there for a long time. I smile. Mum's still watching me, smiling too.

She's happy for me, I guess. That I may have found someone to love in this dead world. We haven't had the happiest home life. My father, well, the world drove him mad. I have vague memories of him when I was a little girl. Memories I try to hold onto because it reminds me he wasn't always angry. That he did experience happier times. I remember him holding me lovingly and laughing. I remember him showing me the stars at night. I remember going out with him to collect bugs from the cane fields. But it was as I got older that he became withdrawn. And then aggressive. I've never understood it. Why he changed. Mum seems to have no explanation. She says the world saddened him.

When dad disappeared I was twelve. They found his body on Gulf Street below the Merchison Stocks building. They say he fell. But there have been whispers over the years that maybe he jumped.

Then there's Juke...

I turn and look across at the calendar pinned to the wall. It's one that's been produced by the Jupiter Printing Group. They've used old photos of tropical places with white sand beaches and palm trees. Places I'll never see. Never visit. Never experience. 'Juke's birthday tomorrow,' I remind Mum.

The air goes still. Mum nods, her mug poised before her lips. After several moments she takes a sip of her tea. Then she sighs. 'Yes.' She stares into space. 'You're right, Skye. It is his birthday.'

She's been jotting small marks on the calendar for the past year, marking off every day since he vanished. He disappeared two days after his nineteenth birthday.

I watch her for a while, wondering what she's thinking. We haven't spoken of Juke for a while. For a long while, actually. It's not an easy subject. 'Do you... do you still wonder what happened to him?'

She takes in a deep breath. 'Every day.'

We sit in silence. Then I say, 'I know I've asked you before, but he never told you where he was going, did he?'

She shakes her head. 'No.' She withdraws into her thoughts for a little while. She places her mug on the table. 'The way I recall it, he said he'd found something. Something odd. He said he was off to investigate it.' She sighs. 'He said he couldn't tell me what he was doing. Where he was going. But that he would be back. That he would explain everything.'

I remember that day. I was in the garden. I saw him kiss Mum on the forehead. Then he came up and pushed hair in my face, as he liked to do, laughing in his brotherly way. He gave me a warm hug. 'Look after your mum,' he'd told me. 'I'll see you soon.'

Then he set off whistling down Last Street and I'd gone back to pulling up carrots. Neither of us have seen him since. If there's a body, it's never been found.

I reach out and touch the back of mum's hand. 'I'm sure where ever he is, where ever he ended up, he's okay.' She smiles for me, a sad smile. I stand and kiss her on the top of her head, it smells lightly of yesterday's lavender. 'I better be going. Don't wanna be late for class.'

She stares absently at the window. Then looks around at the clock. 'Bit early for school, isn't it?'

'We've got knife throwing and archery practice first up,' I tell her quickly.

She watches me over her shoulder. 'Oh. Okay. Say hi to Reid.'

I roll my eyes, good naturedly. 'Like I said, mum, it's just knife throwing.'

'Be safe then. I love you.'

'Love you too.'

3

Goose bumps rise on my skin as I cycle down Last Street. Partly because of the cool air. It's a nice summer's morning. The sun's still rising. There's a cloud or two low on the horizon. But really it's the anticipation of the day ahead. I imagine the person I'll be when I return home later will be different somehow to the one who rides here now. More liberated. More knowledgeable of the outside world. I've been dreaming of this for almost three months. Planning it. Ever since I uncovered that strange note hidden in Juke's bedroom.

I think of that note as I ride through the quiet, deserted street. What it said. Every word of it I have memorised:

I have discovered some anomaly. Something out near the old transmitter station. I need to conduct a closer inspection. To learn what it is. It may prove a threat to Jupiter. Or it might very well prove to be something that aids in our survival. Once I get a better idea of what it is, I'll call a town meeting to let all residents know my findings.

I'm mostly certain it was Juke who wrote it. It matches his hand writing. So, what did he find out there? Was it the reason he vanished and never came home?

It's what we hope to find out today.

I cycle by old homes. Most sit there empty and silent. You can tell which ones are deserted because they're the ones overgrown with mats of ivy and their front yards aren't visible for the tall weeds, and most are without windows because the glass panes have been taken away for recycling.

I ride on. I pass by one of the Watchguard, the tall automated city sentries that look more like a cross between a towering two-legged bug and some robotic monstrosity. With its odd, detached voice, it bids me, 'Good morning,' before it moves away.

Over my shoulder, I watch it go. I want to make sure it keeps heading the other direction. I don't want it following me. I feel I ought to speed up, to put distance between me and it, but the street immediately ahead of me now is all crumbled and broken up. I'm forced to slow down to navigate potholes. The tall grass is a blessing at least. It conceals me. The city board says these patches of grass and vegetation across Jupiter are fire hazards. But right now I'm thankful they haven't sent out their cutters and slashers to clear the vegetation here. I navigate my way through, following the dear trails, glad that the sentry can no longer see me.

I clear the vegetation and reach unbroken road again and I continue on, empty buildings on my right, open cane fields on my left. As I approach the corner of Last and Empire, I spot movement in the darkened foyer of the old Federal Finance Commission. Under the growing dawn light I see trees in there growing from the old vanilla marble floor. And lush grass choking the base of the walls.

There's also a hulking shadow in there.

Looking out at me.

As I cycle by I realise it's just one of Jupiter's Gen deer.

It lifts its head from where it has been filling its cheeks with grass and looks around at me. Such a majestic looking creature. But there's the genetic mutation growing from both sides of its chest—one of the soulless, mindless human things with twisted stumps for limbs, and a yawning, drooling mouth and its ghastly eyes rolled back into its head.

I keep riding.

The deer goes back to eating.

4

I reach the intersection of Last and South Streets. From here Last Street rolls out through grasslands, parallel to the old train line. I think there used to be parkland out here. I'm not certain. Parkland and satellite suburbs. That was before it was all bulldozed after the Great Silence hit Earth; bulldozed to give the human survivors of Jupiter a buffer zone between the city and the perimeter fence. There's a shortcut here to school, a worn path through the grass. I take it. As I go, I look back to see if any of the Watchguard are trailing me.

None are.

Halfway to school I veer off into the remains of cane fields, toward the silos left over from the Old World. Beyond the cane fields is the rusting perimeter fence and beyond that fence, well, the wilds of planet Earth. Nothing, and more nothing, people say. Deserted countries, empty cities, places I have never been, never seen. There's little out there to keep you alive. No fresh water, no food. Everything within a hundred kilometres we have mined and stripped and taken. It is a wasteland.

I reach the cane fields and jump off my bike and crouch down in the grass for a while, gazing back the way I've come. From my position, away to my left, I see the sport's field behind the school buildings. No students out there kicking a ball yet. No-one to spot me. Also, crucially, no-one's following me. No-one back there on the empty streets watching me, as far as I can tell.

I pull my bike into the cover of thick rows of sugar cane and head south toward the copse of trees people call Hongram's Fist.

When I reach it I duck beneath twisting branches and trail the narrow path through the trees, wheeling my bike over roots and stones and through thick beds of leaves. I come to the other side and I leave my bike propped up against the gnarled trunk of an old beech tree.

The land here dips away into a vale which forms the southern bend of Rotman's Gully. The vale is covered in weeds and tall reed grass. There's a short rocky ridge on the southward rise. I push forward, shoving my way through thick grass stems that tower over me. I'm still shielded from the city towers here. Thanks to all of the vegetation, no-one from those towers should be able to spot me.

I reach the opposite side of the gully and look about. There's no-one else here yet. I check the time. I'm probably a bit early. I locate the position where we stashed our gear and I kneel and pull up stones. From the bed of cool, moist soil, I lift out the packs of provisions and equipment. Water canteens. Medic packs. Food rations in case we get caught out overnight. Other general gear such as flash lights, binoculars, flints, solar flares.

I unwrap my blunderbuss. Wiping off dirt. I strap the sonic guards over my chest and belly.

I hear movement behind me. I freeze.

Some folk say that here, this close to the city boundary, there can be threats from the Entities, the strange folk that live beyond Jupiter. Most people my age have never known a breach of the city fence but some of the older folk tell tales about days when Entities snuck in from the lands beyond, broke in through the city fence, snatched up unwary folk and stole them away. It's not necessarily the Entities that I fear though. There could be any number of hungry beasts from the lands beyond, prowling about, looking for an easy meal.

I quickly sling my blunderbuss over my shoulder and whip my knife out from my pack. I hold it at the side of my leg, crouching low.

Something approaches through the reed grass. I can't get an eye on it beyond the thick vegetation. I wait.

It moves closer. My body tenses.

The figure goes still. I see a face peering at me through the stalks.

I relax. I even laugh. 'Gosh, Morgan, you scared the life out of me.'

'Sorry,' she says, emerging from the grass. The morning sunshine lights her smooth brown skin. Lighting her face and her beautiful smile. 'No-one else here yet?'

'Nope. Just me.'

5

We contemplate the perimeter fence while we wait. A sorry looking structure. Overgrown with wild passionfruit vines, and its base choked in eons of dead grass and twisted Gen bougainvillea whose thorns are as long as bull horns. Some parts of the fence remain blackened where fire ravaged it some summers gone—the curling trunks of snake trees that were caught in those fires are still curled about the iron lattice work like the blackened limbs of some ancient incinerated monster.

It's not long before we hear someone else approaching. We crouch low and watch a figure come bumbling through the reed grass.

It's Eddie Takeda. He's carrying a piece of equipment on his hip.

Morgan and I rise. 'Morning, Eddie,' I say. 'So, you managed to get the scanner.'

'Yeah. Well, I ah, borrowed it from Mrs. Hamilton's shed like I said I would.' He shrugs. 'Okay, so she doesn't know I borrowed it but, you know... I'm sure she's not gonna mind. Much.'

Following him comes the tall, athletic figure of Reid Evans; olive brown eyes, dark brown hair, gorgeous smile. 'Hey,' he says, smiling at Morgan and me. 'How long have you two been waiting?'

'Couple of minutes,' I say with a shrug.

'Oh, okay. Good.' He puts his arm around my shoulder. Hugs me to him briefly. He looks around. 'You guys ready to do this?'

'Yep,' Morgan says, clamping her Ripper gun to her belt and Eddie says, 'Oh yeah, definitely.'

Eddie's face shows a conviction to get this job done, but the tone of his voice makes me think he's still not overly enthusiastic. I sense he'd rather be home doing something else. I feel he's trying to look braver than he's feeling.

Reid fetches his gear from our hiding spot. He belts his weapon to his waist: a sword slotted into a long leather scabbard. He checks the time on his wrist-com. Now he looks at me. Trying to read my mind. Maybe keen to know if I'm having any second thoughts.

'How are you feeling?' he asks me. 'You okay?'

I shrug. 'Looking forward to see what we'll find out there.'

He nods and looks about. Gazes back through the reed grass. 'Everyone else? We good?'

'You already asked that,' Morgan tells him flatly.

Reid still searches the grassy gully. 'Just trying to make sure we're all on the same page here, Morgan,' he says. 'What we're about to do, it's not exactly recommended.'

'Yeah, we know,' she tells him.

Reid hasn't taken his attention off the gully.

'What's up?' I ask him.

He shrugs. 'Nothing. Just making sure we're alone.' He checks the time on his wrist-com again. 'Okay then,' he says with a deep nervous breath. 'What say we get this show under way?'

6

We approach the boundary fence. It's twenty feet tall in places. And topped with spikes or slash-wire. Impossible to scale without tearing holes in your body. It's also impossible to cut through its steel structure without some sort of industrial cutter. So the way we plan to get through is by going underneath.

I'd stumbled across this exit point on one of the old maps Juke had lying around. An ancient access tunnel. A drain. With an iron grate across the opening. We don't exactly know why the pipe is there, what its purpose was. But it's there.

Its entrance is overgrown, and the welds holding the grate in place are almost rusted through. We located it on our initial scouting missions. I mean, a city watch has been put in place to check things like this but obviously it's escaped their attention.

Eddie cuts through the rusted metal with a set of solar-shears. It gives off this scorching noise as it does its work, loud enough to get us worried about being heard by someone. Or something. We all freeze and stare at one another.

'Bloody hell,' Reid murmurs, 'that is loud.'

We sit there a few moments. Listening. Waiting. What we don't want is Watchguard droids to come crashing through the copse thinking there's been a breach.

I stare at Reid. Nothing happens. No Watchguard. Nothing.

We haul the grate aside and it's Reid who leads the way into the access tunnel. The rest of us follow.

7

The tunnel is dark. But light enough at both ends to see where we need to crawl. The ground under our hands and knees is clogged in a layer of sand and dried mud with patches of thick moss, and strange toadstools growing in the dark. There's a smell like damp rotting wood. Strange hard-shelled bugs skitter about. Some even hissing at our intrusion.

We draw closer to the other end. Right there, the tunnel opening is aglow in a shroud of sunlight. We discover the grate here has been bashed aside. As if something at some stage has tried accessing the tunnel.

Maybe the city watch are right to be fearful of whatever lies out here, I think.

The exit point hangs with vines. And choking weeds sprout from soil that has built up to the point that any exit from the pipe will involve us squirming forward flat on our bellies.

But before we climb out, we kneel there, peering out at the world beyond. It is both strange and exhilarating. Like a doorway into another reality. As if just there, inches away, lies another world, another place.

I reach out and put my fingers under the sunlight, like the sunlight here might be different somehow. Then without really thinking about it, I slide my blunderbuss to my side, lowering myself to my belly and crawling through.

Reid doesn't like it. 'Skye! Careful.'

Morgan comes next, followed by Eddie. It's Reid who looks the most uncertain when he emerges behind us. I can see it on his face. His gaze meets mine before he smiles. 'Skye, you gotta be more careful than that,' he urges me quietly. 'You can't just rush into things out here.' He gives me a look to let me know he's serious.

I squeeze his hand. 'I will.'

We look about, searching the high fence at our backs. Beyond the fence, through the vine strewn lattice, we can see the empty towers of Jupiter City there in the distance. This is a vantage point from which I've never viewed our home; the fence now acting like a barrier that keeps us from it, rather than containing us within. For seventeen years I have never left the confines of Jupiter. I consider this for several moments. It is slightly unsettling. But somehow exciting. The only time I ever experienced such a feeling was the first time I'd climbed to the top of Pinnacle Tower, Jupiter's tallest building. Standing at those dizzying heights savouring the unbroken three hundred and sixty degree views, it had been absolutely terrifying, but truly breathtaking. Standing here now in the forbidden world beyond the fence, I feel it again, that electric sensation, all my limbs tingling.

I take in a deep breath as I turn and face the Barren Wood. Its silent fringe lies only a short distance from us beyond a stretch of sandy ground where stubby thistles and shrubs grow. Obviously I can't see my face, but it must wear a look of both wonder and trepidation, of the lust for adventure, for the unknown, and the fear that comes with that.

Is this what Juke felt? I wonder. This sheer sense of exhilaration.

I spot the Gen trees, the wild apple trees that were genetically manipulated to bear the depictions of peaceful human faces in their trunks. They were designed for ornamental purposes. In private gardens of wealthy landowners. Or in city parks. But out here away from Jupiter they seem ominous, unsettling.

No-one moves. We all stare at the faces. There seems to be a general feeling that perhaps this is as far as we ought to go, that perhaps we ought not to push our luck. Maybe we should just wriggle back into the tunnel and crawl for the safety of Jupiter. What if those trees have evolved, what if they can actually see us? They might open their mouths and squeal.

They don't squeal. They stand there in silence.

And there's a burning need in me to at least reach the edge of the woods. I want to peer into the forest with my own eyes. All along that has been our plan. That, and of course reaching the old transmitter station.

But first things first...

I look around at the others: Morgan and Eddie on my right, Reid on my left. Eddie has Mrs. Hamilton's proximity alert scanner held before his face. All eyes turn to him.

'That toy of yours picking anything up, Ed?' Reid asks searching the tree line.

Eddie shakes his head. 'Nope.' Then shrugs. 'Not yet anyway.'

I shrug. 'I say we at least move to the woodland.'

Morgan searches the edge of the woods. Watching the Gen tree faces. She looks like someone who is about to take on a mountain: willing but anticipating the challenge ahead with a small measure of anxiousness. She's longed questioned me about this expedition, why I want it, what I'll get out of it. She exhales a heavy breath. 'I guess that's why we're here.'

I look across at Reid. He nibbles his lower lip. 'Skye, I know you believe the Entities might see this as a threat,' he says, sliding his sword from its holder, 'but you know we gotta be careful.'

I nod to let him know we're on the same page. I hitch my blunderbuss behind my hip and go to move off but Reid holds me back, his strong hand gently gripping my shoulder. 'Skye, no. If something comes charging out of that forest, best I'm up front.'

In living memory no-one's been killed by anything beyond Jupiter's perimeter. That's what the official reports tell us anyway. Of course, there's been lots of stories about random attacks. And, like I mentioned, kidnappings by peculiar creatures. But lately, nothing.

Still, Reid's concern warms me. I feel protected.

He ushers Eddie on. 'Best have you at my shoulder, Ed,' he says as he moves out.

Eddie looks up, surprised to hear his name spoken.

Reid looks around at him. 'Ed, you coming or what?'

Eddie blinks. 'Sure.' He goes forward. Not with any great enthusiasm. He looks around at me and Morgan. Uncertain.

'I need you to yell out the minute you see something on that radar,' Reid tells him.

'Okay.' Eddie's not certain about this at all. Of the four of us, he's been the least enthusiastic about this excursion.

'You want me to carry the sounder?' Morgan asks him. 'I don't mind.'

Eddie glances at the glaring Reid. He sighs. 'No Morgan, it's alright, I got it.' He swallows, pressing forward.

Reid waits for Eddie to catch him up. 'Seriously, you gotta man up,' Reid tells him. 'If you're not switched on then something's gonna take us out. You hear me?'

Eddie nods. 'Yeah, got it.'

'You two okay?' Morgan asks.

Reid glances around at her with a bemused frown. 'Yeah.' He shrugs. 'We're good. Why?'

'Well, time's ticking and I was hoping to get back before the next solstice.'

'Hey,' Reid says, offering what is obviously meant to be a fearless grin, but it comes off more like something filled with cold dread, 'we're doing this.'

Eddie has gone on a step or two. He turns back when he realises he's on his own. 'Hey Reid, you coming or what?'

'Bloody hell, yeah,' Reid tells him, rolling his eyes.

Morgan and I trail them. As we all close in on the fringe of the woodland, I keep expecting the proximity scanner to suddenly start beeping. But the whole way it's silent. Uttering no sound but its gentle intermittent bluurrp. We find ourselves steering clear of the Gen apple trees as we reach the forest fringe. We slow down. We stop there, not moving any further. The trees around us stand tall. Silent.

I'm surprised how far we can see. A good hundred feet into the forest before the green entanglement of vegetation obscures our view. It's not a dense woodland. It's quite airy and light in there, sun light dappling the leafy floor, a light breeze shifting leaves.

What's really fascinating is the old suburb trapped in there. Houses and corner shops, light poles, tangled electrical wires, Old World cars, all of it being slowly strangled by the mass of forest.

I wasn't expecting that. I mean, we've heard about it. How the forest reclaimed what humankind took. But I didn't expect to see so much of the old suburb. In a way this isn't so far removed from Last Street. Or any of the numerous residential suburbs of Jupiter. The empty homes. The crumbling road. The ancient twisting roots and old vines and the shrubs and ferns and masses of toadstools. It's an eerie reminder of Jupiter's fate if we don't continue to hack back the vegetation.

'How far do we plan on going?' Reid asks.

Behind us we can still see the vine riddled perimeter fence, and beyond that, the empty skyscrapers of Jupiter city. I imagine if someone was up there with a high-powered telescope they'd probably be pretty darn surprised to spot us in their view finder.

'The old transmitter station,' I remind him, surprised he's asking.

He looks around at me, a look on his face like he's considering what to say. In the end he simply nods. 'The old transmitter station,' he says, wiping sweat off his brow with his wrist. 'So, you really wanna do this? I mean, trek through these woods and out the other side and all the way over to the transmitter station?' He doesn't look around at me when he asks this. Perhaps not wanting to see the answer in my face.

'Reid, we've been planning this for weeks.'

'No, I know. Just want to know where your mind is now that we're actually standing here.'

'It hasn't changed,' I tell him.

8

We push into the woodland. Onto an old crumbled sidewalk. Scarlet grasshoppers spring about the weeds that grow up through ancient concrete. Scarlet grasshoppers that we don't see in Jupiter. They're small but brilliant in colour. We ignore them and move up the street. Reid's staring at the empty houses, no doubt wondering what might be hiding inside.

'You think Entities are living in them?' Eddie asks him quietly.

'Don't know,' Reid says. 'But I wouldn't discount anything. What's your screen showing?'

Eddie shakes his head. 'Nothing.'

I feel my own nerves tingling, contemplating what might be living here. My pulse rate is up a little. I can't help but think of the note I wrote mum. It's stored in my wrist-com unit, timed to automatically transmit to mum's communicator by mid-afternoon. If we return before then, I'll just delete it. If we don't... well, the message will be transmitted and then at least mum'll have some idea what we were up to and where we were. She'll be cursing me and screaming with worry but with any luck she'll have the presence of mind to notify the city authority and they'll send out a search party.

That's the idea anyway.

We begin to hear peculiar noises away in the woods. A cawing sound at first. Then chirping noises.

When we hear Eddie gasp we all freeze.

'What is it?' Reid asks quietly.

Eddie's pointing to something off in the woods. 'You guys see that?'

We don't. There's just the quiet forest surrounding the empty street of this shrouded suburb and the warm breeze rustling through the woodland canopy.

'Where are we looking?' I ask Eddie.

He drops his arm. Scratches his head. 'I don't know. Thought I saw something.' He glances down at his proximity scanner. It hasn't picked up movement.

But then I see it. Something, some sort of animal. It flits and goes still, flits again, scampers across the leafy floor, stops. It's camouflaged against the colours of brown and orange and green.

Eddie's scanner now begins going blip-blip-blip!

'Oh Mother, you guys see that?' Morgan asks, her voice barely above a whisper.

Reid grips his sword with both fists, a deep frown of concentration on his brow. 'Yeah. What the hell is it?'

None of us are familiar with the creatures that roam the lands beyond Jupiter. Most animals that have survived from the Old World aren't known to us. We know only the rumours and stories. About what some of them are capable of doing to a person if you get on the wrong side of them. Elephants. Giraffe. Tigers. Bears. Genetic variations of them all.

As far as I know, the creature over there in the leaf matter is none of these animals. It looks like something I've seen in biology text books at Jupiter City library.

'It's a badger,' Eddie says.

'No,' I tell him. 'It's called a rabbit.' But no doubt of the Gen variety, I'm thinking, because it looks so much larger than the ones in those books.

'They're harmless aren't they?' Morgan says.

A trickle of sweat slides down the side of my brow. 'I think so. Skittish, if anything. More afraid of humans than we are of them.'

'I hope you're right,' Reid says softly.

I find myself going forward. Stepping toward it. I hear the sudden commotion behind me, Reid asking frantically what on Earth I'm doing, Eddie spluttering something about potential dangers, Morgan telling me to be careful.

I ignore them. My fascination with an animal I've never seen before draws me on. It barely occurs to me that this could be why Juke vanished. Something took his interest, some fascinating thing. And it killed him.

I hear the others bumbling up behind me. Reid's suddenly there, shoving passed me, his sword outstretched, as if the furry creature might suddenly spring at us like some mindless monster.

'Tread easy, Skye,' he tells me uneasily, 'just tread easy, okay.'

'It's a rabbit,' I tell him, wanting to laugh. 'We've read about them. Aren't they harmless?'

We stop several metres from it. It's nosing through the underbrush, nibbling bulbs. If it's aware of us it doesn't show. We see another then. And then another. We're all utterly fascinated. Even Reid, who actually lowers his sword for a moment, his face showing childlike wonder. His face beams with a broad smile. 'Wow, they're beautiful,' he murmurs.

'Yeah,' Eddie agrees.

Morgan says, 'I didn't know they were so big though.'

There are five of them. When they sit up and sniff at the air, we realise they're as big as dogs; their snouts come to about the height of my belly. They seem disinterested in us.

'People in the Old World kept them as pets, right?' I say, uncertain about that fact.

'They ate them,' Reid said, perhaps now viewing them as a potential food source.

I look around at him. 'You're not serious.'

'I did read that somewhere.'

'How could they eat such cute animals?' Morgan asks.

'Actually, I'm just glad to see a critter that doesn't have human parts growing out of it,' Eddie points out.

'I'll second that,' Reid says.

In that moment, every rabbit pricks up their ears and suddenly crouches high and alert, forepaws clasped to their chests.

Next thing, something comes crashing through the tree tops and we all dive for cover: me and Morgan behind one of the Old World cars; Reid behind a thick trunked oak; Eddie behind an old rusting lamp post.

It's some bird thing. All feathers and bony limbs, all squawking and screeching, squealing and thrashing about like it's suffered some painful injury. It falls through the branches and tumbles down into the leaf matter, flapping about like mad.

At the same time something thunders into the treetops above it. A larger bird. Or maybe it's a bat. Or a harpy hound. We don't know. We never get a clear look at it. It can't get at its prey, it's so large it can't squeeze through the canopy, its wings entangled in branches. It kicks up a great deal of fuss and then it just flies off, abandoning its meal.

The rabbits now all spring at the creature on the ground. Viciously biting into it, tearing off chunks of feathers. We're all aghast, just watching this.

A larger rabbit arrives, knocking the others aside, taking hold of the feathered beast before rearing up, curling its rump forward and from some point in its rear, it shoots out shrouds of web, covering the animal, smothering its screams, turning it about and about, wrapping it up in a tight webbed cocoon before bounding away with the wriggling bundle clamped in its jaws.

9

I have my hand clamped over my mouth. I'm trying to digest what I just witnessed. I swallow nervously. 'Tell me you guys just saw that.'

No-one speaks. Everyone's shocked. Everyone's speechless.

The other rabbits have scattered, fighting over scraps of meat and bone and feathers.

I see the sacks now. In the distance. Hanging in the trees. Web sacks. Cocooned critters strung up, waiting to be eaten. I want to inspect them but Reid grips my upper arm, holding me back. 'No, Skye. No further. This place is savage.'

I feel both touched by his concern, but irked by it. I stop and glare at him. 'Reid, you can't keep doing this.'

'Doing what?'

I indicate his hand digging into my shoulder. 'This.'

He releases me. 'Skye, did you just see what that thing did? It just wrapped that thing up like a damn spider.'

'Yeah, I know, it was fascinating.'

'Fascinating? It was terrifying.' He's looking around like he thinks one of those killer rabbits could be creeping up on us, ready to cacoon us.

I frown at the expression in his eyes. 'Don't tell me you want to turn back.'

He watches me.

'Reid?'

He sighs. 'No, Skye. I don't want to turn back. But I need you, us, to be more careful. Okay? If we can't decide on that then, yes, we turn back now.'

I step up to him. I hold his hands. 'Okay, look, I'll be more careful. I promise. But I need to reach the transmitter station. I don't want to jeopardise that. Yeah? I mean, if that's where Juke was heading the day he vanished then we need to get there so we can have a look around.' I study his eyes. I try to show I'm sensitive to his concerns.

He doesn't take his warm olive eyes from mine. Not for a little while. In the end he says, 'Bloody hell, Skye.' He sighs, shaking his head. 'Okay, we press on for the old Station. We search for signs of Juke. Then we get ourselves home. Okay?' He looks around at Morgan and Eddie. 'But if we're doing this, we need to be more direct about it. We can't keep stopping to eyeball every single anomaly we come across. Agreed?'

I reach up and touch his cheek. 'Okay, agreed'

He looks over at the others. 'Agreed?' he asks them.

Eddie nods. 'Yep.' And Morgan's like, 'yes, agreed, so why don't we just get on with it.'

10

We pass the web sacks by. We see the critters caught within. Strange looking insectile beasts.

Eddie pokes them with a stick and Reid tells him, 'Eddie, what did we just say?' and Eddie's like, 'just testing to see if they're dead,' and Reid's like, 'pretty certain they are. Now leave them be and move on.'

There are a dozen of them. Each one strung up by roped web as thick as my arm. 'It's fascinating,' I say.

'One way to put it,' Reid comments. 'Come on, keep moving.'

We push eastwards, ducking beneath low hanging branches, our boots kicking through thick rugs of decomposing leaves. There's no sign of the old street beneath our feet now. Just the ongoing carpet of spongy, rotting vegetation. Around us, some of the houses have collapsed in on themselves. We pass a row of shops. Old advertising signs are either rusted over or are covered in ivy and moss.

Hanging from street signs on the sidewalk are vines that appear to sense us, snaking toward us. We're all fascinated. Morgan, Eddie and I stop to watch as their tips lift and swing about in front of us, reaching for us like the unsteady arms of an old man. Keeping her distance, Morgan holds out the tip of a stick and one of the vines curls slowly about it.

Reid stops to watch us. 'I thought we decided we weren't stopping to check out every little anomaly,' he says exasperated.

'They look harmless,' Morgan says.

'So did those rabbits before they clawed that bird to pieces,' Reid reminds her.

11

Near the eastern edge of the woodland we encounter clusters of giant pitcher plants, larger than those that inhabit some of the abandoned portions of Jupiter. 'Gosh, they're enormous,' Morgan says as we trudge by. They tower above us. The size of trees. Long red thorny teeth jut from their gaping "mouths". Bulbous fat "bellies" are filled with dark shadows, unfortunate animals that have tumbled inside to be slowly digested.

Much to Reid's relief we give them a wide berth.

When we finally reach the edge of the woods we peer out onto the land beyond. No trees out there. Nothing but tall grass waving in the warm breezes. The expanse of land rolls away for about a hundred metres or more, and way over there, just visible beyond the tops of the grass, we see the old transmitter station.

It's unsettlingly quiet here on the fringe of the woodland. No sound but the whisper of the wind moaning through the grass and the distant building and the woodland canopy behind us.

We stand for a long while. Listening. Watching the sky, watching the grass, watching the station. Waiting. As far as we know no one has been this way in years. None except for Juke. There's no sign of movement on Eddie's scanner. I survey the station with my binoculars. I see nothing ominous. Just an abandoned installation.

'What do we think?' I ask. 'Do we take our chances?'

No one says anything. I look around at each of them. Morgan has her hand outstretched toward me. I pass her the binoculars and she puts them to her eyes.

She scans the way forward. 'It looks clear, I guess.'

'I still don't know about this,' Reid says. 'You picking up anything hiding in the grass, Ed?'

Eddie shakes his head. 'Nothing.'

Reid remains silent. I watch him... His t-shirt is damp with sweat at the chest and around the armpits. The fabric clings to him. Highlighting his athletic physique, his muscular arms. He's so fit and strong it surprises me that he's afraid of anything.

Yet as I admire him, something occurs to me. I can't help wonder that maybe he's burdened himself with the idea that because he's the strongest, the biggest, it's up to him to defend each of us if something goes wrong out here. That he's the gate all threats out here must go through first. That the pressure's on him to keep us all alive.

Maybe that's why he's been acting so uptight. Normally he's not this hung up on things.

I find myself forgiving his nervousness. I feel a renewed sense of admiration for him.

He sighs. He glances at me. 'Okay, let's do this. Yeah?'

'Yeah,' I say with a nod.

Reid leads the way. And we follow, leaving the cover of the Barren Wood.

THE STATION

1

WHITE CLOUD builds on the horizon. The remainder of the sky is blue and bright and clear. I watch for redbirds, harpy hounds, eagles and whatever other flying creatures that might live out here beyond Jupiter. We have many species of Gen birds that roost in the empty city buildings. But harpy hounds are the ones that scare me the most. They are enormous, monstrous things, like giant eagles with canine snouts and they have faces like hags. They're solitary creatures and mostly nest in abandoned skyscrapers away from human activity. But they're vicious if they get hungry. And they're known to take that hunger out on people.

Reid says he's more concerned about critters hiding in the grass. Serpents, basilisks, grass sloths, wolvens. He keeps telling us to be careful, to keep our eyes open. He doesn't seem to trust Eddie's scanner. It remains silent but Reid won't put his faith in it. He's adamant that there should be creatures out here. He keeps asking Eddie if the scanner's working at all.

When Eddie's scanner does start to bleep again, Reid calls for us all to stop. We crouch there, tall grass towering over us. Waiting. All eyes on Eddie.

'Talk to us,' Reid whispers. 'What are you picking up?'

Eddie pans his scanner around. 'There's something ahead of us somewhere.'

'How big and how far?' Reid wants to know.

Eddie's still panning the scanner about. 'Difficult to tell. I mean, maybe a couple hundred feet away. If this thing is reading right, it's big, whatever it is.'

That's when we hear noises. Screeches. Squeals.

Reid tells the rest of us to stay low as he rises off his haunches just enough to gain a view over the height of the grass. I watch him frown.

'What is it?' I ask him quietly.

He doesn't answer me. He says, 'Eddie, tell me, are you picking up multiple signatures?'

Eddie's like, 'Maybe that's what it is.'

I ask again, 'Reid, what are you seeing?'

'Binoculars,' he says.

I ignore him and stand, the tips of the grass tickling my neck and ears. I spot what Reid must be seeing. Something on the roof of the transmitter station. A flock of large flying creatures. They must've only flown in. They weren't there a few minutes ago. I get the binoculars to my eyes. 'Heavenly Mother,' I say gravely as I bring them into focus.

'What are they?' Reid asks.

I hand him the binoculars. 'They're no birds.'

Reid takes the binoculars and puts them to his face. 'Great,' he murmurs.

Morgan and Eddie are both standing now, but stooped down, their eyes level with the very tips of the grass. Gazing toward the station. 'What are they?' Morgan wants to know.

Reid passes the binoculars to me, I pass them to Morgan. She takes them and puts them to her eyes. When she focuses on the objects she's like, 'No way.'

'Imps,' Eddie says like the wind has suddenly gone from his sales. 'That's what they are, aren't they?'

Our silence tells him enough.

He sighs. 'Well, that's just marvellous.'

None of us have seen Imps since we were kids. They're small, squat, ugly human-Gen creatures with wrinkled skin, spiky teeth, pointed ears, dark eyes, and leathery wings. They use to live in Jupiter, making nests in the high reaches of the deserted buildings. They're not as large as harpy hounds but they live, attack and feast in flocks.

There are stories of these critters raiding houses, stealing food, tearing people to pieces. There are stories about the diseases they carry. Stories about the systematic campaigns to chase them out of Jupiter.

'Are they likely to attack us?' I wonder aloud, determined not to be turned back.

No-one has an answer.

I consider aiming and triggering the blunderbuss. But I'm not sure it'll be effective at this range. And if I did engage my weapon, would the sound wave be detected back in Jupiter? Might it attract other beasts? The recharge time means I should only use it sparingly, only if I find myself backed into a corner with no other way out.

'How do we go about clearing them outta there?' Eddie asks.

'What about the solar beam?' Reid asks him.

'Solar beam?' Eddie looks at Reid like he's never heard the term before.

'Yeah, shine it at them,' Reid suggests. 'It might scare them off.'

Eddie pulls the solar cutter from his shoulder. It's an old industrial work tool but it's been modified to be utilised these days as a defensive weapon if need be. It's solar-charged of course, like most New World tools. Which means it also has its lengthy recharge duration.

Eddie seems keen to test the idea. 'What does everyone think?'

'You don't think it'll anger them?' I say.

No-one seems to have an answer to that.

Eddie crouches there waiting with his cutter in hand. 'Am I doing this then?'

Reid's not sure. He looks at me.

'What?' I say to him.

'You think it'll piss them off?'

'I don't know. Maybe.'

'If we don't get rid of them, our trip's over,' he tells me.

I sigh. 'Alright, do it then.'

Eddie flicks the setting to arc light and aims the cutter in the direction of the Station. He engages the tool and instantly this searing beam of light slices out through the morning air, clipping the installation's roof, sparks flying. The beam zaps across the top of the station and the effect is almost instantaneous. The Imps screech and take to the skies in droves until a cloud of them are fleeing the rooftop, flying away to the east.

Eddie laughs nervously. And Reid nods, glad the idea worked.

I sigh, relieved that our expedition hasn't been cut short.

'Good work,' Morgan says, patting Eddie on the shoulder.

2

There is a sense of age about the transmitter station. Parts of it are crumbling. Parts of the roof have caved in. The paint has been eaten away by the weather, showing off darkened, crumbling concrete beneath. The antenna mast has collapsed and tumbled to the ground, lying there now, covered in strands of long dead grass. Every now and then there's a reek of rancid meat on the breeze.

'Great Mother,' Morgan says, her hand over her nose and mouth. 'What is that stench?'

'Something rotting somewhere,' Reid says, surveying the building.

We stand in what looks to be the old staff parking lot. The bitumen is all chipped and crumbled, with trees and weeds and grass growing through it. Except for a couple of rusting, metallic heaps, any vehicles that once parked here are long gone. The sound of breeze through the construction whines and moans.

The front doors of the building hang open, hanging on their hinges as if something blew them out from the inside. There's no glass left in any of the windows; all have been shattered. Beyond the windows there is darkness. The station feels like a shell. We see Graspers clinging to the building, their reddish-brown roots burrowed into the walls, their white clawed "hands" poised patiently beneath a cluster of blue flowers that attract bugs and birds and rodents and snakes. Bone middens lie on the ground beneath them, the discarded remains of prey they've snared and eaten. We have these bizarre plants in Jupiter. Some folk keep them, saying they're better at catching food than the nets we put up. But some folk think they're ghastly and have them removed from their premises at first sight.

We come up closer to the doors, all of us gripping our weapons tightly.

'Okay,' Reid says, 'any sign of something inside, we back up and we back up fast, okay?'

We're all agreed.

Reid goes first. He puts a finger to his lips when I go to say something, shaking his head at me. He edges toward the doors, both hands clasping his blade. He stands there peering into the dimly lit interior. Is it empty in there? Is the station being used for shelter by some unknown monster these days?

I feel nervous standing here, waiting, watching Reid. As far as we know, this is where Juke mysteriously disappeared. As far as we know he never made it out of here, never made it past this point.

Reid looks around at us. 'Anything on your scanner?' he asks Eddie quietly.

Eddie shakes his head.

'Good. You guys ready to proceed?'

We've talked about this. All of us. We've had a lot of time to go over it, a lot of time planning this trip, to prepare. I nod. 'We're not turning back,' I tell him.

Reid steps further inside. He hesitates, perhaps letting his eyes adjust to the dark. A few moments later he goes a bit further. We see him in the gloom. He gives us the all-clear signal. We follow him in.

Our eyes adjust slowly. We're in some administration room. Cabinets line one of the walls. Partitioned offices loom in the dark. The grime and vines covering the window recesses permit little light. Two rear doors are shut at the back of the room. There's mess strewn everywhere. Desks, chairs, paper.

It's quiet too. Nothing but the outside sounds of wind rattling through loose bits of roofing. There's also an odour here. Not the smell of dead meat we sniffed outside. It's different to that. Hard to pick. Mushroomy. Something like spoiled vegetables. Unpleasant but not enough to make you gag.

Still, Morgan asks quietly, 'What's that smell?'

'That's what I'm wondering,' Eddie tells her.

'Some sort of animal stink,' Reid offers.

'Smells like something's been using this place for its lair,' Morgan says softly.

Reid looks around at Eddie. 'Anything?'

Eddie, eyes on his scanner, shakes his head.

Reid frowns. 'No heat signatures?'

Again, Eddie shakes his head.

We begin searching the room. Stepping quietly. I grip my Blunderbuss in a ready position. As does Morgan with her Ripper.

There's nothing here. Nothing but skeletons of long dead critters. Snakes. Dogs. Rats. No signs of anything living. Most of the place looks to have been ransacked. Perhaps by folk from Jupiter on resource hunts in the distant past.

We head for the doors across the room.

3

They don't open at first. 'Morgan,' Reid says. 'Remind me what's behind this door.'

Morgan takes the old map of the facility from her pocket. She unfolds it and studies it. 'Function room, if I had to guess.'

Reid puts his weight against the door. Even then it doesn't budge. I shove in beside him and we heave on it together.

It gives so suddenly and so easily that it flies open and we fall inwards, grunting, landing heavily against the floor on the opposite side.

Reid's up quick as a flash, onto one knee, panting, his sword held out at anything that might come charging at us.

There's nothing. And no sound from Eddie's scanner.

Reid looks around at me to see if I'm alright. I can't help laughing, trying to stifle it beneath my fingers. It's more a laugh of relief than anything. Watching me, Reid smiles. He stands, helping me up with his strong hand. 'That certainly got us by surprise, didn't it?' he says.

Morgan and Eddie follow us through.

There's more light in here than the room we've just left; several rents in the roof are letting in narrow sun beams. We all stand looking about. The place is mostly a mess. Furniture is strewn about everywhere, concentrated mostly in the middle of the room. The thing that catches our eyes are the strange patterns on the walls. Strange glyphs. It's alien to us. Nothing we can read. There are also strange pictographs. They show off peculiar looking wraith like people with white eyes and no legs. There's another image depicting a bizarre spiral shaped object. It looks as if someone's painted blurred light streaming from it.

'Wow,' Morgan says. 'What on Earth is this stuff?'

We're silent for a while just standing here taking it in. 'Safe bet this wasn't part of the original wall paper,' Reid says. He looks across at me. 'Any of Juke's notes mention this?'

I shake my head. 'No.'

Eddie's murmuring to himself, like he's translating some of these glyphs, reading them out to himself.

'You know what this says?' Reid asks him.

Eddie doesn't answer.

'Ed,' Reid says, 'do you know what this stuff says?'

'No. Just thinking out loud. I mean,' and he points, 'does that look like a space ship to you guys?'

We crowd around him. The thing he's pointing at, well, to me it seems to be a symbol that might indicate a tall structure on a map legend. Not a space ship.

'Why do you say it's a space ship?' Reid wants to know.

'Well, these are depictions of stars and planets, right?' Eddie indicates a series of asterisks and spherical shaped objects. Each one seemingly tagged with a title, a place name. Nothing we can read however seeing as they're all in some weird foreign language.

'I think they're map references,' Morgan says.

'Me too,' says Reid.

Eddie looks puzzled. 'Really?'

'Don't these lines here depict roads?' Morgan asks.

Reid agrees. 'Looks like it to me.'

Their discussion is ongoing. I move further along the wall. Hoping some of it might make sense somewhere, hoping to see some sign from Juke. Wondering if Juke saw all this. What he made of it.

'What's this?' I ask them.

They shut up and look to where I'm pointing. They come over. They stand here staring at what's scrawled on the wall. It's written in English.

For those who walk this world after us, beware, they are coming...

No-one speaks. No-one has an answer. Morgan reads the sentence again, I can hear her whispering it to herself. 'What does it mean?' she asks.

Reid shrugs. 'Beats me. This something Juke would've written?' He looks at me.

'Don't know. He kept the fact that he was coming out here a secret. So what else was he hiding?'

'Could it be a cryptic message?' Morgan asks.

Eddie reads it through to himself, frowning, thoughtful.

'What are your thoughts, Ed?' Reid asks him.

Eddie shakes his head. 'I don't know. Maybe it's some sort of riddle.'

'A riddle?'

Eddie shrugs.

Morgan grabs a pen from her pocket. She copies down the strange message on a scrap of paper. While she's doing this I take a moment to turn and scan the other walls of the room. They're all mostly covered in the same peculiar markings and pictographs. None of it anywhere written in English except this peculiar sentence.

The mess of furniture scattered about the centre of the room gets my attention. I spot the remains of some animal. I stroll toward it. It's a peculiar creature I've never seen before. No doubt another Gen nightmare engineered by our forefathers for display in some Gen zoo. It's quite a large beast of a thing. Lying there dead. Desiccated. Bones exposed in parts, skin wrinkled. Holes in its skull where its eyes used to be. Lots of holes, actually. Like this thing had several eyes. Twisted horns poke from the top of its head. Multiple limbs. Of varying lengths and sizes. Like some giant mammalian spider.

I'm about to call the others over when I notice something curious regarding the strewn furniture. From back where we came in, it looked as if it was all just heaped here in some random haphazard mess. As if vandals in some elder day had been here and simply kicked all the furniture on its side and thrown it into the middle of the room. But I realise now there's a pattern to it. A circular pattern. Like how spiral galaxies look in the school science text books. As if at some stage all this furniture had swirled madly around a central point before coming to rest.

'You lot see this?' I ask aloud. They look around at me. I point. 'This is weird.'

They come over. We all stand there staring at the formation of furniture.

'That's not something you see every day,' Reid comments curiously.

Eddie looks around at the initial wall we'd scrutinised. 'Similar to that picture over there, don't you think?' He points at the diagram of the strange spiral shaped object. The one with the hand-painted light pouring out of it.

'You could be right,' Reid says thoughtfully.

There are two outer arms to this pattern on the floor. With smaller items deposited there. Things like staplers, pencils, erasers, coffee mugs. Toward the centre of the spiral the items are increasingly larger in size. Books. Photos frames, cardboard boxes and chairs and then desks and lamp stands and old computer monitors.

Its most central point is clear of mess however, nothing but vacant floor with a smooth egg-shaped indent at dead centre. This indent seems to have been scooped out of the concrete foundations. At if it was done by some precise industrial machinery. It drops to probably a foot below the floor level, with smooth sloping sides. There are swirling lines scraped into the cement, radiating out from the hollow. The crumbling linoleum that covers the rest of the room looks to have been burnt away here.

'What on Earth did this?' I murmur, circling the mess of furniture, eyeing the pattern, hoping to see something that'll help all this make sense.

Everyone else looks just as flummoxed.

Reid eyes me. 'Any word about this in Juke's notes?'

'You've read the notes too, Reid,' I remind him. 'There's nothing.'

Something suddenly catches my eye. And when I see it, my skin tingles. Tangled in amongst the mess of furniture, buried almost entirely hidden from view, is a dark piece of crumpled material with a flash of gold colour and the letters ST and ARS.

Instantly it takes me back to the day Juke walked away down Last Street. There he went, smiling, whistling, turning once, flicking his hand in a final wave and offering a bow. He laughed and walked on and he had that rucksack slung over his shoulder. The one with the words Star Wars on it. The one depicting two robot beings: a little round blue one, and a taller golden one.

Now, here in this old transmitter station, I can't believe what I'm seeing. My skin turns cold and I rush over. The others are all watching me.

'What is it?' I hear Morgan asking.

I hardly hear her. I drop to my knees and untangle the object from the general mess. I drag it free, stretching out the fabric, making sure I've seen it right. I'm almost shaking. The letters ST and ARS form the exact words from Juke's bag. STAR WARS. The smear of gold becomes the taller of the two droids.

My hand claps involuntarily over my mouth. The others have followed me over, crowding around. I hold the rucksack into one of the narrow beams of sunlight slanting down through the broken ceiling.

'Skye, are you okay?' Reid asks. 'What is it?'

My hands shake. I can barely speak. 'I-it's hi-h-his. It, it's Juke's.'

Morgan crouches down beside me. 'Juke's? Are you certain?'

I swallow. It feels as if a lump has grown in my throat. Like I can't speak. 'He-he had it with him,' I say breathlessly, 'when he left, that morning, th-this is what he was carrying.'

I'm clasping it like it's Juke himself, like I won't let it go. I'm too scared to open it. What will I find within? Will it confirm some tragedy? Will it lead us to Juke's decomposed body? There's sweat on my brow and neck. It feels like ice water.

Distantly, I hear Eddie say, 'Skye, we need to see what's inside.'

I sigh and shut my eyes. When I open them Reid is crouched beside me. His hand on my arm.

'You okay?' he asks.

I nod. I swallow.

4

The first thing we find it is a sketchbook. It's full of jottings and drawings. Weird things. Depictions of bizarre animals with notes on where they were probably found. It'll say something like The Crabworms - Located in Jupiter 4, with a detailed sketch of some bizarre crab creature with worm-like limbs. Or Carnosaur species (deadly – up until now extinct), Jupiter 8, accompanied by a drawing of some reptilian beast. There are also depictions of fantastic, otherworldly vehicles. Each of them has a title scribbled above them: Skyrail trains, Jetcars, Flowplanes, Skreem-bikes. Other crafts too that, according to notes, may have hovered on magnetic fields. There's a section on carnivorous plant life. A section on dwellings and buildings of "alien" architecture. Of other places the author compares to Jupiter or "our world", places filled with death and emptiness.

I pass the sketchbook to Eddie then dig out a map. It's of Jupiter City. Some of it showing abandoned districts. Marks and crosses jotted over certain streets, and there are dates pertaining to something or other. None of us make sense of it, what the marks attempt to highlight. What the dates are for.

I reach back into the rucksack and my fingers close over something cold and hard. And the moment I pull it out it's like we all just forget everything. We're all just crowding round trying to get a look at this object. It's the most bizarre thing any of us has ever seen.

It's a glass jar. And it there looks to be some sort of blue luminescent gas.

And floating... inside it... well, things.

'What on Earth is that?' Morgan asks.

I pull the jar up to my eyes and my breath just leaves me. 'Oh gosh, it can't be.'

Everyone's got their bug eyes an inch from the jar.

'That can't be real,' Eddie's saying.

Morgan's speechless. She's just blinking. Lost for words.

Reid's like, 'Shit, that's not right. What on Earth did Juke uncover here?'

No-one has an answer.

Suddenly there's a noise of something scampering across the roof. We all look up. We hear the human cries of Imps. And suddenly we see them. Gawking at us through the holes in the ceiling.

'Right, we're leaving,' Reid says, standing up, sword in hand.

'But Juke,' I plead, 'he might be here.' I'm looking about everywhere, I'm not even thinking of the imps right now.

'Skye,' Reid growls, 'we gotta move!'

I push everything back into Juke's rucksack, zipping it up, slinging it over my shoulder. My mind's whirling like mad. I keep looking about in case Juke's here somewhere. His body. Anything.

We push back toward the administration room. But to our horror, Imps are at the windows and stalking through the main entrance doors. For a moment it looks to me like Reid plans on fighting our way through them.

But more and more swoop down and perch on the window sills. Watching us. I unsling my blunderbuss.

'Skye, no,' Reid urges me. 'You'll fry the rest of us.'

I'm the only one wearing sonic dampeners. I'm the only one who might withstand its blast. 'But I can clear this room,' I argue.

'Okay, maybe. But you see the rest of them flying around outside?' Reid says. 'The recharge time's too slow. They'll be in at us before your weapon's ready to shoot again. Okay?'

'Morgan?' Reid says. 'We need your Ripper.'

Morgan's already unclipping it from her belt. Eddie backs up. Giving Morgan some space. I stand ready with my blunderbuss. My head's still whirling. All I want to do is race through the installation. Calling out Juke's name.

The Imps are stalking toward us. 'Now or never,' Reid tells Morgan.

She flicks off the safety catch and aims her disk shaped gun at the oncoming horde. They must sense something because they slow up a bit, sniffing the air.

When Morgan clamps down on the trigger the gun lights up the office partitions with flashing bursts, accompanied by wild zreeep-zreeep-zreeep sounds.

Partitions rip to shreds, parts of the ceiling come down. There's dust and grit suddenly everywhere. I've ducked down behind a desk. I'm coughing up dirt.

I hear Reid call out, 'Did we hit any?'

There's a billowing cloud of dust and shredded paper. It's difficult to see what's happened. But emerging from the dust I see Imps. Still coming for us.

'Back up,' I hear Reid yell, 'Back up!'

I stumble and retreat to the rear of the room. Eddie's there looking bleary eyed, his eyes watering from the grit. Morgan and Reid materialise from the dust cloud, coughing.

'I don't think I hit any!' Morgan's spluttering, wide-eyed, confused. 'I didn't hit a single one of them! The recoil shoved my arm back!'

Reid takes the gun from her. Aims it at the approaching horde. He jams back the trigger. Nothing happens. He looks alarmed. He tries it again. Still nothing. 'What am I doing wrong?'

Morgan takes the gun from him. Aims. Fires.

Nothing.

'Safety catch,' I tell them.

'It's disengaged!' Morgan says desperately.

I go to employ my blunderbuss, but again Reid says, 'No.'

I sigh, exasperated. 'Okay, so we need to find another way out of here then.'

'Ed,' Reid says, 'give them another blast of your solar beam.'

Eddie looks unsure but he pulls the gadget into play, aims it and lets loose a searing beam of light. It cuts across the Imps. They screech and fly out of its way. But it doesn't scare them off totally.

Then the solar beam cuts out.

'Out of juice,' Eddie reports deflated.

Reid sighs. 'Great.'

They keep coming at us. This stinking, hissing horde with their teeth bared.

'Reid,' I yell. 'We need to find another way out of here!'

'Yes, I heard you.'

We back up through the doors, back into the room with the spiral furniture.

Morgan's consulting her maps of the old station.

'Where's that second exit point, Morgan?' Reid asks her.

She shows him on the map. He studies it quickly. Refreshing his mind. We studied the lay out of the installation. It was one of our research points. Secondary ways out of here, contingencies. 'Come on,' Morgan says. 'This way.' We cross the room in which we found Juke's bag, hurrying over to a closed set of double doors.

The doors are as stubborn as the last ones. But we all heave on them and they crash open. We tumble into an empty corridor where both walls contain large glass windows. Side rooms branch off. Technician stations. Data rooms. A kitchenette with an ancient coffee maker standing on a bench.

We follow the dusty, faded exit signs. Rushing down the corridor through another door into a small hangar which might once have housed large vehicles. We race across the hangar. Dead ahead now, the fire escape door in the northern face of the station.

But ahead of us Imps are heaving the doors open from the outside. And behind us... more Imps. Pouring into the hangar through huge rents in the ceiling. Screeching like mad. Sun beams that slant down from cracks in the ceiling are blocked intermittently as swarms of Imps squeeze into the installation like roaches. It is completely maddening. We skid to a halt.

'Blast this!' Reid says. 'We're trapped.'

Morgan engages her Ripper once more. Only, again, it stays dormant.

I don't hesitate now. 'Get back,' I tell the others, pulling the blunderbuss from my shoulder.

'Skye,' Reid yells. 'No.'

'There's no other way,' I tell him madly. 'Get back.'

He doesn't move.

I glare at him. 'Reid, I mean it!'

Finally he retreats. I don't own all of the absorption suit, but I know I'm safe enough. At least I should be. The Imps come at us and I haul on the trigger and squeeze my eyes shut and I hear the tell-tale squelch as the weapon primes itself...

And then...

The sonic blast... blowing out the fire door, exploding a hundred Imps out into the sunshine, throwing me backwards along the floor.

5

Nothing but silence. My stomach churns, my ears ring, my head throbs. I open my eyes. I'm on the floor, on my side. My belly heaves. I belch a hot acidic wash of bile onto the cracked concrete.

I hear footfalls. Coming toward me. Grimacing I look up and see Reid skidding on the floor as he reaches me. 'Skye!' he's yelling, 'Skye, oh Mother tell me you're okay!'

I don't hear him too well. The ringing in my ears is immense. I squeeze my eyes shut as another wave of bile surges up my throat and heaves from my mouth. My throat stings.

Distantly I hear Eddie. 'Is she alright?'

'I don't know. Skye! Talk to me!'

Morgan's kneeling at my side now. Her hand under my head, her other hand holding my fingers. 'Skye? Can you hear us?'

I look up at her. It's like I can't focus on her face. Everything's a blur.

'Reid, we need to make a break for it while we can,' I hear Eddie say distantly. 'Before those Imps return.'

'I know,' Reid tells him irritably, 'give us a moment here.'

Reid and Morgan help me to my feet, Morgan smoothing hair from my face. 'Are you okay?' she keeps asking, sounding like she's underwater.

'Juke's bag,' I splutter.

'It's okay,' she tells me. 'I've got it.'

They've got my arms around their shoulders, hauling me toward the outer door, my feet alternatively dragging and stumbling. Reid's got my blunderbuss over his shoulder. We emerge from the station, the sunshine stings my eyes. I feel my belly heaving again. Spit and bile run down my chin.

'That's the last time you use that thing, Skye,' I hear Reid telling me. 'Honestly, it'll be the death of you.'

I catch my breath, leaning against the outer wall. The sunlight feels white hot, I can barely open my eyes, my ears keep ringing. Reid and Eddie are checking to see if the way is clear. Morgan helps keep me upright. Squinting, I peer out across the ground where twenty or more Imps have been scattered. The scene puts a shudder through me. None of them are moving. Not one.

'Are they... oh Mother... have I killed them?'

Morgan urges me to save my strength. She helps me drink water, lifting my canteen to my lips. My first gulps end up returning on me, I double over, liquid gushing from my mouth. I splutter and cough, trying to regain my breath, swallowing acidic bile back down my throat. 'Morgan,' I say grimacing, spitting water off my lips, 'have I killed them?'

'Skye, I don't know.' Her voice sounds muted. 'I can't tell.'

Reid returns. 'We've got problems.'

'What's wrong?' Morgan asks.

'Grumbs. They've come out of nowhere. The sound wave must've stirred them up.'

Morgan helps me hobble along the side wall toward the front of the installation, my arm around her shoulder. Through squinting eyes, I see them. Beyond the tall grasses, monstrous horned beasts, an entire herd assembled near the fringe of the woodland, gazing back at us. They look unsettled, perturbed, restless.

I've only seen Grumbs once or twice in my life. Through the perimeter fence. Grazing on trees and grass and fruit. They're a bizarre mix of elephant and buffalo. The tops of their heads reach the height of the woodland canopy, their wide reaching horns banging against each other. Their thick wrinkled skin is predominantly black. Though there is this ripple of colour through them, a wash of deep blue. They have short trunks and tusks.

'Marvellous,' I hear Morgan say distantly. 'What do we do now?'

We've all heard the stories about Grumbs. They're prone to stampeding. And they've been known to trample ranging teams from Jupiter if they feel threatened. But there's no way out of this. We can already hear the Imps, somewhere beyond the station, returning.

'We gotta get around them somehow,' Reid says. He scans the fringe of the woodland beyond either flank of the herd. My senses are starting to come back to me.

The herd continues to watch us, agitated. Stomping about, kicking up dust. There are a couple of bulls at the head of the herd, trumpeting and carrying on. For now we have the transmitter station as a place to retreat to if they come at us. But for how long? The Imps... I can hear their raucous screams in the distance, getting closer.

'We can't stay here,' Morgan warns. 'Those Imps'll be all over us in no time.'

'Thanks, Morgan,' Reid says, 'you're not telling me anything I don't already know.' He looks like his mind is ticking over at a zillion miles an hour. 'Okay, we have to use the grass as cover. We duck down and head north. We'll have to hurry but if we can cut around the Grumbs we might just be able to reach the woods before those Imps catch us.'

None of us move. It's like we're all doing our own small calculations in our heads. Whether or not we can make it that far in time. I don't know what the others are thinking but it's too far for us to outrun those Imps.

Still, we've no other choice.

'We'll never make it,' Eddie says bluntly. 'I say we bale up in the station, find a secure room. Stay put until the Imps cool down and the Grumbs move off. Then we just sneak our way out later.'

That puts everyone in two minds.

'Not certain any room in there is secure,' Reid tells him.

That's when it happens. When that thing appears.

We all see it. The robotic being at the edge of the woods. It stands taller than the Grumbs, its limbs long and lithe and metallic, its head cylindrical in shape and bleeping with lights.

'What on sweet Mother's Earth is it?' Morgan gasps.

The Grumbs are instantly spooked by it and their attention switches from us to it. They start shifting away from the robotic figure, groaning, moaning. And when the being suddenly emits a sharp piercing noise, they scatter, charging off to the south in a mighty pall of dust, the thud of their hooves like thunder.

When the dust begins to clear, the being is gone.

'What was that?' Eddie asks, looking at us.

No-one has an answer. It didn't exactly look like a Jupiter droid. But if it was, then the city guard must know we're out here. I can't tell if that's a good thing or not. They might come to our aid, escort us back to safety. But if they do know we're out here then we're in for some hot water. We'll be detained. Questioned. Quarantined.

'Whatever it was,' Reid says, 'we gotta move, now.' The cloud of Imps is almost upon us. 'Skye, you okay to shift?'

I nod. Though my legs still feel like jelly. Still, with my arm curled around Morgan's shoulders, we hurry away from the transmitter station, running out across open ground and pushing through the tall grass.

The speed of the Imps catches us off guard. We hear them screaming toward us. No matter how fast we charge, they catch us before we meet the tree line.

Their attack is frenzied and ferocious, and in no time everything is complete mayhem. Reid turns as they strike, shoving me toward the fringe of the wood. I stumble and fall. Morgan reaches out to grab me but the Imps swoop upon her, grabbing her, lifting her from the grass, hurling her into the trees. I scramble for cover, catching sight of Reid madly swinging his sword at the critters. He chops them down and they screech at him and suddenly there's this wild zreeep-zreeep sound as Morgan's Ripper gun comes to life somewhere, tearing Imps to shreds.

They fly into the woodland at me. I scramble backwards into the cover of trees. I hear Reid calling my name but I've lost sight of him. There's a clump of decrepit old houses not far from me. I scramble to my feet and charge toward them. I get halfway and clamber behind an old garden wall. There's an ancient garden here, lying between me and one of the houses. I reach for my blunderbuss. It should have recharged by now. But it's not with me. I can't recall where it ended up. Did I drop it? What happened to it? My mind's a muddle.

I kneel here trying to catch my breath, wondering what's happened to Morgan. What's happened to Reid and Eddie? Imps come scrabbling over the top of the wall. I whip out my knives and slash at them. They're ferocious. They bite and scratch and tear. I kick and slash at them, get to my feet, stumble, regain my footing and charge toward the house, smashing through the eroded front door in an explosion of wood splinters and dust. Losing one of my knives. Going to my knees in the hallway, scrambling to my feet, charging through the dwelling as Imps burst through windows and walls. I hurl myself toward the rear door, put my shoulder up and shield my head with my arm as I punch through the rotting wood. It bursts as I slam through it, wood splinters and dust trailing me out as I tumble down four or five steps into shrubs.

I clamber to my feet and dive through thick knots of vegetation, Imps flying at me. I break clear of the bushes and run as fast as I can. But it's a blind run. Desperate. I'm just charging into the old suburb as fast as I can, not really looking, hoping I'm running in the direction of Jupiter. I tear from house to house, smashing through doors, diving through vine shrouded windows, Imps swooping continuously at me from all sides.

They manage to get a hold of me, their claws snagging my clothes and hair. I scream. I try tearing them from me but I have so many hanging off me the sheer weight of them pulls me into the leaf matter inside some decrepit old house. They tear wildly at my absorption suit, biting, ripping. I'm on my back, kicking at them with my boots, slashing at them with my remaining knife. There's blood. Theirs or mine, I don't know. I scream out, 'Reid, Morgan, help me!' I don't know where anyone is. I'm being overwhelmed by force of numbers. I'm about to die. Out here away from help, away from my mother and the safety of home.

6

Suddenly... a bizarre zinging noise rips through the air and half the Imps clinging to me blast away through the remaining walls of the house. My eyes are blurry with sweat. I try and kick away the Imps still clinging to me. I'm trying to turn over to get a look at what just punched the Imps off me. Panting madly I get to one knee.

One of the walls of the house is absent. I spot a blurred figure standing some distance away in the woodland. Watching me.

I wipe my eyes. Try to clear my throat. 'Reid?'

Whoever it is, he doesn't speak. Instead he raises his weapon, like he's going to shoot me dead.

'No!' I scream, but he fires.

The remainder of the Imps in the immediate vicinity suddenly explode through the walls of the house, blasted away into the wooded street by some invisible force. I watch as they slam and bang against each other. I'm flabbergasted as I witness them squish together into screeching lumps of flesh, bashing up against tree trunks and houses and street signs and shop fronts like some sort of bulbous slime. In an instant thirty Imps have fallen silent, thirty imps have gone, thirty imps have become something else.

The stranger approaches. He looks down at me. For a moment I believe it's Juke. He wears some sort of head gear. A helmet or something. But the brown eyes looking down at me from behind a mask and goggles are none I recognise.

The eyes of a stranger.

He says nothing. He reaches down and holds his hand out to me. Not knowing why, I take it and he helps me to my feet. I'm covered in scratches and blood. I'm still catching my breath.

Behind the stranger, in the woodland, I see the tall robotic being, standing there. Regarding us. The droid we saw at the edge of the woodland. The thing that spooked the Grumbs.

It stands there, waiting. Unlike any droid I've ever seen. It is four-legged. With an upright torso shaped largely like a triangular prism. As such, it has three arms attached to three separate shoulders. Its head is cylindrical with haunting eyes behind transparent metallic skin. The stranger and this thing must at least be acquaintances.

I hear Reid somewhere calling my name. 'Skye! Skye, can you hear me?' He sounds far away. But I just stare at the stranger. I'm utterly speechless. I don't know what to say.

I hear Reid calling out again. 'Skye? Where are you?'

This time I turn and scan the woodland. I can't see him anywhere. 'Reid? I'm here!'

I turn back to the stranger... But I'm startled to see his droid standing directly before me, one of its arms outstretched toward my face. I try to move out of its way but its fingers begins to sparkle. And I hear a sound deep inside my head. There's an almost physical sensation that comes with it. Like something pulling me down. I feel like I'm sinking. Like something has turned an OFF SWITCH in my mind. All around me, in a blur, the world rushes upwards.

7

When I open my eyes I'm lying in the leaf matter... staring at a small metallic ball. I look around. I've no idea where I am. There's just woodland all around me. And I'm alone. For some reason I feel that's odd. It's like someone has fiddled with my memory. Taken bits out.

I hear the silver sphere rustling the leaves. I watch it. It moves an inch or two closer to me then it stops. What on Mother's sweet Earth is it? It moves no further. I reach out and touch it with my fingertips. It feels cold. I nudge it to see if it'll move again. It doesn't. Something compels me to pick it up. I grip it, lifting it from the leaves. Turning it over in my fingers, inspecting it.

Suddenly something comes crashing through the woodland and this figure bursts from the undergrowth and I squeal. I'm trying to scramble away. But I hear this voice, 'Skye, it's okay, it's me,' and suddenly this person is at my side, gripping me and I'm trying to fight him off.

'Skye! It's me, Reid.'

I stop struggling against him and I hold my breath as I turn my head and take in his face.

'Reid?'

He gets his eyes level with mine. He's out of breath. He's saying, 'Are you okay?' He's wiping blood off my face. 'Skye, are you alright?'

I blink and swallow. I focus on him. 'I think so.' I say it with a vague, distant voice, still uncertain exactly what's going on. Behind him Morgan and Eddie come running through the woods. They've scratches over their faces and arms. Streaks of blood. They stop beside us to catch their breath, looking around, searching the way they've come, maybe in case they're being followed. But I don't know what they're all running from. I can't recall what was happening.

'We have to keep moving,' Morgan urges.

Reid helps me but I'm sluggish getting to my feet. I'm feeling foggy headed. He grips my hand. 'Come on,' he says, 'let's go.'

8

We reach Jupiter's fence line within two minutes then we're tracking our way south a short distance to the access pipe. There we drop to our bellies and crawl through. It's here I begin recalling bits and pieces. Like the transmission station. And the Imps. How we were all attacked. I'm filled with this overwhelming sense of relief that we escaped them with our lives.

We exit the pipe. We hurry toward Rotman's Gully. Reid and Eddie and Morgan all talking at a million words a minute. Asking me what happened? How did I get away? How did I fight off those wretched things? We're all a little spaced out. We're all a little shell shocked.

When we reach Rotman's, we stash our gear again then Reid grabs the first aid kit and we dab disinfectant on our scratches and bites. We pressure-punch antibiotics into our forearms. We guzzle water from our canteens. We wipe the blood off our skin and try to rinse it from our clothing. Then we sit there catching our breath.

Reid keeps asking, 'Is everyone okay? Is everyone alright?'

I drink more water. I feel the metallic ball in my pocket. I can't remember putting it there. I don't tell the others. I say nothing about it. I don't know why. I'm still trying to process it. Still searching my mind for the exact sequence of events that got me to this point. I know we set out to find clues about Juke's whereabouts. I know we reached the transmission station. I know we were swarmed by Imps. But beyond that... it's so fuzzy. What I keep seeing in my mind is this tall robotic being. And a herd of agitated Grumbs. Then I'm charging through the woodland. Imps attacking me.

And then... What is it? Why don't I see it?

I notice Reid's got my blunderbuss slung over his shoulder. I see Eddie's holding his proximity scanner.

'How's your head?' Morgan asks me. 'Are you still feeling queasy?'

'Think I'm feeling better,' I tell her. But I'm still staring at my blunderbuss. And I'm trying to ignore the ringing sound in my ears. I know I fired it, the blunderbuss. At the Imps. I know that now. That's why my mind feels fried.

It's here I see Juke's Star Wars rucksack sitting at Morgan's feet. I'd forgotten about it.

Morgan notices me looking at it. She hands it to me.

'Thank you,' I tell her.

She steps over and crouches, putting her arm around me, hugging me to her. 'You gave us a scare,' she says. 'We thought those things had taken you.'

I offer a shell-shocked smile. My mind still fuzzy about what happened in the woodland. After the Imps attacked me.

I see Reid watching me. Sweat on his face.

We split up. Eddie and Morgan go one way, heading toward Jupiter High School. Reid and I pick our way through the vale in the direction of the old silos.

9

I'm quiet for a while. Reid won't stop asking if I'm alright. All I'm still thinking about is that strange droid. The one that chased away the Grumbs. Like it was a dream. A figment of my mind. Like I'm not sure it was actually there. Maybe it wasn't. Sonic boomers like the blunderbuss can skew your brain. The intense sound waves can muddle your thought patterns, cause you to experience hallucinations and amnesia. But the metallic ball. I still feel it in my pocket.

I fetch my bike and wheel it through the copse and out the other side. We move along deer tracks, veering toward the old derelict wheat silos. The tips of the grass either side of us bend gently to and fro in the warm breeze. It's mesmerising. Morning sunlight shines out across Jupiter. I feel like I'm in a dream. I breathe in the air all about me. It's full of the odours of summer: moist grass and dry dirt and the woody smells of surrounding trees.

At the base of the silos, I drop my bike and I take Reid's hand and I drag him beneath the soft feathery branches of an old weeping willow tree. I don't know what it is, but I'm going to show him the metallic ball.

He grabs both my hands in his and gazes into my eyes. 'Talk to me, Skye,' he says. 'Are you sure you're feeling okay?'

I feel light headed. Giddy. I smile. I watch his eyes. His lips. I feel I love him more than anything in that moment. 'I'm fine.'

'You gave me a fright back there,' he says.

I gently touch his face with my palm. 'Honestly, Reid. I feel fine. I'm exhilarated actually.'

We watch each other, gazing into one another's eyes. I don't know who makes the first move but before I know it, we're kissing.

Reid's lips are warm and wet and full on mine. I'm buzzing. I feel his fingers through my hair. I feel I want him. We're on the ground in the soft clover. Kissing.

After a while Reid murmurs that we better get moving. That we don't want to be late for school. That we don't want to arouse suspicion. His lips are still wet.

I want us to lie here all day in each other's arms, in the cool shade with the breeze whispering to us through the leaves.

I murmur back, 'Let's stay here.'

'They'll ask questions. They'll wanna know why we're late.'

We watch each other's eyes, the tips of our noses touching. We kiss again for a while. Then I lie back and gaze up into the feathery branches of the willow tree, breathless. 'That droid,' I say. 'Did you see it?'

'Yes,' he tells me.

I don't know what else to say. I wasn't dreaming it then. I stare at him.

'Come on,' he says, 'we best get moving.'

THE RUSKSACK

1

JUPITER HIGH School isn't far from the old wheat silos. About five minutes' walk if you follow the winding deer trail. It consists of two large double-story buildings joined on the ground floor by an entrance hall, and on the upper level, by a glass skywalk. On the southern side there is a pair of old football grounds, kept cut and trimmed by city volunteers. Adjacent to the nearest football ground there's a basketball court with bleachers. In its heyday, before the Great Silence struck, Jupiter High catered for up to two thousand students. Today the number of students barely reaches thirty. As a consequence, many of the school buildings remain empty, abandoned. And the entire complex moans constantly in the wind.

Our classes are primarily conducted in the ground floor classrooms. There are five volunteer teachers who rotate through a three day roster. They are city elders who seem to know a lot about mathematics, geography, history, biology. And much about the Old World and such. They get extra rations from the city authority for their time and effort.

Most of our classes seem to focus on Old World stuff. About society as it was. About how people lived. About commerce and global politics. About the many cultures that existed throughout the world. There's not much around to tell us why the Old World went silent, what happened that took the lives of all the world's people. But Mrs Hunter tells us things about climate change ignorance and environmental disasters. How governments seemed more interested in pushing their economy, that they were more concerned with profits, credit ratings, funding cuts, surpluses, bottom lines.

'Unfortunately, and I fear they learned this far too late,' Mrs. Hunter tells us, 'there seemed to be little regard for ecology while human's cared so much for economy.'

Some days we're taught medicine. Some days we practice self-defence and weapon's training, in case the need ever arrives to defend ourselves from potential invaders. We're also taught about animals that existed in the Old Days. And what has been learnt of today's flora and fauna—many modern creatures came about thanks to the wayward genetics practices by greedy Old World companies, and we're told that the pursuit of wealth and profits threw ethics out the window and gave way to rogue scientists creating zoos and freak shows of genetically altered animals. We're taught all this so we don't make the same mistakes as our forebears. So that we might also tell a natural animal from a species created by humans.

Normally I find all this stuff quite intriguing. But today I'm having trouble concentrating. I'm staring out the window, gazing across the Victory Parks farmland. Watching the dark shapes circling the air above the buildings of Jupiter. They're harpy hounds or eagles or something. I can't help think of the Imps over the transmitter station.

2

At lunch we sit on one of the benches beneath the rows of shady acacia trees. It's situated at the eastern end of the school complex. Behind us are the sport's fields where students kick scrapballs or sit and eat lunch. Before us there's the fertile Victory Parks that stretches maybe two hundred metres out to the foot of Jupiter's CBD, where silent skyscrapers line Park Drive, the city's southern fringe road. I watch volunteers tending to crops of corn and cabbage and snake beans and tomato. Watching them channelling water from the Jupiter canal into irrigation troughs. Water that is fed from the city reservoir.

I find my thoughts have moved on from the Imps. I think of that droid again. And the odd metal ball. And... I don't know what it is, but there seems to be something buried in my mind. Something I can't dig out. Like something that's been forgotten.

We eat dried lizard meat and bread from the school canteen. We eat fresh strawberries. We drink water or cold lime tea. The four of us, me and Reid, Morgan and Eddie, still looking a sight. With our scratches and bite marks and bruises. It's been no point trying to conceal them. Mrs Hunter looked at us strangely the minute we'd got to class. She'd asked us what on Earth we'd been up to.

Reid'd been quick with a reply. 'Been clearing out claw weed,' he'd told her.

That seemed to satisfy both her and anyone else in class who'd commented on our appearance. Claw weed is a shrub that has besieged some parts of Jupiter. It's full of thorns and its branches have a tendency to hiss and whip back at you when you cut them.

As I sit here, my grazes itch like mad. I'm trying to ignore them.

I listen to Reid and Morgan and Eddie chat quietly about what we experienced that morning. About what we found inside the transmitter station: the furniture, the markings on the walls, Juke's rucksack. That and the strange droid that cleared out the Grumbs. Hearing them talk about it, it's helping to fill in the blanks. I'd forgotten the odd marks on the wall. I'd forgotten about how the scattered furniture had been arranged.

'That droid was Juke's doing,' Eddie comes out and says.

I'm deleting the contingency message from my wrist-com, the one that was to be directed to Mum if we'd never returned from the transmitter station. I've only just remembered it. I'm relieved to be able to get rid of it, that it never had to be sent.

'Think about it,' Eddie says. 'Why would some random droid just show up and scare those Grumbs away? It doesn't make any sense. If it wanted to harm us it would've done so. Or it would've just left those Grumbs right where they were.'

Eddie must be pretty sure of himself. It's the most he's said in one breath since we got back from our excursion. He regards Reid.

Reid takes a while to comment. His eyes on the cloud of harpy hounds or whatever they are over the city buildings. 'Don't know what to think, Ed. It was bizarre, that's for sure.'

'It might just be a wanderer,' Morgan says. 'Roaming the wastes.'

'You think the city watch knows it's out there?' Eddie asks.

'They're not gonna make it public,' Reid says, 'but you can bet their sensors have picked it up. They'll have their eyes on it.'

I hear Reid asking me something. He sounds so distant. I hear him saying, 'Skye?'

I focus on him.

He says, 'You alright?'

I take in a deep breath. Like I've just woken up. 'Yeah, I'm okay.'

'You look pale,' Morgan tells me.

I rub the heels of my palms into my eyes. 'I'm finding it hard to recall exactly what happened out there this morning,' I tell them. 'That's all.'

Reid just watches me. Looking irked. 'It's the last time you use that blunderbuss,' he says. 'One of these days it's going to fry your brain.'

I nod but I'm not really listening. I'm picturing the metallic ball in the leaf matter... back in the forest... And I see the droid standing in front of me, reaching its hand toward my face.

And then...

What?

I don't know, but there was something else... something else I'm missing.

I hear Reid's voice again. I hear him say something about a sketchbook.

I look at him. 'Sketchbook?'

'The one we found in Juke's rucksack.'

My thoughts turn to Juke's rucksack. I remember now pulling out its contents inside the transmission station. The sketchbook with those bizarre drawings. And that strange glass jar...

'You mind if I have a look through it while we're sitting here?' Reid says.

I consider Reid's request. I look around. Checking out the students on the sport's field. Checking out the kids on the basketball court, checking out the tables of students eating their lunch, and the students sitting in the grass beneath the rows of flame red acacia trees.

'Skye?' he says, 'are you okay?'

'Making sure no one's watching.'

Reid frowns at me like it's obvious he doesn't exactly plan to go waving it around. But I spot Imogen Blake. Moving and sitting with some of her friends on another bench. She's looking our way. Looking at Reid.

I won't admit it out loud, but she's stunning. With her sandy blonde hair and that athletic body and her smoky blue eyes. The boys around Jupiter all talk about her. And stare at her when she walks by. I've even seen Reid watching her once or twice. She's not been in Jupiter long. About sixteen months ago she just turned up out of the wilderness. She's what the city authority call an Outsider. She claims to have no memory of where she came from...

It could be true. But I've always thought that sounds rather suspicious.

I take my gaze from her. Turn back to the others. 'We've got eyes on us,' I tell Reid.

He looks around. Imogen looks away when his eyes find her.

'I think we ought to stick to our plan,' Morgan says. 'We wait till after school. We'll go through everything in Juke's bag then. Agreed?'

Reid keeps gazing at Imogen. Eventually he turns back and regards me. 'Okay,' he says. 'Might be the safest option.'

I look back at Imogen. Again she's eyeing Reid. When she sees me watching her, she looks away.

3

As we'd hoped, mum is still at work when we reach my place that afternoon. Mum works in the resource sheds, sorting out portions of food or recyclables that have come in from city harvesters or collectors. (It's dirty, sweaty work, but it gives mum a sense of purpose, gives her a social outlet.) Everything that comes in is sorted equally. Everyone gets a fair portion of whatever is collected. Granted, some stuff goes straight into the pockets of collectors but I think (at least, I like to believe) that most people are honest. That it all gets shared equally. Any excess lizards and insects pulled from traps are also taken and distributed there.

We leave our bikes beside the house, on the concrete path with the weeds growing up through the cracks. I carry my school bag slung over my shoulder—Juke's rucksack is jammed inside it.

The side door is open. The locks don't work. There's been no real need for locks for a long time now anyway. We're warned about the threats from beyond the city, but truthfully, in my lifetime, we've known nothing but peace and harmony.

Inside my bedroom we sit and place the Star Wars rucksack between us. We pull out its contents. Out comes the sketchbook onto the old worn rug. Then the glass jar. Then a map. And some weird pieces of pliable metal―none of us have ever seen anything like them. Eddie's fascinated but he can't place their origin. They have lines of silver indentation on them.

'Is that some strange language?' he wonders aloud.

'No idea,' I say. No-one has any clue as to what they are. They don't seem to match anything we saw on the walls inside that room at the old transmitter station.

Another book drops out, dog eared and worn, written in some language none of us recognise. Out comes an old T-shirt. And an old postcard showing off a gorgeous tropical beach. A pair of socks. An empty water bottle. A key ring.

Reid picks up the mysterious jar. Once more, none of us can stop staring at it, at the objects in there. The light's better here in my room than it was in the transmitter station and it's easier to see the jar's contents. But we're still all flabbergasted by what's floating in there.

'Who else thinks they look like tiny people?' Morgan asks.

No-one speaks. No-one says a word.

'Whatever they are,' I say, 'they look like tiny people.'

People barely the length of my little finger. They're clothed. Three women, two men, as far as I can tell. There's also something that looks like some weird dog creature.

They all look so real. As if they were all once alive.

It's the single most bizarre thing I've seen in my life.

'They gotta be toys or something,' Eddie insists.

Reid rolls the jar left to right, testing if the action might stimulate them. Wake them up. Get them moving.

What on Earth we'd do if they actually moved, I don't know. Scream, probably.

'How're they floating?' Reid wants to know. 'It's like gravity doesn't exist in there.'

'It's some sort of preserving liquid,' Morgan insists. 'Alcohol or oil or something.'

Reid turns the jar upside down and then back again. 'Wouldn't there be an air bubble if it's liquid?'

'Not if the air was extracted before it was sealed,' Morgan tells him.

'But you feel it,' Reid says, handing it to her. 'Feel how light it is. It's not liquid. It's some sort of gas.'

Morgan takes it, getting a feel for its weight. 'So how are they floating then?'

'That's what I'm saying. I've no idea.'

'Like Reid said,' Eddie tells her, 'it's like gravity doesn't exist in there.'

'But that's absurd,' Morgan tells him.

We keep inspecting the jar, studying it for a lid. Maybe we can unscrew it. But it's like it's been heat sealed. Like the metal lid has been melted into the glass.

'Should we break it?' Eddie says.

'Substance in there could be toxic,' Reid tells him.

Eddie shrugs and gives him an Okay, good point look.

Reid begins picking through the remaining objects from Juke's rucksack. Eddie takes the jar; he and Morgan keep staring in at those tiny people. While Reid's flicking through the sketchbook, I study the second book. The one that looks like a journal. The dog eared book written in a foreign language. Or maybe it's some sort of code. They're all boxy letters that make no sense. Hundreds of pages. And diagrams. Sketches. Pictures of peculiar machinery. Drawings of what could be microscopic organisms. Or nano-droids. None of it's familiar to me. None of it. I pass the book to Morgan. 'You make sense of any of this?'

She takes it, leafs through it methodically. Eventually she shakes her head. 'No idea, Skye.' She shows Eddie. He studies some of the diagrams. But he can't place them.

Reid's now picking through the bottom of the rucksack. There's a look of intrigue on his face. He says, 'What's this?'

Our eyes widen as he lifts out a key with a tag on it.

He holds it up for us all to see. The tag reads #4/78.

'A door key,' Morgan says.

I stare at it. Intrigued.

4

The others follow me down and across the hall. Juke's bedroom door is shut. Mum hasn't touched his room since he left. I've only been in there a handful of times since last year. To look for clues about where he might've been heading the morning he vanished. That's where I found the note that lead us to the transmitter station.

Still, I feel like an intruder. I almost feel I should be knocking. I grip the doorknob and turn it slowly. The door creaks quietly as I push it inwards. As I've done the last several months, I hope to find Juke in there. Sitting on his bed, reading. Or curled up asleep.

As usual there's no-one else here.

Juke's bedroom is fairly sparse. He has a map of the world pinned to the wall above a desk. He has a map of Jupiter city. There are Old World posters of animals like crocodiles, elephants, tigers, pinned to the ceiling above his bed. There is a wardrobe with a handful of garments still hanging in there. There is a chest of drawers by the window. He has three pairs of shoes against the wall. He has a bedside table where his electrical gadgets sit. Like his tune-sounder that he says he found in an abandoned building in Jupiter's Deepcliff district. And an old wrist-com unit. And his snap-printer.

We search his room. Under his bed, under his mattress. We go through his drawers, his wardrobe. We check the pockets of his jeans, his coats. Each time I come in here, I hope I'm going to find something new. But other than uncovering that note it never alters. There's nothing.

Reid's not deterred. He looks for secret compartments in the walls, the floor, the ceiling, behind Juke's posters.

When it's clear there's nothing here that the key might open, we stand there, empty handed, looking about.

'So, what does this key unlock then?' Reid wonders aloud.

5

That night I lie awake late. The broken moon casts its milky light against the curtains. I keep running the day's events over and over in my head. All I keep seeing is the woodland. And that metallic ball.

And that droid.

And... something else.

I can't get this feeling out of my head. That the droid hadn't been alone.

That it'd had company.

But no matter how much thought I give it, all I see is the droid standing there in the woodland. No one else.

My thoughts turn to Juke's rucksack and the glass jar and everything we found. I've been dying to tell mum. That we located Juke's bag and some of his belongings. That maybe he's okay. I haven't told her though because I don't want to get her hopes up. Instead, I lie here with the #4/78 key which I'm turning over and over in my fingers, running the day's events through my mind.

I roll onto my side and stare at the metallic ball where it hasn't moved from my dresser. I've still no idea what it is. Still wondering what relationship it has with that droid. I keep thinking the droid dropped it. With the intention that'd I'd pick it up.

But other thoughts begin to flood my mind. What if the droid didn't drop it? Never placed it there. What if the droid had nothing to do with it? What if this metal ball is actually linked to Juke? A fine coincidence, yes, but just what if? I mean, it was rolling toward me. Like it was seeking me.

Its internal lights are brighter in the darkness of my room. They appear clouded behind its metallic skin. And it might just be my imagination but I believe I hear a minute beeping sound coming from inside it. I get out of bed and pick it up. I put it to my ear. I hear a tiny little humming noise.

I tap my finger nail against it. It feels and sounds like solid metal. There are no seams. It is a perfect unbroken sphere. I place it again on my bedside table and leave it there. Watching it. Waiting for it to move like it did in the leaf litter of Barren Wood.

It remains perfectly still.

'Where are you, Juke?' I whisper, watching it.

I gaze at the window. The curtains are shut but I can see the faint glow of the moon light beyond. I think of Reid. How close we've become lately. We've been friends since we were young. But in the last year or so that we've grown close. In that I mean we've fallen in love with each other. And in the last few weeks it's taken our relationship to a new level. Holding hands. Kissing.

I think about how he acted out there today beyond Jupiter's boundary. In the days leading up to our little expedition his biggest concern had been the Entities. The strange folk who live out there beyond Jupiter. Creatures who are said to be riddled with disease. Creatures who, it is said, will sooner tear you apart than look at you.

But we didn't see a single one of them.

I use the face-call on my wrist-com and dial him.

He answers. It's late but he's not asleep yet. He's sitting on his front porch again. I can tell by his surroundings. 'Skye? You okay?'

'Yes. I'm alright. You?'

He shrugs. 'Just sitting out here thinking about everything that happened today.'

'It was pretty wild, wasn't it?'

'That's a bit of an understatement,' he says. 'Something on your mind?'

I say nothing for a moment. Then I say, 'No. Well, actually I was wondering... if you're free in the morning.'

'Free? Why?'

I take a moment to answer. Wondering if I should go through with it. With what I'm planning. 'I'd like to show you something.'

He looks keen now. He even smiles. 'Really? This sounds promising.'

'Meet me in the morning,' I tell him. 'Here. At sunrise.'

'Sunrise?' he says. 'Really? That early?'

'Yes. You want to see it or not?'

'Depends on what you're going to show me.'

I smile. 'A secret. Trust me. You won't be disappointed.'

He eyes me through the screen. 'Well then. Sunrise it is. It better be good.'

I lie here after Reid's gone. Staring into the dark.

HOUSE ON LAST STREET

1

I APPROACH the house on Last Street. The garden is overgrown. The grass comes up to the windows and green tendrils poke in under the sill. Enormous fly-traps have sprouted from the walls. Unknown animals wriggle helpless within their jaws.

I want to leave but I can't. I feel this undeniable pull. Something I can't control. Before I know it I have pushed through the front gate and am negotiating my way down a garden path so choked in Claw Weed I feel it catching at my knees and ankles, feel it clawing at me, wanting to pull me under.

I'm unsure what time of day it is. The sky is overcast. There are storm clouds on the eastern horizon. They flash with lightning, but there's no sound of thunder. I hear a noise in the street. When I turn I see rabbits, almost humanoid, standing on their hind paws, eyeing me.

I watch them for a while then I ignore them. I push on toward the front stairs, the Claw Weed brambles still tugging at me, scratching me. I'm feeling nervous now. A light sheen of sweat layers my skin. The air feels muggy.

I reach the stairs. I place my foot on the first one. I don't feel I can go any further, that some hideous thing waits for me beyond the door, but somehow I do. I step up slowly to the porch.

The front door looms like the mouth of a dark cave, promising dark mysteries beyond.

I stand before it. Behind me in the street a small herd of tall mammalian creatures stride by, casting me casual glances. They stop to graze on the tall grasses along the curb. I wonder what they are. Buffalo, maybe. Giraffe.

I lift my hand. I'm about to knock when I hear a wheezing sound from the other side.

I frown and press my ear to the door. Whatever is in there, it must hear me, or sense my presence. Because it holds its breath...

Suddenly the door handle twists back and forth manically. I hear whatever it is on the other side now, panting wildly, like some monster filled with hunger, desperate to get out at me. I stumble backwards as the door flies open and I gasp when I see what's standing there: a tall metallic being with long limbs, and bleeping lights on a cylindrical head. It moves with such blinding speed that it takes me completely by surprise, its arms reaching out and grabbing me, dragging me into the darkness of the house.

THE EXCURSION

1

TICK TICK!

I awake to the sound of something tossed against the window.

Tick tick!

I open my eyes, confused.

Another tick! against the glass pane.

I push off my covers and yawning, leave my bed. I step toward the window wondering what time it is. The room's dark and there's only dim light against the curtains. Sometime before sunrise, I guess. I pull the curtain aside and for a moment, although the street light glows weakly, all I see is the street caught in a valley of darkness.

I hear a hushed voice call out, 'Skye, it's me.'

I peer down into the garden and spot movement. A figure. I see Reid. I yawn and smile.

2

I dress in jeans and sneakers, a t-shirt and a light jacket. I pull the cow bell from my chest of drawers, careful about not ringing it. From the pantry downstairs I collect dried lizard and sugar cane and wheat cookies, and from the refrigerator I take some bottles of milk. I be as quiet as I can. I don't want to wake Mum. I don't want to have to explain to her what I'm up to. I stuff everything inside Juke's Star Wars rucksack. I grab my head lamp and sneak quietly through the house. I go out through the side door. The air out here is chilly. There's a crisp waft of eucalyptus on the breeze. I close the door quietly; it has a tendency to snap shut with a bang at the last moment so I guide it home gently, without noise.

I turn around and jump with fright because Reid's standing there against the railing, arms folded, looking like he just woke up. Still, there's a sparkle in his puffy eyes.

'Didn't think you'd come,' I tell him, pulling him into a hug. We kiss briefly.

'You had me intrigued,' he says, adjusting his own head lamp that sits there crooked in his hair. My rucksack catches his eye. 'Oh,' he says. 'You've got Juke's pack?'

I shrug. 'Yeah. I'm paranoid mum might find it.' I don't tell him that in the night I awoke in a sweat fearing the automated droid, that I grabbed Juke's bag with everything it contained and stashed it beneath my bed. Metallic ball included.

I take Reid's hand and lead him down the steps. 'Come on.'

I check the time on my wrist-com. 5:37. The sun hasn't quite risen yet but the eastern sky is beginning to lighten. The pieces of moon hang there, bathed almost pink, like pieces of Mother Of Pearl.

I fetch my bike and follow Reid into the street. As usual Last Street's houses and apartment blocks are silent and dark. Only a handful of them are actually occupied but there looks to be no one else around. No-one else yet awake. More importantly, there are currently no members of the automated city guard patrolling the street.

3

With head lamps beaming, we ride west toward Union Parade. There's a cool nip in the morning air. It draws goose bumps out on my skin. Where he can, where the grass track permits it, Reid rides alongside me, looking across at me occasionally. I like it. Feeling his eyes on me. It makes feel wanted. I glance across at him, smiling.

Smiling he looks away...

Where the grass track is too narrow he lets me go first, riding behind me. There's no sound but the gentle breeze in my ears and the gentle swish of our tyres through the grass. The beams from our head lamps continue to cut swathes of light through the dawn gloom.

Union Parade is one of the old arterial routes so it widens and takes us deep into Jupiter. The buildings here are tall and looming, colossal headstones rising against the dawn sky. The Parade bends away to the north, dipping beneath an overpass. Trees grow there now out of the crumbled bitumen. In the daylight hours, corridors of green grass cover some of the old roadways. A playground for bugs and animals where once it was the domain of humanity's traffic—days left behind in the Old World.

We see no one else which is sort of surprising. Mostly you'll encounter packers and sorters heading off to work. Or rangers out looking for fortunes yet to be discovered. Jupiter's a big city but there's fewer than five hundred now who inhabit it.

Union Parade turns westwards again after a half mile but we take the Federal Road at the junction, Reid again coasting beside me.

I look across at him. He catches me looking.

He frowns but smiles back. 'So, you going to tell me where it is we're headed?'

I smile and shake my head. 'No.' I speed on ahead of him and he matches me, out of his seat, pumping his legs, passing me. I stand and pump the pedals and overtake him as he veers sharply around a twisted old tree jutting from amidst clumps of grass. He catches me up again and I can't help laughing.

The sun has broken the horizon. Pink fire streaks out across the dawn sky. There's a lovely cool breeze as we ride. There's no one else but us. No one anywhere but us it seems. And for a moment I pretend that we are all there is, humanity's last children, on the doorstep of forever. It makes me feel alone and isolated but so alive, important, vital, my presence here in this empty lonely city, on this empty, quiet earth, holds certain magnitude, that humankind's future history depends on just me and Reid. That we might be the mother and father of earth's future generations. I feel such a closeness to Reid, a bond I don't believe I've ever felt with anyone.

As we ride I reach out my hand to him. He glances across and sees my hand and reciprocates. Our finger tips touching. And briefly, as we coast along, his hand rests on top of mine and that simple connection is electric. As if we're flying together, as one, into some future world...

That is until he hits uneven ground and he goes juddering off on a tangent. It's so comical, the sudden fright in his eyes, both his fists gripping the handlebars, fighting to keep his bike on its wheels. I can't help clapping my hand over my mouth, laughing.

4

We reach the gaping holes in the Liberty Pass where great chunks of the flyover have collapsed onto grassy out-bound lanes fifteen metres below. For a while we're able to ride around them. Though if you fell through there's nothing but death awaiting you below.

'Don't look down,' Reid warns but I can't help it, I need to see where I'm riding, where I need to wheel the bike. This means far below the gaping holes, the road passes constantly across my vision.

I can't remember the Liberty Pass being so ruined. It wasn't like this the last time I came this way. I have to slow down. I feel my skin crawling.

We reach a point where we're forced to brake and we stand there, straddling our bikes, surveying the way forward. The bitumen ahead of us has almost entirely crumbled away. Nothing but narrow rusting, steel beams, the skeleton of the flyover.

'We need to cross here?' Reid asks me.

I sigh. 'That was the plan.' I'm scanning the area for alternative routes. Searching the way we've come, searching other road corridors. We're at a point in Jupiter where the CBD is behind us, to our south. Ahead and below us there lies the old Freedom Canal (currently empty of water) and roads and parks. We're quite elevated here. The view of the road system surrounding us is like a portion of a map.

Reid dismounts his bike and lies it down. He goes forward a few steps until he's standing at a spot where the road effectively ends. From there it's nothing but narrow steel framework for about five to eight metres until it meets solid road surface again.

'It's too risky,' I tell him. 'We'll find another way.' I point out an alternative route. 'Might mean we'll have to back track a little way. Might add maybe ten minutes to our ride. But better than plummeting to our deaths.'

Reid checks the time on his wrist.com. 'That's going to eat up some valuable time, Skye.'

'So?'

'How long you anticipate this excursion to take?'

I shrug. 'I don't know. An hour. Round trip.'

'So you really want to be late for school two days in a row? Mrs. Hunter was already suspicious enough as it was yesterday.'

I consider this and sigh. 'Okay, we'll come back another day.'

'Come back? But I'm already far too intrigued about what we're doing out here.'

'Okay, so we find another way around. And if we're late for school then we're late for school.'

Reid shrugs. 'Okay. Well said.' And without warning, he hefts his bike onto his shoulder and my skin goes cold as I'm watching him suddenly balancing his way across one of the steel beams.

'Oh my gosh, Reid!' I scold him, my hand over my mouth. 'That's completely crazy.'

'It's okay,' he calls back, 'honestly.' He reaches the far side. He puts his bike down and comes back, his arms out from his body for balance. Reaching me he steps back onto wider roadway.

'You're bloody crazy,' I tell him. I'm genuinely angry with him.

He just smiles and grabs my bike.

'Reid, no, it's not worth it.'

He shrugs. 'Either way, I've got to cross again to fetch my bike, don't I?'

I swallow. Agitated. I get off my bike and he hefts it onto his shoulder, and grinning at me, he turns and carefully repeats the crossing. I'm holding my breath the whole way, watching him.

He leaves my bike over there and once again he returns.

'You're completely mad,' I tell him.

He takes me into his arms. 'Maybe,' he says, 'but I'm really only mad for you.'

'This isn't funny, Reid.'

'I know, I can tell by the look on your face. Now, you coming over or not?'

'No, Reid, I'm not. It's insane.'

'I won't let you fall

'No way.' I'm nervous. I don't like this. I won't do it. It's ludicrous.

'It's alright,' he assures me soothingly. 'I'll hold your hand. I promise I won't let you fall.' He laughs. 'What on Earth would I say to your dear mum if you did?'

Dawn is pushing on and if I want to do what I promised, show Reid my secret, then I can't stand around procrastinating.

I gaze along the steel beam. My skin's crawling. 'You better be sure about this.' I grip his hand. My knuckles are white.

He takes a length of rope from his pack, loops it around my waste. Our faces are close while he does this, our noses inches apart. We stare at each other. His arms around my waist, tying off the rope. He then loops the rope around his own waist and cinches it.

'Great,' I say. 'So if one of us falls, the other gets pulled down too. Good plan.'

He frowns, giving me an I-didn't-look-at-it-that-way look. 'Okay, firstly, I won't fall. Secondly, if you happen to slip, then I've got you tethered.'

'I don't like this one bit, Reid. Going to the transmitter station was one thing. That was a calculated risk. This is an unnecessary risk.'

'Think of it this way,' Reid says. 'If this beam was but a foot off the ground you'd cross it without thought or question. Right?'

'Yes, but it's not a foot off the ground, is it? It's a twenty metre drop.'

'Fifteen metres.'

'Reid, from this height, I don't think five meters is going to make much difference to the outcome, do you?'

He smiles. 'What I'm saying is, it's only the psychology that has changed.'

I smile. 'Not really, Reid. It is actually a long way to fall.'

'Come on,' he says, leading me to the edge of the road. 'Take my shoulders.'

I'm behind him, my hands going to his shoulders. I don't look down. I look directly forward, at his shoulder blades. Juke's pack on my back suddenly feels like it's stuffed with rocks. As if it's pulling me downwards.

'Okay, so just keep your feet on the beam,' he says. 'Watch where you're placing them. We're going to go slow. It's gonna be easy.'

I swallow. 'Look at my feet?'

'You need to see where you're stepping.'

I take a deep breath. 'This is so foolish. I can't do this.'

'You can. Trust me.' He starts forward. I follow, my fingers digging into his shoulders. I don't want to look down but like Reid said, I have to so I can see where the beam is, where I'm placing my feet.

Reid's already edged out onto it, his arms out from his body for balance. I'm watching where my feet go, the light from my head lamp illuminating the steel beam. And as I suspected, I can't help seeing the ground far below us.

Instantly my skin turns cold. And I'm willing myself to just concentrate on the beam, put one foot in front of the other and somehow ignore the sheer drop. There's nothing either side of us but a series of parallel beams running out to our sides anyway so I keep telling myself if I slip, if I begin to fall, all I have to do is leap outwards and grab onto one of these beams. I don't look, but I'm guessing the beam to my right is maybe two metres away.

We get about halfway across and Reid asks how I'm going.

'Don't talk to me!' I hiss at him. 'Let me concentrate!'

'Not far now,' he tells me.

I want to look, to see how far we've got to go but I don't dare lift my head, don't dare avert my attention from the beam, don't want to do anything that upsets my balance and rhythm. One foot in front of the other... one foot in front of the other...

I keep repeating these words over and over in my mind, like some mantra, I keep telling myself to breathe, stay calm, don't panic. You panic and you die, you panic and you die...

It feels like an entire hour goes by before we finally reach the other side. I feel like I haven't taken a breath the whole time. When I step back onto solid bitumen I suck in a huge breath of air. A sweet sensation of relief sweeps through me.

But I turn and slap Reid's shoulder. Hard. 'Don't ever make me do that again!'

Away from the edge of the road I sit down, my legs feeling like the bones have slipped out of them. My hands shaking. I look up at Reid, sweat on my brow. 'You'll be the death of me, I swear.'

He grins and wheels my bike over.

He helps me to my feet. He holds me again. We stare into each other's eyes. I watch him, the dawn light glinting in his eyes.

'Sometimes I honestly don't understand you,' I say to him.

He watches me. Curious. 'Really? What do you mean?'

'Yesterday, you were so paranoid. The entire way to the transmitter station and back you were jumping out of your skin. You were terrified. Yet, just now you act like you've never known fear.'

The smile goes off his face as he considers this. He concedes. 'I guess the difference is the sense of control. I feel in control here, crossing these beams. Like I do when we scale the skyscrapers for work. Like I've done for years. Heights don't worry me. Because it's my judgement that I'm relying on. Out there beyond the city, that's out of my control. It's a place I don't understand. There're too many risks, too many variables, too many unknown critters to contend with. Here in Jupiter... well, this is where I've grown up. Climbing Jupiter's buildings, it's what I know.'

'And yet,' I tell him, 'I felt more relaxed out there than I did just now.'

He shrugs. 'Difference of personality, I guess.' He smiles again, kissing me gently. 'Come on, let's keep moving. I wanna see where you're taking me.'

5

We cruise down Liberty Pass, leaving the tall buildings of Jupiter's CBD further at our backs. We head out into the northern suburbs where none now live except ghosts from the Old World. We pass through an old commercial district, with vacant shops, and an old cinema complex overgrown with trees; a carpet of weeds and blue flowers have spread throughout the foyer. The movie on the billboard out the front has apparently been showing for the last hundred years. Alien. I'm guessing ticket sales aren't exactly what they once were. We spot Gen deer grazing near the Future's Tech building, their human "offspring" growing out the sides of their chests and bellies. We spot harpy hounds in the sky. The ones with the hideous human faces. They soar overhead screeching, eyeing us. But they leave us alone at least.

I pedal toward the Civic Park Road and Reid's following, again asking where we're going. 'Time's getting on,' he reminds me.

'We're almost there,' I tell him.

We turn the corner and there's the city boundary fence cutting across Unity Park. We cycle through the park's iron gates, following the crumbling cycle path until the city's tall and unyielding perimeter fence intersects it and we can go no further.

I stop the bike and get off, resting my bike in the grass, its back wheel still spinning. I switch off my head lamp and place it in Juke's pack. Reid stops, standing there, straddling his bike, looking about, wondering what I could possibly have to show him out here. He removes his own head lamp and puts it away.

I hitch Juke's pack up my shoulder. 'This way,' I say.

I walk toward the boundary fence. There's a spot where fire has burnt the vines free of the wire and steel. What you see beyond is wild parkland, a grassy area that stretches away for maybe eighty feet. The remains of an old paved footpath winds through it. There are old benches out there whose wooden seats have almost all eroded through and collapsed away from their metal frames. Beyond, there's a line of rosewoods and elms, shady spots where the good people of the Old World used to retreat on their lunch breaks from their jobs in surrounding businesses. The trees are old now and wild looking and wild shrubs and giant stands of fungi grow beneath them.

I take the cow bell from the rucksack and hang it from the fence, Reid watching me closely. I smile at the deep look of intrigue on his face.

'What on Earth are you up to?' he asks, grasping the fence and peering out there into the parkland.

I watch the tree line. On the horizon the sun continues to rise. It casts our shadows long and tall and thin and alien looking behind us. To our south, Jupiter is spread tall, almost ominous, across the skyline; her empty skyscrapers residing over silence and emptiness.

I ring the bell.

Reid looks startled. Immediately grabbing the bell to shut it up. 'Skye, what on Mother's sweet Earth are you doing?' he hisses at me. 'You'll wake the damn Entities.'

My fingers are laced through the fence work, my face up against the wire, waiting, waiting... I say nothing to Reid. I want to do this the way Juke showed me the first time.

Suddenly I see one of them. Her face. Her glaring eyes. I wait for Reid to see. And when he gasps I know he's spotted her.

'Holy gosh!' I hear him hiss, backing away. 'Skye, it's an Entity.'

I push back from the fence and gently take his arm before he has a chance to get back on his bike and cycle away. 'Reid, it's okay. Honestly. Wait and see. Trust me.'

He has a right to be wary of her. He knows the horror stories, the scary bed time stories we're all told as kids, how the Entities outnumber us, how we mustn't disturb them in case they invade us, how they were the cause and blame for two major massacres thirty years ago; how they spread throughout Jupiter killing and slaughtering and slashing and hacking and eating.

But it's their appearance as much as anything that chills people. When I first saw them, when Juke first brought me here, it was more this aspect than their reputation that frightened me. Their lipless mouths, their large, unblinking, lidless, yellow eyes, their straggly hair and claws for nails. But the scariest thing of all is they look like us, that they're essentially human. They speak no language, at least none I'm aware of, and as far as we know they're of inferior intelligence, but they look just like us. Like people. There is an estimated two or three thousands of them living out there beyond the city wall. That fact alone scares most Jupiter folk.

'Reid, come. Watch. This is what I wanted to show you.'

He frowns. He swallows. He looks nervous. I look back to make sure the female Entity is still there. She is. Waiting in the shadows of the tree line. Watching us.

Reid glares at me like I've completely lost my mind. I pull off the rucksack and fish out some dried lizard. I reach my arm through the fence, offering the meat. Reid's like, 'Bloody hell, Skye, I'm not sure about this.'

'It's alright. Watch.'

The female Entity emerges slowly, looking about, sniffing for a trap. Sensing none she begins to cross the grassed area of the parkland. Over my shoulder I notice Reid's eyes are huge and his mouth has fallen open. 'This is out of control,' he keeps saying. 'This is completely nuts. I hope you know what you're doing.'

I don't need to say anything. I just hold my hands through the fence with my offerings.

The female Entity stops several metres from the fence line, watching us, sniffing the air. I wonder if she's wary of Reid.

'Reid,' I say gently. 'Here, grab some food. Offer some. She's suspicious. She wants to know you're no threat.' I look at him. 'Reid.'

He glares at me. But to his credit he eventually reaches into Juke's pack, never taking his eyes off the Entity. His fingers pull out a jar of milk.

'Loosen the lid,' I tell him. 'They don't know how to unscrew it.'

He does so, still not taking his gaze from the female Entity who is now barely a metre from us, separated only by this tall steel fence.

The Entity takes the dried lizard from my grip; she's gentle as a puppy, the way she clasps it, lifting it from my hand. She eats noisily. I smile at her constantly as Juke taught me so as not to appear threatening. Others begin to emerge from the tree line now. They trudge across the ground toward the fence, all of them with their spooky, unblinking eyes. Females, males. In their tattered clothes. Hungry, thirsty. Another two dozen or so remain in the shadows.

The female takes the jar of milk from Reid's hand. The lid is loose. She fumbles with it, putting her ugly mouth to it, biting, slurping. By pure accident the lid slips free and some of the milk spills into the grass. Still, she gets the jar to her mouth and slurps milk thirstily. As other Entities reach the fence, she passes the milk jar to them. One of them, a male, takes it from her and sips. The female now takes some biscuits from my hand. She stuffs one into her mouth before passing the rest to her friends.

'They're sharing,' Reid says, frowning. 'Bloody hell, they're sharing.'

I hand through the fence another loosened jar of milk. Reid fishes out more cookies, passing them through.

Reid watches the Entities eat and drink and share provisions around. I begin handing the rest of the food through. Reid actually seems to be enjoying this now, fascinated, helping me serve up the remaining supplies in my bag, I see it in his face, he's exhilarated. Terrified but exhilarated.

Some of the Entities who are still hidden amidst the trees, now emerge. Those who are obviously still wary of our presence remain. They are taken food by the Entities who have come across to us.

When all our supplies are in their hands and they realise there's no more they begin to retreat. The female who approached us first wants to touch my hand. It was Juke who showed me she means no harm. Juke believed that this is her way of showing gratitude. I let her squeeze my lower forearm. She then reaches for Reid. At first he flinches but I urge him to be polite.

'They aren't like we've been told,' I tell Reid. 'They aren't riddled with sickness. They aren't crazy.'

Tentatively he lets her hold his wrist. She eyes us briefly with her large goggling eyes and then turns away and slowly trails after the others.

Reid stands there holding onto the fence, his face pressed up to the wire, watching them go, as if he doesn't want the experience to be over, as if he doesn't quite believe what just happened. If I didn't know better I'd say he's awestruck.

'Wow,' he says finally, 'wow, that was completely bizarre.' He laughs, pushing his fringe out of his eyes.

The sun sends itself across Jupiter now, lighting the eastern faces of the skyscrapers. There are harpies swarming the distant building tops. Lug flies buzz lazily about us. We can hear crickets in the grass. The breeze still plays with our hair but the sky is clear.

I zip up the rucksack (Juke's belongings still sitting snug within) and sling it back over my shoulder. The last of the Entities slink back beneath the trees. Now we're left with just the scene of the parklands. Empty. How it was when we arrived.

Reid turns and looks at me. He's smiling, shaking his head, but smiling. 'Okay, what on Earth was that all about? It's obvious this isn't the first time you've done this. So, what gives?'

6

We sit on some crumbling benches on a balcony of an old café not far from the park, gazing back toward Jupiter. Between us and the buildings of the CBD are two kilometres of city roads and old parks. It's a nice panoramic vista really. The Freedom Canal, once filled with water and lilies and carp lies there empty, choked in weeds and fig palms. Some of the buildings of the CBD are layered in vivid carpets of green and red where the strawberry vines grow—vines that were the result of positive genetic manipulations that resulted in a species of strawberry that thrived in arid conditions and yielded vast numbers of fruit. We can't see them but there're people climbing those buildings right now, strawberry harvesters and sentries accompanying them to ward off imps or harpies or eagles. We hear the distant squeal of birds over the city, and the screech of the multi-limbed Gen monkeys.

I've brought fresh cola. Reid doesn't seem so fussed now if we're late for school. He doesn't mention it at least. For the moment it's gone from his mind.

'Juke was the one,' I tell Reid. 'He told me he wanted to prove people wrong, that the Entities weren't these terrors we make them out to be.'

'Juke?'

'Yes. He first brought me here maybe eighteen months ago. I was terrified. I wanted to run when I saw them coming toward us. But I've been here a few times now. I always bring food. They're so gentle.' I turn and study his face. 'I just wanted to show you.'

'You come out here alone?'

'Sometimes, yeah.'

He runs a hand through his hair. He sips cola. He holds my hand. 'It was an amazing experience, Skye. Really. I... I'm a bit speechless actually.' He shakes his head again and laughs to himself. He's watching me. Like he's seeing this new side to me. 'You don't think it's dangerous coming out here on your own?'

'You don't think it's dangerous balancing across the steel framework of Liberty Pass?' I watch his eyes, his mouth, his smile.

'Fair point,' he says.

I lean close to him. Our eyes lock. We're like this for a second or two before our lips touch.

Our kisses are slow at first, gentle. But quickly become wet, feverish. I lean into him, feeling his athletic chest against my breasts. I move onto him, sitting on him belly to belly, my arms around his neck, his arms around my body, pulling me to him tightly. As we kiss, I feel the strength in his arms, I feel safe, wanted, I feel a fire inside me. I feel love.

There's an awkward moment when both of us sense this could go one of two ways. And we break apart the moment when things might go too far. We stare at each other's eyes for a few seconds, breathing heavy, our lips wet. Then we break into laughter.

We hold each other as we sit here, the side of my head against his. The morning sun on the rise. My eyes shut, I breathe in the scent of his hair and skin.

7

We ride back through Jupiter's silent centre, taking a route around the crumbling flyover this time. Empty skyscrapers rise up on all sides; morning's deep shadows are still here in the streets. There are dark spaces in building foyers, places with no light. There are large lizards scrapping over the carcass of a dead harpy near the Capital Finance building.

Where the street widens, Reid draws alongside me and his wrist-com begins bleeping. He slows down to check who's calling. Then he's pulling on his brakes and I watch him over my shoulder as he pulls to a stop.

I come to a halt some distance ahead. Sitting there on my bike, gazing back at him. Wondering who he's talking to.

When he's done he rolls up to me.

'Who was that?' I ask.

'Sola Brown,' he tells me, looking thoughtful. 'From city administration.'

This picks at my curiosity. Why would Sola Brown be contacting him? Sola's an attractive woman but she's also twice Reid's age. 'I didn't know you and her were acquainted.'

'We're not really,' he tells me.

'So why's she calling you?'

'It's a bit of a story,' he says.

I shrug. 'I'm all ears.'

He watches me for a moment. Maybe wondering if I'm being jealous.

'I uncovered some curious information last night,' he says.

I watch him, frowning. 'What sort of information?'

'About Juke.'

My eyes bulge. 'Juke?'

He sits back on his bike seat, his arms folded. 'Last night after you called I couldn't stop thinking about the transmitter station, about what Juke might've been doing out there. It got me thinking about the people Juke used to hang out with before he disappeared. People like Marsden, Graver, Rhimes, Fellox. And then it just came to me. Carson Coops.'

I'm still frowning. I'm sort of speechless. I mean, all this and he hasn't spoken one word of it. Not one. 'You've been sitting on this all morning?'

'Yeah, because I was waiting for Sola Brown to call me back.'

I'm not getting the point here. 'Why?'

'Okay, hear me out. So I called Coops and asked if he had anything he might be able to tell me about Juke, you know, about Juke's movements before he disappeared. But Coops couldn't tell me anything. He says Juke's vanishing was as much a mystery to him as it was to everyone else.

'So I'm still sitting out on the porch when I see Jonny Vrabe coming back from his late night Sorting shift. He sees me and says good evening, and you know, out of courtesy, I go over to the garden fence and ask how his day's been and he's like in this reflective mood. He goes all quiet but then he starts telling me it's the anniversary of his mum dying and I tell him I'm sorry and it's a bit awkward. So to fill the silence I mention that it's been almost a year since Juke vanished. Like, you know, hoping to make him feel better, like he's not the only person who's lost someone. I don't think it worked because he says this stuff about Rama Haynes. How Juke and Haynes were never up to any good, that the stuff they were getting into meant their days were pretty much numbered anyway. He says his mum's demise was no fault of her own.'

I frown. I think back to the only Rama Haynes I've known during my life here in Jupiter. That particular Haynes died eight months ago on a routine harvesting job. He fell to his death from the fiftieth floor of the Realty building. They say he'd forgotten to secure his safety lines. 'Rama Haynes?' I ask.

'Yeah.'

'The guy who fell?'

'Yeah.'

'So what did Vrabe mean when he said Haynes and Juke were up to no good?'

Reid shrugs. 'He didn't specify. What he did say though was that he saw Haynes and Juke loitering once over near the Stocks and Trade Commission building. He said they were chatting about something or other, looking like they didn't wanna be overheard. Vrabe reckons they were up to something. That the two of them were always sharing secrets. Anyway, so I thought it might be worth having a chat with Jean Marlowe. Cos you remember, Haynes was living with her.

'So I mean it was late, but I cycled over to Jean's place and luckily for me she was still up, which I thought she might've been because I've often seen her sitting up late drinking. So I'm talking to her about Juke, and she says she never saw Haynes and Juke hanging out together. Which I thought was interesting. But what she does is let me go through a box of Haynes' stuff, stuff that she's never touched. And well I find this.'

Reid reaches into his shirt pocket and pulls out a snap-print. He leans forward, handing it to me.

I take it. I'm silent

It's an image of Juke. He's standing with his Star Wars rucksack slung over his shoulder. Haynes is standing beside him. They're at the base of some building.

'What building is that?'

'Don't know.'

'Who took this snap-print?'

'Well, that's why Sola Brown's just contacted me,' Reid says. 'Last night I sent her the snap-print registration number, asking if she could possibly tell me who the number is tagged to. She said it might take a few hours before she got to it. I told her I could wait. That was last night. It's only now she's told me whose it is.'

'So whose is it?' I ask.

'It's tagged to Imogen Blake.'

8

The remainder of our ride to Jupiter High is conducted mostly in silence. I don't speak. Thoughts are bubbling away madly in my head. Reid rides behind me, or at my side when the road permits. We cycle beneath the shadows of the tall buildings. The grassy streets are empty, trees that grow from ancient cracked pavements tip slightly in the cool dry breezes. We cycle by a pair of city automated Watchguards. They stop to eye us in silence as we roll by.

Reid asks if I'm okay.

Truth is, I can't stop thinking of Imogen. Her sitting there yesterday at school, looking at Reid. I don't want to believe she took that snap-print of Juke.

What was she doing with Juke and Haynes?

I'm having trouble imagining what they could all have been up to. What secrets she might hold. I hate the idea that she and Juke were friends.

Reid tries to get me to speak. He keeps cycling alongside me and looking at me. 'You okay?' he asks.

I nod.

'What are you thinking?'

'Why didn't you tell me sooner?'

He shrugs. 'I didn't know about the Imogen connection until just now.'

I just watch him.

'Thing is,' he says, 'that key we found in Juke's rucksack. Maybe Imogen knows what it's for.'

9

We emerge from the shadows of the city and into warm morning sunshine, cycling over the bridge that spans Jupitar canal. We ride across the Victory Parks farmland via the straight stretch of road that is Liberation Avenue, past the empty trams, and at the memorial, we veer left toward Jupiter High. We cycle by the old fountain at the head of the school (there's no water in the fountain these days, nothing but grit and flowering weeds and dust worms). And we approach the ancient steel bike racks, situated on an area of concrete that crumbles and degenerates into grass and weed the further from the building it stretches. There're numerous other bikes already parked there. One or two solar-wheels. We're late for class.

That makes two days in a row.

When we enter the classroom, Morgan and Eddie are both staring at us from their desks, wondering where we've been. Professor Iverson is teaching Old Earth geopolitics today. We sort of slink in trying not to be too disruptive. All the other students are watching us. Iverson gives both Reid and myself a knowing look. As if he knows what we've been up to, as if he thinks we've been off rolling around together somewhere.

Good, let him think that.

We find a seat. Iverson continues. He's giving some lecture about the politics of Europe and the Americas in the twenty first century. As the lesson drags on he touches on the British Empire and Queen Victoria's England and the Industrial Revolution.

We're in classroom #4 today. The one without the rear wall. It opens onto one of the old playing fields. Blue Guppers, those odd flowers with "mouths", grow from vines up the walls and across the ceiling, poking through the window recesses. They gup at the air when moths fly by, snatching them up in spiny blue petals, swallowing them down into stems that are segmented like fingers, each segment acting like a belly—each plant looking to be digesting a week's worth of bugs. A cool breeze pushes in from outside.

Reid and I are still sweating. As Iverson drones on, I can't help looking around. Imogen's usually in this class. But today she's not here.

10

Classes break for the morning recess and students disperse into the sunshine. As Professor Iverson leaves the room I apologise for being late. 'Quite alright,' he tells me. 'Wasn't too long ago I was your age.' He smiles. 'I won't begrudge anyone chasing love.'

He smiles and leaves.

Morgan and Eddie are standing outside, waiting. 'So where were you pair this morning?' Morgan demands to know. Morgan doesn't know about the Entities. I swore to Juke I'd never tell anyone about them. Reid's the only person I've told.

'Reid's unearthed some intriguing information,' I tell Morgan.

She looks at me sideways, smirking. Like she believes there's more to it, like she thinks Reid and I have been making out somewhere.

Birds are calling in the sky. Reid's looking about, scanning the other students. No doubt looking for Imogen.

'So, out with it then,' Morgan says. 'What's this information?'

We sit down at our favourite bench beneath the acacia trees. Reid speaking softly, telling her and Eddie about Imogen and Juke. He shows them the snap-print.

'Imogen took this?' Morgan asks quietly.

'That's what I've been told,' Reid says.

'She and Juke were friends?' Eddie asks like he can't picture it.

'Apparently.' Reid keeps looking about. 'You guys seen her this morning?'

Morgan shakes her head. 'No.'

'Does anyone have her call code stored on their wrist-com?' I ask. I'm thinking we should call her.

None of us have it. I wonder if it's worth asking other students. Might it attract scrutiny? We can't decide if it's a good idea or not. Reid then suggests she might be running late for school today. But back in class, Morgan asks Professor Iverson if he knows where Imogen is and he tells us she's rostered on at the Federal Exchange building for harvesting duty.

Any other day and I wouldn't have cared less about Imogen's whereabouts. But if she's harbouring crucial information about Juke, if she knows his whereabouts... well, I need to talk to her. I need to know.

When classes quit for the day, we head straight for our bikes. We're going to ride out to the Federal Exchange building to see if we can catch Imogen as she comes off her shift. We're waiting up for Eddie, wondering where he's got to. We spot him back near the school buildings, hurrying our way. As he reaches us he looks spectral white.

'You okay?' I ask him, frowning.

'I just overheard something terrible,' he tells us panting. 'There's been another fall.'

'Where?' Reid asks.

'At the Federal Exchange.'

PERSEPHONE

1

THE Federal Exchange building stands on the western edge of Jupiter Square. (They say it was around this large grassy quadrangle that the founders of the Jupiter settlements lay the first foundations of our city.) On the northern edge of the Square there stands the old town hall with its marble pillars and marble stairs and the town hall clock with its hands permanently frozen on five after five. On the southern edge of the Square there sits the remains of Jupiter's First Bank with its cavernous foyer shaped like a giant clam shell. Directly opposite the Federal Districts building is the old Firestar Cinemax complex where they once showed VirtuaReal movies, Holoflicks, and old time motion pictures.

Dust layered arcade games sit there on the mezzanine level of the Cinemax building. Crumbling posters litter the floor. Bones of harpy hounds and rats and snakes lie about in the grime and rubbish. The cashier's benches are covered in dirt and mess. The old menu boards are still hanging on the walls, advertising popcorn, vanilla-choc ice creams, cheese dogs, Plutogirl chocolate bars, Summa Daze potato chips.

We scale the service stairway and into one of the old theatres. We walk up the aisle; empty, broken seats on either side of us all facing a screen that has a jagged crack running through it from top to bottom. We plod along the floor where the ancient carpet has rotted away revealing the cement beneath. A huge portion of the ceiling has collapsed. It lets in shafts of stark sunlight. We used to play here as kids. We used to sit in these seats and play make-believe, pretending we were in star ships, or in some deep sea exploration vessel.

We move into the curtain clad hallway where most of the curtains lie crumpled on the floor, stinking of rat droppings and cockroaches. We move out into the foyer, stepping carefully, trying to keep noise to a minimum. The windows of the mezzanine level look out across Jupiter Square. Most of the windows are smashed and those that aren't are so dark with dirt you can barely see through them. We creep slowly to these windows, peeking through clear patches where the grime hasn't built up.

Across the Square we see the body lying in the grass. There's a sheet over it. There's blood. It's impossible to tell if it's male or female. It sends chills through me just seeing it. Wondering who it is. Wondering what happened, how they fell. We've had three building falls in the last two months alone. Each one of them a tragic loss of life. Each one has given me nightmares.

It seems unusual that there are no bystanders today. Falls attract curious onlookers. But today there're only four people down there near the body. I recognise them as members of the city authority: Hoak, Jonah, Maerren, and Fotcher. Fotcher's jotting notes. They're talking. Discussing things. Words we can't hear. Every now and then one of them points at something in the reaches of the building soaring above them. They all look up. Which makes us look up.

The Federal Exchange building rises to a height of eighty floors. The upper portion sports a glove of green vegetation where strawberry vines grow thick. There's no hint of red—all the fruit up there has been harvested.

Our attention draws back to the street as a solar-cart trundles up, its solar sail poking skyward. It parks near the covered body. The driver steps out. We see it's Garlan. Everyone down there helps lift the body off the grass, careful to keep it concealed. They lift it into the rear of the solar-cart. Once done, Garlan and Maerren get into the cart and drive away.

Hoak, Fotcher and Jonah chat amongst themselves for a short while before they return to their bicycles and ride off.

Jupiter Square is now vacant.

Just blood on the ground where the body had come to rest.

2

We sit here wondering what to do. Are there workers still up there, finishing up after the tragedy? Is Imogen up there? Most likely they've been dismissed for the day. Most likely the site foreman is being interviewed about the incident, about exactly what happened, about what went wrong with safety measures.

I suggest that maybe we ought go to city watch and find out who died. Maybe... I mean, maybe it was Imogen.

Reid's considering my suggestion when suddenly there's movement in the first floor foyer of the Federal Exchange.

There's someone there. Someone we hadn't noticed until now. Someone who's been in hiding.

We all go still, watching them, wondering who it could be.

'Who is it?' Morgan whispers.

They've disappeared into the stairwell. They're taking the stairs down to street level. When we see the person walk out into the street we finally see who it is.

Imogen.

Fascinated, we watch her. She stops near where the body lay. She circles the spot. She crouches. She's got some strange apparatus in her hand.

'What's she doing?' Morgan asks, her voiced hushed.

'Taking blood samples?' Eddie says with a shrug.

She picks stuff out of the grass with forceps. Placing substances in a jar and putting this in a pack. She pulls out a snapshutter and takes two or three snap-prints.

She surveys the street. She gazes up the side of the building. A few moments later she checks something on her wrist-com then begins walking away.

'She's leaving,' I say.

'Do we follow her?' Morgan asks, but I'm not even waiting to reply. I believe more than ever that Imogen knows what happened to Juke. I need to confront her.

I start for the old escalator stairs, but Reid catches me up, taking my arm, stopping me. 'Skye, wait. We have to be careful here.'

I go to shove past him. 'Reid, I have to know,' I tell him. 'I have to ask her if she knows about Juke.'

'Listen,' he says, 'she doesn't want to be seen. Didn't you notice that? She kept herself hidden while the others were inspecting the body.'

'Yes, which means she's hiding something.'

'Exactly, which means if we trail her discreetly she might lead us to it.'

I start moving down the stairs, the glass walls of the cinema complex are long gone, I see her striding up the street. Reid trails me. 'Skye, listen, you're not getting me. What I'm saying is, she's trying to conceal something.'

I stop, I look at him.

Gently he holds my hand. 'If it's connected to Juke's disappearance... well, we don't want to blow it do we.'

I sigh. I'm eager to be after her. But Reid's right.

3

We move for cover in the street. But it seems Imogen has slipped us. I don't know how. With all of us watching her. I'm angry. We're in the street arguing about this. I'm blaming Reid. He was in front of us. He'd snuck ahead. He claimed he had Imogen in sight the whole time. 'You were closest,' I say. 'You were right there. How could you not have seen where she went?'

Eddie's quiet. So is Morgan. They sense a lover's tiff, they don't know what to say.

I drag my hair from my sweaty face, exasperated.

'Look,' Reid tells me. 'We'll just have to approach her at school.'

I gaze down the street. Agitated. Wondering where she's gone. How she slipped us so effortlessly.

Suddenly there's this voice saying, 'Why are you lot following me?'

We look across the street. We don't see her at first. Then we notice her standing there hidden in the shade of an old telephone box and a street bound vendor's stall.

For a while no-one speaks. Imogen's awaiting an answer.

I look sheepishly at Reid. Then back at Imogen.

'We're sorry,' I say to her. 'It's just that...'

'Skye wants to know what happened to Juke,' Reid says. 'We received information that you may've been acquainted with him. That's all. We don't mean to be snooping around.'

Her blonde hair is tied behind her shoulder. She wears boots and utility pants. 'Why would I know?'

Reid produces the snap-print. Slowly we make our way to her position. 'We believe you took this.' He holds it out for her.

She sees it. She makes no comment.

'Is it true?' I ask her.

She turns and begins walking away, her blonde hair flowing out behind her.

'Imogen, please,' I say, starting after her.

She refuses to stop. I draw alongside her. Reid on her other side. Eddie and Morgan following.

'What do you know?' I ask her. 'Please Imogen. Would you tell me?'

'I don't know anything.'

Reid laughs. 'That sounds like someone who's trying to conceal something.'

She doesn't comment. I pull Juke's Star Wars backpack off my shoulder and show her. 'Do your recognise this?'

Again she doesn't say anything.

I pull out the mysterious jar with the tiny people floating inside it. 'What about this?'

Immediately she stops, her mouth open. She glares at me. 'Where did you find that?'

Eddie goes to tell her but I shake my head at him. 'You tell me what you know about Juke first,' I tell Imogen.

She eyes me closely.

'Did you take this snap-print?' I ask her, pointing at the image in Reid's hand.

She sighs. 'Yes.'

'So, you were friends with Juke?'

'Yes.'

It's difficult accepting this. That she might know his secrets. That Juke would tell her and not me. 'Where is he?'

'I don't know.'

'When did you last see him?'

'The night before he vanished.'

'Where was he?'

Imogen eyes me closely. Then looks at Reid. 'I promised Juke I wouldn't tell.'

'He was my brother.'

'Step brother.'

'Doesn't matter. He lived with me and my mum. I need to know what happened to him.'

'Look, I don't actually know what happened to him,' she says. 'That's what I'm trying to find out.'

'Is that what you were doing back there?' Reid asks her. 'At the Federal Exchange. Taking snap-prints and tissue samples?'

'No.'

'Who fell?' Reid asks. 'Who was it?'

'I don't know.'

I sigh. 'Look, could you please tell me where you last saw Juke? And what he was doing? Was he leaving Jupiter? Was he going somewhere?'

She sighs. 'Three blocks from here. The Persephone building.'

I frown, looking west in the general direction of that particular building. 'Persephone? That building's vacant.'

'Most of it is yes.'

'Most of it?'

She takes a while to answer. 'There's an apartment. On the fifty seventh floor.'

'An apartment?'

'Yes.'

'Who's apartment?'

'No-one's. It was just a place where Juke and I were collecting things.'

'Collecting things?' Reid says. 'What sort of things?'

'You wouldn't be ready to hear. It's why we kept it secret.'

'Please,' I say to her, 'tell me.'

She takes a while to answer. Gazing into my eyes. She sighs. 'It would be easier to show you. But I don't have the key to the apartment. Juke took it with him. The door's locked. I've tried breaking in but it's a steel door. I've been unable to pick the lock.'

'You say a key?' I ask her, looking from Imogen to Reid.

'Yes.'

I dig my hand into the rucksack. I pull out the key that we found.

She takes it and studies it, eyeing the numbers on the tag. #4/78. Her eyes narrow. 'Where did you get this?'

'Like the jar, we found it.' That's all I tell her.

4

We stand outside the Persephone building gazing up at its empty heights. I feel puzzled by this. Puzzled that Juke never told me about this place. Almost hurt. We were close. Why would he tell Imogen and not me? He showed me the Entities after all. So why not this?

Reid pushes into the foyer. We trail him. Like nearly every other building in Jupiter it is gloomy and lifeless inside except for the sun beams cutting through broken windows. Persephone used to consist of residential apartments. The foyer has an empty reception area, and some lounge settees. A couple of these settees have been pushed over and their fabric torn. The whole place is layered in dust. We move for the stairs. There's something lying crumpled in the open elevator. It's dark here away from the sunlight, we can't tell what it is.

I take my head lamp from my pack. Reid does likewise. Once we flick them on, the elevator recess lights up and we see the shape in there. Some dog or monkey. Dead. Desiccated. A doll lies next to it.

The stairwell is almost pitch black. There's no light but that from our headlamps sweeping the walls. I'm not looking forward to climbing fifty seven levels of darkness before we reach Juke's secret room. And I can't help wondering why Juke opted for a hideout in such a restrictive location anyway. The climb itself will be physically exhaustive enough on its own. And there's always the possibility that some sort of creature or creatures lives here now. Genetically modified critters who love the dark and eat flesh.

I imagine I already smell them. Some animal stink.

It's just the thing in the elevator, I tell myself.

'Are you certain this is where Juke's apartment is?' I ask Imogen. It's been a year since Juke was here; I fear (or hope) that she might have her buildings mixed up. That it's closer to ground. That it's far less daunting to reach.

She answers with a look that says, If you don't believe me you're free to leave.

5

The first few floors come and go. We trudge and trudge. It's stuffy in here and the air's warm. I'm sweating like mad. On the eighth floor Imogen leaves the stairwell. The rest of us hesitate.

'What are you doing?' I ask her.

Imogen says nothing. She simply moves around to the elevator well. There's a makeshift panel on the wall. There's sunlight coming in at the end of the hall. Along the hall there are rows and rows of doors. All silent. I have never been in this building. You hear rumours of old hotels and apartment blocks. That dead people still inhabit them. Lying in their beds. Seated at their tables. Sitting in their bath tubs. I know the rumours are there to prevent you exploring as a kid. To scare you off. But you can't help wondering if it might be true.

Imogen presses a button and the panel lights up red. Moments later there's a shunting noise in the lift well. An elevator arrives.

'Where's this drawing power from?' Reid wants to know.

'Solar array on the roof,' Imogen tells him. 'The solar panels were there. Juke repaired them and rigged them to run the elevator.'

'The city authority know about this?' Eddie asks.

'If they did,' Imogen says, 'they might've come by already to see what we're up to. But they've never been here as far as I know.'

The rest of us eye her, puzzled. The empty elevator sits there waiting.

'We taking it?' Reid asks.

Imogen shakes her head. 'Not until you tell me where you found this key. And that jar.'

I look at Reid, wondering if we should tell her, wondering if there is any harm if we did. Before I can speak Reid gives her an answer.

'The old transmitter station.'

Her eyes narrow again. 'So you went out there?'

My eyes narrow. I look from her to Reid. It sounds as if she either knew that's where Juke was headed, or she had prior knowledge of our plan to visit that facility. Is that what I'm hearing here?

'We did,' Reid says.

'And this key was there?' she asks.

Reid nods. 'Yes.'

'What else did you find?'

'Some stuff,' I tell her, glancing at Reid, wondering if he has anything to tell the rest of us about how Imogen might've been privy to our plans to seek out the transmitter station. I think back to yesterday morning. When Reid and Eddie had showed up at our rendezvous point, where we'd stashed our gear, before we'd made our way beneath the perimeter fence. I recall Reid looking about, as if searching for folk who might've followed him through the reed grass. I don't want to be paranoid, but might he have been searching for Imogen? Might he have invited her along?

Standing here now, I'm trying to interpret the looks between them. Are there unspoken messages going back and forth between their eyes?

'What else did you find?' Imogen asks again.

'This bag,' Reid tells her indicating the Star Wars rucksack. 'A notebook. That weird jar with those tiny people floating around. Some strange bits of metal. Other stuff.'

She watches him closely as he speaks. She's a bit taller than me. And beautiful, like I've mentioned. Blonde hair, full lips, sultry blue eyes. I can see why so many boys in Jupiter talk about her. How so many of them are beguiled by her. Infatuated.

Is Reid one of them?

'What else?' she asks.

'Where we found this bag,' says Reid, 'the furniture was in a strange spiral formation. And the floor in the middle looked as if it'd been, I don't know, scraped away. Hollowed out.'

Imogen takes in a sharp breath. As if she has finally heard the one thing she's been waiting to hear. Whether she's relieved or disturbed by this information, it's difficult to tell.

The elevator is still waiting.

She leads us in now. She presses #57 on the panel. The doors slide shut and the elevator begins to rise. Except for the soft lights on the elevator's display panel, the only luminescence is that from our head lamps.

'What do you know about such a phenomenon?' Reid asks her.

Imogen shrugs. She stares into space. 'It doesn't make sense.'

We don't know what she means by this. We travel the rest of the way in silence. I eye Reid's face. I keep thinking, What do you know about Imogen that the rest of us don't?

6

The ride up seems to take forever. I begin to worry that the elevator will grind to a stop somewhere during its ascent and we'll be stranded here and starve to death. But finally it comes to a halt and the doors part and there's blinding sunlight streaming down through glass panels in the building walls. We step out. We follow Imogen down the hall. There's no wall at the far end of the building. As if it has just simply dropped away at some stage in its history. Or blasted off. Or maybe it was removed for maintenance purposes and then the Great Silence struck and there was no one to put it back. There's just open space and a deathly drop to the streets below.

'Wow,' Eddie says, looking out at the city, wind blowing our hair about.

Imogen stops outside room twenty. 'This is it.'

I frown at the number. It doesn't match the number on the key.

'It was Juke's idea,' Imogen explains. 'Muddle the numbers so that if we ever lost the key it wouldn't make sense to anyone who found it.'

'Who else knows about this place?' Morgan asks.

'Just myself and Juke.'

'Did Rama Haynes know?'

She nods. 'Yes. Before he died.'

I push the key into the slot. I turn and can't help feeling a little surprised when it disengages the lock.

I push the door inwards.

7

The door opens onto a large living area. There's a kitchen off to the right. There are tall windows that draw in lots of natural light. We step inside. I'm eager to enter but I can't help feel that I'm trespassing upon someone's private space. Juke's private space. Would he mind? I don't know. Why did he hide this place from Mum and me?

Once I'm in I forget any guilt almost immediately. I'm simply in awe over what I'm seeing.

There's stuff here. Lots of stuff. Most of it mundane. Like reference books from libraries. Or ornamental objects such as brass flamingos, or small silver figurines of tigers. There are also sets of armour hanging on racks. Like the Steelskin armour used by the city authority. Armour that feels like fabric but you couldn't hope to pierce it with a knife if you tried.

But there are other things here too, things I've never seen before. Things I've only read about or seen pictures of in books. Cassette tapes. CD's. DVD's. Blu ray discs. A dusty old TV. Video sets. IPads. Phones. Video cameras. VR units. Holodrives. Spaceshifters. MatJumps. There're novels too. By authors I've never heard of. Stephen King. J.K. Rowling. George R. R. Martin.

One of the bedrooms contains all sorts of militaristic stuff. Things I don't recognise. Eddie speculates what they might be. Thermal scanners and more armour sets and aqua-breathers and a multitude of collected weapons.

There's a table in the centre of the living room. With maps spread out upon its surface. I see one of the maps is of Jupiter City. There're red circles around certain city locations.

'What were you guys doing here exactly?' I ask Imogen.

She's looking around. As if she herself is searching for something.

'Imogen? What were you doing here? Why did Juke keep this place secret?'

She stops what she's doing. Plants her hands on her hips. Scratches her chin on her shoulder. 'I'm not supposed to say.'

'Why?'

'Imogen,' Reid says. 'Please. Tell us what was going on here.'

'You wouldn't believe me.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' I ask.

I see it then. Two jars on a bench. I go over and see the tiny floating people inside. 'Mother Earth. Look. Imogen, you have to tell us what you guys were doing here.'

She sighs. She looks at us. We're all watching her, eager for an explanation. Finally she sits down. She gathers her thoughts. 'Okay, Juke found something. We don't know where it came from.' She stops talking. After a few moments she says, 'We were mapping something.'

'What?'

She looks up at us. 'Portals.'

We all frown. 'Portals?' Reid asks.

She shrugs. 'Doorways.'

I'm frowning at her. 'What do you mean doorways?'

'Special doorways. To other places.'

None of us speak. This is ludicrous. What on Earth is she talking about?

'What do you mean other places?' I ask her, my brain in a complete whirl.

'We don't know. Juke vanished. We never worked it out.' Her brow wrinkles. I can't tell if it's from a pang of sadness, or frustration. 'Since Juke disappeared, I've been trying to find further evidence of these doorways. But it's all gone cold.'

'Is that what you were doing at the Federal Exchange?' Reid wants to know.

She takes several moments before she answers. 'Look, we've had a lot of falls in Jupiter over the years. We all know that safety equipment can fail. But what if it's not always the safety gear that is to blame?'

'What do you mean?' Morgan asks her.

'Juke had this theory,' Imogen tells her. 'He wondered that, maybe, every now and then, one of these mysterious portals might have appeared before a random member of a harvesting team. That this person, distracted by the phenomenon, has misjudged their step and fallen to their death.'

I watch her. I look around at the others, wondering if anyone else thinks this is all a little too fanciful to swallow.

'It's how Rama Haynes died,' Imogen says. 'He found one of these portals. He was trying to reach it when he fell.'

'How do you know?' I won't believe this.

'I was with him when it happened,' Imogen tells me, her brow creased. 'I watched him fall.'

'You watched him fall?' Reid asks her.

She nods. But doesn't elaborate.

We just stare at her. I can't read her expression, I don't know if she's telling the truth. What she's saying is so bizarre.

'You've seen one of these portals then?' I ask.

'Yes.'

We still just watch her. Again she doesn't elaborate. She's gazing out at the city through the dusty windows. She says, 'And that's not all. Juke had another theory.'

We wait for her to go on.

'Tell us,' Reid says.

'Some of the people who've fallen to their death,' she says with a shrug, 'Juke believed they possibly fell through one of these portals. From another world.'

We watch her. All of us frowning. None of this is making sense.

'Fell through one?' I ask. 'What do you mean?'

'The city authority won't declare it publically,' Imogen tells us, 'but Juke uncovered secret information that suggests there are upwards of thirty bodies frozen in the city morgue. Thirty bodies who have no identity. People who aren't from Jupiter. They were all found deceased at the base of various different buildings around Jupiter. Juke believes they have all fallen through these portals.'

This news is like a bombshell. We simply watch her aghast.

'Thirty bodies?' Morgan asks her. 'Of strangers?'

'That's right.'

'What, they just fell out of the sky?'

Imogen nods. 'Yes.'

I blink at her. I suddenly can't help thinking of the droid I encountered in the Barren Wood. 'Where have they all come from then?'

Imogen shrugs. 'We don't know. That's why Juke and I were investigating these strange doorways. To try and work it out.'

'So what was Juke doing,' I ask her, 'the day he disappeared? Had he set out to look for one of these portals?'

'Yes.'

'And you haven't seen him since?'

She shakes her head. 'No. I fear he has found a portal... I fear that he vanished inside it.'

My breath almost leaves my lungs. I swallow deeply. 'Mother Earth.' I look at Reid. At Morgan. It's like I'm in some awful dream. I don't believe what I'm hearing. I don't want to believe this nonsense. Imogen must be fabricating some crazy story to mask something she doesn't want to tell us.

'All this stuff,' Imogen says looking around the room, 'everything we've collected here, Juke claims it fell through these doorways.'

We look around at the items placed about us. I'm still speechless. I feel my body shaking. 'Where... where do these portals go? Can't we get Juke back?'

'I don't know where they go. Into the future. Into the past. To another world. I don't know.'

It's ludicrous what I'm hearing. Completely ludicrous. I laugh. Troubled. 'Another world? How is that even possible?'

She has no answer.

'I mean, what are these portals anyway? How do they form?'

Imogen shrugs. 'I don't know.'

'And you said you've seen one of these things?' Reid asks her, trying to clarify what he's just heard.

'Once, yes. When Haynes fell.'

'Did Juke see them?'

'Yes.'

I'm blinking. My mind's tumbling. 'But... but where? Here in Jupiter?'

'Yes.'

'Where exactly?'

'Juke said they seem to appear at random. There's no set location.'

I'm suspicious. 'Well... how many have there been? Why have we never seen them? Why has no one reported them?'

'They don't open for long. Five minutes at the most. Juke believes there was a spate of them sixty to seventy years ago. Other than a random portal appearing here and there in the interim, they've effectively vanished. Juke said another spate is due.'

I'm still frowning. 'Seventy years ago?'

'Yes.'

'How did Juke know?'

Imogen fetches something off a table. A large dog-eared book with worn, flaking edges. On the front cover there's a single fading word: EPHEMERYS.

We watch her. 'What is it?' I ask.

'I believe Juke used it to predict the emergence of portals,' Imogen tells us, placing it on the table. We move over and gently Reid begins leafing through the pages. We're all looking down at these beautifully hand-drawn diagrams of star constellations, of lines and arrows going back and forth. Of words and instructions jotted here and there. On other pages there are tables crammed with figures and symbols and dates. Dates that go back a hundred years. Dates that stretch out into days and years that are yet to come. There are maps of Jupiter City, of city blocks. Some are detailed. Some are just scribbles. Here and there upon these maps are the markings of symbols that look like wild swirls. These swirls are accompanied by particular dates and times, as if they mark the occurrence of a particular event.

'Juke used this to predict the occurrence of portals?' Reid asks almost challengingly, as if the utter idea is absurd. 'How? It doesn't make sense.'

'I don't know,' Imogen tells us. 'The book, as far as I've been able to ascertain, is a star map.'

'A star map?'

'That's basically what an ephemeris is,' she explains. 'It's a list of data that gives the calculated positions of celestial objects at regular intervals throughout a particular period of time.'

Reid studies the word on the front cover. Mouthing it silently.

'Ordinarily Ephemeris is spelt with an i, not a y,' Imogen explains. 'I don't why it's been misspelled.'

I take a moment trying to get my thoughts around everything she's telling us. 'Celestial objects?' I ask her. 'You mean, like stars?'

'Stars. Planets. Comets. Our moon. Other celestial bodies such as asteroids.'

'Why would someone need to know the positions of celestial bodies?'

'For purposes of study or curiosity, I guess,' she tells us. 'Or perhaps for events that could prove to have dire consequences. Predicting the trajectory of an asteroid that could one day impact Earth, for example.'

Morgan asks, 'So this Ephemerys book fell through one of these doorways too?'

'Yes,' Imogen tells her.

'And you believe Juke used it to calculate or predict the appearance of future portals?' Reid asks her, trying to get his head around this.

'I don't know how he did it, okay. But yes, he was able to extract certain information from it that seemed to lead him to new portals. He never told me how. He could be quite secretive. And since he's been gone I've not had a chance to study it as I've been locked out of this apartment. So, I don't yet know how he did it.'

Reid's still leafing through the book. Beside him, we stare at the pages.

'Who wrote this book?' Reid asks.

'That's what I want to know,' says Morgan. 'How could they have known when these portals would appear?'

'We don't know who wrote it,' Imogen says. 'There's no name to it. Juke believed the author, whoever he or she was, began this book eighty years ago. After witnessing a strange anomaly.'

'Where? Here in Jupiter?'

Imogen nods. 'As far as we can make out, this person was a resident of Jupiter. According to their text, one afternoon in the sky near the Oberen Finance building they saw a strange swirling blue light.' Imogen points to pages and pages of diary notes at the front of the book. 'They claimed that they saw a flock of birds flying into it. These birds simply seemed to vanish without trace before the anomaly disappeared. The author surmised that the birds must simply have died. That the anomaly must have been some sort of freak energy wave of unknown source and origin. That it incinerated them. Two weeks after the first anomaly, the author encountered another. And then another. On these two occasions he or she observed items falling out of these "energy waves", furniture, books, bottles, bikes. And slowly he or she began to form the idea that these things might've been portals. So they began mapping them. I can only assume that maybe they developed the theory that there might've been some link between what looked like a random pattern of appearances to the movements of our moon and the planets in our solar system and that of the star constellations. Thus he or she devised this book that they've called the Ephemerys to predict future appearances of these portals.'

'So, let me get this straight,' Reid says, 'you and Juke were searching for these portals?'

Again Imogen nods. 'Yes.'

'And you think Juke may have found one?'

'If what you've told me about the transmitter station is true. Yes. And if that's where you found his bag then I fear Juke may have fallen into one such portal and has become lost in another place and time.'

8

We're there in Juke's secret hideout for about three or four hours, going through all his stuff. The whole time we're pressing Imogen for information about anything that comes to mind. Any small detail. She promises us she's told us everything she knows.

She begins going through the items of Juke's rucksack. The peculiar sketchbook with its hand written diagrams of bizarre animals and vehicles. The second book written in a foreign text. The map of Jupiter with crosses and lines and dates marked on it. The strange pieces of pliable metal. The jar filled with tiny people.

She hasn't any answers. Or so she claims. She says the glass jars were a mystery to both herself and Juke. And that they have remained a mystery since the day they dropped out of the portals. She says the map of Jupiter was one Juke carried with him, one he updated from time to time whenever he found evidence of another portal having come open.

The sketchbook intrigues her greatly though. The sketchbook full of drawings of all sorts of outlandish creatures like dinosaurs and giant crabs and enormous two-headed ants and tadpoles that could swallow a person whole and dragon things and bug-eyed humanoids and carnivorous plants. The sketchbook depicting fantastic modes of transport like flying cars and sky trains, and so-called "alien" architecture. Whose author claims that all these things came from places he or she calls "Jupiter 4" or "Jupiter 8" or "Deadworld" or "Primal 1".

Imogen leafs through this book slowly, studying every image.

'Was this sketchbook Juke's too?' I ask her.

'I've never seen it before,' she claims, looking perturbed. 'I'm assuming it's another item he found somewhere.'

So Juke may've been keeping secrets even from her, I wonder.

I show her the second book we found in the rucksack. The one written in either some foreign language or some secret code. The one I believe looks like a journal. With hundreds of pages of diagrams and sketches and pictures of strange machinery and neatly drawn pictures of some sort of microscopic organisms or nano-droids.

She looks through this book with great interest. But again, it's as if she's never seen it before, as if Juke had hidden it from her.

'Does this language mean anything to you?' I ask her.

She shakes her head.

'Can you make sense of these pictures? What they're depicting? What it all means?'

'No,' she says. 'None of it.'

We show her the pieces of pliable metal. She seems fascinated by the way they bend as if they were clay, the way they slowly mould back to their original shape. She says she can only assume they came through another portal somewhere, possibly the one at the transmitter station, that Juke souvenired them before he vanished. For a little while she studies the lines of silver indentation on them. She compares them to the language in the book we're calling the Journal. But they don't match.

What she does then is hold the pieces of metal up to the light and I'm mystified because all of a sudden they take on this transparent quality. We can see right through them, clearly seeing the wall and windows beyond.

'How on Earth did you know it could do that?' I ask suspiciously.

The others are all peering through both pieces now. Everyone aghast.

Imogen looks genuinely flummoxed.

Either that or she's feigning it.

'I don't know,' she says. 'I honestly don't know.'

I watch her as she puts the metal plates aside. I watch her as she observes Eddie picking them up, holding them to the light. Eddie's in complete wonderment.

She knows something, I'm thinking. She's keeping something from us.

Reid presents her with the remaining items in Juke's bag. The T-shirt, the post card depicting a tropical beach, the pair of socks, the water bottle, the key ring.

'They must've fallen from one of the portals,' she suggests. 'I don't know why else Juke would be carrying them.'

She returns to searching the apartment. I continue to watch her. I know there's something she's not telling us. Something she's hiding. It's obvious. She's searching this place like it's her first time here. Or like she's misplaced something.

'What are you looking for?' I ask her eventually.

She glances at me. She takes a few moments to answer. As if considering whether or not she ought to let us know. Reid's watching her too now.

'Come on, Imogen,' Reid says, 'what is it? What aren't you telling us?'

She wipes sweat from her forehead. She sighs. 'I'm searching for some sort of message.'

'Message?'

She stands there, hands on her hips again, looking about. Looking flustered. 'The last time I saw Juke, when he told me he was going in search of another portal, he said that if he failed to return, if he didn't come back, he would try to send some sort of communique, something to tell me he was okay or where he was.'

I watch her for a while. 'I didn't know you and him were so close.'

She says nothing again for a little while. Then she shrugs. 'We were good friends. Nothing more. Being Outsiders we kind of understood each other.'

I consider this comment. Thing is, I've never looked on Juke as an Outsider. Because he turned up so long ago. It's like he's always lived here. But he is an Outsider really. He arrived here as a young boy with no family. No companions. Showing up at the Jupiter perimeter fence one day and spotted by the city guard. Juke later told me he'd been living with the Entities. That he couldn't remember his parents, who they were, where they came from, how he came to be living on Jupiter's fringe. He was brought into Jupiter and placed in quarantine for three months. He was only six years old. After he was cleared of disease, he was allowed to join Jupiter's population; mum and dad put their hand up to adopt him and bring him up.

With Imogen though, it's different. She arrived in Jupiter barely eighteen months ago. She's still trying to find her feet here. A lot of people don't trust her because she claims she can't remember anything before she got here. A lot of people think she's hiding something.

'We found a message scribbled on a wall in the transmitter station,' Reid tells her. He looks across at Morgan. 'Morgs, you still have that note written down?'

Morgan fishes the note from her pocket. She passes it across to Imogen. Imogen takes it, reads it: 'For those who walk this world after us, beware, they are coming.' She eyes Reid, frowning.

'This was written on the wall of the transmitter station,' Reid repeats. 'In the room where we found Juke's bag. Does it mean anything to you?'

Imogen shakes her head. 'No.'

'You think it might be a message from Juke?' I ask.

'I don't know. Anything's possible.'

'Is it a riddle?' Eddie asks.

Imogen eyes the words scribbled there. Reading them several times over and over. As if she almost recognises them but can't place them. 'I guess I assumed any message from Juke would be electronic.' She hands the note back to Morgan then turns and looks at us.

'Electronic?' I ask her.

'Juke was wearing something he called a PIT device.'

None of us have heard of such a thing.

'A Personal Imbedded Transmitter,' she explains. 'Juke says he discovered them in a military crate he found somewhere. He claims there were a number of varieties. Some were tiny. Microscopic. Small enough to be injected into your body. Others could be worn on the body. Which is the sort I believe Juke might've been carrying with him at the time of his disappearance.'

'Why would he be wearing it?' I ask. 'What do they do?'

'They act like a personal black box recorder,' Imogen says.

'Black box recorder?' Reid asks. 'What's that?'

'It's what aircraft used to be fitted with,' Eddie tells him. 'If they crashed then salvage teams could locate the black box in the wreckage. It would tell them what happened, how the plane went down, what went wrong.'

'That's right,' Imogen says. 'Juke claims that by the mid twenty first century, soldiers were fitted with this technology. If a soldier was captured or killed in combat, he or she could be traced using signals emitted by their PIT units.'

'And you're saying Juke was carrying one of these things?' Reid asks.

'I believe he was, yes. A militarised version. We didn't have the equipment to inject the nano-PITs. So Juke opted to use a kind that was biologically integrative, one that he could wear on his body like a layer of skin. The one he showed me was silver in colour and metallic. A fairly robust piece of hardware designed to take all sorts of hostile treatment in the theatre of war. It also had other functions aside from simply being able to record its wearer's movements and such. Juke claimed that on the battlefront, these PIT units were designed to scan and pick up data regarding enemy positions, or scan incoming weather and upcoming terrain; it could sense things like booby traps or hidden bombs or landmines in enemy territory. Data would then be automatically relayed back to a central command post or transmitted directly into the wearer's neural network. Juke thought that carrying one of these PIT units might prove instrumental in surviving a possible entry into one of the portals.'

'Oh mother,' I say, 'you're saying Juke may have actively stepped into the portal he found?' I'm picturing the room at the transmitter station, all that furniture and junk in that spiral pattern. I'm looking at Reid, I'm looking at Imogen. I can't believe Juke would've been so stupid. 'Tell me he didn't.'

Imogen has no answer. 'Whether he stepped through it intentionally, or if he was sucked through against his will, either way, I'm hoping he was equipped with one of the PIT units.'

'And you believe,' Morgan says, 'that if Juke was wearing one of these devices, that it should have sent you a signal to report whether or not he was okay?'

Imogen nods. A look of agitation in her eyes. 'Yes. As long as I had the receiver to pick up such signals.'

'Which is what you're looking for?' Reid says.

'Yes. Either that or some portion of his PIT unit.'

There's a collective frown from the rest of us. 'What do you mean?' Reid asks her.

'Juke believed that a specific segment of the automated PIT unit he was wearing could, under certain circumstances, detach from its wearer and transform its shape.'

'For what purpose?' Eddie asks.

'Juke claimed that it might need to vacate its host in order to seek medical aid for its host, or to physically deliver a command or message that cannot be relayed remotely due to a break down in radio contact thanks to adverse environmental or atmospheric conditions.'

We all watch her. Trying to digest what she's telling us.

'What would one of these things look like if it'd detached itself from Juke?' Reid asks curiously.

Imogen looks uncertain. 'Juke was never actually sure about this. He seemed to think it could be any number of things. Any number of shapes. It might need to pass through water, cross open ground or fly through the air. That it would fashion itself accordingly.'

'Across ground?' I ask.

She looks at me. 'Yes, why?'

'How would it cross ground?'

She eyes me closely before she answers. 'I don't know. Juke hinted it might adopt a spherical shape, like a ball. He believed it wouldn't be too big or cumbersome. That it ought to fit in the palm of your hand.'

I swallow. I can suddenly hear my pulse beating in my temples. 'What are these PIT units made from?'

'When Juke presented one to me, the device looked metallic. Whether it actually was or not, I can't say.'

My palms are clammy. I feel warm. In an unpleasant way. I swallow. My mind is back there in the Barren Wood. I'm peering up at that droid. Then it's vanished and I'm looking at that strange metallic ball moving through the leaf litter.

Standing where she is, Imogen watches me. Like she's trying to delve into my thoughts. Then she sits at one of the chairs and looks about Juke's apartment. 'Thing is, if I can just locate the receiver I should be able to pick up the PIT unit's transmissions, where ever it is, and track it down. It might still be with Juke. Or it may have got itself stuck somewhere. Until I find a receiver I won't know. Until I find a receiver, Juke stays lost.'

'What does this receiver look like?' Reid asks Imogen. 'I mean, if it'll lead us to Juke, you should probably let us help you find it, right?'

I look across at Reid. He's still eyeing Imogen, and she him. A voice in my head says I have to tell them about the metallic ball. I have to tell them.

But I look back at Imogen and I say nothing. I can't. Not with her present. I'm not sure why but it just feels right that she doesn't hear about it. I don't trust her. There's something odd about her, something secretive I can't put my finger on. I can't help but feel that, for her, none of this is about locating Juke, but something else, something more selfish.

THE STRANGER

1

REID walks me back to Last Street holding my hand, both of us wheeling our bikes. At the front gate we stop and he kisses me. But he must sense I'm distracted.

'You okay?' he says.

I just nod.

'A lot to take in,' he says.

I look up at him. I say, 'Tell me, did you know about these PIT unit things?'

He frowns and shakes his head. 'No. I had no idea.'

I can't tell if he's fibbing or not. I say, 'Are you friends with Imogen?'

He looks at me like I've grown a second nose. 'No. Where'd you get that idea?'

I shrug. 'I don't know. I'm probably just being paranoid.'

But I really want to ask him what he'd known about Imogen before today. I'm probably just being paranoid but I can't help feeling they've got some connection. That strange interaction between them both at the Persephone building. How far does it go? What do they both know? What are they keeping from me?

2

At dinner, Mum asks if there's something on my mind.

'Not really,' I tell her. 'Just thinking about Juke, that's all. That he's not here with us.'

There's a small cake in the centre of the table. Mum baked it when she got in from work. On top, in white icing, it reads Happy Birthday, Juke. We wish him well, where ever he is. We sing Happy Birthday. Mum clasping my hand. We share a slice. There's a tear in mum's eye.

Some nights, mum and I will sit up playing board games from the Old World. Monopoly. Chess. Rummikub. Sometimes we'll read old books. Or old plays. We'll pick different characters and read their parts. Tonight after dinner we read from The Dolls House by Henrik Ibsen. I watch mum as she reads her part. She's reading the character of Nora. I read Krogstad. In the background, on the sound-trap, Ella Fitzgerald's Summertime plays dreamily. I cherish these moments with Mum. I feel lucky to have her in my life. She's such a dear soul.

Still... this evening, I can't help it, my mind is elsewhere. My mind is back there in Juke's secret apartment. Listening to Imogen telling us that if Juke went missing, if she had a receiver, that one of those PIT things would alert her to his whereabouts. I can't help wondering that if the PIT unit vacated him, does it mean he's dead somewhere?

I can't bear to contemplate that. I don't want to even think about it.

Yet... that droid in the woodland.

Might it have been sent by Juke? Maybe it knows what happened to him.

3

About 8pm I turn in. 'Sorry mum, I'm really tired.'

'It's alright love.' She watches me a little while. 'You sure nothing's wrong?'

'Yeah.' I hug her goodnight. She kisses my forehead.

'Sleep tight then, my sweet,' she says.

'Ni-night.'

I lie in bed staring at the ceiling. Then I sit by the window gazing out at Jupiter City. It looks lonely at night. Empty. Some city lights can be seen. But not downtown. Downtown's as quiet and dark as a cemetery, the dark shapes of the skyscrapers blocking out the stars.

A city Watchdroid stalks down Last Street, its sentry lights reflecting off the empty houses. It goes by and is soon out of sight.

I play music Juke gave to me. He said he found these old memory sticks in an abandoned house in the Chingola District. 'Elvis Presley,' he'd told me. 'I thought you might like it.'

Most electronic stuff hasn't lasted from the Old World. Most of it has perished. So I was surprised when the memory sticks worked. When I plugged them into the sound-trap that Juke claimed he'd also found in that abandoned house. Aside from Elvis Presley there was Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Glenn Miller. Jazz tunes from the Old World, voices of ghosts long gone. These days Mum and I play them as often as we can. We'll dance in the kitchen. Just me and her.

Tonight I sit in my room, listening to this music, wondering if there ever was an abandoned house in the Chingola District. If what Imogen said was true, then perhaps these music files simply dropped out of one of these portals. It still confounds me why Juke never told me about such things. Why he told me about the Entities but nothing about peculiar portals. Did he not trust me to keep them secret? Did he not believe I was ready to hear about them?

Maybe he would have, I tell myself. Maybe he was about to and then he vanished.

Either that, or everything Imogen told us was a complete fabrication.

I fetch my wrist-com. I've decided to call her. I'll tell her about the metal ball I found. I'll get her to verify whether or not it's one of these PIT units. If it is, then I'll say I'll only hand it over if she promises to share with me whatever information she extracts from it. I won't let her have it until she agrees.

It occurs to me then that I don't have her call code.

I decide to contact Reid first. I'll tell him about the ball, tell him I should've shown it to him earlier but that I didn't because I couldn't trust Imogen. Then he can come over and I'll tell him I've got something to show him but only if he promises to tell me what connection he has with Imogen. Then we'll both cycle over to Imogen's, no matter how late it is, and demand she tell us everything she's keeping secret.

I punch in Reid's code. I wait. And wait.

There's no answer.

I go to call again. But I don't. I remember now that Reid was having dinner with his dad tonight. Maybe he's still out with him.

I lie here late... staring at the ceiling... staring and staring... thinking and thinking...

When I try calling Reid again later there's still no answer.

4

I wake early. I leave Mum a note on the kitchen table, telling her I have harvesting today, that we're making an early start. That maybe I'll see her at lunch time.

Love you, I write. Have a good day.

When I leave the house, it's still dark. Watchguard sentries are doing their sweep. I wait till Droid 38 stalks by like some soulless giant. Sometimes they have a tendency to follow you. Juke used to say that in central command someone was always watching. Whether that's true or not I don't know. But it's best not to take chances.

I have my backpack. Not Juke's backpack this time; I've hidden that in the roof space above my bedroom. But I do carry Juke's old star blazer at my hip. A back-up weapon to my blunderbuss. Truth is I'm afraid of activating the blunderbuss again without someone around to aid me since what happened at the transmitter station. I'm in my sonic absorption gear but it's always the same problem: it's not a complete suit. So, I carry both weapons. I wear my headlamp but I don't engage it just yet. Best to stay hidden, not conspicuous.

I keep away from Last Street. I take to the tall grass behind our house. There's a smattering of ghost-gum eucalyptus trees that I scurry away into. Between there and the city fence it's a hundred metres of open ground that used to be houses and shops before the area was cleared for sugar cane and corn crops. Most of it's choked in snake weed nowadays but I use the crops for cover as I move out toward the city perimeter. I want to get to Rotman's Gully before first light. From there I know I won't be seen. Not by anyone in the central towers with their telescopes. Not by anyone on the street. Rotman's Gully is deep and I can follow it around to the vale where I can take cover in the tall reed grass. The snake weed's a problem though. It's as thick as brambles. And you have to watch its blind heads, they'll bite if you're not careful. They dish out a kind of anaesthetic. It's not toxic or anything but it will put you to sleep. When we were kids, Juke, Morgan, Reid, Eddie and me used to play pranks on each other. One bite can knock you out for a day.

Not something I need right now.

At the edge of Rotman's Gully I check to see if I've been followed. I scan the area using a gadget I took from Juke's hideout. A thermal scanner. Imogen told me what it was when I asked her. She showed me how to use it. She said it was another of the things Juke claimed fell out of a portal. I practiced with it last night in my room, aiming it at the street, picking up the heat signatures of Gen monkeys, deer, and bug-eye rats. I use it again here. Scanning the way I've just come. I see the forms of lizards. And a shadow cat—which I'm glad I didn't encounter. No signs of people though. No signs of people watching. Or following.

Good.

I slide on my rump down into Rotman's and land heavily, knocking the wind from my lungs. I take a moment getting my breath back. I follow the dried base, the tall vine choked city fence looming above me to my left.

I scurry out the back end of the gully and come up behind the vale. I take a few moments catching my breath. I'm concealed here at least.

5

At the pipe I shift my blunderbuss and squeeze inside and crawl through. Once again, where it opens out onto the world beyond, I stop and search the way ahead. I hear bird calls and the faraway screech of those flying Imps. There are other sounds coming from the Barren Wood this morning that I don't recognise. Strange animal noises. I don't know what's making them but I don't want to risk running into anything hungry if I can help it.

I use the thermal scanner. It's still dark. The sun has barely broken the sky. I have my head lamp but I don't want to attract any attention. I leave it off. It's fascinating though what I see using the scanner. Birds. Peculiar dog creatures. Strange climbing critters: tree-horses and basilisks. And those bizarre rabbits we encountered.

No Grumbs though. Nothing else.

I want to proceed but I feel it's still too dark. Too dangerous. So I wait. I wait until the sun begins to lighten the sky. Until I can at least see the tree line.

When I can, I realise the Barren Wood beyond remains gloomy.

Should I move yet? I don't know. The Gen apple trees on the woodland fringe stand facing me. In the gloomy light it looks as if their eyes are open, that they're watching me. It's disconcerting. Unsettling. It takes a lot of will power for me to ignore them. I take a deep breath. 'They're not real, Skye,' I murmur to myself. 'They're not real.'

I check the time on my wrist-com. I can't delay things any further. I heft the thermal scanner into my arms, its strap over my shoulder, and I head out toward the shoulder of the forest, keeping an eye on the scanner's screen. Most of the animals I saw earlier look to have cleared off. I pass between the creepy apple trees (what if one of them reaches out and touches me?) and enter the woods. It's still a bit gloomy but the new day is beginning to lighten the canopy.

My aim is to try and back track to the location where I encountered the droid. I'm not sure if I'll be able to find that same spot but I'm going to give it a try. I have a vague idea where it was. There are certain landmarks that might help, certain characteristics of the street I'd been in at the time.

I push further into the woodland, slowly, my nerves on edge. I feel alert and alive. I feel terrified yet exhilarated. As I pick my way down an old street I hear a shuffling in the leaf matter somewhere to my right and I stop in my tracks. I spy a group of those strange rabbits, hopping about ancient abandoned houses.

I watch them, fascinated. They stand and look around at me. They don't seem afraid. I don't go any closer to them. I don't want to be bundled up in their spider thread. I move onwards, following the street. I feel I have to head in a north-easterly direction from my current position. I have a compass with me, one Juke gave me. But I've always had a good sense of direction anyway; I'm confident I can find the spot in question, without the compass.

I follow old streets, passing dark shops and dark houses, all of it entombed beneath this thick woodland. I keep the thermal scanner activated. I keep my blunderbuss at the ready.

I've been in the woods for ten minutes when I detect a peculiar noise. I crouch behind a collection of old plastic skip bins covered in moss and grime and vines. I look about. I see another group of those tall rabbits picking at some dead thing at a nearby house. A couple turn and watch me. But the sound I hear is electronic. Sounding distant. Or faint, at least. I don't know which direction it's coming from. I stay where I am, looking about. The sound is persistent. The more I listen to it, the more I feel it's closer than I thought. Like I'm virtually on top of it.

I realise all of a sudden that it's coming from inside my backpack.

Confused, I hitch the pack from my shoulders and pull it open. Inside I see the metallic ball. My brow tightens. Tiny lights beneath its transparent metallic shell are flashing on and off. I pull it out. And now that it's out of my backpack it seems louder. Holding it before my eyes I notice there's been a change: the lights beneath its surface are now in the form of obscure letters. None I recognise.

I'm slightly unnerved. Why has it awoken? I don't know what it means. I don't know what to do. Is there a way of turning it off? I feel the noise right in the centre of my skull. I grimace. The object seems to pulse. It's beginning to vibrate so bad I can no longer hold it. I'm forced to drop it.

When it lands it goes still.

But then... it begins to roll.

I watch it, I move after it. Something tells me I shouldn't but I can't help it, I must see where it's going. I mean, what if it's leading me to Juke? I trudge through the leaf matter as it rolls slowly around the girths of trees, bumping over roots, burrowing through mounds of loose leaves.

Suddenly I hear something crashing through the undergrowth. Something huge and immense. Rushing toward me. What on Mother's earth is it? At first I freeze. Looking about. Wondering what's approaching. Then I search for cover. There are houses not far off. I dash toward them and throw myself over an old stone wall choked in moss and wriggle my way into the front door of the house. The place is alive with moving plants and bugs and ants. Some are on me instantly. I brush them aside and scurry into one of the old bedrooms.

I gasp when I find the owners of the home are still here. Sitting desiccated on a settee. I clamp my hand over my mouth, I don't want to squeal. I force myself to ignore them. I crawl around to the window and peer out. Wood lice are crawling over my hands and feet.

I catch glimpses of the metal ball rolling away through the woodland. But the sound of whatever was crashing through the trees has stopped. I search every shadow, trying to ignore the bugs biting into my skin. I scan the old street where numerous trees grow up from the crumbled bitumen. I see nothing at first. And then...

Something. Toward the back of one of the houses across the street from me. It's obscured by tree trunks but I see it standing there, a tall droid. As still as a statue, its head and eyes trained on me. And at its feet I see the metallic ball, surging through the leaf matter, rolling up grooves in the droid's leg and vanishing somewhere inside it.

6

I keep quiet. I don't move. It has to be the droid I encountered two days ago. With its four strange legs and three-sided torso, and its three arms. Its electronic eyes watching me from its cylindrical head.

Suddenly it's moving, striding across the street toward the house where I'm hiding. It stops on the old sidewalk, gazing in my direction. It doesn't move now. I don't know what to do.

As I gaze back at it, I can't help wonder once more if it has some connection with Juke.

Should I leave the house?

Or should I approach it?

I grip my blunderbuss. I stand up. There's no glass in the window, nothing to obscure me or hide me. I feel if the droid wanted to kill me it could have done so already. But we watch each other. I wonder if it speaks.

'Hello,' I say.

It doesn't respond.

I stare at it. Is it waiting for me to vacate the house?

'Who are you?' I ask. 'What are you?'

Still it says nothing.

'Has Juke sent you?'

Here it appears as if those strange eyes of its frown. And then it speaks. Its voice deep and metallic. 'Juuuke.'

I feel a sense of hope. 'Yes. Juke. Has he sent you? Do you know who I mean?'

Those eyes keep frowning. I come out from the house. The rabbits that'd been eating at some carcass at one of the other homes have vanished. There are the sounds of birds in the trees. A soft breeze curls about this part of the woodland.

The droid still doesn't move. But its head rotates to track my exit from the house. I hold my blunderbuss low at my side so as not to appear a threat.

I stand there in the garden, a garden as wild and untamed as any I've seen. There are bugs crawling over my boots. There are small green moths flapping about my face. Purple millipedes as thick as my wrists crawl over towering orange toadstools. The droid and I continue to regard each other.

Eventually it leaves its position, stepping toward me, its four legs making it amble like a giant beetle. It reaches out one of its arms. I fear it's going to try and sap my consciousness like it did the last time. Take my memory away. But when it opens its long metal fingers the small silver ball rests on its palm.

It holds it there in front of me.

I don't know what to do.

The droid moves its arm closer, as if offering the ball back to me.

Uncertain, I take it. What now?

We stand here and watch each other. 'What is it for?' I ask it. 'Did Juke send it? Please, I have to know.'

The droid's body rotates and suddenly it's scuttling away down the street.

I stand, watching it go.

Do I follow?

It stops. Its torso turns and it watches me. It makes a series of bleeping sounds. Then beckons me with one of its three arms.

I look about. Should I follow? Or should I just hurry back to the Jupiter fence and get home?

I swallow. Nervous.

I leave the garden. I step out into the street. I follow.

7

I trail the droid further and further away from Jupiter. This fact is not lost on me. The woodland gets deeper. We pass an old corner shop, its foundations submerged in the forest floor, vines and creepers and strangler figs smothering it. There's an old intersection here with a brass fountain in the middle and ancient rusted cars parked at the curb. Everything grows with plants. The roadway is long gone, covered now in thick leaf matter and fallen trees. The droid stops near the fountain and seems to indicate something beside an old brick wall on a heavy lean, weighed down by thick rugs of moss and lichen.

I come closer and look and I see things lying in the street. Half a dozen bodies.

I frown and walk nearer.

Then I freeze.

They are bodies of Entities.

What on Mother's Earth is going on?

I turn and look back at the droid. And that's when I see him.

The stranger.

And in an instant, all of it sweeps back to me. He was there. This stranger. With the droid. The day we were attacked by the Imps. He was the one who saved me. Blowing the Imps off me with some odd weapon. Who came to my rescue. And somehow I'd forgotten all about him. Like he'd been pulled out of my memories.

He stands in the shadows. In his odd armour. Wearing his odd mask. He's got an Entity lumped over his shoulder. As I watch, he hitches it off and drops it into the roadway.

He stares at me for a second... then he goes for his gun.

I know in that moment it's either me or him. That he's going to shoot me. That I've been lured here. That it's a trap. That I've got seconds to live.

My skin turns cold and I haul up my blunderbuss and yank the trigger but it doesn't engage. I stumble backwards, yanking the trigger again and again. But it won't fire.

I dive for cover behind an old automobile, I hear the stranger running for me. I reach for Juke's star blazer and just as the stranger reaches me I jam my thumb on the trigger.

It grumbles before suddenly screeching to life, emitting a trillion sparkling bursts of fire. I hear nothing but multiple sparking sounds as the woodland around me lights up in flame.

I scramble to my feet and run.

8

I bolt back through the woodland, down the ancient street and he's chasing me. I can hear him, the stranger, his thumping footfalls, his panting and his grunts, but I must've injured him because he doesn't catch me.

I break through the woodland fringe, passing the Gen apple trees, and back into bright sunshine, and I'm charging toward the pipe under the fence, and I don't look but I can still hear him on my tail, and as I dive into the opening of the pipe there's this almighty explosion and something splatters against the pipe's mouth about me, covering me in blood.

Gasping for air, I clamber through the pipe, smudging blood off my face, and I scramble out the other side, checking myself for wounds, for some sort of injury, and then I'm running as fast as I can toward Old Parkland Wood. Panting, looking about. Nothing's on my tail. I hear some commotion going on beyond the fence line. I expect to see smoke. I expect to see the Barren Wood ablaze. But there's nothing.

HARVEST

1

I REACH home and stash my sonic rifle and the star blazer. I feel nervous, jittery. Mum has already left for work which I was hoping for. I'm shivering, still shaken by what happened out there beyond the city fence. That stranger. He'd been killing Entities. Why? Who is he? Where is he from?

I take off my absorption suit. I remove my clothes. I dump them all in the soaker. Then I scrub the dirt and blood off my skin. It seems to take forever. When I'm done I stand before the mirror. I have to make sure it's all off. I have to make certain I'm not injured. Over my shoulder, I inspect my back. No cuts, no gashes. But still I scrub myself, I don't want there to be any blood marks left, I don't want anyone to ask where it came from.

I dress and stand by the back windows of the house, staring off toward the Barren Wood. Still there's no smoke. I'm baffled. That place should be a raging inferno by now after I zapped it with the star blazer. Even so, I'm relieved I haven't been followed. There's no sign of the stranger or the droid.

Did I hurt them? Did I kill them?

It's a feeling I can't shake...

I check the time on my wrist-com. It's coming onto eight. I find I have unread messages. The first is from Reid, asking if I can bring Juke's map with me to harvesting, the one we found in Juke's rucksack. Two later messages are from Morgan and Reid, wondering where I am.

I fetch the map, climbing onto the top of my wardrobe to access the manhole in the ceiling where I stashed Juke's bag. I need to hurry if I want to get to harvesting before my absence arouses too much suspicion. I drag out the map and leave Juke's bag hiding up there. Back in the kitchen I double check the work roster. We're at the Global Bank building today. One of Jupiter's tallest.

Great. Am not looking forward to it.

2

I fetch my climbing harness and set off on my bike. The streets are empty. There are Gen monkeys watching me with their spider eyes, sitting in trees growing out of ancient homes. There's a stiff draft flowing through the city. Not something I hoped for. It's slowing me down as I ride. Moreover, gusty days aren't something you long for when you're hanging from the tops of tall buildings.

I pass an automated sentry. Then another. Both of them stop and watch me with their electronic eyes, scanning me for my identity, always vigilant. At first I think they sense something untoward about me. That they can somehow read my thoughts, that they know where I've been this morning.

They don't question me. They let me cycle on.

They make me nervous, but right now their presence gives me comfort. If that stranger is following me, he'll be detected and disposed of.

I take the Unity Pass Road, the wind throwing back my hair. I cycle round the bend near the Galaxy Media building and come across a mob of people crowded around something. I slow down and stop, trying to get a look at what everyone's so interested in. I spot members of the city authority: Lanson. Fotcher, Jonah, Hoak. I see them inspecting a Gen deer lying on its side in the road. The front of its neck has been eaten out. The "human" portion of it is slumped there dead. I notice that one of the deer's legs has been torn off. I overhear someone suggesting it must've climbed the multi-level parking lot for berries and fallen out. Mulligan Kane suggests that's rubbish. 'They don't climb that high,' he says. Someone else says, 'Yeah, they don't. So what tore its leg off and ate out its throat?'

No-one seems to know. As I cycle away the carcass is covered up and hefted into a solar-cart.

3

The base and foyer of the Global Bank building is deserted. Except I know there are people currently at the higher reaches of the structure because there are several bikes parked here.

I stand at street level, pressing the button for the hoist. I look above. The cart is way up there near the upper most floors. I press the button again and wait.

It's windy down here at ground level. There's no glass on the foyer windows so it drags in grit and loose bits of paper. There's no door on the front of the building. I can stand here with an unhindered view of the empty street. I see movement from the corner of my eye. I turn and focus my gaze on the shadows out there.

The Global Bank building sits on a junction where Providence intersects Devine Street. Immediately across the street sits the Checkers Mall. I'm not sure what I'm seeing but there's something over there. A figure standing in the shadow of the Mall's entrance. My brow tightens. I can't make out who or what it is but something stands there looking back at me.

I look up again. High above me, scaling the side of the building is the elevator-cart, slowly descending to the ground floor. I will it to hurry. I engage my wrist-com to alert Reid that I'm down here. But I can't get a signal. The tall buildings will often play havoc with radio signals.

I back up into the foyer. I wish I'd brought my rifle with me. 'I know you're there,' I murmur, gazing at the figure across the street. 'I can see you.' I can't tell if it's animal or human. They appear to be crouching.

The elevator cart finally lowers toward me. I rush to it but I can't pull open the cage door. It's jammed. I have this dreaded feeling the figure is running at me. I turn and look over my shoulder.

Nothing's there. The figure has gone.

The cage door squeals as I finally manage to yank it outwards. I jump inside, pulling the cage door shut behind me. I hammer the UP button.

My nerves are on edge as I wait for the mechanism to engage. It seems to take forever. 'Come on,' I growl at it.

Finally the light above the cart begins flashing red, indicating that it's about to rise, that the cage door must now not be opened.

The cage jolts and then goes still, like that's as much life as it's got, like it's just packed up. I'm searching the street for that figure, wondering if it could be the stranger from the woods. But what I see is a Gen deer, its mouth all bloodied, panting, striding toward me, gazing at me with large blood shot eyes.

The cage lurches and suddenly lifts me away from the street.

4

I lose the deer from sight. It seems to remain in the foyer of the building. Craning its neck, watching me. Panting.

The cage shakes and rattles which concerns me the higher I go. Fearing that it might suddenly shake free and plummet. Yet slowly I rise above the city, the tops of other buildings that minutes ago had towered above me, are now below me. It's a spectacular sight. But I can't help but wonder about that deer. It looked so sick. I can't help thinking about the one I saw on my way here. The dead one with its leg torn off and its throat eaten away.

And what was that figure hiding inside the Checker's Mall doorway?

The cart finally makes its approach to the upper levels. Yellow-skinned Jupiter frogs slink about the shadows of the building. Some of them as big as me. They scatter at the sound of the cart, crawling away like lizards. I ascend higher. To parts of the Global Bank building where it looks as though construction was never fully completed. There are no walls or windows here. Just the bare concrete and steel framework and dusty concrete floors. On the middle levels, where the blankets of strawberry vines are yet to reach, the wind sails straight through the construction—at these spots I can see downtown Jupiter's skyscrapers no matter which direction I look.

The strawberry plantations become more prominent the higher I go. And soon the skeletal structure of the building is completely shrouded in vines and berries. I begin to hear people chatting. As the cart rises higher, I begin to see people hanging out from the side of the building in their climbing harnesses, filling their fruit baskets.

'Have a little sleep-in did we?' someone calls out as the cart continues its rise. I look and see it's old Dorran. He's in his sixties. A pleasant man. Fit as a yak.

'Just getting my beauty sleep,' I tell him. It's a relief to be here. I'm not fond of heights but I'm glad to be away from the street. I ascend by Nieshus, she used to baby-sit me when I was small. And then Linsa. And Marvee and Bebby. They're all hanging out here in their harvesting harnesses, just another day. Filling their bags with strawberries. Chatting, laughing. Calling out 'Good morning,' to me. The city streets lie far, far below their dangling legs.

I begin to relax a little more. The air seems fresher up here. The sunlight a little more sparkling. One level from the top I finally see my own work crew. There's Morgan saying, 'Well, good morning, sleeping beauty,' and I spy Imogen. Hanging in her harness, picking fruit. Which puzzles me. She's never been part of our work gang before now. She looks at me. She says nothing, just goes back to her work. I rise further and I spy Eddie through the mats of strawberry vine, sitting on the level below the roof. He looks to be leafing through some book. Like he doesn't care for working today. It puzzles me—I thought he was meant to be manning the roof turret, on the lookout for harbinger eagles, the huge Gen birds that have been known to yank harvesters from the sides of buildings. As the cart reaches the cage hoist at the building's summit, Reid comes into view. He's standing there watching me with this smile, like he thinks I slept in again.

I smile back. 'What?'

'You slept through your alarm again, didn't you?'

I don't deny it.

The cart sways as Reid pulls its door open, eighty floors above the street, offering his strong hand. I take it and step over the steel railing that trails the edge of the roof, minding the thick rugs of strawberry vines and the wind-grubs perched amidst them. Windgrubs are tiny red plants that gulp flies and bugs off the air. I'm careful not to get my fingers near their gaping mouths. Wind gusts lift my hair as Reid eyes me.

'You okay?' he asks.

'Yeah.' Has he spied something on me? Have I missed some blood? Did I not wash it all off? 'Why?'

He shrugs. 'No reason. Just asking.' He tethers my harness to the safety line. The safety lines are all clipped to the steel rungs at the base of the air-conditioning units that are fixed to the top of the roof. 'I covered for you,' he tells me. 'I told Smithson you were helping your mum carry lizard packs down to the food hall.'

'Oh. Thank you.' I look around. I see Smithson nowhere. He's like the foreman. The officer who lodges our labour participation records with the city authority. To confirm whether or not you attended work.

Once I get my nerves under control I stand here amidst the thick strawberry foliage, filling my lungs with fresh air. Usually I'll take a few moments to take in the view. Because it's truly breathtaking. You can see from horizon to horizon to all points of the compass. When I'm at these heights I tend to look for signs of other cities. Hoping that maybe there might still be people out there alive like us, that someday we'll make contact with them. But all I ever see is the horizon lost to the hazy blue and the ancient freeways once jammed with traffic, all snaking away quietly into the far distance, any cars on them, silent and motionless and rusting.

That morning though I turn and immediately gaze in the direction of the transmitter station. My eyes roaming across the green ceiling of the Barren Wood. I'm still puzzled why the woodland isn't aflame. Relieved that it isn't of course, but curious all the same.

I have this odd feeling that stranger's watching me. I can't shake that thought. He went for his weapon, I remind myself. He chased me. Has he followed me into Jupiter?

I need to know who he is. I need to know why he was out there killing Entities.

5

I tell Reid I have Juke's map. 'Why do you need it?' I ask.

'Eddie says he might be onto something.'

I take it from my bag and hand it over.

'Thanks.' Reid holds me briefly, kissing me. 'Wait here. Back in a moment.'

He takes the cement stairs that are covered in trampled vines and squished fruit and runs the map down to Eddie. While he's gone, I just keep staring out at the transmitter station. I see no clouds of distant Imps. I search the other buildings around us. Watching for harpy hounds and the like. I hear distant squeals. But see nothing of any threat in our vicinity.

Reid's back by my side a minute later, helping me fit the harvest basket to my shoulder straps. 'We best get you to work,' he says. 'Don't want Smithson docking your pay.' With my harness secured to the life ropes, I edge out over the side of the building and lower myself to the vast red carpets of berries.

Slowly I descend the east face of the building, I'm fully aware that my feet dangle below me... and way down there is the street. Far, far below. If I can help it I never look down. It just makes my head turn over.

But it's not long before I'm distracted by labour—the fear of the sheer drop below me tempered by the casual conversation going on around me. Morgan and Eddie teasing one another. Banter going back and forth. Wind in our hair as we dangle there in our harnesses, picking fruit. The sweet smell of strawberries all about me, on every breath of air. I find my morning's excursion to the Barren Wood has driven up my hunger; every now and then I can't help popping a strawberry into my mouth.

Reid's beside me, strapped securely in his own harness. Morgan and Imogen are slightly below us, working their way along the side of the building. The city authority demands harvesting crews work simultaneously on the same face of a construction. It's for safety's sake more than anything. Dorran's work crew works the same face several floors below us; working their way upwards.

Where Eddie's sitting, studying Juke's map, he's not far from me. I can just make him out occasionally through the strands of vines and clumps of fruit. I'm intrigued by what he's up to, why he wanted the map.

'So, what's going on?' I ask Reid, indicating Eddie. 'Shouldn't we have someone manning the roof turret?'

'We've told Smithson that we're trialling the warding system Eddie and me devised. The system's self-automated, as you know, but we've told Smithson that Eddie's got to sort through some teething problems.'

'So, what are you doing really?' I ask, keeping my voice low but unless you called out, the other work gang below wouldn't hear a word. They're all clearly out of earshot. And it's down there somewhere on one of the bare concrete floors that Smithson will be sitting at some makeshift desk, conducting his paperwork or whatever it is that he does.

'Remember the Ephemerys?' Reid says.

I see it now. Eddie's got it weighed down by steel bolts so the wind won't grab it. And he's currently studying the map I brought with me.

'Morgan discovered something quite interesting,' Reid adds.

I peer down and across at Morgan. 'What was it?' I ask her.

She glances over at Imogen. Then gazes up at me. 'Remember Imogen told us that book acts like a sort of star map?'

'Yep.'

She glances at Imogen once more. 'Well, thing is, it's not an ephemeris, not a star map. Not entirely. I believe whoever wrote it, made it out to look like one.'

I don't understand. 'What do you mean?'

'The person who wrote it,' Morgan says, 'whoever they were, I don't know why but they've filled it with secret information.'

'Secret information?' I look at Imogen. Then back at Morgan. 'What sort of information?'

'Coded information,' she says.

'Information that might tell us where and how these portals materialise,' Reid explains.

'Really?' I gaze down at Imogen again. She's not watching us. Just listening, filling her basket with berries. I can't help wondering if this is something she was hiding from us. Hoping that we'd never find out.

'Hence why I requested you bring Juke's map,' Reid says. 'A lot of the figures and tables in the Ephemerys seem to be nonsense. But Morgan believes some of them contain a coded sequence.'

'How do you know?'

'Eddie and I were going through the Ephemerys last night,' Morgan says, 'and I kept noticing these strange patterns. We couldn't make sense of them at first. When Eddie had to go home, I kept searching and I happened to uncover these strange little anomalous patterns of numbers. I was up most of the night before I realised I was on to something. When I managed to translate some of the data I called Reid.'

'We think Morgan deciphered information that might pinpoint the portals that Juke witnessed,' Reid tells me. 'Events he marked on that map.'

I peer through the foliage at Eddie again. Trying to think through the implications of all this.

'We thought if Eddie comes to the same conclusions,' Reid says, 'then we'll know if we're onto something.'

I look around at each of them. I am truly flabbergasted, fascinated, and excited without really thinking through why. 'So, what you're both saying is, if Morgan's decoded this data correctly, if it's not nonsense, we might ultimately be able to predict if any more of these portals might open.'

'Not only that,' Reid says, 'but exactly where they'll open. And when.'

'And with any luck,' Morgan says guardedly, 'they might lead us to Juke.'

This news makes my skin tingle. It makes my pulse race. It makes my mind suddenly bloom with all sorts of possibilities. And I know I shouldn't be getting ahead of myself, that I mustn't get my hopes up, because, really, when you think about it, it's bizarre. Portals? To somewhere else? I mean, it is so ludicrous. And yet, what if it's all true?

What if it helps bring Juke home?

I can't help wondering what Imogen thinks about all this. She hasn't spoken this whole time. She's suspended in her harness, dropping fruit into her harvest bin and she's just been listening. Watching and listening. Even now, while we talk about it, she makes no effort to join the conversation, even now the expression on her face hasn't changed.

Did she know then? I wonder. Did she know that half that book was nonsense, that half of it consisted of coded, hidden messages? I just can't budge the feeling that she did, that she kept it from us. That she didn't want us to know.

6

We're silent as we pick our fruit. The wind moaning quietly through the skeletal structure of the building, rippling through the vast mats of strawberry bush. Eddie's still deciphering the portion of information. We're all waiting for him to reveal if Morgan's theory is true.

When the squeals of harpy hounds echo out across the city I'm completely lost in my thoughts. I'm imagining a scenario where we've actually managed to trace one of these portals. That we're all there waiting as Juke steps through. Welcoming him back like it's some grand home coming, Mum and me embracing him, he hugging us.

The squeals in the sky instantly snap me out of my day dream. I spin around and see the harpy hounds swooping toward us. Reid calls out for everyone to brace themselves but it's too late to go for cover. Reid swings toward me just as the harpies fly at us, putting himself between me and their attack.

For a moment I'm frozen with terror. But suddenly the automated system on the roof kicks into action, emitting a high pitched wailing sound that sends the harpies into a spin.

They drop away from us, as if stunned, falling, spiralling, before they seem to regain their senses and flap away to the cover of surrounding buildings.

A follow up attack never follows.

'Ha, take that!' Reid calls out, watching them go, hoisting ourselves to the rooftop.

Smithson comes belting up the stairs to see if everyone's okay. 'Anyone hurt?' he's calling out. 'Is everyone alright?'

We clamber onto the roof, me, Reid, Morgan and Imogen; the second work crew ascending below us. We're all gazing down at the space we last saw the harpies.

'It's alright, Smithson,' Reid tells him, 'no casualties. Our system scared them off.'

Smithson's standing there at the edge of the building, panting, staring down at the tops of the buildings below us—somewhere down there the harpies are hiding.

Eddie reaches the roof, looking around like he's expecting people to be missing.

Smithson takes in a deep breath. 'Well then, good work. Perhaps I'll have to recommend your warding unit to those of the city authority after all. They might be able to utilise this system elsewhere.'

'As long as Eddie and I receive due recognition,' Reid puts to him.

'And due remuneration,' Eddie adds, joining us at the railing, staring down at the buildings below us for any sign of the harpy hounds. 'Any extra rations would be nice too.'

Reid nods. 'And a seat on the city board.'

Smithson looks from Eddie to Reid. 'Boys, I wouldn't go getting ahead of yourselves.' He notices me standing here now. 'Oh, good to see you, Skye. How's your mother?'

'Good, thank you.'

'Good. Right then. Back to work everyone.' He moves away and Reid regards Eddie. 'You were right about trialling an audio deterrent, Ed. Brilliant work.'

Eddie looks around. Smithson descending the stairs, heading back to his desk, calling out once more, 'Everyone, back to work now,' and Eddie's saying, 'Well, it works.'

And Reid looks at him strangely, saying, 'You been asleep the last five minutes? That's what I just said,' and Eddie says, 'I'm talking about Morgan's code. It actually works.'

We go silent. We stop what we're doing. Reid says, 'What?'

Eddie nods. 'I mean, on paper, yeah. Still to be tested practically. But there's a cross jotted on Juke's map on a street in Dead Town. Okay? And on page fifty-seven of the Ephemerys there are star constellations and planetary references and tables with a bunch of seemingly random numbers. Only they're not random. Like Morgan worked out, they're reference points.'

We've instantly forgotten the harpy hounds. We're standing here in our harnesses stunned at what Eddie's telling us.

'Deciphering them, I've arrived at the same figures,' he says. 'They're coordinates. Pin-pointing a location in Dead Town, Jupiter City, the corner of Somerville and Aralia Roads. The exact spot where Juke or someone has jotted a cross and a date on this map.'

He holds it up for us to see.

'Dead Town?' Reid says, gazing over at Imogen.

Imogen simply eyes Eddie. 'Are you certain?'

'Yeah, it's Dead Town.' Eddie looks back at Reid. 'We gotta go and check this out, right?'

7

We take lunch up there in the heights of the building. All of us, both work crews, seated on the roof top, gazing out at the silent city. It's difficult to sit still. Reid, Eddie, Morgan and me, desperately wishing for the end of the working day. Keen to get over to Dead Town to verify Morgan and Eddie's claims. To see if we can find any evidence of one of these strange portals.

But we can't leave yet. Our work day isn't done.

Smithson provides lunch and water and he tells us stories about when he was young, how they had to go off and fetch their own food during lunch breaks, how things weren't as plentiful as they are nowadays.

Old Dorran agrees. Although he thanks the city authority. 'They weren't always so organised,' he tells us. 'Or so generous.'

'I'll say,' says Bebby who's scoffing food like he's not eaten in a week

We all watch him. 'With the way some of us eats,' Reid says, 'I'm surprised there's enough to go round at all.'

Marvee laughs. Bebby doesn't hear Reid. He looks up saying, 'What?'

'Nothing,' Reid tells him, 'just good to see you're enjoying the fine produce of our city.'

Nieshus is reading this week's Jupiter Gazette. Imogen's looking over Nieshus's shoulder, staring at one of the articles. It's a piece on the fall at the Federal Exchange. The city authority have released the name of the deceased. Crawter Mullins. Sixty three. Lived alone in the Kalalushi District. No family. There will be a public service and cremation.

'Sad news,' Smithson says, gazing down at the article. 'Nice chap was old Crawter.'

Imogen doesn't say a word our entire lunch break. She keeps to herself. Like she's got something eating her mind. After lunch we're back to our harvesting. The day growing hot, all of us covered in a sheen of sweat. And our fingers stained red from the berries.

We finally knock off roundabout three in the afternoon, having packed and lowered fifteen sacks of berries. We hoist ourselves back to the roof top. Unclipping our harnesses, Dorran and Smithson discussing the fruits of our labour, going over our harvest, pleased with the day's haul. Bebby, Marvee and Nieshus are off to indulge in a well-earned beer over at the Dogstar, Jupiter's only pub, run by the city's beer appreciation society, a small group of folk who have perfected the art of brewing ale. I look around at Reid and Morgan and Eddie. There's a tacit look that passes between the four of us, that we're sticking with our plan, that we're going across to Dead Town to search for evidence of Juke's portal. The minute we get off this building that's where we're headed.

Imogen's hauling herself up. She's the last one. She reaches the lip of the building and suddenly there's this sound of whining steel and the rung which Imogen's safety cord is attached to suddenly gives way.

She squeals and topples backwards. I scream, yelling at her to grab on to something. There's a rush of people to get to her before she plummets away to her death.

Reid is closest. He dives at her and just manages to grab her by the arm before she drops out of sight... but he almost slides over the rails himself, squashing the little grub-worms clustered there, just managing to hang onto the rail with his free hand.

'I've gotcha,' he says to Imogen, grunting with the effort. 'I've gotcha.'

He's poised precariously at the edge of the building, groaning with the effort of clasping Imogen, staring down at her dangling beneath him. The rest of us are either clinging to his legs, anchoring him, or grabbing for Imogen.

'Easy now,' Smithson says. 'Everyone, easy. Let's not panic. Just calm the situation.'

Everyone goes still, taking deep breaths, clinging to Reid.

'Now,' Smithson says, 'Imogen, reach up and grab my hand.' The wind buffets his hair as he leans out over the edge. Imogen's safety line dangles below her, swinging and snapping in the wind. Smithson's reaching his hand down as far as he can. Far, far below Imogen's dangling legs the distant city streets.

Her eyes are wild with fear. 'Don't let me go,' she pleads with Reid. 'Please, don't let me go.'

'I won't,' he assures her. 'I've got you. Reach up and grab Smithson's hand.'

Smithson has tethered a safety rope around his waist. Even so, I feel my skin crawl just watching him hanging headfirst over the side of the building. I'm gripping Reid around the leg. I won't let him slip away.

Imogen reaches her hand up and Smithson grabs her wrist. Together he and Reid manage to work her back to the safety of the roof, the rest of us grabbing her as she reaches the railing, dragging the three of them to the safety of the roof and hauling in Imogen's dangling safety line.

They fall in a heap in the beds of strawberry vines. Some of us are aghast and silent at how close we were to losing another member of our community, others breathing sighs of relief. But Reid's laughing pure nervous laughter and when I get to my knees I see he and Imogen sprawled there side by side, looking into each other's eyes, Reid laughing while she lies there, stunned, bug eyed.

'Bloody hell, that was close,' Reid says, his laughter dying now and his face showing mighty relief. He lies there looking up into the blue sky. 'Bloody hell, that was close.'

DEAD TOWN

1

FIVE of us ride our bikes across Jupiter to Dead Town, a district on the western edge of the city. The afternoon sun beats down beyond drifting patches of cloud. Dust and grit swirl at street level on cheeky wind gusts. We wheel along Central Avenue which takes us away from the skyscrapers and out of downtown Jupiter, through the mostly uninhabited residential districts of Charleville and Wedemeyer and finally into Dead Town itself.

The quiet of the inner city is replaced here by the quiet of the outer city. I can't really describe it. The inner city has a certain muteness about it. Like sound doesn't carry. Out here in suburbs such as Dead Town, the quiet is more like that of an open cemetery. You might hear the odd bird. The odd dog barking. Otherwise it's the quiet of the breeze through the trees and shrubs and weeds. Or the sweep of dust and sand from one side of the street to the other.

The other thing about Dead Town is that it looks like a bomb swept through it. The apartment blocks and houses here are either all tipped over, or they are tilted on their sides with walls and rooves blown off. Old telephone poles are bent away as if from some ancient blast's epicentre. Petrified glass too, bent outwards in long sword-like streaks from old window frames. Like it melted and reset in an instant.

Ironically, Dead Town is one of the more attractive districts of Jupiter. In a gothic sort of way. Odd plants grow here. Ones that grow nowhere else in Jupiter. One species of tree here we call the spine tree. It has a smooth black bark. It grows in clumps of two or three. Its trunk is featureless and ends in mighty egg-shaped claws that I've watched pluck magpie geese from the air. Reid says he's even seen them scoop up wandering dogs. Apparently, humans aren't on their menu. Although, there are rumours about small children being gobbled up by them. (Probably more stories to keep us out of the area when we were kids.)

There are also what folk call Cerberus Shrubs. Peculiar (if not daunting) looking plants with thick stems that grow maybe two or three metres out of the ground. The tops of the stems end in the shapes of dog things that have eyes and mouths that have been known to scoop up rats or snakes or lizards, or, as far as some of the tales go, bite off people's limbs.

Another tree species that exists only here is one we call Pod trees. They have ghostly white bark. And are shaped like tall people. People standing with arms at their sides. Small twisting branches stem from their shoulders and elbows and from the tops of their heads. And curling snaggled clumps of roots grow out from their toes and heals, curling down into the bitumen or concrete. They have eyes in an otherwise blank face. Eyes that only ever open when you approach them, and their black eyeballs just seem to "watch" you.

The speculation of course is that all these plants are simply the results of the genetic alterations performed by our forebears. But there are some who believe we can blame the bomb that ripped through here generations ago. That it created mutations. That it dumped huge amounts of radiation. (Though tests carried out by the city authority state there are no traces of radiation in Dead Town.)

Whatever the case, they're creepy looking. All of them. I've never liked them. And I don't much like them now.

We pull to a halt because Eddie pulls to a halt, frowning at his map. We're in the street beside an old apartment block that leans away from us. There are small Cerberus shrubs close by, their hungry eyes watching us.

'What's wrong?' Reid asks him.

'Nothing. Just getting my bearings.'

'Corner of Somerville and Aralia Roads,' Morgan reminds him.

'Yeah, Morgs, I know.' He turns the map around. 'Like I said, just getting my bearings.'

Morgan takes the map from him. She points. 'Here. See? We take the next right.'

We cycle along Mosec until we reach Somerville. Then we turn right and as we approach the Aralia Road junction we notice the basketball court. There's an old clubhouse without its doors and windows and there're Pod trees growing where people once played.

There's an eerie feeling in the air. I can't really describe it but I wonder if the others sense it too because everyone's looking about like they heard something weird. The Pod trees stand there watching us. Maybe it's because of these trees. Or maybe it isn't. There's just this odd feeling in the air.

'You lot get that strange sensation?' I ask Reid.

He smiles. 'Yeah. Like we shouldn't be here.' He clasps my shoulder. And hitches his sword in its sheath strapped across his back. 'Come on. Let's see what Morgan's uncovered.'

Morgan's off her bike. She's eyeing something beyond the court, over by the clubhouse. There's an old swimming pool there on the adjacent block. One of the pools we used to go swimming in as kids when monsoon downpours would fill it up. Nowadays the pool's got cracks all through it so when it rains the water drains quickly away. We avoid the Pod trees and stand along the edge of the old pool. It's empty except for old bits of rubbish, some bits of furniture and an ancient rusted bike.

All that junk in there though is arranged in a circular pattern. With swirling grooves gouged out of the base of the pool. Just like we saw at the transmitter station.

'Look familiar?' Reid says to us.

I don't speak. I'm in stunned silence. Once again I'm wondering who it was that drew up this Ephemerys. How on Earth could they have possibly known where these portals would occur?

Imogen stands there, not speaking. I don't know if she's still spooked about almost falling to her death, or if she's fascinated by what she's seeing, but she's silent as a ghost.

'I guess it's confirmed then,' Eddie says excitedly. 'Juke must've been swallowed by one of these portals.'

I wince at the suggestion. Morgan, beside me, holds my hand. 'We don't know that for certain, Eddie,' she tells him.

He shrugs.

I see Reid watching Imogen. I wonder what he's thinking. Imogen still hasn't spoken. 'You seen anything like this?' he asks her.

She shakes her head.

I leave Morgan's side. I climb down into the old pool. I want to inspect the debris. I want to see if there's anything here that might be linked to Juke. If there are any more of those bizarre jars with tiny people trapped inside.

I move around the pattern of junk. Upending old chairs, cola cans, burger wrappers, plastic bottles, witches hats, lifebuoys.

I get a fright when I find Reid beside me. 'You okay?' he asks.

I take a breath. I nod.

'We'll find him,' he says quietly. 'We're getting closer all the time. We'll find him.' He puts his arm around me. I notice Imogen looking at us.

'Can you tell us yet if we can expect any more portals?' Reid asks, turning and looking up at Morgan and Eddie. I think Reid knows the answer to that. I think he's just asking, hoping there'll be something to encourage me.

Morgan shrugs. 'Not yet. But we'll keep working on it.'

'In some of his notes,' Eddie says, 'Juke speculates that these portals, whatever they are, whatever's causing them, might have been to blame for the end of the Old World. The very thing that killed everyone.'

Imogen looks at Eddie like she has something to add to that but again she doesn't speak. A sentry droid strolls by and stops to regard us. It is stone still. Regarding us for far longer than it should to run its simple bio-scan and genetic scanners, verifying who we are. To send its signals back to city watch.

Then it starts off again, its strange red eyes trained on us as it moves away.

2

Late afternoon, I wash my bloodied clothes that I left in the soaker this morning. I'd forgotten all about them. Mum's not home yet so it gives me time to wash and hang them without her ever seeing all the blood—it saves me fielding a bunch of unwanted questions. She calls as I'm finishing up. Tells me she's going to be late home. I ask if she wants me to put some dinner on. She pauses and then suggests she'll just have a snack. That she'll put something together when she gets in.

I know something's up.

I meet her at the gate when she cycles home. There's a curious look on her face. It's as if she's trying to hide a smile.

'What's up with you?' I ask suspiciously, looking at her sideways, amused by the expression on her face.

She parks her bike at the side of the house. She takes my hand and can hold it in no longer. 'I've been asked out on a date.'

She's blushing. I hurry around in front of her to get a clear look at her face. I see her trying to stifle a smile. I cup my hand over my mouth. 'You're going out on a date?'

She laughs, she's embarrassed.

'With who?'

'Lanson Edwards.' She checks the time on her wrist-com. 'Oh gosh, and he's picking me up in an hour.'

'Lanson Edwards?' I'm thrilled. Lanson Edwards is a member of the city authority but he's such a lovely man. So warm and friendly. He and mum have been friends for so long. I've actually lain awake at nights willing them to be together. 'Oh Mum, I'm so happy for you.'

I wrap my arms around her and hold her. I've got a tear in my eye. Mum has done it tough the last few of years. When dad died she had to raise both Juke and me on her own. Then to top it off, Juke just ups and vanishes.

Finally some good news, I'm thinking, finally some brilliant news.

I want to hear all about it. Lizard and insect collection can wait. I'll do it after sundown if I have to. I take mum by the hand and drag her inside and I put on the kettle.

'Right,' I say. 'I want you to tell me everything. I mean, did he just ask you? How did it happen? Oh, come on, mum, you have to tell me.'

'There's really not much to say.'

'I don't care, you have to tell me.'

The kettle's boiling and through the front windows the setting sun's turning the sky pink and orange. From the sound-trap comes Nat King Cole's Red Sails In The Sunset and Mum tells me she was in the sorting warehouse when Lanson Edwards approaches her and he begins chatting to her about this and that and then he finally asks if he can possibly cook her dinner. That he's saved for a leg of Gen lamb and he wants to treat her with some of the organic produce that he's grown himself. He's also saved for a bottle of wine. He wants to treat mum to an evening out at the Galaxy, the outdoor Old World cinema.

'They're putting on Heartbreak Hotel. He says he requested it personally.'

Our attention turns to what she'll wear and there's a dress in her wardrobe that she saved for but has never had the occasion to wear it. So I help her dress and I do her hair. And she looks stunning when she's done. Truly stunning. When Lanson comes by to pick her up on his bike with the side-cart, his mouth drops open.

'Oh my,' he says, his eyes gaping. 'I'm here to escort July O'Meara but all I see is this stunning visage of an angel before me.'

Mum laughs. 'Oh stop it.'

I'm sitting on the front porch, smiling.

'Good evening, Skye,' Lanson says jovially.

'Hi, Lanson.'

He helps mum into the side-cart, gently holding out his strong hand to hers. He swings his leg over the seat of his bike.

'Treat her nice,' I call to Lanson.

'I'll treat her like a princess.'

'I know you will.'

His foot slips on the bike's pedal just as they're about to get going which kills the romantic getaway somewhat though it provides a laugh for mum and me at least; mum's hand is over her mouth like she's a little girl again, like laughing would be rude. But Lanson looks as though he's trying to keep in his own laughter.

It's a beautiful scene.

Lanson finally gets his footing sorted out and off they wheel down the street, tinged orange by the sunset, Mum waving at me as she goes.

3

I climb to the roof of the house. I collect the lizards and bugs. I wear a smile the whole time. Thinking of mum. When I'm done I sit there on the roof watching the last of the sun drain from the sky. A cool breeze washes through Jupiter's empty streets. I watch a Gen doe and her calf munching grass in the street. Shadow cats prowl the darkness, slinking from shrub to shrub, eyeing the Gen deer calf, their eyes glowing green.

I chat to Morgan via my wrist-com. She's at home two blocks away. I tell her about mum and Lanson. She says she's happy for mum. 'About time your mum got some action,' she says, and I'm like, 'Oh Morgan, how can you say that!' After that our conversation turns to the day's events. We talk about Imogen. How she almost fell. How close it was. How Reid grabbed her just before she slipped to her death. I ask Morgan if she knows how Imogen came to be on our work gang. She says she's uncertain. She thinks maybe Reid or Eddie asked her so they could pick her brains about this Juke business.

I'm quiet for a moment. Then I say, 'Do you think Reid and Imogen have a secret friendship?'

She frowns at me on screen. 'What? Not that I know of. Why do say that?'

I sigh. I think of the exchange between Reid and Imogen in the Persephone building. Before we took the elevator up. When Reid mentioned the Old Transmitter station. Imogen had said to him, "So you went out there." Like maybe they'd already discussed it. And I think again to the morning when we were about to leave Jupiter for the old transmitter station and Reid was looking about as if he'd half expected someone else to be there. Was it Imogen he'd been anticipating?

I tell Morgan this. 'Am I just being paranoid?' I ask her. 'You think I'm just being jealous?'

She's unsure. But she says, 'Look, even if Imogen did have prior awareness of us going out to the old Station, then maybe Reid simply mentioned it to her in passing. Knowing Reid, I wouldn't think there'd be any great conspiracy.'

I nod. I hope she's right.

'Have you asked him about it?' she asks.

'Not really.'

'Just ask him,' she tells me.

It's her sister's birthday. They're about to bring out the cake. 'Are you still coming over?

'Yes. I'll just finish my chores and freshen up. I won't be long.'

4

The lizards must be sorted into sorting pens and the bugs into a heated tank. We have a special room set up for this. It doesn't matter so much in the mornings when you can just take them all over to the Jupiter market and exchange them for monetary credits. In the evenings you need to keep them fresh. That means keeping them alive. Which means trying not to get attached to them. The lizards, especially; they're quite cute. I need to think of them as food. Not as pets.

When I'm done I shower. After that, with my hair still wet, I go outside and check our water tanks and find they're a quarter full. When it rains they fill. But during the dry months, when they run low, you have to put in an order for sterilised water delivery from the Jupiter reservoir. The city authority are usually fairly prompt about their deliveries. They're quite efficient.

I check our pantry and write down some other suggestions for items mum and I might need to order. I leave the list on the kitchen table for mum to go over. Or to add to.

After that I head to my room to get dressed. I think about calling Reid. I wonder if he's still going to the birthday party. Morgan did invite him.

I check the time. The last of dusk has almost washed out of the sky. I gaze out the window, hoping to catch some of the light on my way. Morgan doesn't live that far but without streetlamps the route can be pretty dark at night.

I'm just about to leave the window when I see something in the street. When I see it my brain tells me it's just one of Jupiter's automated guards on patrol. Stopping to scan something of interest.

But when I realise it isn't I frown.

My skin turns cold.

It's the droid from Barren Wood.

And the stranger.

He's standing there in the shadow of the Jacaranda tree. He's just standing there, watching me.

I gasp and shut the curtain.

My skin crawls. I scurry back from the window. I crouch by my bed knowing the front and rear doors of the house are without locks. I have this creepy feeling he's striding across the street now, that he's climbing the front stairs of the house and testing the door to see if he can get in.

I scramble over to my chest of drawers and drag my wrist-com into my grasp. I bring up Reid's number and thumb it.

It beeps and beeps and I'm whispering, 'Come on, Reid, answer, please.'

I hear a noise downstairs, the sound of someone yanking on the door knob.

Has the stranger stepped inside the house? I duck down behind the drawers, holding my breath. I'm eyeing the bedroom doorway. Listening for the stranger, wondering if he's moving up the stairs.

Reid's voice crackles from the communicator. 'Skye, you okay?'

'Reid,' I whisper desperately into the mic, 'you've got to help me. There's a stranger in my house. Mum's gone out. I'm here alone.'

Reid's face is on the screen. He's frowning. Disbelieving. 'A stranger?'

'Yes.'

'Are you certain?'

'Yes. Please, you've got to get over here.'

He looks stunned. Incredulous. 'Alright. Activate your emergency beeper. And sit tight. I'll be there as quick as I can.'

5

The emergency beeper's in the central part of the house. That's the kitchen. Downstairs.

It seems desperately far away.

I keep eyeing the bedroom doorway. I keep listening for any sounds of movement. Everything's quiet. So quiet. I don't know how long Reid's going to take but I might have to defend myself. I consider the blunderbuss. But I reach for the star blazer. It's far more portable. The fact that it could easily burn the entire house down doesn't even occur to me right now.

I creep to my bedroom door, lugging the weapon with me. I peer around the door frame into the hall. The hallway light is on.

The hallway looks clear. I get to my feet and tip-toe from my bedroom, the star blazer held out in front of me. I edge along the hallway. The bathroom door's on my left. I'm trying to keep two eyes on it and two eyes on the hallway that leads to the stairway.

I step across the hall and stand there beside the open bathroom doorway with my back pushed up against the wall. I peer round the edge of the door. I see the toilet. I see the shower cubicle, the wash basin, the towel cupboard beneath the sink. I get a look at the window, hoping the stranger hasn't climbed in from the outside. It's latched.

I turn my attention back to the hallway. I'm faced with two more doors and then the stairs leading down at hallway's end. Firstly, the door on my right which leads to mum's bedroom, is open.

I edge up to the doorway... and peer in, the star blazer held to my chest. I see the dark of night pressed against the window, I see mum's bed, her bed sheet and blanket neatly made up. Her wardrobe with its door slightly ajar.

I hear footsteps behind me. My skin goes cold.

I whirl around, my star blazer primed and ready to fire.

No-one's there.

I stay as still as I can. Just listening. Listening.

There's nothing in front or behind me in the hall.

The door to Juke's old room is shut.

Yet I could've sworn I heard footsteps.

Was it coming from downstairs?

I face the top of the steps again. Along the hall from me.

I move. As quiet as I can. Passing Juke's bedroom door. I reach the top of the stairwell and peer down, aiming my weapon.

The stairwell's empty.

I take a deep breath and slowly, step by step, begin to descend.

I screech and clamp my hand over my mouth the moment I hear a definite noise against the outside of the house. As if someone or something had thrust themselves against it. Or maybe it's someone trying to kick the door open. Maybe he's not inside yet. Suddenly I hear something walking on the roof. I can hear footfalls. But that could just be night storks skipping about looking for bugs and lizards snared in our traps.

I hurry down the remaining stairs and into the kitchen.

I see the emergency button on the opposite wall. I rush across the room and slam my palm against it.

I've never had to activate it before so I don't know what's supposed to happen. But it remains completely silent.

Should there be an alarm? Should a silent light start flashing to tell me a signal's been sent?

I pound it with my palm again, praying it's working, praying the city guard will receive my call and scramble.

I hear the door to my right creak and I turn...

My skin turns to ice. Because it's him. The stranger. Standing right there with the door open, looking in at me.

I squeal. I stumble backwards. I jam the trigger back on the star blazer as I crash into the table. The star blazer fizzes and spurts and then a single blazing point of light rockets out and punches the stranger in the chest.

I don't see him go down. I just hear him grunt. Then I'm on my back on the floor, chairs crashing about me, the star blazer clattering into the floor boards and the dining table shoved into the wall.

I scramble backwards. I'm staring at the space where he was standing, the door has swung shut. I'm wide eyed. Heart pounding. I hear a groan from outside as if I've really hurt him. I hear footsteps plodding up the side of the house. Then it's silent.

The star blazer is smouldering. Smoke rising. I scramble for the bench and grab the fire blanket and drop it over the gun.

Then I crouch again, getting below the window. I peer out into the night. I see nothing out there but darkness. I hold my breath and listen...

I hear, very faintly, noises. Like he's still out there. Looking for another way in.

I need to get out of the house. I'm trapped here. Easy pickings. I plan an escape route out into the grass behind the house. I'll crouch low so I can't be seen. I can either wait out there on my belly, in hiding, or I can sneak northwards and hide in the old Shinetown Breweries. We used to play in there as kids. I know the layout well.

But... what if he's not injured? What if he trails me? Him and his droid? Two against one, I'll be easy pickings.

I don't know what to do. I'm just sitting here shivering in fear.

Skye, you have to calm down. You won't be any help to yourself if you're in a panic.

I take in deep breaths. Trying to clear my head.

Okay, call mum. I don't want to disturb her but if she comes home and finds me dead, then that's really going to ruin her evening. At least if I call her she'll tell Lanson and then I'll have people rushing here from all over Jupiter. I bring up mum's number on my wrist-com but then I hear it.

A noise inside the house.

I don't move. I listen for the tiniest sound. I swallow. Self-preservation. That's all I'm thinking now. Self-preservation. I crawl back to the star blazer. I drag the fire blanket from it. I grab the weapon but it's scorching hot and it singes my skin; I release it, gasping in pain, sucking my fingers.

I hear the noise again. A creaking noise. A thump. Has he climbed in through a window somewhere?

I crawl over to the kitchen bench and yank open the cutlery drawer. I reach in and pull out the meat knife. I sit there, backed up against the bench, keeping low. There are three entrances into the kitchen. One from the stairway. One from the hallway that skirts the front room down to the front door. And one from the side door where the stranger appeared. So I don't exactly feel safe here. I can't sit and watch three separate entry points. I need to find somewhere safer.

Back upstairs. I believe if I can monitor things from the top of the stairs, and wait for either Reid or the city guard to show up, I might be safer. Plus my blunderbuss is up there. In my bedroom.

6

I reach the base of the stairs, peering up. Gripping the long bladed meat knife I hurry upstairs. The hallway before me is empty. I scurry down the hall, minding mum's open doorway again. I approach the bathroom and then the doorway to my own room.

I'm suddenly aware that whoever that stranger is, he could easily be inside my room now. I hold the knife out in front of me, my heart set on stabbing whoever's in there, whoever comes at me. I press my back against the opposite wall of the hallway and watch my bedroom doorway, the knife held out in front of me. The bedroom light is off, it's so dark in there. I see no movement. Hear nothing. I step carefully across the hall and kick the door open fully. For all I know he's hiding behind it. The door swings inwards and bangs against the wall.

Good, he's not behind the door.

I reach in and flick on the light switch. The room lights up. I scan the room. I can't see him. I step inside, my knife still held before me. I crouch to make sure he's not under the bed. Clear. I hurry over to my wardrobe, thrusting it open, stepping back as I do, my knife trained in the direction of the wardrobe in case he comes hurtling out at me. No-one inside. I reach in and fetch my sonic gun and the panels of the absorption suit then hurry to flick off the bedroom light. Then I crouch there in the dark behind the bed, my blunderbuss perched on the mattress, its muzzle trained on the open door, slipping as quick as I can into the components of absorption armour.

I bring up mum's number again on my wrist-com...

Footsteps in the hallway outside my room. I tense and grip the blunderbuss. I've got it trained on the door, I'm shivering wildly. 'Come on, Skye,' I whisper to myself, 'Come on, don't lose it now. Concentrate. Keep it together.'

I freeze as I see the figure fill the doorway. The lights are off in my room. The hallway light is at his back. I can't see his face. He steps into the room and he must see me because he says, 'Don't shoot.'

I'm frozen.

But the voice is familiar.

'It's me,' he says.

I blink. 'Reid?'

'Yes. Are you okay?'

7

I leave my position and rush to him, throwing my arms about him. 'Oh, Reid, I've never been so happy to see you.'

He holds me. I can't stop shaking.

He turns on the light and helps me back to my bed. We sit together. I won't let him go.

'Did you see anyone outside?' I ask him. 'Is there anyone in the house?'

'No.'

'There was someone here, Reid. I swear. I don't know who he was. He was watching me from the street. I shot him at the side door. I think I got him but I don't know where he's gone.' Tears flood my eyes. I'm talking at a thousand words a minute. Reid urges me to calm down. He holds my head to his shoulder. He strokes my hair.

'Calm down,' he tells me. 'You're safe now, Skye. There's no-one here but us. Okay? Calm down.' His voice is soothing and soft.

When I get my breathing rate down he says, 'Okay, so tell me what happened.'

I take a moment to take several deep breaths. I wonder how much I should tell him. Do I need to go into detail about my lone excursion into the Barren Wood? He'll be so cross. 'I was getting ready to go over to Morgan's. You know for Marietta's birthday. But there was this strange droid in the street. The same droid we saw out near the transmitter station. The one that spooked the Grumbs. And as I'm watching it, I see someone standing beside it, under the Jacaranda tree, just watching me. And before I know it he's walking straight toward the house.' I look into Reid's eyes. 'He tried entering the side door, Reid. I'm not joking. I saw him.'

Reid releases me and goes to the window. He peers out, using his night-scope to survey the street and the garden. 'You sure it was the same droid we saw?'

I nod. 'I'm certain of it.'

I stand beside him and we're both gazing out into the night. We see shadow cats prowling, their eyes aglow in the dark. We hear owls hooting. We see the inky shadow of harpy hounds passing across the night sky.

The Jacaranda tree is almost lost to the evening gloom.

'No-one's out there,' Reid tells me.

'I shot him. Maybe I hurt him. Or maybe he saw you coming. Maybe he ran off.'

Reid looks at me. 'You shot him? What with?'

'The star blazer.'

'The star blazer? Honestly?'

'Yes.'

'You're bloody lucky you didn't burn the house down.' He eyes me, sighing. 'So you've never seen this guy before?'

I don't know how to answer that because of course I've seen him before. The other day, coming back from the transmitter station. And of course this very morning.

I shake my head. 'No.'

He goes to the window again. Studies the street. Then he leaves the room.

8

I trail him downstairs. In the kitchen there's a smell of fumes and hot metal on the air. The star blazer's still lying there on the floor. Reid fetches it. Perhaps concerned the blazer might still be hot enough to start a fire. There's a small char mark on the floor boards.

Reid pushes his way out the side door. Then he stops. 'Blood,' he says, crouching.

I'm behind him. Looking. There are drips of blood down the steps. Reid uses a flashlight but the blood trail quits once we reach the grass. He deploys a night-scope to pick up ultra violet and infra-red signatures. There's no stranger in the vicinity of the house. No stranger in the street. No strange droid. I follow Reid around to the trellis where he climbs nimbly to the roof. He checks around to see if anyone's hiding up there.

'No-one up here either,' he calls down to me.

When we're back inside, Reid sits me down at the kitchen table. He looks at me closely. 'Skye, you have to tell me, you're certain you've never seen this person before?'

I'm silent. I don't know what to say.

Reid studies my eyes. He frowns and holds my hand. 'Skye, is there something you're not telling me?'

I hang my head. He's going to be so angry with me.

I feel his palm gently on my cheek. 'Skye. It's alright. What is it? Tell me.'

I look up and stare into his eyes. 'Promise not to be cross with me.'

He frowns. Curious. 'I promise.'

So I tell him. How I met both the stranger and that droid on our way back from the transmitter station. That somehow I couldn't recall him at the time but it was the stranger who saved me from the imps. I tell him how I found that curious metallic ball. How I thought it must've been one of these PIT devices that Imogen spoke of. How I snuck out of Jupiter this morning through the pipe beneath the fence and went out into the Barren Wood alone hoping to make some sort of contact or learn something about Juke.

Reid's flabbergasted. His eyes are wide and unblinking. As if he can't believe exactly what he's hearing. 'You went out to the Barren Wood? Alone?'

I nod.

'Skye, are you out of your mind?'

I sigh. I can't look at him. I feel like a fool. 'I know it was stupid. But I was desperate for a sign from Juke.'

'Bloody hell, you could've got yourself killed.'

'I know. I wasn't thinking straight.'

He shakes his head, completely exasperated. 'And this stranger, you saw him out there?'

'He was standing beside a bunch of dead Entities. He'd killed them. That's when he saw me. So I ran and he sent something after me. His droid maybe. I'm not sure.'

'Skye... bloody hell, I mean...' Reid's stuck for words. I can see the frustration knotted in his face. 'You've got to be more careful than that.'

'I know.'

'I'm serious. You can't just go wandering out of Jupiter alone.'

'Reid, I know. I just thought, after what Imogen told us about the metallic ball, that it might've been sent by Juke.'

For a long moment, Reid eyes me. Then he says he wants to see it. The ball. I tell him I don't have it anymore. 'I dropped it.'

'You dropped it?'

'When I ran, when the guy chased me, I think I dropped it. I don't know where it is.'

'And you're certain this guy you saw, it's not Juke.'

'I am now. I didn't at first.' I wipe tears from my eyes. 'I think he's a wanderer with a screw loose. Why would he be killing those Entities?'

Reid shrugs. 'I don't know.'

He asks me to give him a full description of this stranger. And of the droid. He writes down notes. He asks me hair colour and height and eye colour and ethnicity.

I feel at a loss to describe the man I saw. The three times I've seen him now were only fleeting moments. In gloomy light. Or he wore some face mask helmet thing. Or I was shooting at him in a blind panic. 'I think he has dark hair. He's maybe your height.'

'White. Black. Asian.'

'Caucasian. I think.'

'Eye colour?'

'Don't know.'

He asks me to describe the droid. That bit seems easier. 'Tall,' I tell him. 'But not as tall as Jupiter sentries. With four legs. A central torso. Strange arms. I mean, you saw it. The thing that scared off the Grumbs.'

Reid sighs. He still can't believe I went out to the Barren Wood by myself. He's shaking his head. 'I'll get Vane Flares at Central Agency to run these descriptions through their database. See if they've encountered this person before.'

That makes me nervous. 'Please don't mention my name.'

'Don't worry, Skye, I won't. But they're going to be able to cross-check data against people who have gone missing over the years. Or for other anomalies they haven't yet made public.'

'What sort of anomalies?'

He shrugs. 'You hear whispers of things that people have spotted and reported, things that aren't necessarily released publicly. Like what Imogen said about unnamed people falling out of these alleged portals. What I'm saying is, maybe people have spotted this guy before. Maybe there're secret records of it.'

I sit there staring at the window. I breathe out. I look at Reid and reach over and hold his arm. 'Thanks for coming over. I was so frightened.'

He looks at me. 'Did you manage to activate your emergency beacon?'

I shrug. 'I managed to hit the button. But... that was all. Should something have happened?'

He gets up to inspect it. Looking at the security unit attached to the wall. At the fuse box he kills the power for the unit. Then he grabs a knife and levers off the casing. 'They're silent,' he tells me. 'But if it's working the city guard would've been here by now.' He checks the wiring. 'How long has it been since city maintenance called on you?'

I shrug. 'Don't know. A year, maybe?'

'A year?' He pulls out an internal battery. Inspects it. 'You need to get them out more often, Skye. This unit isn't receiving any charge from your solar array. The wire's detached.'

I watch as he fetches a screw driver and pliers from the pantry. I watch as he strips back the green sheath on the copper wiring. I watch as he unscrews a small bolt and rigs the exposed wire around the bolt before screwing it back in. Then he replaces the battery case. He returns the tool, reengages the power switch in the fuse box, then washes his hands. 'That will do it for now, but you really need to get the maintenance people out here. To fix up the security on this house.' He stands there looking at me. He's still agitated that I went out to the Barren Wood all alone. I can see it in his eyes. 'Especially if there's some unknown Outsider getting about.'

'Are you angry with me?'

'Yes.' But then he lets me have a smile. A pained smile but a smile all the same. He steps back to the table and sits down in front of me. 'Look, you've got to promise me not to go off on some crazy little errand like that again. I mean it, Skye. Say you went missing? What would I have done? What would your mother have done? She'd have been so distraught. It would've been terrible.'

Our faces are close. 'I know. I'm really sorry.'

He smiles and shakes his head at me.

'You forgive me?'

'I'm not sure if I should.' We gaze at each other's eyes. Our lips touch. We kiss. Gently. It feels wonderful. From my earlier terror to this. Two extremes of emotion.

We kiss for a number of minutes. Breathlessly, I ask him, 'Will you stay the night?'

'You think your mum will mind?'

I shrug. 'Don't know. She's out with Lanson. For all I know she'll not be back.' I smile uncertainly. I stroke his hair.

He sits there looking back at me. Shaking his head, still in disbelief about me going out to Barren Wood alone.

I stand and take his hand. Then I lead him upstairs to my room.

THE PORTAL

1

WE'RE awoken early next morning by my wrist-com beeping on the night stand. I reach for it. Reid drags a pillow over his head. My eyes squint in the morning sunlight that streams against the curtains. On my wrist-com I see it's Morgan who's calling. Only now do I remember her sister's birthday.

I feel terrible. I forgot to tell her that Reid came over. I forgot to contact her.

I press the receive button. Morgan's face appears on screen. 'Hi Morgan, I'm so sorry about Marietta's party, for not coming. I mean I sort of, ah, got held up.'

On screen Morgan smiles. 'Yes, I can see that. Good morning, Reid.'

Without removing his head from beneath the pillow he raises his hand, as if to say Good morning.

Morgan looks at my slyly, mouthing something silently so Reid can't hear. I guess, she's wanting to know if Reid and I, well, did it. If Reid wasn't here I might've smiled and told Morgan to mind her own business.

I try to change the subject. I say, 'I hope Marietta doesn't hate me.'

'Well, dear big sister Marietta got a little bit drunk,' Morgan says. 'Safe to say she probably doesn't remember who turned up to her party and who didn't. Anyway, listen, I've something far more important to tell you.'

'Really? What is it?'

'Okay, so Eddie stayed the night here.'

I raise my eyebrows. 'You and Eddie? Now that is big news.'

'About time,' comes Reid's voice from beneath the pillow.

Morgan rolls her eyes. 'It's not what you pair think. After the party we were checking out that strange Ephemerys book. Okay? Anyway, we found something really bizarre.'

Reid lifts the pillow from his head, gazing intently at my wrist-com screen. 'Like what?' he asks.

Morgan continues. 'Okay, but I hope you're ready for this.'

'Tell us,' I say.

'Me and Eddie believe we know when another portal will open.'

I stare at her. 'What?' I glance at Reid then stare back at the screen. 'Really?'

'Yes.'

Reid's sitting up all of a sudden. 'When?'

'Well, it sounds crazy... and we're not even certain our calculations are accurate—'

'Tell me,' Reid says eagerly.

'Okay. If we're reading it correctly... and like I said, we're still not sure about this, but we think it might open sometime in the next couple of hours.'

2

Reid and I cycle furiously to the Argonaut Carnival Grounds. It's a strange place. I find that more and more as I get older. We used to play there as kids. Morgan, me, Eddie, Reid and Juke. We were told constantly by our parents that we shouldn't play there, that it's too dangerous, that the old rides are unstable, that they're falling to pieces, that kids had been known to fall from them to their death. But it used to be fun. So much fun. Except these days I only feel ghosts there in its silence and its deserted alley ways and the abandoned carnival rides. I feel the lost spirits of all those people depicted in the ancient snap prints that line the entry booths. Snap prints of parents and children long gone, their smiling faces frozen in time. Argonauts once rang out with their laughter, their conversation, children squealing in delight. That was before the world changed and everything went silent.

We find Eddie and Morgan there. And Imogen. They're waiting for us, Eddie with his nose in that Ephemerys.

'Morning all,' Reid says as we roll up to them on our bikes. We brake and come to a standstill.

'Morning,' Morgan and Eddie reply. Imogen simply stands there, arms folded. She nods in Reid's direction. 'Morning,' she says to him. Like she knows Reid and I spent the night together. Like it pains her. Like she's jealous.

She doesn't regard me once.

'So,' Reid says, 'you guys better tell us what you've found.'

Eddie's like quiet for a moment, like he hasn't heard Reid. Like he's deep in concentration.

It's Morgan who answers. 'So... it's like this.' And she points at the book in Eddie's grasp. 'According to whoever wrote the Ephemerys, and if I've calculated this correctly, I predict that this morning, one of these portal anomalies will open somewhere here in the carnival grounds. And I'm predicting it'll happen near the Stardream Rollercoaster.'

'This morning?' I ask, wanting to make sure of that. 'Like today?'

Morgan nods. Quite certain of herself. 'Yep. We've run the calculations over and over. Each time we've arrived at the same result.' She shrugs. 'Eddie's triple checking our findings, but I'm confident I've got it right.'

It seems so wild, so strange. That someone eighty years ago predicted such an event. That they could pinpoint it to this very day. I don't exactly believe it. It sounds too coincidental. Too convenient. Farfetched.

3

We push our bikes through the empty fair ground, between the silent Horror House and the Smash-em-Cars, past the creaking Ferris Wheel, and the empty Merry-Go-Round with its two dozen plastic horses waiting to carry laughing children. The whole time, looming in the distance like some awful hulking beast, the Stardream rollercoaster.

Most of it is rusted. And these days it's on an awful lean like someday (maybe sooner than later) it'll just keel over and collapse in a cloud of metal and dust. It reminds me of the bones of some ancient monster. Like the dinosaurs we've read about in the Old World school books, like the dinosaur bones hanging in Jupiter's Natural History Museum. Like something died here, some monstrous animal and its flesh rotted away and the twisted metal is all that remains of it.

Imogen walks behind Morgan and Eddie and me. She's with Reid. I glance over my shoulder, I see her take his arm. I hear her say, 'Reid. I just wanted to say thank you. For yesterday. That was a close call.'

He smiles at her. 'No problem. Couldn't just let you fall.'

She nods and smiles, giving him that look I've seen her give him a couple of times, like she's taken by him, like she's interested in him. I feel that pang of jealousy again in my throat. I swallow it down. I watch her squeeze his hand. I almost expect her to give him a kiss or something. I feel red. I feel irrational. My skin has gone hot. I glance at Reid. I don't want him to know I'm feeling this way. But I'm dying to know what he's thinking.

'You honestly think this portal's going to appear near the Stardream structure?' I ask Morgan.

She casts her eye over the vast rusting Stardream framework as we approach it. 'We've pinpointed it to this location,' she says. 'That's as accurate as we can be.'

'Do you have a precise time when it might appear?' Reid asks.

'Not exactly,' Morgan says. 'If the information's there, we either haven't found it yet, or we've not been able to decode it.'

'But you've been able to determine that it'll appear sometime in the next hour or two?'

'Yes,' Morgan tells him, looking around at him.

4

It's a long wait. We sit there. Nothing happens. I can't get Imogen out of my mind. The way she held Reid's arm. I hate feeling so jealous. I try to convince myself she's simply grateful that Reid saved her life. But I'm thinking about her and Juke now. I'm wondering about the nature of their relationship.

Finally I ask her, 'I know I've probably asked you this, Imogen, but how close were you and Juke?'

She looks at me, wondering why I'm asking. 'We were friends. Like I told you, we had a bond, both being what you lot like to call Outsiders.'

'What Skye wants to know is, were you lovers?' Morgan asks.

I throw Morgan a scowl. 'I do not. I'm just curious about your friendship. Juke never mentioned you, that's all.'

Imogen ties her long blonde hair up on top of her head, gathering it into a bun, winding strands of hair around the base of the clump to tie it all there. It accentuates her neck line and brings her face into the sunshine. I notice Reid watching her almost admiringly. I can't help but feel envious of her smooth skin and shapely lips and her perfect, clean teeth. It doesn't seem fair that someone could be so beautiful without even trying.

'I guess we kept things quiet,' she says. 'We were hunting for these anomalies. We wanted to keep that secret.'

It's not much of an answer as far as I'm concerned. Juke was my adopted brother. He and I were very close. He told me everything. (At least I thought he did.) And he never mentioned his friendship with Imogen. Not once.

'Tell me honestly, were you with him when he vanished?' I've asked her this before but she's never said anything about going out to that old transmitter station. About being with Juke. But I just feel she's not yet told me the truth.

She shakes her head. And looks a little sad if I read her expression correctly. 'No. I wasn't there.' It's like she regrets not being there. As if she takes some of the blame for Juke's disappearance. As if she might have prevented it.

5

We've been here for close to three hours now. Reid's questioning Morgan and Eddie about whether or not they've got this right. I think they're both beginning to question themselves. They're searching the Ephemerys for any extra data that might tell us what time this portal might show. Fortunately, it's a nice day to sit around. The sun's out in a fairly cloudless sky and it's one of those days when the air is crisp and dry and there's a gentle cooling breeze.

'You pair certain there's actually one of these anomalies turning up here sometime today?' Reid asks again. He's studying the Ephemerys himself now. Trying to make sense of it.

Eddie stares out at the Stardream. He shrugs. 'Not sure of anything. For all we know, whoever wrote this book might've got it all wrong.'

'Or you've misinterpreted it,' Imogen suggests.

'You're quite welcome to have a go interpreting it yourself,' Morgan tells her.

Imogen doesn't respond.

Reid looks at his wrist-com, checking the time. 'Just as well we've no school or work scheduled today.' There is however the weekend Jupiter scrapball game in the stadium this afternoon. I know Reid's keen to get down there for it.

Morgan takes the Ephemerys from Reid. Leafs through it. Going over the coded figures that have brought us all out here in the first place. She shifts her gaze to the actual rollercoaster in front of us. I see her frown. Then she gets up and leaves us. At first I think she's walking away in disappointment because maybe she realises she's got this all wrong. Maybe she's embarrassed. But her eyes are on something high up in the creaking framework.

I follow her gaze. I see nothing. Not at first. Except there's this strange glinting light, like the sun's reflecting off some part of the steel that hasn't rusted. Then I notice that the light is blue in colour, as if it's some sort of spark-light.

'Do you guys see that?' Morgan asks us.

The spark-light is about half way up the structure. That's maybe twenty metres off the ground. For a while I'm still thinking it's the sun but as we all get to our feet, Imogen's like, 'That's it.'

'How do you know?' Reid asks her, and Imogen says, 'Because I know.'

Suddenly actual sparks fly off the frame of the Stardream. Red sparks. As if something somewhere had been thrust violently against the metalwork.

I notice something else now. I realise the anomaly's not stationary. It's drifting from right to left. And descending. And as it does so it's expanding.

By the time the anomaly has dropped a metre or two it's considerably larger. And there's a definite circular motion to it now. Spinning anticlockwise. With dirt and grit and loose bits of rubbish swirling about it. It's also emitting this strange slurping sound. Like water being sucked down a plug hole.

Morgan shuts the Ephemerys and hands it to Eddie. He shoves it in his shoulder bag. He says, 'Wow, Morgan, you were right.'

We're all stopped maybe twenty feet from the base of the Stardream. Just standing there watching this peculiar event play out. It's the most bizarre thing I've ever seen. The most fascinating and possibly the most terrifying. Terrifying because it makes absolutely no sense. To think this thing might actually be a doorway to another place and time.

Imogen goes on a few more steps. I'm not certain she should. The anomaly is coming closer to ground. And it's still growing. As big as a dog now. And more sparks spit from it. I can't help wondering if they're the result of some electrical interference. In that case, I don't think any of us should be anywhere near it.

But as the thing lowers further, Imogen obviously doesn't share my concerns. 'Imogen,' I say. 'Get back.'

'It should settle soon,' she tells me.

But if anything, it seems the thing's getting more erratic. It spits and fizzes and huge sprays of sparks occasionally fly from the swirling mass. We gasp and step back and Reid says, 'Imogen, I agree with Skye, back off a few paces.' The rollercoaster itself is beginning to shake.

Imogen glances around at us. 'Reid, trust me. It's okay.'

It's like her words carry some sort of magical incantation because almost as soon as she says it, the swirling blue mass stops sparking and falls quiet. The only sound is the grit and trash caught up in its gravity, sand and grit spitting and smacking against the Stardream's framework, swirling and flying about it.

The entire phenomenon's just a metre off the ground now and you can see the influence it's having on the weed choked cement. Firstly tearing up tufts of weeds in its vicinity and then some invisible force begins to gouge swirling lines out of the concrete surface.

It's an awesome thing to watch. Unsettling but awesome.

It has an elliptical shape and a blue central mass. And it's large enough now that it could easily swallow the lot of us.

We've all backed up from it. Even Imogen. Although, of us all, she's still the closest to it.

'How long do they last?' I find myself asking her. I feel I just want the thing to close now. To die off and disappear. The entire time it's here, my heart keeps thumping like crazy.

'There's no certain duration,' Imogen says, and we watch as she pulls a previously unseen object from her coat pocket.

We all stare at her with intrigue.

'What's that thing?' Eddie asks her.

'It should tell us what's on the other side of the portal.' She steps closer to the swirling mass. Somehow the anomaly's still rather quiet, although it's beginning to generate some hefty wind gusts that pull at our hair and clothing. Imogen's only three metres from it now. Its outer arms look like they'll pass right through her if she's not careful. Her hair has come loose, it buffets about wildly.

'Is it safe to be so close?' Reid calls out to her but I don't know if Imogen hears him because she doesn't answer. Maybe the wind in her hair is dampening her hearing.

Reid calls out, 'Imogen? Should you be so close?'

As if in answer she begins to back away. Her eyes are alternatively on the anomaly and that peculiar gadget she carries. The rest of us back up further too.

'What's your device telling you?' Reid calls to her.

Imogen turns and glances at him over her shoulder. 'It's taking readings.'

And as she says this, a huge dark mass, like an appendage, suddenly blasts from the portal, shooting directly at Imogen, spearing her straight through the side of her belly in a mighty spray of blood, thrusting her off her feet. We scream, and stumble backwards. Utterly stunned.

Suddenly we can see the main bulk of it, some beast, with multiple limbs, filling the portal. Like some sort of gigantic spider. And it begins dragging Imogen toward the spinning portal. Her face a picture of pure terror. 'Help me!' she squeals, digging her fingers into the concrete of the crumbling sidewalk. 'Please, heeeelp me!'

Reid rushes forward, drawing his sword, slamming it down into the limb that has impaled Imogen. But his strike fails to cut into it. He dives for Imogen and grabs her by the arm, wheeling back his sword for a second strike. Me and Morgan and Eddie are simply struck frozen with terror, not moving, not knowing what to do.

Reid brings his weapon down again, slamming it into the appendage. Again, no use. The sword simply bounces off the enormous limb. And no matter how hard Reid tries, he's not strong enough to free Imogen from its grip, not strong enough to prevent her being dragged closer and closer to the portal.

He yells at us to help, holding onto Imogen, digging his feet into the crumbling bitumen. But it's no use. The both of them are being dragged closer and closer to that portal. I rush forward, Morgan and Eddie too. But I'm not sure what to do. I've no idea how on Mother's sweet Earth we're ever going to free Imogen.

Then suddenly, in a wild blur, she's yanked from Reid's grip, snatched through the portal... and gone. Just like that. Literally in the blink of an eye.

We're all suddenly just standing there dumfounded, terrified. Staring blindly at the space where Imogen had been only moments ago. Then suddenly a mass of writhing appendages shoots out at Reid and I squeal at him, 'Reid, look out!'

He twists around, flailing his sword at the mass of spiky limbs but one of them jabs him through the leg.

I screech, 'Nooo!' and lunge toward him but Morgan flies at me, grabbing me in her finger tips, yelling, 'Skye, no!' And just like that Reid is gone, yanked through the portal like a doll.

For a second I can't breathe. I'm frozen to the spot.

'Skye,' Morgan cries, 'move it!' I'm not fully aware of her pulling me away. I feel totally numb.

Morgan shoves me backwards, yelling, 'Eddie, get away from it!' But like me, Eddie's just standing there, struck dumb. Morgan rushes up to grab him but before she can reach him the spider legs jut out and seize him, yanking him away through the anomaly. And in an instant he's vanished.

For a moment we see the hulking form of the monster. And then it too disappears.

I'm screaming at Morgan to get away and she stumbles backwards and I'm yelling at her to run.

The portal begins to flicker. It rises off the ground slightly and then just like that it winks from existence.

6

Morgan and I stand there stunned. Both of us speechless, shocked, our mouths and eyes gaping, unsure exactly what's just happened. Other than the dust and grit and rubbish floating back to ground, the Stardream stands before us like we've always known it: empty, derelict, dead.

My hand goes to my mouth. They're gone. Reid. Eddie. Imogen... I can't believe it, I can't believe what just happened. They're all gone. Just like that.

I'm about to utter something to Morgan when the portal suddenly flickers back into being. Only it's higher than it was, maybe three metres off the ground. We gasp and stumble backwards.

It's only present for about two seconds.

Then it vanishes again.

We continue to back up. Watching the Stardream. There are tears in my eyes. I'm sobbing.

When the anomaly flickers back a third time it is about five metres off the ground. There's a hideous orange and black shape moving about within it... some enormous creature that looks a bit like a gargantuan nautilus with a cavernous maw lined with flapping tendrils and mandibles.

It comes slithering out of the swirling pattern of light, dropping from it, crashing heavily to the ground. Its eyes are goggling like mad. It has mighty tongues that keep spitting at anything in its vicinity.

We scramble backwards, frantically, desperately. So big is its gaping mouth, I'm terrified that it'll scuttle after us and swallow us whole. It burps and groans. Its tongues shoot constantly, like a chameleon trying to catch bugs. It burps again, and in the expulsion of gas, a huge mass of steaming gunk vomits from its mouth, splatting into the ground.

And as we watch that mass, it's not hard to see that there's something wriggling inside it.

I'm terrified the nautilus has just given birth to something. That Jupiter will be invaded. I'm about to race off and warn the city guard when I hear Morgan gasp. 'Oh Mother, it's Eddie! It's Eddie!'

I haven't a clue what she's talking about. Not until I focus on the writhing form at the foot of the beast.

I see him now. Eddie. Soaked through with spit as he's trying to wriggle from what looks to be a sack of mucus. But that creature's seen him too. It shoots a tongue at him. It misses. It sucks its tongue back into its gob while simultaneously shooting out another.

Eddie's just out of its reach. He's wiping crud from his eyes, we're screaming at him to get away. I don't think he can hear us. He's looking about like he doesn't have a clue where he is. I'm yelling, 'Eddie, get out of there, hurry!' He spies the hulking creature ambling toward him and suddenly he's frantic, pulling himself out of that muck.

I wish I'd brought my blunderbuss. Or the star blazer. None of us thought to bring any weaponry. I don't know what to do. We keep yelling, 'Hurry, Eddie! It's coming, get out of there!'

The giant nautilus thing slithers closer to him on its soft belly, lugging the mighty spiral shell on its back. It shoots another tongue at Eddie, this time snaring him about the leg.

Eddie tries to kick the tongue from his ankle. He's trying to scramble away. But the monster pulls him toward its gaping mouth. Another tongue fires out and secures itself around Eddie's arm.

I can't stand here and watch this, I have to help him.

Morgan seems to have the same idea, we both rush forward. And suddenly a burst of laser fire slams down into the monster.

We dive for cover as the beast lets loose the most hellish screech I've ever heard and when I look around I see three automated city sentries marching toward it. Firing their laser canons into its thick shell.

Its tongues release Eddie and he manages to drag himself away from it, looking shell shocked, in pain, exhausted.

The creature turns its attention on the Watchguard, shooting its tongues at them, but it is both outnumbered and out gunned and it goes down in a flurry of blood and guts, its shell bursting into a thousand pieces as the automated city guard lay down concentrated laser fire.

We reach Eddie and haul him to his feet. The beast tumbles sideways, yellow gunk oozing from its flesh. Its mighty shell just missing us as it collapses. We drag Eddie behind an ancient abandoned side-show stall, out of view of the city guard who maintain their defensive protocols, firing into that beast's quivering body.

We scrape nautilus phlegm off Eddie's face just so he can breathe. It's putrid. It stinks like something died. Eddie's coughing and spluttering. He's got cuts and scratches. He's still got his satchel slung around his shoulder. Curiously though he's also wearing some peculiar gadgetry that I'm pretty sure he didn't have on him when he was dragged through. There are also strange objects strapped to his arms, and a peculiar gun hooked to his belt. He lies there looking up at us, as if he's surprised to see us. He grabs us and hugs us to him, as if he hasn't seen us in a month.

'Bloody heck,' he says like he's close to crying. 'We made it back, I can't believe it! We made it back?' He looks around. His eyes all red and watery. 'Where's Reid and Imogen?'

We frown. 'They were pulled through that anomaly,' Morgan tells him, confused, still catching her breath.

Eddie's wide-eyed. 'What?' He's looking around desperately. 'Didn't they get through? Where are they?'

'There's just us,' Morgan tells him confused. 'You lot were pulled through. Only you came back out again. We don't know where Reid and Imogen are.'

He gets to his feet. He's shaking. His knees are weak. He looks about, as if he doesn't believe us. 'No,' he says, 'they were right behind me. We had to swim down quite a way to reach the portal but we got there, I swear, we all got there.' He's panting and spitting slime off his mouth. 'What day is it? Do you know what day it is?'

'What are you talking about?' I snap at him.

His forehead creases up. He's looking around desperately. 'Where is it? Where's the Bog Monster?'

He spots it. The automated sentries are circling it, making sure it won't get up again. No doubt they're awaiting the human section of the city guard to arrive and investigate the matter.

Eddie looks aghast. 'It swallowed them. It must've swallowed them.' He's trying to contain his sobs. He struggles with his pack and fishes something out. Some peculiar gadget which he aims at the huge lump of broken shell smouldering in a heap near the base of the Stardream. A series of light beams pulses from this gadget, bouncing back at Eddie's contraption.

Eddie wipes his eyes. He looks confused.

'Eddie, we need to go,' Morgan urges him. 'The guards will be here soon. I've a feeling we shouldn't let them see us here. They'll ask too many questions.'

Eddie looks as muddled and flustered as I've ever seen him. I don't know if he's heard Morgan or not but all of a sudden he's talking at a million miles an hour. 'The bio-scanner. It says Imogen and Reid aren't in the belly of that thing. They must've evaded it. Oh, Mother, where on Earth are they?'

I grip him and steady him. 'Eddie, what are you talking about? You were all sucked through.'

It's like he hasn't heard me. 'They're stuck on the other side,' he cries. 'They didn't make it back. They didn't make it!'

'What are you talking about?'

'Skye, they're stuck! We had one chance to make it back. Okay? They didn't make it. They're stuck over there. They didn't make it! Oh Mother Earth!'

Morgan grabs him. 'Okay, we hear you but we have to make ourselves scarce. The city watch will be here any minute.' She keeps her grip on his upper arm, dragging him away.

My head's a complete whirl. I don't really know what we're doing. All I can think of is Reid. That the city watch needs to know what happened. They might be able to help him. They may have encountered these things before. They might have methods for retrieving people who have disappeared. I tell Morgan this.

What she says in reply is sobering. 'Okay Skye, I hear you, but they never found Juke, did they?'

I'm sobbing as I trail Morgan and the stumbling Eddie to the old Comet Cafeteria building. I trail them upstairs and from the second level we crouch and I've got my hand jammed over my mouth, trying to stifle my sobs, gazing out at the Stardream.

The city watch aren't long. They come cycling up on their bikes and in their solar carts. They hustle quickly and set up a perimeter around the dead nautilus creature, each of them packing laser rifles.

For a full hour we wait, watching them go about their business, the forensics teams picking through the carcass of that huge beast, the droid sentries remaining on guard with their cannons trained on that monster. I see Lanson Edwards. I always thought he was just one of the city authority grunts but he looks to be offering instructions and commands.

I've stopped crying. But I'm still wiping tears from my eyes. I keep willing the portal to flicker into existence again. I keep hoping it'll just spit Reid back out.

Sadly though, the portal never reappears.

It seems that Reid and Imogen are lost.

7

Eddie pleads with us not to take him home. He says his parents will bombard him with too many questions, that they'll ask where he's been all this time, that they'll want to know why he didn't come home. Nothing he says makes sense. He sounds confused and delirious. He's rambling. I say more than once that we ought take him to the Jupiter infirmary for observation. But his mum works there and he won't have it.

We take him back to my place. We put him under the water tank in the back yard and strip him to his shorts. We wash the stench off him. Then I fetch him a towel and he says he needs to lie down. We help him up to my room where he collapses on the lounge chair, Morgan carrying his clothes and the peculiar gadgets he had strapped to his arms and that strange gun.

It's here I notice Mum's left me a note on my bedside table. She's out at the farmer's equity fetching our share of fruit and vegetables for the coming week. Ordinarily I'd go with her and help carry the stuff back. For now though I'm just glad she's out of the house.

Eddie lies there staring up at the ceiling. He keeps asking, 'Has anyone been asking about us? Does anyone know what happened?'

I say to him, 'Eddie, you're not making any sense.'

He just lies there, not saying anything, just staring into space.

'Did you see Reid when you were pulled into that anomaly?' I ask him. 'Was he in there? Was he okay? What was on the other side?'

Eddie takes a while to answer. As if he's exhausted and can't collect his thoughts. 'We were all together for the first two days. But we had to keep moving—'

Morgan and me both glance at each other then stare at Eddie. 'Wait,' I say, 'Two days?'

He nods tiredly like it's nothing. 'For five days we had to eat small frogs and birds. We had to remain in hiding.'

'Five days?' I'm aghast. 'Eddie, you were gone barely a minute.'

He looks at me like I've lost my mind. 'A minute? What are you talking about? We were wandering about that place for almost a week.'

His eyes begin closing as he argues. He's utterly exhausted. That much is obvious but I'm dying for news of Reid. 'Eddie, stay awake. I need to hear what happened. Did you see Reid? Is he okay? Where did that portal go?'

Eddie's eyes come open again. 'I don't know,' he murmurs. 'I don't know. Somewhere...' He stares at the ceiling. 'Some city...'

He looks at us. His eyes are shutting again.

We urge him to stay awake. 'Eddie,' I say. 'Stay with us. We need to know what happened. Tell us, please.'

He looks at me. His eyes red and watery. 'Reid was okay,' he says. 'Reid was okay.' He looks from me to Morgan. Then back at me again. 'They were both okay. But I don't know where we were.' His eyelids flutter shut.

I squeeze his arm, hoping to stir him. It doesn't work. His head lolls over. For a moment I'm frightened that something's happened, that he's dying.

'Eddie?' I say at his ear. 'Eddie, can you hear me?'

'I think he's asleep,' Morgan says.

We stare at him. Watching his chest rising and falling... rising and falling.

'Eddie,' I say again. 'Eddie, can you hear me?'

But he doesn't wake.

8

I fetch a blood sapper from beneath my bed where we hid them. Eddie somehow acquired them in our lead up to our mission to reach the transmitter station. His mum uses them at the city infirmary. We'd used them to screen ourselves for viruses on our return.

As Eddie lies there, we apply one of the sappers to his arm. It has this tiny tongue, a probe that slips beneath his skin, sampling his blood.

When it's done, we study the results. Readings are negative. He's not carrying any disease. At least nothing detected by the sapper.

That probably won't satisfy the city authority if they come sniffing around but for the moment it's good enough for me and Morgan.

When we're done Morgan makes tea and we sit there looking over the gun that Eddie had strapped to his belt. We study the strange objects Eddie had attached to him. They all look alien somehow, as if they come from another world. Or from another time. They aren't familiar to us at all. We have no idea what purpose they serve or how they work.

We sit at my window gazing into the empty street. 'He wasn't making any sense,' I say to Morgan. 'He said he was gone for five days.' I shake my head. 'You think that's possible? You think he's just delirious?'

Morgan shrugs. 'Five days sounds bizarre.' She looks around at him sleeping. Then her eyes pass over his possessions. 'But then where did he get these strange items?'

We sit here in quiet. I can't get Reid out of my mind. I feel I've lost him. I feel tears well up in my eyes. A sniffle escapes me. Morgan puts her arm around me and pulls me close, resting my head against hers. 'Skye, it's okay,' she tells me. 'If Eddie came back through alive then there's hope for Reid and Imogen, right?'

'I know, Morgan,' I say sobbing. 'I know. It's just that I can't help thinking about Juke. He vanished and never returned. I just can't help feeling... that Reid... that I'll never see him again.'

Morgan strokes my hair. 'Look, when Eddie wakes up we'll ask him exactly what happened. We'll get him to tell us everything he remembers. For all we know Reid's safe and healthy somewhere.'

It doesn't help. I keep weeping.

'Skye, listen, we've got to be proactive here. I mean, there might be another portal due to appear somewhere. Okay? And if there is, we need to track it down. We might be able to mount some sort of rescue and get Reid and Imogen back.'

I wipe my eyes. I watch her face.

'You hear what I'm saying?' She leaves me and fetches the Ephemerys from Eddie's satchel. It's wet. Its pages are all damp. She's worried they might come loose. Tear. Or that the ink might fade. 'We need to get this dry. We can't afford to lose any of this information.'

She places it on the desk beneath the wash of sunlight pouring through the windows. I look across at Eddie where he sleeps. It's agony, just sitting here. Waiting. I wish that he was awake. I can't sit here waiting. My heart aches for Reid.

Morgan pulls other items from Eddie's satchel. Things we've not seen before. Firstly the peculiar bio-scanner. The thing Eddie had used to verify whether or not Reid and Imogen had been stuck inside that hideous nautilus thing. But there are other objects. Electronic gadgetry whose purpose we can only speculate on.

'Mother, what is this stuff?' I ask as Morgan places them on the floor. 'Where on Earth did Eddie get it all?'

Morgan looks thoughtful. 'Are they not from Juke's apartment?'

It seems the only logical explanation but neither of us recall seeing Eddie ever taking any of this stuff from there.

9

Mum is home by midday. We help her carry stuff inside. She asks if we want some lunch. She's happy to make us something. I haven't seen her since her date with Lanson. I'm distracted about everything that's happened but I still manage to ask her how things went.

She tells me it was a wonderful evening. That Lanson was a gentleman in every way. That he made dinner. They went to the movies. They shared some late night drinks and then he escorted her home.

I'm distant when she tells me. She even notices. She asks if I'm alright. Morgan tells her that Reid and I had a fight. I'm not really happy with that explanation, I sort of want mum to know the truth. But I don't know what else we could've said. The truth would have her in fits.

Mum gives me a hug. 'It's okay,' she says. 'Your father and I used to fight all the time. But we'd patch things up. That's the nature of love.'

She makes us lunch. Cheese and tomato sandwiches. Morgan and I sit outside in the sun. There is the smell of pears on the breeze today that drifts lazily from the pear trees along the front fence. Mum joins us. The whole time my thoughts are a maelstrom of Reid and Juke and portals. An irrational part of me can't help but feel a niggling pang of jealousy. I mean, if Reid's alive somewhere right now in some other place, then Imogen's with him and I'm not.

We're finishing off our sandwiches and Mum's homemade lime-ade when I'm surprised to hear the front gate squeak open. I turn to see who it is, hoping somehow that it's Reid. That the portal reappeared again and spat him out.

But it's not Reid.

It's Lanson Edwards.

Mum's face brightens and she stands immediately, wiping her hands on her jeans. 'Well, Good afternoon,' she says. 'Didn't expect to see you so soon.'

Lanson approaches her, smiling, plainly happy to see her. He takes her into a hug. 'Neither did I,' he tells her. It's such a warm embrace that I'm truly touched for Mum.

But the fact that Lanson's still dressed in his city guard uniform doesn't escape me. And the fact that he attended the sight of the portal puts me on edge.

'Stopping for long?' Mum asks him. 'I can put the kettle on if you feel like a cup of tea.'

He holds her hand. 'Yes, July. That'd be nice actually. Meanwhile, you mind if I had a word with the girls.'

Mum frowns, shading the sun from her eyes with her hand. 'Oh, of course. Is something the matter?'

'I'm not actually sure just yet,' he says to her. He walks over to us. I feel like I'm in for it now. I feel like a crook who ran from a crime.

'You mind if I joined you, ladies?' he asks.

I nod. I can barely speak. He picks up on this. 'Don't worry, Skye,' he says. 'You're not in any trouble. But I do need to ask you both a couple of questions if that's alright.'

I hang my head. The sentries must have sent our images back to guard command.

'Is this about what happened at the Argonaut grounds this morning?' Morgan asks him.

'It is, yes,' Lanson says. 'Are you able to tell me what happened there?'

I glance at Morgan. She glances at me. We're sort of quiet for a few moments. We don't know how to begin to explain things. Mum's got this quizzical look on her face. Obviously she's wondering what this incident was that Lanson's referring to, why we haven't told her.

We tell Lanson we just happened to be out at the Argonauts that morning when a strange anomaly appeared, that Reid and Imogen were pulled into it. We tell him they both vanished. We don't know what it was. We don't know how it happened.

Mum's got this look of horror in her eyes. Her hand over her mouth. I can't look at her. I know she's staring dead at me. For not saying anything. For not telling her. No doubt a cup of tea is the furthest thing from her mind all of a sudden.

Lanson watches Morgan and me with a curious look in his eye. It's as if he's seen right through our account. 'You happened to be out at the Argonauts Carnival grounds?' he asks. 'You had no prior knowledge of this... anomaly?'

We don't know what to say.

He tells us, 'City droids reported spotting a group of people showing some interest in the Stardream rollercoaster some time before this anomaly appeared. The same group of people were spotted in the same area after a certain abnormal event. The group, as far as I have been informed, consisted of Reid Evans, Imogen Blake, Eddie Takeda and yourselves. Is there any truth to this?'

We're silent.

He looks sympathetic. 'Look, like I said, you're not in any trouble. But if Reid and Imogen have gone missing then what you know, what you're not telling me, it may help to find them.'

We're both silent for a while. Embarrassed we twisted the truth. But Lanson's right. If what we know helps find Reid, then Lanson really should know about it.

We tell him about our search for Juke. We tell him about finding Juke's hideout in the Persophone building. We tell him that Imogen helped us find it, that she knew where it was, that she and Juke had been searching for these anomalies that she called portals. That Juke believed they'd been appearing in and around Jupiter for decades. We tell him that we found this strange book in Juke's hideout. We fib a bit and tell him that it was Imogen who claimed the book could help predict when and where one of these anomalies might materialise. That such information led us to the Stardream Rollercoaster at the Argonauts. When the anomaly appeared, something inside grabbed both Reid and Imogen and dragged them into it.

I mention nothing about the transmitter station. I say nothing about Eddie being dragged through the portal and spat out again. Morgan picks up on this and stays silent.

Mum's still standing there, wide-eyed, stunned.

'And you haven't seen Reid nor Imogen since?' Lanson asks.

I shake my head. 'No.'

Lanson nods as he digests this. 'And Eddie Takeda?' he asks. 'Sentry droids reported he was there at the Stardream with you. Where is he currently?'

'Upstairs,' I tell him. 'Asleep.'

'Asleep?' he asks curiously.

'My sister's birthday party last night,' Morgan tells him. 'I don't think Eddie got much sleep.'

Lanson glances at Mum. Mum doesn't know Eddie's up there. Just another thing we neglected to tell her. She regards me, perplexed, a questioning look in her eye. And still looking utterly mortified by this whole conversation.

'Eddie wasn't pulled into this anomaly you mentioned?' Lanson asks.

I shake my head. 'No.' I shrug. 'He's upstairs. Go and check for yourself if you don't believe me.'

'No, I believe you,' Lanson says. But he watches me. Does he actually know Eddie was taken into that anomaly? Does he know Eddie made it out again? 'Okay,' he says. 'Now, this book you mentioned? What is it exactly? Do you still possess it?'

I find myself shaking my head. Morgan says nothing. 'No,' I tell him. 'Reid had it with him when he disappeared.'

Lanson's watching me closely when I tell him this. He wouldn't know this but it's upstairs drying out. I'm glad suddenly that he hasn't insisted on checking on Eddie. He might've seen it otherwise. Still, I don't look away from him. I match his gaze. I won't let him or the city authority get their hands on the Ephemerys. As far as I see it, that book's my only connection to Reid. My only possible link to Juke. I won't let them take it away.

It is Lanson who looks away first. Gazing into the grass for a moment or two, thoughtful.

Mum's looking down at me, her eyes still wide and blinking. 'I can't believe what I'm hearing here.'

I watch her. She deserves an explanation. 'We were doing all of this for Juke, Mum,' I tell her. 'We just thought if we could find him. Or... or if we could find out where he went...' My voice trails off. Tears trickle from my eyes. I wipe them from my cheeks. I'm secretly glad Reid isn't here to see me like this.

Mum steps over, kneels and hugs me. (I feel it's not so much a hug of comfort, but one that makes me think she's utterly relieved it wasn't me who'd been pulled through that anomaly.)

Lanson sits there, still ruminating on all we've just told him. I wish I could read his mind.

'You think there really could have been some strange portal?' Morgan asks him. 'To another place?'

He shrugs and looks at her. 'I don't know, Morgan. It sounds impossible.'

'Have you heard of anything like this happening before?' I ask.

He shakes his head. He looks troubled. 'No. No, I can't say I have.'

'But Imogen said the city authority have the bodies of like thirty strangers on ice in the city morgue,' I tell him. 'She said Juke told her this. That Juke believed they're people who just fell out of the sky.'

Lanson looks at me. 'If that's true, Skye,' he says, 'then that's news to me.'

10

When Lanson comes to leave, he asks for the location of Juke's secret apartment. He tells us it might be worth the city authority picking through it. To help them possibly locate Juke. To help them bring back Reid and Imogen.

For some reason this irks me. They've never cared about Juke's whereabouts before. So why would they bother now? Plus I'm concerned they might find something in Juke's apartment we missed. Some vital clue as to Juke's whereabouts. To the possible location of Reid and Imogen. Something they'll take away, something we'll likely never see.

But there's nothing I can do about it. It's out of my control. We've told him of this hideout. I can't really deny it now. Or give him an alternate address and send him on a wild goose chase. Because he'll only be back to demand where the real location lies.

After Lanson's gone, Mum has a word with me. Morgan's upstairs checking on Eddie. Mum's still completely aghast about all she's just heard. She keeps asking about this portal business. She keeps demanding I tell her what's really going on. She's offended that we could've told Lanson such "made up" stories.

'Mum, they're not made up,' I argue. 'I swear. Juke discovered them. These portals. They've been occurring on and off for the last eighty years. I actually witnessed one of them.'

She looks at me. She looks almost terrified. And offended. 'Skye, I... I just don't understand what you're saying. How can you expect me to believe this?'

I grip both her hands. 'Mum, yes, you're right, it's ludicrous. Totally and utterly ludicrous. But I saw it. I saw one of these things with my own eyes. As did Morgan. As did Eddie. It took Reid and Imogen. Okay? I'm not making this up.'

She's struggling to believe me. I take her back into the house and upstairs. Morgan's sitting there gazing at Eddie.

'How is he?' I ask.

'No change,' she says.

I show mum the items we pulled from Eddie's satchel. The bio scanner. The other peculiar items. The gun. The things he was wearing. I place them on my desk. Mum's never seen items like these. She's intrigued. She asks, 'What are these things? Where did you get them?'

'We don't know what they are,' I tell her. 'Eddie brought them back through the portal.'

Her eyes almost pop from her face. 'Eddie brought them back?'

'Yes.'

'Wait. Eddie went through this portal?'

'Yes.'

Her hand claps over her mouth. 'Oh sweet Mother Earth! And you didn't think to tell Lanson?'

'No.'

'But where does this portal go? Eddie could be carrying a virus. Did you think of that? He needs to be screened.'

'Mum,' I tell her, 'we've conducted our own screening. Eddie's clear.'

She buries her face in her hands. She tries calming her breath for a few moments. She looks at me with both her hands still over her mouth. 'Skye,' she says, 'please, just tell me the truth. This is exasperating. Just tell me what really happened.'

I roll my eyes. 'I have, mum. I've said it all. What I'm trying to tell you, is that portal goes somewhere. Eddie went somewhere. Okay? Maybe that's where Juke went. Maybe he's stuck there. But maybe we can get him back.'

11

Mum leaves my room and heads downstairs. She says she needs to sit down. She says she needs a strong cup of tea and space to think. Me and Morgan remain in my bedroom. Eddie's still out to it. His breathing is deep and slow like someone in heavy sleep.

Morgan closes the door. She speaks soft when she talks to me. 'You think we've done the right thing? Should we have told Lanson about Eddie? About the Ephemerys?'

I watch Morgan for a little while, thinking this over. 'I don't know. What do you think? I mean, if we told Lanson about the Ephemerys then he might demand to have it, right, and then he might take it away and show his superiors and they might never give it back. Then we'd have no way of knowing when and where another potential portal might materialise. And if we told him about Eddie going through that Stardream portal then he'd want to know what Eddie saw, what was over there. They might take Eddie away and quarantine him before he's even had a chance to talk to us about it. They might wipe his mind if they thought public exposure to news of these portals was a risk to social stability.'

'Oh, they'll definitely take him away for quarantining' Morgan says. 'You can bet on that. If they find out he's been somewhere, the main thing they're going to fear is if he's carrying some weird contagion. You know how paranoid they are.'

'But we tested him.'

'Yeah, I know. I'm just saying.'

'Right then, so we don't tell them what happened to him. Is that what we're saying?'

She nods. 'Yes. What about the Ephemerys?'

'What about it?'

'Do we tell anyone that we've got it here?'

I shake my head. 'No, we keep that our secret for now. Until you've had time to look at it, until you can tell us if there's another portal due to open any time soon.'

'And what if I find one?' she says. 'What if we discover that another portal is imminent? Do we try and find it and mount some rescue?'

I take in a deep breath. 'I don't know,' I tell Morgan. 'I honestly don't know.' The thought terrifies me. Stepping into one of those portals, into complete unknown territory... But what if that's our only chance to get Reid and Imogen back? Of retrieving Juke? I sigh and say, 'I guess it depends how imminent it is. Otherwise I think we ought to wait till Eddie wakes up. We need to know what happened to him and Reid. And Imogen. We need to know what they found on the other side.'

12

Eddie doesn't wake up. Not that entire day. While we wait, Morgan puts her mind to the tables and figures in the Ephemerys. Turning the damp pages carefully so as not tear them. But by tea time she's had no luck in decoding anything new. I begin to fear that maybe that's it, she can't find anything because the last of the portals has come and gone.

Morgan checks the time and says her mum will be expecting her for dinner. That she had better get home. She takes the Ephemerys with her. Saying she'll have another look for clues this evening. We place it carefully in a plastic bag. It's dried out quite a bit during the day but some parts are still damp and fragile. As Morgan leaves she tells me to call her if Eddie wakes up.

'I will,' I tell her, and she hugs me and says, 'keep strong, we'll get through this. We'll get Reid back. I promise.'

After she's gone, I sit there for a long while watching Eddie. I can't help feeling alone. Without Reid here. Without the thought of his protection. I feel utterly vulnerable. I think back to that stranger trying to enter the house. What if he's still around? What if he returns? There's been no word of his capture. Reid said he was going to notify Vane Flares at the city watch Central Agency. To see if this stranger was on their database. But I don't know if Reid made contact with him.

I move down to Juke's room. I know he has a cricket bat and an old police baton in his wardrobe. I remove them both and take them back to my room. I lean the cricket bat against the wall near the head of my bed. I hide the baton beneath my mattress. Now I decide I ought to call Eddie's parents. When I do, I tell them Eddie's staying the night at my place. They're okay with that. I think they suspect he's involved with Morgan. They're happy for him. That he might have a girlfriend.

After that I go and find mum.

She's in the kitchen. She's made some dinner. Baked lizard meat with steamed vegetables. Strawberries and cream for dessert. Ella Fitzgerald plays on the sound-trap. As we eat I try to make peace with her. She's still troubled by all that we told her. Now that we're both a bit calmer, she asks me again if what I said was true.

'All of it, Mum. All of it. I saw it with my own eyes. The portal. Reid and Imogen and Eddie getting pulled through.' There's a tear in my eye as I speak, as I think of Reid. Mum gets up and holds me in her arms.

'I'm sure Reid's alright, love,' she tells me soothingly. 'He's a resourceful lad. He'll be okay.' She sits in front of me. She holds my hand. 'But you must promise me something. Promise me not to try and find him. Promise me that if these portals are true, then you don't follow him through. Leave it to Lanson and the city authority. Please, Skye. I couldn't bear to lose you.' There's a tear in her own eyes now. 'Not after losing Juke. Not after losing your father.'

I nod. I wipe my eyes. 'I won't mum. I won't follow him through. I promise.'

She swallows. Relieved. 'You also need to tell Lanson about Eddie,' she urges me quietly. 'If Eddie really went through one of these things, the city authority will want to question him. It might give them the answers they'll need in order to work out what's happened to Reid and Imogen. And they'll need to check for any bugs he may have brought back. Okay?'

I nod. It irks me that she insists on telling me this stuff, that she's going on about bugs when I've already told her we've screened him. I bite my tongue. 'Yes. I know. I'll tell them. I promise.'

13

Eddie's still sleeping when Morgan returns next morning. We sit and watch him. I'm beginning to wonder if he'll ever wake up. 'You think we ought to do another blood test?' I ask Morgan. I've convinced myself that some exotic virus has made him comatose. That he's ill with something. That mum might be right.

We test him again and as before his blood comes back negative.

We sit and wait, Morgan once more leafing through the Ephemerys, hoping to track down another portal. The book's almost entirely dried out now, its pages wrinkled and water marked. But Morgan's had no luck uncovering anything useful from it overnight.

And it's not until midday that Eddie finally stirs.

When he does, his eyes open and he looks about like he hasn't a clue where he is. He asks for water. His voice is croaky and weak.

Morgan fetches him some and he guzzles the lot of it. He asks where he is. 'You're at my house,' I tell him. 'On Last Street.'

He looks around like I'm lying to him. As if he expected to wake up in another place. 'Where's Reid?' he asks. 'Where's Imogen?'

Morgan and I frown at his question. 'We've already explained this to you,' I tell him. 'They're not here. You were all dragged through that portal. But they didn't return. Don't you remember?'

He searches our faces for some sign of joke. 'They didn't return?'

'No. It was only you. You were spat out by some huge monster.'

That seems to jog his memory. And his brow fills with creases. 'The monster?' He lies there staring at the floor. 'It was deep. I mean, that creature seemed to come out of nowhere. It was huge. It caught us all by surprise.'

'Deep?' Morgan says. 'Where were you?'

'We were swimming,' he says. 'We had to swim to make it to the portal.'

'The portal we all saw at the Stardream,' I ask him, 'where did it lead to?'

He blinks at me. He swallows. For a long while he doesn't say anything. Just stares at the window. Drops of water on his chin.

Morgan touches his shoulder. 'Eddie?'

He jumps a little, looking around at her.

'Where were you?' she asks. 'Like Skye said, where did that portal take you to?'

He stares at her. He shakes his head. 'I... I don't know.' He squeezes his brow with his fingers, eyes crammed shut. Then he relaxes and lies back, gazing at the ceiling. 'I really don't know. It's so confusing.' He lies there for some time, lost in his own thoughts. When he finally speaks again he says, 'it looked like Jupiter city. But... but it wasn't.' He sighs. He studies his fidgeting fingers. 'It sounds nuts but it's true. It was as if Jupiter had become a swamp.' His brow wrinkles. He shakes his head, he looks pained. 'It was like we'd jumped to some future version of Jupiter. Where no-one is left except big mutated animals. Half of the place was under water. Half the buildings were submerged in thick mud and brackish water. And it rained nearly every day we were there. It was a horrible place. Like the climate had shifted. Like the world had filled up with water.'

Morgan watches him closely. 'You said you were there for five days,' she says. 'You remember saying that?'

He nods slowly. 'We counted them off. We thought it was important to keep track of time.'

'But from our point of view,' Morgan tells him, 'you were gone no more than a minute.'

He stares at her. 'A minute?' He's struggling to deal with that. 'I'm telling you, Morgan, we were there for five days trying to survive against a constant barrage of monsters.'

Morgan and I watch him. I don't know about Morgan but I'm wondering if he's still delirious. That maybe he merely dreamt this stuff up. Either that or he doesn't know what he's saying.

He watches me and shakes his head. 'I know how it sounds, Skye. But it's true.'

'You were gone no more than a minute,' I stress.

He shakes his head. 'I heard you. I don't understand it. From our point of view, it was days...'

We watch him. He sighs and lies there staring at the window again.

'If there were these monsters,' I say, 'where did you hide?'

He takes a while to answer. 'Imogen found some craft. That's where we sheltered. That's where we planned our way back.'

'A craft?'

'Yeah. Some sort of flying machine.'

'Flying machine?'

'Yeah, except it didn't fly. It was ruined or something. It wouldn't work. But that's where we hid.'

I glance at Morgan, wondering if she's believing this.

'I've never seen anything like it,' he says. 'It was beside Victory Parks. Near the war memorial.'

'You sure you didn't just dream all of this?' Morgan asks him. 'I mean, you've just slept the last fifteen hours away.'

'What?' He sits up, his eyes bulging. 'Fifteen hours?'

I nod. 'Yep.'

He lies back on my bed again. Then sits up just as quickly. 'The Ephemerys?'

I point to where Morgan has placed it on my desk. That and all the strange gadgets he had on him when he dropped back out of the anomaly. 'Just there,' I tell him. 'It was soaked through. We've had to dry it out.'

He watches it.

'Where are all these strange gadgets from?' Morgan asks him.

He eyes them. 'From that craft we found,' he says. 'Gadgets that still worked, gadgets that we believed could help us survive there, gadgets that we thought might help us pinpoint the arrival of future portals.'

'Is that how you made your way back?' I ask him. 'Or was the portal still open?'

'No, I used the Ephemerys to predict the emergence of another portal,' he tells us. 'Most of the gadgets in that craft didn't have any charge and we had no way to power them.'

Morgan looks intrigued. 'You mean it worked over there? The Ephemerys. It applied to that place?'

He shrugs. 'Well, yeah. It must've. I mean, there's so much in the Ephemerys. Some of it must deal with portals in that world too. I don't know. But it worked and I'm glad it did otherwise I may never have made it back here.'

'You had to find a portal then?' I ask. 'It wasn't the one you arrived in?'

'No, the one that delivered us to that place vanished. We had to wait five days before another reappeared. But reaching it was something else. It took us an entire day in itself.' His hand goes to his brow, like he's troubled by the memories. 'We had to navigate our way back across the city. It was terrible. We had to keep fighting off waves of monsters. I'm surprised we lasted as long as we did.'

Hearing this chills me. 'So, Reid, is he okay?'

'I don't know,' Eddie says. 'We said if we got separated, we'd meet back at the craft if we could. I can only assume that's where Reid and Imogen hurried back to after we got separated.'

Mum knocks on the door. She's keen to see Eddie she says through the door jam. I let her come in. She brings in a cup of tea. And sweet biscuits. But behind her I notice Lanson standing in the doorway.

My skin goes cold. How long have they been there? How much have they heard?

Eddie sees Lanson. Then looks at me and Morgan like he's been betrayed. Like we called Lanson the moment he woke up.

'I called Lanson,' Mum explains, handing Eddie the mug of tea. 'It's the right thing to do.'

14

Lanson asks if we might remain outside. To leave him with Eddie. That he needs to ask Eddie a few questions. Eddie looks like he doesn't wish to be left alone with him. But we've no choice.

Downstairs I'm furious with mum. I feel so red in the face. 'Why didn't you tell me you were calling Lanson?'

'Look Skye, I'm sorry, but if what you said is true, and frankly I'm still struggling to believe it, but if Eddie really vanished through some portal and returned, then he might be carrying a sickness. We can't afford to let a deadly contagion loose amongst Jupiter's population. Surely you can appreciate that.'

'Mum, we tested him with blood sappers,' I tell her exasperated. ' _Twice_. He's clear!'

I'm glaring at her. She won't say anything. I growl and heave the door open and stomp outside. I need fresh air. There's a set of swings in the back yard where me and Juke used to play as kids. I go there. Morgan follows. We sit there on the swings in the shade of the eucalypts. Neither of us saying anything. There's nothing to say. I just stare at the grass. Small grasshoppers spring about. Butterflies flap by. A soft breeze rolls through the weeds.

About forty minutes later Lanson emerges with Eddie. He's carrying Eddie's satchel.

I get off the swing. 'Where are you taking him?' I demand to know.

'We need to run some tests,' Lanson explains. He looks apologetic. Mum's standing at the rear door. The sun on her face. Watching. 'We need to clear Eddie of any possible contagion.'

'We tested him with two separate blood sappers,' Morgan tells him. 'He was clear.'

Lanson nods. 'I appreciate your efforts. But sappers are only ninety five percent reliable. They'll not pick up viruses that are lying dormant. So, I'm sorry but I need to take Eddie in for testing.'

'I'm coming with him then.'

'That won't be necessary,' Lanson tells me calmly. 'If we find anything, if we need to keep him in quarantine, we'll let you know.'

'I'll be okay, Skye,' Eddie tells me.

I eye the satchel that Lanson carries clasped in his hand.

Lanson notices. 'Just to let you know, I'm taking these items in for inspection.' He emphasises by raising the satchel in his grip. 'I want to stress they are _not_ being confiscated. They will be handed back in due course.'

We look at Eddie. He shrugs, like what can we do?

We watch him walk away. Following Lanson. To the curb of Last Street where Lanson's solar-cart is parked. We watch them drive away. Eddie looking at us over his shoulder. Like it's the last time we'll ever see him.

RETRIEVAL

1

NEXT morning I'm getting ready for classes. I'm in a sombre mood. I didn't sleep well. I kept dreaming of Reid, lost and calling my name. I kept waking, thinking of Eddie, wondering if he was okay, wondering where he was.

I shower. Back in my bedroom I get dressed. As I brush my hair, I stare idly at the desk where Eddie's gadgets were. Where the Ephemerys had sat. All of them gone, all of them taken away. I'm annoyed with myself. For not at least trying to hide the Ephemerys. That was our one link to Reid, our one pathway to finding him. Now it's gone. The thought saddens me. I want to believe I can trust Lanson. That he'll keep his word and return them. But what if his superiors have other ideas? What if they supersede him?

My eyes shift to the covered access way in the ceiling above my bed. Up there in the dark, dingy attic, Juke's bag still lies. With the strange transparent metal. With the bizarre glass jar full of tiny floating people. Hidden. I feel now, more than ever, that these things need to remain concealed, out of the hands of the city authority.

2

At breakfast I sit alone. Mum's already gone off to work. I'm still angry with her. I'm not speaking to her. I'm glad she's not here. I stare at the charred floorboard. Where the star blazer overheated. If mum's noticed the burn mark, she hasn't said.

Staring at that small patch of scorched wood, I can't help but think of the stranger. I wonder where he's gone. I wonder what happened to him after I hit him with the blazer. I haven't seen him since. Perhaps I injured him badly. Perhaps he's suffering somewhere. Dying. Or dead.

I can't help thinking, if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have spent that last night with Reid.

That hurts. To think that Reid was right here with me. In this kitchen. In this house. My protector.

Now he's lost. Somewhere. Without me.

I put on the voicebox. I want to hear what the city authority is transmitting today. There might be news of the portal that stole Reid and Imogen. But as I eat my ground oats with warm milk, an electronic voice drones on about harvest yields, and labour reports. There's nothing about what happened at the Argonaut Carnival Grounds. No mention of that giant nautilus being blasted to bits. No mention of the disappearance of Reid. Or Imogen.

No mention that they've tracked down and apprehended the stranger and his droid.

Morgan comes by as I'm preparing to leave for school. 'Any news from Eddie?' she asks.

I shake my head. 'None yet. You heard anything?'

'No. His mum called me last night. She wanted to know what happened to him—Lanson must've informed her that he'd been taken in. I told her some of it. I didn't know how much I should say. I didn't know how much she'd believe. I asked her if she'd heard if he was disease free and when he'd be out of quarantine. She wouldn't tell me.'

I sigh. I don't like this. Any of it. I feel close to tears.

3

It's difficult to concentrate in class. Somehow the word seems to have gotten out about Reid and Imogen. About Eddie being in quarantine. The other students whisper to each other about it, speculating where Reid and Imogen are. Speculating on Eddie's condition. Why he's being held. By mid-morning the rumour is out that Morgan and I must know. That we're not saying. That we're part of some city authority cover-up, some conspiracy. We become the target of questions. 'Is it true they were attacked by the Entities? Is it true you're not allowed to say? Is it true they fell from the Apex Finance building? Is it true they were murdered by Outsiders?' But the one that upsets me most is this: 'Is it true that Reid and Imogen ran away together?'

Lunch time, Morgan and I sit at the bench beneath the acacia trees. It feels quiet. Without Reid and Eddie here. It feels empty. Other students watch us from a distance. Like they're keeping their distance. Like we're tainted. Like me and Morgan somehow orchestrated Reid and Imogen's disappearance. I ignore them, I gaze across Victory Parks at the silent city, thinking about what Eddie said, about there being some craft beside the war memorial. I can just make out the memorial from where we sit. I can't help but wonder that over there, right now in another world, Reid and Imogen are bunkered down inside some ruined flying machine. Waiting for rescue...

'What do we do?' I ask Morgan. 'I feel desperate.'

She reaches over and takes my hand. 'I don't know, Skye. I just don't know.'

All day I've had this idea that we could break into the city authority compound, track down Eddie, get him out of there, that we could find the Ephemerys, steal it back and set Morgan to finding another portal. If there is one to be found. Then we go about getting Reid and Imogen back.

Such an operation seems utterly insurmountable however.

'We need Eddie back and we need the Ephemerys,' I tell her.

She shrugs. 'So, firstly why don't we get in contact with Lanson? He seems like a reasonable man. He did say he'd return those items.'

'Yes, I know, but his superiors might have other ideas.'

'He's our only option right now, Skye.'

She's right. I know she's right. So I start to make plans in my head. I'll head home after school, I'll be as sweet as can be and appeal to mum to call Lanson. Then I'll talk to him and remind him of what he told us. About returning Eddie and his belongings.

I outline my idea to Morgan. I say, 'And if that doesn't work then we have to find some way of getting Eddie and the Ephemerys out of there ourselves.'

As I'm telling Morgan this she frowns at something beyond the school grounds. 'What's that?' she murmurs.

I follow her gaze toward the bike rack. I don't see anything. 'What?' I ask her.

'I... I don't know. Thought I just saw Eddie.'

'What?' I'm frowning now. I see no-one. 'Where?'

She leaves the bench.

'Morgan, where?' But suddenly I spot him. Parking his bike. 'Oh Mother,' I say, 'it's him.'

We run to him. He watches us approach him. He sort of stands out of the way, concealed behind the bike shed wall. Like he's wary of other students seeing him. He looks tired. He smiles though when we reach him. Together we're hugging him, we're saying, 'Eddie, when did they let you go? What did they do? Are you okay?'

He looks overwhelmed by our attention, he looks drained.

He leans against the bike shed wall. 'They said I'm clear of disease,' he tells us eventually. 'I guess that's one thing.' He yawns. He looks around the edge of the bike shed wall. Other students have seen him now. There's a couple of groups huddled together, watching, talking quietly amongst themselves.

Eddie sighs. He leaves the bike racks and moves across the road away from the school buildings. We follow him. There's an old hedge bordering a stone wall. Standing on the opposite side, we're out of sight of other students.

Eddie sits down. He snaps off a blade of grass and picks it apart in his fingers as he stares out at the city across the Victory Parks farmland. Out there, workers tend to crops. We can hear their distant laughter and conversation. Nearby, perched on a stone in the weeds, a praying mantis is making a meal of a living grasshopper, slowly chewing a hole out of the side of its chest. We sit either side of Eddie.

'Are you okay?' Morgan asks him, holding his hand.

Eddie nods. Grimaces at something. Swallows. 'Just feel spaced out.'

I notice he has no bag with him. No satchel. 'Your belongings?' I ask him, confused. 'The Ephemerys?'

'They've got them,' he tells us gravely.

'Lanson said he'd let us have them back.'

He shrugs. 'I know. But they've still got them.'

My relief at seeing Eddie wanes. I feel my spirits deflate. Feel my distrust toward Lanson growing.

'I don't think they fully believe our story,' he says. 'They kept asking me over and over to explain what happened. I told them all of it. I didn't leave one bit out but I know they don't believe me. They think Reid and Imogen have run away together somewhere. They think they're like Juke. That they've left of their own volition.'

'So, they're not going to bother trying to find them?' I ask, incredulous.

He shrugs. 'Maybe not.'

My head goes hot. I'm in disbelief. I'm fuming.

Eddie shrugs. 'Skye, they don't have the resources. They don't have the personnel to mount a search.'

He's defending them. I don't want to hear it. 'I don't care. I don't care about them. I just care about getting Reid back. We need to mount our own rescue.'

'Yeah, good idea, but we don't have the Ephemerys,' Morgan reminds me.

I roll my eyes. 'Yeah, I know, Morgan. That's why we have to get it back.'

Eddie picks at the grass. 'I know where they're keeping it,' he tells us like it's no great secret. 'They haven't locked it up or anything. It's just sitting there in an evidence room near the medical wing of the city authority building.'

'Really?' I watch him, my mind ticking over madly. 'Okay, so we sneak in and take it.'

'How?' Morgan asks like I'm being totally irrational.

Truthfully I'm at a loss to provide a sufficient plan of attack. I've never been inside the city authority building. I don't know its layout. 'I haven't a clue,' I say sulkily, 'but we have to work out a way.'

Eddie's quiet for a while but he seems to consider what I just said. 'Mum has keys to the facility,' he says with a shrug. 'I might be able to get hold of them.'

I eye him closely. Then I look at Morgan. 'Okay, so that's our way in.'

'How would you do that though?' Morgan asks Eddie. 'How could you get hold of your mum's keys?'

He shrugs. 'Mum usually just hangs her keys on a hook in the kitchen. I could just lift them off, put them in my pocket, walk out.'

I squeeze Eddie's arm. 'Yes,' I tell him, 'we have to do this.' I'm suddenly excited. Nervous, but excited.

Eddie still looks pensive, cautious. I see it in his eyes. So does Morgan.

'What is it?' I ask him.

He doesn't answer for a while. Staring out across Victory Parks. The silent skyscrapers standing out there like sentinels in the sunshine.

'Eddie?' I prompt him.

He sighs. 'Well... thing is... we don't know if there's ever to be another portal.'

'And we won't know unless we get that Ephemerys back,' I remind him.

'Skye,' he says, 'look, say we get the Ephemerys back, say there's actually another portal due sometime soon, say we mount a rescue... there's no guarantee we'll find Reid or Imogen.'

I watch him. 'Why? I don't believe that. They're over there. You said you were with them. We have to try, right?'

'Yes, I hear you, but it took us ages to try and find the return portal. Even when we did, it'd materialised deep under foul swamp water. We had to swim down about ten metres to reach it. I was in front and I only just made it to the portal when that creature swallowed me up. I guess the portal then sucked that creature through and dumped me back beside the Stardream. But what I don't know is what happened to Reid and Imogen. They were supposed to be right behind me. They were right there.' He hangs his head. 'I don't know why they didn't make it through.'

It's not hard to work out what Eddie's failing to say out loud. They weren't inside the nautilus that delivered him back to our world so it stands to reason they might have come to some grief. Drowned. Or gobbled up by some other monstrosity.

This hurts to contemplate. I don't want to consider it. That they might be dead.

I swallow, a cold shudder passing through me. I need to believe they survived their attempt to reach the portal. I need to believe they got out alive.

My voice is unsteady when I speak. 'They must've survived,' I tell Eddie. 'Reid won't go down without a fight.'

Eddie glances across at me. 'I hope so, Skye. But you didn't see that world. The creatures there. It was a nightmare. I mean, I'm all for going after them. All for getting the Ephemerys back. But we just have to expect that something bad might've happened to them, okay?'

My chin quivers. I feel on the verge of tears again. But I hold them back. I won't let myself cry. 'No. I won't believe it. Reid's there. Waiting for us. He's there, okay.'

Eddie puts his arm around me. 'Okay, I believe you. I believe you.'

4

We have thirty minutes before lunch hour terminates. Eddie says he wants to go and check out the location where the craft was. The one he and Reid and Morgan sheltered inside in that other world, that other Jupiter. I'm not sure what it will do. How it'll help our situation. Maybe it'll help Eddie somehow reaffirm, or verify, that what he'd experienced actually took place. That this alleged craft doesn't actually sit here in our world. That he really was transported to an entirely different place...

We take our bikes and cycle over to the war memorial that sits at the end of Liberation Avenue. The memorial is a large paved area, with its central piece being a mighty monument depicting soldiers dragging injured comrades off some long forgotten battlefield. Carnivorous groper plants hug the base of it these days so we make certain we don't get too close.

It's not lost on me that Reid and I cycled this way just the other day, on our way back from feeding the Entities. I can't believe everything that's happened since then. It doesn't seem real.

Eddie puts his bike down and looks about. He gazes back along Liberation Avenue, toward the old Tramways trams and the bulk of Jupiter City basking in the midday sun on the opposite side of Victory Parks. Eagles sour above the city. Whistling and squealing. Eddie strides to a specific spot and without saying anything he points at the ground.

Morgan and I wheel our bikes over.

'Here,' Eddie says, digging at the dusty weeds in the bitumen with the toe of his boot. 'This is where the craft was.'

Morgan and I stare at the ground. Then look about, as if the craft could have been here, as if someone has moved it. I try to feel Reid's presence, as if I can sense him across dimensions. But I feel nothing.

'This is where you lot were hiding?' I ask Eddie.

He nods. 'Yes.'

'In like this alternative version of Jupiter?' Morgan says.

He nods again. 'Yes. Only this whole area is under water. All of Victory Parks is under water. It's treacherous and it's deep. And if you really want to mount a rescue, Skye, then it's not going to be easy to reach. The portal spat us out somewhere west of here, I think.' He points in the direction of the arterial route leading to the Jupiter ring road. 'It's difficult to say exactly because we arrived at night and it was raining. We had no idea where we were. Imogen was badly injured so we had to find shelter. But she seemed to know what was going on... which is still strange to me. And the next day it was still raining and the clouds were thick. You couldn't see more than thirty or forty metres in any direction. But she had this device that helped lead us here.' Eddies shakes his head and sighs. 'We wouldn't have made it if it hadn't been for Reid though. The three of us wouldn't have survived. Reid was a real rock. The amount of times he fended off waves of beasts... I don't know where he gets his strength from.'

I'm frowning. 'Imogen lead you here?' I ask Eddie. Sparrow mice and finches chirp in the trees about us. The gentle breeze pushes dust along the road. In the distance howler monkeys screech and squeal.

Eddie shrugs. 'That's what it seemed like, Skye. She had this homing device that led us right to this spot. She said it was another of the objects Juke had in his secret apartment.'

He goes thoughtful, like really thoughtful. I ask him what it is.

He shakes his head. 'The really strange thing was, once we'd located the craft, Imogen seemed familiar with it. Like she'd seen it before, like she knew how to get into it. She never really explained.' He falls silent again. He picks a small twig and idly breaks it up in his fingers, tossing each broken piece aside. Then he looks at us. 'Something's with her. I can't explain it. She's not who we thought she was.'

Somehow it's not much of a revelation to me. Still, I won't deny it, it's intriguing. Concerning.

'What do you mean?' Morgan asks him.

He shakes his head. 'I don't know. There's more to her than we know. She's hiding something. Some secret. One day while we were stuck in that craft, I overheard her talking to Reid, I heard her say something really bizarre.' He watches each of us. 'She told him she wasn't from our world. That she had something to find.'

I watch him keenly. 'Wasn't from our world?'

He shrugs. 'I can't explain it.'

'What did she mean? Like, she's not from Jupiter City? Or not from Earth?

'I don't know.'

'What is it she's trying to find?' Morgan asks.

'I never heard her say what it was,' Eddie says. 'All I know is we found that craft and somehow she knew how to get into it. She knew how to work the controls. It was damaged, she told us. She couldn't get it airborne but certain critical systems were still functioning. Like environmental. And the med-bay. That's how she managed to heal our wounds.' Eddie shows us what looks to be a scar on his thigh where he'd been impaled by that monster that dragged him through the portal.

I'm speechless hearing this stuff. All I fixate on is that Reid's stuck there with her. All my fears say that this was her agenda all along. To get through that portal and take Reid with her. My heart feels heavy, saddened. 'Imogen must've had this all planned.'

The others search my face. 'What?' Morgan says.

'Going through that portal,' I tell them. 'She used us. It was her intention all along to step through that portal and take Reid with her.'

'Skye, she didn't go voluntarily,' Morgan reminds me. 'She was dragged through against her will.'

'I know, Morgan. I saw it. What I'm saying is, maybe she planned to go through anyway. Maybe she knew this craft or whatever it is would be there. Maybe that's what she was looking for. Maybe she knew there'd be monsters standing in her way to reach it. That's why she took Reid.'

'It wasn't Imogen who pulled Reid through that portal,' Eddie tells me.

'A lucky coincidence for her then, perhaps.'

Morgan eyes me strangely. 'I don't know, Skye. It doesn't add up.'

I laugh. 'Morgan, none of this adds up. Does it? I mean, none of it.'

5

We cycle back to school. The air's still and hot, the sun baking Jupiter. There is sweat on my forehead. I stick out my bottom lip and blow a blast of air up my face. It does little to cool me. Flies buzz about. There are red mantis in the Ixora shrubs, munching on roaches. And lizards bask in the heat, clinging to tree trunks or to walls of the school buildings. Somewhere not too distant cicadas whistle like drills.

Sweating students play scrapball on the grass pitch, kicking oval shaped balls back and forth. Others have their heads in text books. Others eat lunch. Others still insist on watching us. Like we're diseased. Like we tipped Reid and Imogen down some hole, like they're next.

We lean our bikes on the racks in the bike sheds. I'm quiet, contemplative. I'm thinking again about what Eddie said: about him taking his mum's keys, getting into the city authority building, running off with the Ephemerys, finding our way into this alternative Jupiter that Eddie described. I don't care how hard it's going to be, we have to try. 'We have to do this,' I tell them, looking at them both. 'We need to go after them.'

I eye them. Waiting for some response.

Once again Morgan's looking uncertain. We're shaded by the acacia trees as we walk back onto the school grounds. The "flame" blooms have just begun flowering this month. They're beautiful. Adding red tinges of colour across the city.

'Morgan?' I say. 'What's on your mind?'

'Okay, if we do this,' she says finally, 'have you thought about what we're going to tell our parents?'

I bite my lip. 'I don't know. I guess I'm hoping that if we find another portal, if we step through and find Reid and Imogen, bring them home, then like Eddie, we might only be gone a minute or so. Our parents'll never know. No-one will ever know we were gone.'

Eddie says nothing. I eye him. There's something he's not saying. 'What is it?' I ask him.

He doesn't express it.

'Eddie, what is it?'

He sighs. 'Look, okay I'm all for it. I feel I let them down, I left them there. So I'm all for getting them back, but...'

'But what?'

'Okay, there're two things.'

'Tell us then.'

'First thing, there's no guarantee that a new portal will automatically deliver us to this swamp Jupiter.'

I'm staring at him. I can feel my brow all knotted up. 'Why?'

'Things Imogen was saying to Reid,' he says. 'She said that these portals could potentially open onto any number of worlds. She says this was one of Juke's theories.'

I watch him. Pulling apart exactly what he's just said. And I find myself suddenly thinking back to that journal book we found in Juke's rucksack. With all those bizarre diagrams of odd creatures and stuff. Someone had written Jupiter 4 and Jupiter 8. Was it true then? Were there numerous different versions of our Jupiter City?

I blink at him. 'But it's just a theory, right?'

Eddie shrugs. 'Yeah, but it's still worth considering, don't you think? I mean, we don't want to end up in a Jupiter that doesn't contain Reid and Imogen.'

'But you said the Ephemerys worked in the swamp Jupiter where you ended up,' I remind him. 'It led you to the portal that got you back here.'

'It did. Or else I'd still be there.'

'Okay, so it's safe to assume then that it'll work in other versions of Jupiter,' I insist. 'We end up in the wrong one, we simply search for the next portal. Keep trying till we find Reid.' I'm sounding desperate but I don't care.

Morgan and Eddie glance at each other.

'I'm serious,' I tell them.

'I don't know if it's that simple,' Morgan tells me.

'I don't expect it will be, Morgan,' I tell her, agitated. 'I don't expect any of this to be that simple. But we need to try. Okay?' I glare at her till she offers a reluctant nod. Now I look at Eddie. 'Okay, so what's the second thing?'

Eddie takes a long breath. 'Okay,' he says, 'and this is the big one...'

'Big one?' I ask. 'What do you mean?'

'Ignoring the fact that that place is filled with mighty big monsters, that it'll be a danger to our lives even stepping into this swamp Jupiter, that we'll probably be eaten before we get more than five feet... well, thing is, we have to consider the idea that Reid and Imogen mightn't even be there anymore?'

I sigh. 'We talked about this, Eddie, if they're alive you said they'd head back to that craft.'

'Okay, yes,' he says, 'hopefully they got back there in one piece. But you're not getting me.'

'Right, well help me get it then,' I say, exasperated.

'Alright,' he says, 'you both insist I was gone for no more than a minute. Right? From when I got pulled through that portal to when I dropped out again. You both claim I was gone no more than a minute.'

Morgan shrugs. 'Yes. Give our take a few seconds.'

'Okay, so from my point of view, I was gone for five days.'

I watch him closely.

'Don't you see? If one minute equates to five days then, well, months will have gone by in that world since I left them.'

I blink at him. Stunned by this revelation. That this hasn't even occurred to me.

Morgan looks thoughtful. 'Actually, they will have been gone years by now,' she says, like she may have already considered this. 'There's fourteen hundred and forty minutes in a day. Multiply that by five. In a twenty four hour period that gives you seventy-two hundred days. Divide that by three hundred and sixty five and you get twenty. That's twenty years.'

I gasp, my eyes bulging. 'Twenty years? Oh Mother, no.'

Eddie watches Morgan. 'Actually, I've been back now for about forty eight hours, right? So, I guess that means, from their point of view, they've been over there for forty years.'

My heart sinks. Tears roll down my face. 'Forty years?' A sob escapes my mouth. Even Morgan looks stunned by this news. 'Forty years?'

Eddie sighs. 'If that time variance remains constant... yeah.'

My knees feel weak suddenly. I move to the nearest vacant lunch bench and sit down. Morgan sits beside me and puts her arm around me. I sniffle and weep. 'Reid has spent a life time without me,' I cry. And all those years with Imogen.

That hurts. It really hurts. That potentially he's shared the rest of his life with her. Wondering about us. Wondering what happened to us. Why we never came looking for them. Never knowing that I've remained as young as the day he left us. It's too much to take in. I weep into my arm. Morgan holds me close.

'But... who knows, maybe it's not constant,' Eddie tells us, perhaps trying to give me some comfort, some hope.

I look up at him through bleary eyes. He's standing there with his arms behind his back, looking out at the kids kicking the scrapball. I wipe my face. 'What do you mean?'

He considers this. 'Well... there were strange things Imogen kept saying. I didn't get them until now.'

'What things?'

He squeezes his brow, as if trying his best to remember. 'Um, fluctuating time periods. That sort of thing. That if she could jump the next portal she might still make it home during the right period, that they still had a chance to... I don't know... destroy something or other...' He shook his head.

We watch him closely. 'Destroy something?' Morgan asks. 'What do you mean? Destroy what?'

'I don't know. I never got much sense out of her. It was mostly Reid she talked to.'

'What did she mean by fluctuating time periods?' I ask eagerly.

Eddie shakes his head. 'I don't know, Skye. If I had to guess, it'd be something about the time disparity between that world and this one. Maybe it's not constant after all. Maybe they're not forty years ahead of us by now. Maybe time either slows down or speeds up. Or drops into sync with ours every now and then. Who knows, perhaps our time might occasionally move faster than theirs.'

I blink, I wipe my eyes, suddenly hopeful. 'You think that may have happened?'

'Who knows? Maybe.'

'So, we could catch up to their time period.'

He shrugs. 'Yeah, I guess.'

Morgan looks troubled again. 'So there's the potential that by the time we reach them, we might have moved on forty years ahead of them. What if by the time we find them we're the old ones and they're still young?'

I don't want to even picture that. Me an old woman, while Reid and Imogen remain young. I wipe the last of the tears off my face. I even smile briefly; an uncertain smile. 'Look, all this is just speculation, right? We've just got to go after them.' I watch Eddie then look at Morgan. 'We've got to find another portal and just go after them and bring them back. That's what we have to do.'

6

At home I tidy away my breakfast dishes that are still sitting in the sink. I wash up. I look in the pantry and the fridge. I'll opt to cook tonight. I'll make Mum and me something nice. A sort of peace meal. I'll tell her I was sorry about being so angry with her. That I was tired and flustered but that, for the sake of Jupiter, she did the right thing.

I do some washing. Clothes and bed sheets. It's sunny out. The eucalypts rustle in the wind. The swings pitch back and forth gently. There's a gentle hiss of breeze through the grass and weeds. My thoughts are a mixture of Reid and Imogen. And Eddie.

Eddie's plan after school was to head home, say hi to his mum, ask how she was. He said his mum had the night off. That she'd be home this evening, which meant her keys would be hanging in the kitchen. He said he'll act normal, do some homework, do his chores. He said his dad'll cook dinner and then early evening when his parents usually sit down and read old novels or listen to the voicebox, he'll say he's going to bed, or that he's going over to Morgan's place.

That's when he'll grab the keys.

Once he's got them he'll notify me and Morgan and we'll meet somewhere like the Universal Mall, where we'll hide and make sure we haven't been followed. Or detected.

Then we'll make our move on the city authority offices to fetch back the Ephemerys.

As I hang out the fresh linen, the swings in the rear garden creak in the breeze. The clothes flap on the washing line. I hear a strange squeal from the woodland beyond Jupiter. I stop what I'm doing and gaze in the direction of the perimeter fence, my hand over my brow to shield my eyes from the glaring sun.

I find myself wondering again about the stranger and his droid—wondering where they disappeared to after the night I shot the stranger in the chest?

I wonder if I should've told someone about him. Other than Reid, I mean.

I watch the deep shadows of the trees. I have this strange feeling something's standing out there looking back at me.

I climb the trellis to the roof and stand there again gazing in the direction of the city fence. Beyond it lies Barren Wood. There's nothing, I tell myself. No-one's watching you.

While I'm on the roof, I check the lizard traps. I wonder if some harpy hound or shadow cat has been at them. There are signs that lizards have been wrenched from them, torn and eaten. Parts of the roof are splotched in blood. Bits of guts have been thrown about, drying in the sun. About a year ago we had the city authority fashion one of their scarecrows for us but that came down in strong winds about five weeks back. And snapped in half. We're still waiting for the city authority maintenance corps to have it repaired.

I sit down, facing the city buildings now. I watch and listen to the distant figures of harpy hounds circling the tops of sky scrapers. I breathe in the fresh air, happy that I'm down here today and not up there picking berries. A city droid stalks by in the street, bug-like in its movements. I watch it. It doesn't see me. Slowly it moves away.

I stay on the roof for close to an hour. Thinking about Eddie. Thinking about how we'll get that Ephemerys back. About going through a portal if we find one. About bringing Reid home. I'm trying to pretend that I'll be fearless enough to actually enter one of those anomalies. But I honestly don't know how I'm going to feel, approaching one with the intention of stepping into it. Not after we saw what happened to Reid and Imogen and Eddie. I only hope that if and when the time comes, I don't freeze. That I don't just turn and run the other way.

I see movement at the northern end of Last Street. Something's coming.

I frown at first, then duck down, wondering what it is.

It's a sun cart.

It draws closer. I see Lanson driving, mum in the passenger cart.

They haven't seen me. I stay low. They pull up in the street outside the front of our house. Mum gets out of the cart. I watch them exchange a kiss. Something that would've warmed my heart a few days ago. Now though I can't help looking at Lanson with contempt and suspicion.

I assume he's dropping mum home. I assume he'll now pull away into the street and drive away. I remain as low as I can, as still as I can. I continue to watch them. They chat quietly amongst themselves. Lanson's holding mum's hand. They kiss again and then Mum steps back as Lanson drives away, Mum waving after him.

Then he's gone.

8

I climb down off the roof and move into the kitchen. Mum's got Glenn Miller playing on the sound-trap. She turns at the sound of the door opening and she sees me. There's this awkward moment between us. Are we still not talking? Am I still in a mood with her? I sigh. I don't know. I don't want to be angry anymore. But I don't know what to say.

'Did you have a good day?' I ask, arms folded.

She nods. 'Yes. Not too bad.'

Another awkward silence. Neither of us knows what to say to the other. Or where to look. Mum turns to make herself a cup of tea, as if she's chosen to ignore me. I watch her. I lean against the bench. I could go to my room. Or I could go over to Morgan's house...

I watch her. I sigh. 'This is silly.'

Mum looks at me.

'Okay look,' I tell her, 'when you called Lanson about Eddie, well, I know you were only doing what you thought was right. Thing is, I was tired and emotional. I didn't mean to get angry with you.'

She nods. There's this conciliatory look in her eyes. And an almost sad smile hidden in her mouth, as if she didn't mean to anger me, that she doesn't want us to fight.

I go to her. We hold each other. 'I'm so sorry, Skye,' she says. 'Honestly. I was just worried, that's all. I didn't know what else to do.'

'I know, Mum. It's okay. It's my fault. I overreacted.'

We go quiet again. My eyes search the clock on the wall. I can't help wondering if Eddie's yet managed to get his hands on his mum's keys. He said he'd call as soon as he did. But it's been a couple of hours already. If he doesn't get them, then what? What if his mum doesn't hang them where she usually does? What if he can't find them?

It's out of your control, I tell myself. Just be calm, be patient.

I decide to go through with the idea of cooking Mum dinner. I tell her I want her to sit and put her feet up. That I'm going to make up for being angry with her. That I'm going to make dinner. Then I remember her and Lanson. 'Oh, unless you've got other plans, of course.'

'No,' she says, 'I've no other plans tonight.'

'Is everything okay?'

She smiles. 'Oh yes. Lanson is busy.'

'Oh, okay. I guess that's good because, well, I've decided on this evening's culinary delights. If you're game of course. We're going to start with pan seared chicken portions, and yes, that's right, I'm using up my chicken rations, and we're going to have that with asparagus and green beans and mashed potatoes, with a goat's cream sauce poured over the chicken. Then for desert we're going to enjoy banana fried with butter and enjoy it with fat dollops of ice cream on top. How does that sound?'

Mum smiles. 'Oh, it sounds delightful, love.'

'You'll see no lizard or strawberries here tonight, I promise. So, put your feet up, relax, read a book. And I'll get started.'

Mum can't help herself though, she gets up to assist. I protest. I guide her back to her seat. 'Okay, so just in case you don't know, this is the part where you sit down,' I tell her warmly.

Still, a few minutes later she's up monitoring the chicken. I sigh and give in. If she wants to help who am I to stop her?

So we make dinner together. It reminds me of days when I was little and Juke and I would help Mum cook. She hums to Glenn Miller's Blue Orchids and then to Moonlight Serenade.

All the while I've got Eddie on my mind. All the while I can't help wondering what's happening at his house. I keep checking the time.

It's not until Mum and I are about to sit down and eat that my wrist-com suddenly starts bleeping. 'I'll just get this, Mum,' I say as casually as I can. 'It's probably just Morgan.'

I move into the hallway and eagerly thumb the receive button. In the kitchen Mum's still singing away to herself. Eddie's face fills the screen. I'm instantly relieved to see it's him, instantly hopeful that all's gone to plan.

But there's an odd look on his face. I know instantly that something's the matter. 'What's wrong?' I ask him quietly.

'Mum's been called into work. I haven't been able to get her keys.'

I knew it. I sigh. I'm deflated. The weight of disappointment feels like a mighty stone hanging off my neck. Every minute we're without the Ephemerys is another minute lost searching for a new portal. I fear if we don't get it back, the window to locate another doorway will have come and gone and the chance to get Reid back will slip right through our fingers. For all we know there's an anomaly appearing right now somewhere in Jupiter... and once it's gone, well, that might be our last and only chance.

'But listen,' Eddie says. 'We've had a turn of fortune.'

I frown. 'What do you mean?'

He turns his wrist-com lens from his face and focuses it on an item on his bed. When I see what it is I stop breathing for a moment.

It's his satchel. And not only that. The Ephemerys.

'Oh Mother Earth,' I gasp trying to keep my voice low. 'How did you get it back?'

His face fills the screen again. 'Lanson came by. About half an hour ago. He said they were done with my belongings. That he was returning them. That he was sorry for the inconvenience.'

'Really?' I'm suspicious. I can't help it. 'He just gave them back like that? No questions asked?'

'Yeah. You think that's weird?'

'I don't know. I mean, did he ask you any questions?'

He shakes his head. 'None.'

I'm doubly suspicious now. 'I thought he would've asked you some questions at least. Sounds strange to me that he's just given those things back and not even questioned where you got them.'

Eddie shrugs. 'No, he just gave them back, apologised for taking them and then he left. I guess the city authority got all their answers from me when they had me in quarantine.'

I'm frowning. 'I guess so.' Something doesn't sound right though. I can't put my finger on it. 'Have you told Morgan yet?'

'She's on her way over. As soon as she gets here we're going to start our search for the next anomaly.'

'Okay. Well, keep me posted won't you?'

9

I go back to my dinner with mum. It's a warm occasion. We eat, we laugh, and we listen to music and dance. But the whole time my mind is with Morgan and Eddie. And by bedtime I still haven't heard back from either of them. Up in my room I sit on my bed and call them. When Morgan's face appears on my wrist-com screen I say, 'How are you guys going? Found anything yet?'

Morgan looks a tad flustered. 'No,' she says. 'We're struggling to locate any information that might lead us to a new portal.'

'There may not be any,' comes Eddie's voice off-screen.

Not the news I want to hear. I don't know what to say. 'There has to be something,' I tell them.

'We'll keep looking,' Morgan says. 'But at the moment it's not looking promising.'

After we break the line, I lie there in bed, staring at the window, praying that they'll find something. Praying that this will all work out.

Sometime before midnight I sleep.

10

Next morning I sit in the stand at the Metrodome Sport's stadium. They say in old days, there used to be a vast stadium roof that could be opened or shut depending on the weather. Apparently it opened up like a gigantic clam shell. There's no sign of that roof these days except for the rib-like support beams curling out over one half of the stadium. When the roof rusted and caved in, they say folk got together to clear away the debris.

There's a crowd of up to a hundred people here this morning. Not a bad turn out for Jupiter. I'm sitting a little bit away from everyone else, waiting for Morgan and Eddie to get here. Down on the large grassed oval, Jupiter's two scrapball teams, the Razordogs and the Bloodhawks, are going through their warm up routines. Kicking the oval shaped balls back and forth to each other. Teams are a mix of men and women. There's a game here twice a month. A big social event for Jupiter. There's no harvest work or school on sport's days. The city authority usually puts on a BBQ afterwards. Fried Gen steak. Or Gen chicken. Some folk will try some of the Old World recipes from ancient recipe books and make potato salad or coleslaw to bring along. Some bring cakes. Folk from the Dogstar pub usually put on free beer.

I check the time again. Morgan told me that she and Eddie would be no more than twenty minutes. That was almost half an hour ago. I'm nervous that something's happened.

When I see them climbing the grandstand I feel so relieved. But no less anxious. Morgan's in front, Eddie a little way behind. When Morgan reaches me, I ask, 'Is everything okay?'

'You were right,' she says. 'They planted listening devices on the gear Lanson returned.'

I shake my head. 'I knew it!' I say, looking at her. 'It was far too convenient.'

'We needed to make sure we'd found and disabled every one of them,' she says, checking the time on her wrist-com. 'That's why we've been held up.'

I watch Eddie nearing us. I see he's got the Ephemerys under his arm. I'm suddenly suspicious of that book. 'But you're certain you killed them all? There'll be little point us sitting out here in the open if the city authority can still hear us.'

'Yeah, they're all dead,' Morgan says confidently, sitting herself in the seat beside me. 'Eddie zapped them with an EM disruptor.'

Eddie reaches us. 'Hi Skye,' he says, sitting down in the row of seats in front of us. 'Morgan tell you our stuff was bugged?'

'Yep. And you're confident you zapped them all?'

'Yeah, they're fried,'

I nod thoughtfully, wanting to be confident with Eddie's verdict.

'You think Lanson's complicit in this?' Morgan asks me, gazing out at the scrapball teams. 'You think he knows they were there?'

I shrug. 'I don't know. But I think it's safe to assume we can't trust him anymore.'

'Anyway,' Eddie says, 'did Morgan tell you? We think we're onto something.'

I nod, intrigued, hopeful. 'Yes, what have you got?'

'Well,' Morgan says, 'if Eddie and I are reading the Ephemerys correctly, then we believe the appearance of another portal is imminent.'

'Oh Mother, honestly?' I feel my skin glowing, feel my nerves buzzing.

'Well, we hope so. Eddie's cross checking my findings with his own.'

Eddie's quiet for a while. He's got a blank bit of paper that he's scribbling notes and equations on. Morgan and I are quiet. The only noise in the stadium comes from the scrap ball teams, yelling, talking. When Eddie's done he sits there for a few moments, staring at his conclusions.

He shrugs. Then bumps Morgan on her knee with his hand. 'Looks like you were right again, Morgs.' He looks around at her. 'I've arrived at the exact same results as you.'

I look from Eddie to Morgan and back. 'Okay guys, don't keep me in suspense any longer. What have you found?'

'An actual portal,' Eddie says. 'One that hasn't appeared yet.'

My mouth drops open. 'Honestly?'

'Yes.'

'When's it due?'

Eddie gazes back at his notes. As if to verify. 'You're not gonna believe it. But midnight. Tonight.'

I almost feel my skin crawl in anticipation hearing this news. I feel excitement, nerves, relief. And I can't help feeling that if we'd been without the Ephemerys a single day longer we would've missed it.

'Right,' I tell them both. 'We need to get ready. We can't do this half-baked. If this is a rescue mission then we've got to do it right.'

Eddie nods. 'I agree. Cos we're gonna face multiple bad guys over there. Things that'll want to kill us and eat us. I'm talking big things. Like that huge ugly brute that came back through the portal with me. Creatures like that. We need weapons and armour suits. We need coms sets. We need gear to be able to survive and breathe under water. We need to be fully prepared.'

11

There's no debate over where we'll source armour and weapons. Each of us recalls the gear stashed at Juke's old hideout. Steelskin armour sets and aqua-breathers and multiple collected weapons. We decide if we're going to get our hands on that sort of equipment then Juke's secret apartment is the place to be.

We leave the Metrodome Stadium just as the scrapball game kicks off and we cycle for Last Street, checking constantly over our shoulders to see if we're being followed. So far, we spot nothing suspicious.

At my place, Morgan and Eddie wait outside, keeping watch while I hurry up to my room and fetch Juke's Star Wars rucksack down from the crawl space above my bedroom. Inside the rucksack I find the key for Juke's apartment.

After that we cycle directly for the Persephone building.

Once there, we wheel our bikes quickly into the foyer and hide for a few minutes just waiting... listening... eyeing the street for members of the city authority.

The street remains empty.

'You think we're clear?' Morgan asks.

None of us is certain but we can't hang around. We climb the stairs until we reach the elevator. We move inside. The only light in here comes from my head lamp. Otherwise it's as dark as a cave. Eddie thumbs the button for the fifty seventh floor. Before us, the doors shut... We wait. Nothing happens. I push the button again. No one speaks. I can't help wondering if the solar array on the roof has been damaged. Or sabotaged.

With the doors shut, I suddenly fear we're trapped. That the solar batteries must've had just enough juice remaining to shut the doors. Seems a cruel fate to get this far and find ourselves entombed.

Eddie thumbs the button. Pressing it a dozen times.

No response.

He thumbs it again.

Again, nothing.

'No,' I say, 'this can't be happening.'

I dig my fingers into the narrow gap where the doors are kissed together. I can't budge them. Eddie helps. Then Morgan. Each of us clawing at the elevator doors. But it's no use. They are stuck rigid.

In the glow of my headlamp I see their faces. Eddie looking pensive. Morgan anxious but searching for another way out. 'Skye, shine your light on the ceiling for a moment.'

I do. We see it. A manhole cover.

'Eddie, you think you can lift me up there?' Morgan says.

'I'll try.' He links his fingers, turns his palms upwards, giving Morgan somewhere to plant her foot. Using his shoulder to grip onto, she lifts her leg and places her boot on his hands and he hoists her up, his face grimacing with the exertion, his cheeks puffed out.

Above us Morgan stretches her finger tips toward the manhole. I hold her legs to keep her steady, keeping my headlamp focused on the ceiling. She's just about to push against the manhole cover when the elevator suddenly shudders and jerks and then begins its ascent.

Morgan steps down from Eddie's hoist. We're all just watching each other. Suspicious. Unsure. Nervous.

Like last time, none of the lights work on the elevator panel so it's impossible to know how fast we're passing through the levels of the building. But the elevator keeps moving at least—I can feel its slow ascent in my belly.

It seems like an hour later when the elevator finally shunts to a stop and the doors actually come open. We're not even certain we've reached the correct floor. But we hurry out of the elevator anyway in case those doors shut us in again.

'When we leave,' I say to the others, 'I suggest we take the stairs.'

'Good idea,' says Morgan.

We move along the corridor and find room #20. Juke's apartment.

I slot the key into the lock... but the door is ajar. I look at the others. Is someone here?

I push the door inwards slightly. Sticking my head around the doorway hoping to see someone before they see us. Better that way in case it's somebody we don't want to meet right now, somebody from the city watch who'll no doubt detain us and ask us too many questions.

Or that stranger.

We stand there in the hallway, gazing into the apartment.

Immediately we notice something's not right. It looks as if the place has been raided.

We push the door open further then cautiously step into the apartment. It's obvious that no-one else is here. Except everything's been removed. Taken away.

'Oh Mother,' I say. 'It's bloody well gone.'

All the antique items. The strange glass jars with the blue gas and tiny people. The equipment, the weapons, the steelskin armour. All the maps. All the books.

'You can bet the city authority are behind this,' Morgan says shortly.

I'm aghast. 'It's pretty clear now why they had no qualms returning that stuff in your bag, Eddie. They found a veritable bounty of gear right here.'

'And looks like the greedy bastards couldn't leave any of it alone,' Eddie says agitated.

We look around to see what we can find, if there's anything we can use, anything left. But there's nothing.

12

We sit out on the roof of the Persephone building, keeping an eye open for harpy hounds and any other flying critters, wondering what we'll do now. Other skyscrapers loom above us. We sit there gazing in the direction of Jupiter High School. None of us speaking for a while.

Eventually I say, 'Eddie, you're certain we need that stuff?'

He looks at me like I'm stupid. 'Yeah, Skye. I'm not going back to that world unless we're carrying sufficient armour, weapons and aqua gear. If we don't, we're dead.'

He watches me. Morgan watches me. Both with quizzical looks. But both of them surely know what I'm thinking.

'Okay, so we're all agreed the city authority raided Juke's apartment?' I tell them. 'That they're the ones who took all that stuff?'

'No doubt in my mind,' Eddie says.

'Me too,' Morgan says.

'Right then,' I say to Eddie, 'so tell me this, do you know where they're likely to be keeping Juke's gear in the city authority building?'

Eddie nods. 'They had my gear spread out on tables in a containment room off the main wing. If they took Juke's stuff, then I'm betting that's where it'll be.'

I ponder this. 'You think there's any chance we could break in and get what we need? Using your mum's keys?'

He considers my idea.

'You said your mum had her work shifts swapped,' I say to him. 'That she's not working tonight. Is that right?'

He nods. 'That's right.'

'So, we take her key and get ourselves into the city authority building.' I look from him to Morgan. Morgan hasn't spoken. She's looking a little uncertain. 'What?' I ask her.

'Skye, we only have a small window of opportunity,' she tells me. 'After tonight, we can't be certain another portal will be opening any time soon. If what I've studied is correct then we mightn't see another portal for four whole months. If at all.'

'That's why we're aiming for the portal tonight,' I tell her, not understanding what she's getting at.

'Not if we get ourselves caught.'

I watch her for a few moments. 'Why will we get ourselves caught?'

She frowns at me. 'Ah, because you want to break into the city authority, Skye. And ah, because that place is likely to have security scrambling all over it.'

'Morgan, where else are we going to get armour and aqua gear?' I ask her. 'There's nowhere else.'

'I don't know, Skye. But breaking into the city authority is a bit of a tall order, don't you think?'

'You suggest we head straight for the portal without any protective gear?' I ask her dumfounded.

'Yes,' she says. 'I mean, if we get caught inside the city authority then you can kiss the next portal goodbye.'

I watch her eyes. I can't believe what I'm hearing.

'We need that gear, Morgs,' Eddie tells her. 'Or else it's a death sentence over there.'

'I'm aware of that, Eddie,' she argues, 'but what else do you suggest?'

'Look,' he says, 'what I saw when I was in the city authority, their security wasn't as stringent as you might think.'

Morgan looks in disbelief. 'That can't be right, Eddie. It's the city authority. They'll have automated guards all over the place. They'll have security personnel standing sentry everywhere.'

Eddie shrugs. 'They had none of that when I was there. I mean, think about it, they're running on a skeleton staff. And their automated sentries are always out on patrols.'

I search his and then Morgan's eyes. 'Right, so we're doing this.'

Morgan watches me closely. 'Okay. But we need an escape plan, Skye. Because if we're caught, if we're detained, then we can kiss goodbye any idea of reaching that portal tonight and any idea of rescuing Reid or Imogen. Do you hear me?'

THE RAID

1

WE decide the best time to conduct our sortie onto city authority premises is after dark. Where we can stick to the shadows. That means we have some hours to kill. That means we head home, lay low, plan our attack.

On my way home I decide to cycle to Jupiter's grand cathedral. I park my bike. I walk in off the street. It's a gargantuan place. Wonderfully serene. Like the Metrodome sports ground, its roof has gone. Long ago collapsed. Its bricks and tiles and wooden beams taken away by resource hunters. Ancient strangler figs stand on the top of the walls now. Mighty organic patterns of roots snake down the stonework. Along the old pews there's a garden of thick fresh grass, and ferns, and Heliconias laden with bunches of crab claw flowers. Fluttering about the air are the blue Immortal Butterflies that seem to exist nowhere else in Jupiter. Butterflies that some folk believe are enchanted—if you are touched by one, it means the Great Mother herself has blessed you.

There are stories that people once worshiped another god in this place. A sky god, distant, remote, silent, heartless. Whoever that god was, he was pushed aside after the Great Silence fell, shoved aside by disillusioned and shell-shocked survivors who rose up out of the ruins of the Old World and burnt down his churches and removed every reference to him, burning what was known as Biblical texts (essentially ridding the world of what I've heard folk call "insidiously evil" teachings), stripping churches of anything pertaining to that old religion. Then they let Mother Nature have her vengeance on these places. And it's Her we pray to now, our Earth Mother—the old churches and cathedrals are Her domain.

I'm the only soul here today. It's quiet except for the sparrows and finches tweeting and flying about the cathedral's vast open interior. A mighty stained glass window portrays the Earth Mother in human form, a mighty benevolent being welcoming all living things. The Mother who we believe does not judge, holds no anger, will not demand folk believe in her for the sake of their own salvation. She simply, is.

I move toward Her and kneel. About me, leaves from the fig trees flutter down amidst the gentle breeze. The birds tweet and when I shut my eyes I hear the soft beating of butterfly wings about me.

'Dear Earth Mother, please hear me now. I am about to do something I should not, something I promised my dearest blood mother that I would not do. Something that might very well prove dangerous, prove my undoing. Please watch over me and keep me safe. If something happens, if I should not return, please keep my dear blood mother safe and let her not be sad.'

I kiss my palms, touch them to my forehead then lean forward and press them against the soft floor of flowers and grass. 'Hear me, please Earth Mother,' I whisper, my hands pushed into the floor before me. 'Hear me and bless me with your love.'

I feel something soft on my shoulder. I turn my head and see an Immortal Butterfly perched there, its small proboscis rolling in and out of its mouth, as if tasting me for nectar. I watch it for a few moments, smiling delightedly, before it flutters away.

I breathe in deeply. 'Thank you, oh Mother.'

I kneel here for a while, taking in this serene open belly of the old cathedral, sun beams cutting down through the branches of strangler figs.

2

I have dinner with mum. A simple supper of baked lizard and corn. After we've eaten she asks if I'd like to read more of the Dolls House.

I check the time. It's 7pm. Mum puts some music by Etta James on the soundtrap. We sit in the front room, reading. It's a nice occasion, made all the more poignant for me because I can't escape the thoughts of what Morgan, Eddie and I are planning. If Eddie manages to get hold of his mum's keys, if we manage to track down this portal, if we manage to slip through... well, what if like Juke, I don't come home? What if I leave my dear mother without children?

Cold chills cover me.

I watch Mum as she reads. She looks so happy. So content. I can't help feeling guilty. That my actions tonight might turn her entire life upside down. More than once I find myself reconsidering my plans. Questioning what I'm doing. Does Reid mean that much to me? What am I really doing this for?

When we're done reading I tell mum I'll be going over to Eddie's shortly.

'Oh. Will you be home later?' she asks.

I shrug. I tell her I'm not sure. 'Maybe. If it gets too late, I'll sleep there the night if that's okay.'

'Well, I'd prefer that than have you wandering about the streets at all hours.'

She smiles. A worried motherly smile. She leaves her seat and comes to me and hugs me. I nestle my face in the crook of her neck. Shut my eyes. Breathing in the familiar soapy smell of her skin. 'I love you, mum. I'm sorry I've been a bit weird lately. I guess, what happened to Reid... I guess it's stirred up feelings of Juke. It's made me a little sad, that's all.'

She holds me, her hand gently patting my back. 'You don't have to apologise, sweetheart.'

I open my eyes and take in the time on my wrist-com. Still several hours until the portal is due to show.

But I see a message from Eddie.

He's managed to secure his mother's work key.

I shut my eyes. Relieved. Terrified.

'Thanks, mum.'

She lets me go.

'If you're back this evening,' she says, 'I'll probably be asleep. So either way, I'll see you in the morning.'

'Okay, mum. Sleep well. I love you.'

'Love you too, dear.' She kisses me on the cheek.

The last I see of her is she's at the sink, washing dishes, humming to herself.

3

I meet Eddie and Morgan outside Morgan's place. I've got my blunderbuss strung over my shoulder. The sun's still draining out of the sky in vast streaks of red. Tinting the buildings of the city. To get here, I cycled fast along lightless streets. Not wanting to stop. Spooked by the shadows. Now as I cycle up to them both I know something's up. There's a look on Morgan's face.

'What's wrong?' I ask.

'Didn't you hear the news?'

I shake my head. 'What news?'

'Crawter Mullins,' she says. 'They're saying now that he didn't fall. That he was murdered.'

'What?' It takes me a moment to work out who she's talking about. 'Crawter Mullins?' The one whose body we saw covered by a sheet outside the Federal Exchange building, the day we trailed Imogen, the day Imogen took us to Juke's secret hideout in the Persephone building. 'But they said he fell.'

'Yes, well now they're saying he was killed by some weapon.'

I blink at her. 'Wh-where did you hear this?'

Eddie speaks up. 'I overheard mum telling dad. They're saying some stranger, an Outsider, has been spotted in Jupiter.'

My mouth goes dry. I swallow. I just stare at Eddie. And then Morgan. 'A stranger?'

'Yeah. He's been spotted sneaking around. So far he's eluded capture. But the city authority are pretty certain he's to blame. They think he may also be responsible for the deaths of Narnss Hupper, Greigs Bouton, Hulz Faird.'

I frown. Narnss and Greigs and Hulz were all classified as "fall" victims.

A month ago, Narnss Hupper fell to her death at the end of her work shift after tripping on stairs and plummeting from the first-floor mezzanine of the Global Stock Corp. Two weeks later, Greigs Bouton and Hulz Faird, both city rangers (conducting a lot of their work on their own), died days apart. Both dead in what was termed "avoidable incidents". For not securing harnesses or safety cords as they scaled city buildings in their hunt for hidden and unknown treasures.

Public ceremonies were conducted for the three of them. Public cremations and their ashes scattered. Narnss Hupper was the most tragic death because she left behind two young children.

'They all died in falls,' I insist.

Eddie shakes his head. 'Not according to the city authority,' he tells me. 'They now believe each of them displayed signs of being attacked by the same type of weapon. A hammer.'

'A hammer?' This is completely nuts. 'Why is this only coming out now?'

'Maybe the city guard was sitting on it until they were sure of their findings,' Morgan says. 'But they're going public with it tomorrow. A meeting's scheduled at the community hall. Compulsory attendance for all citizens. They want to make sure everyone's aware this stranger is out there.'

I can't help but think of him now, the person I encountered in Barren Wood, how he tried to step into my house the night I zapped him with the star blazer. He and his droid must've been in and out of Jupiter for the last month or so, randomly killing people. For whatever reason. Just like they'd been killing those Entities.

A chill passes through me—was he carrying a hammer the night I shot him? If I hadn't shot him, might I have ended up like the others?

I shudder. I have to tell Morgan and Eddie about him. I even open my mouth to just blurt it out but Eddie checks the time on his wrist-com and says, 'Look, we ought to get going. We've got a ton of stuff to do before the portal shows and we can't be standing around here wasting time. Just keep your eyes open for this stranger. We can't afford to have anything holding us up.'

4

We cycle in the growing twilight toward the central district where the city authority HQ is located.

The air feels chilled and dry. I can smell a faint waft of strawberries on the breeze. The shadows are deepening. The buildings either side of us seem to push in at us. All I can think of is the stranger. The alleged killings. All I can think is maybe he's here somewhere watching. Following us.

I look behind. I see nothing but deep gloom. And ominous shadows. I can't help shivering.

We near the central district. It's dark now. Just the pool of light on the road from my head lamp where the street lights are out. We roll by the Centre for Roads and Construction, an ugly cement building, dark and soulless. The shadows play tricks. I believe I see pale figures standing there inside the foyer gazing back at us. When I look again, they're gone.

We turn onto Finance Square and trail Eddie into the dark narrow lane behind the vacant Global Stocks Commission building. There's almost no light here. I feel my nerves beginning to buzz. I still can't get the stranger out of my head. I still haven't said anything of him to the others. I don't know why. None of us speak as we cycle through the city. Maybe it's best to stay quiet. I continue to cast glances over my shoulder. Still I see nothing but dark. I hear nothing.

Even so, I can't shake the feeling that he's there somewhere... Nearby.

We come to the end of the lane and Eddie slows down and stops. He tells us to keep quiet from here on in. He peers out into the street. Half a block down there are the old houses of parliament. The base of operations for the city authority.

There's no sign of any one left or right of us, no one in the street. All's dark, and all's quiet except for the breeze pushing bits of rubbish about, all's silent except for night critters twittering in the dark in the buildings above us.

We follow Eddie across the street. Into another laneway so that we eventually come up on the old tradesman entrance to the parliament building. A dingy loading dock area. Vacant. Quiet.

We park our bikes in the lane against the wall, hidden beneath the shadows. I hitch my blunderbuss up my shoulder and we skirt the parliament building, Eddie leading the way.

We reach the corner. Eddie stops. We peer out at the administration wing and the quarantine facility. Windows are lit up from the inside. We wait here a moment. Making certain there's no roaming patrol. We see no one through the great glass windows inside the buildings. It's as if the place is deserted. Eddie probes the way forward with his proximity alert scanner. We can't see them, but it shows figures inside the facility. People moving about.

Across from us there are trees in a court yard. There are benches where staff might sit and have lunch during daylight hours. Eddie points out the containment facility. It stands opposite us, on the far side of the courtyard.

'That's where we need to be,' Eddie says. 'This is the way they led me in.' He looks around at us.

We nod, as if to say, Okay, let's do this.

Keeping low, Eddie moves out toward the trees. He reaches the deep shadows and stops there, crouching, waiting for me and Morgan.

Morgan makes her move. Then I. We reach Eddie without incident and from there the three of us sneak across the courtyard, keeping to the shadows, heading toward the containment wing.

We stop on the other side of the courtyard, Eddie taking another reading of his scanner. Night bugs chirp in the grass. 'According to this, the block is empty,' he reports.

'You sure that's right?' Morgan asks him.

'Well, yeah.' He doesn't sound certain. 'Wait here a sec.' He moves across to the building, fishing his mum's keys from his pocket as he goes. When he reaches the door he pushes the key into the slot. When he turns it the door glides open. He ushers us to follow.

We do, keeping low, hurrying across to the building and trailing him inside.

It's quiet in here. No sound. It's also very bright, the solar bars in the ceiling glow like white flares. I feel exposed, conspicuous, under a spotlight. They must have cameras. Somebody must be watching us on a monitor somewhere. It can't be this easy.

We trail Eddie down the corridor and into a room. Once we're all inside he shuts the door and flicks on the light. I'm expecting people to materialise from the dark. Wide eyed personnel wondering what on Earth we're doing. But other than the racks and tables and cabinets, the place is deserted. Quiet.

Eddie hurries to the centre of the room. We follow. Like he said, it's all here. Just lying here, neatly arranged across four separate tables. All of Juke's gear. The books. The antique gadgets. Maps. Notepads. Snap prints. The peculiar weaponry. The combat outfits. The steelskin armour. The aqua gear. I don't spot the glass jars with the peculiar tiny people but most of the gear we encountered at Juke's is laid out right before us.

We retrieve a pair of shoulder bags from the backpack I'm carrying. We begin filling them. Three wetsuits and three sets of Steelskin. Three lots of aquatic rebreathers and masks. We take darkscopes and motion scanners. We take weapons we believe we can carry: Morgan a Scattercat, Eddie a quick-fire Gas-hog hydrogen rifle, and as back-up to my blunderbuss I grab an automatic spear gun with a handful of spare magazines.

Eddie then picks out three gadgets he calls Rapid Aqua Ascent Units. He hands one each to Morgan and I. Then he packs something he calls a Portable Marine Propulsion Unit.

'Tell me,' Morgan says to Eddie as she jams the ascent gadget into her backpack with the rest of her gear. 'These types of gadgets were present on the other side of the portal?'

'We found some stashed in the craft where me and Reid and Imogen were sheltering,' he tells.

Morgan glances at me. 'If all this gear here is out of Juke's apartment, then he too must've found that craft. He must've collected what he could and brought it all back.'

I'm packing my gear, listening to this. I turn and regard Eddie. 'You never saw any sign of Juke over there?'

He shakes his head. 'Sorry Skye, but no.'

I don't know how that can be. Imogen has to be hiding evidence of Juke's activities. Maybe she'd been there with Juke. Maybe that's how she knew where the craft was, how she knew what to do once she and Reid and Eddie had got inside it.

I try not thinking about it as we gather up our equipment. We want to be out of here as quick as we can. I can't let these wild speculations hold me up. I zip up my rucksack. It's full. It's heavy. Eddie spots a cluster of peculiar objects on another table and strides around to them. He calls me over. 'Skye, come and look.'

I move to his side. He points out items that look strangely familiar. 'These look like the missing components of your absorption suit, don't you think?'

Lower legs guards. Thigh guards. Helmet and chest plates. 'I think you're right,' I tell him. 'The missing parts.'

'Juke had them all along?' Morgan says.

I shake my head. 'Guess he did.' Why he didn't give them to me I can't say. But I take them, cramming them into my bag then sling the bag over my back, minding my blunderbuss.

'Alright, are we done?' Morgan asks. 'If we are then we need to get moving.'

She and I turn to leave but Eddie's still picking through the gear on the tables.

'Eddie, come on,' Morgan says as she moves toward the door, 'we've got what we need, let's move.'

He makes no effort to leave. I watch him. He looks like he's searching for something else.

I return to his side. 'Eddie. We've got what we came for.'

'Give me a moment.'

'What is it?' Morgan asks him agitated. She's at the door, the one we used to get in here. She's wearing an anxious look. She wants to get out of here. 'What are you looking for?'

He doesn't speak.

I grab his arm. 'Eddie, what is it you're searching for?'

He sighs. 'I don't know. A gadget. Some sort of power source.'

'A power source? For what?'

He looks flustered.

'Eddie,' I say sternly, 'a power source for what?'

He sighs. 'I'm not certain. For a device Imogen found in the craft. She described it as an electronic version of the Ephemerys. Only it can calculate the appearance of portals far more quickly. She said Juke had a source that could power it.' He lets out a frustrated breath. 'But it's not here. I can't see it.'

We hear Morgan suddenly gasp. I turn to see what the matter is. Her ear is against the door. 'Footsteps,' she says.

We listen. They're growing louder. 'Okay, this way,' Eddie says.

We hurry across the room to the opposite door. A sign stuck to it reads:

QUARANTINE - PATHOLOGY

AUTHORISED PERSONEL ONLY

The door's locked. Eddie turns it with his mum's key. We sneak through just as the door at the opposite end of the room creaks open.

5

We're in a hallway. It's darker here. There aren't as many solar panels currently flicked on. Most of the available light spills through a series of huge glass panels behind which lie cubicles, laboratories, rooms where the city watch people do whatever it is they do here.

We keep low. Crouching, unable to see into any of these chambers. Not daring to stand in case there are people in them, in case they spy us. 'Which way, Eddie?' I ask.

He looks left and right. 'This is going to sound counterintuitive but we need to head deeper into the facility.'

'What? Why?'

He points to our left. 'That way leads to the front offices and the front door. Whenever I've been here with mum, that way is always full of staff. There's no way we'll get through without being spotted. We need to find our way out the rear exit. Through the huge hangar out the back.'

'Are you certain?' Morgan asks nervously.

'Yeah.'

We're not sure about this but we follow Eddie, staying low, tracking along the hallway. We pass through a length of the passageway where the glass panels show nothing but darkness. But then we approach a couple whose windows are well aglow with light.

Eddie puts his finger to his lips. 'Be as quiet as you can.'

The sign on the door reads PATHOLOGY 5. There are people in there. We can hear their muted voices. I can't help wondering if they're working on another body. Another so-called fall victim. And I can't help myself, I peer over the rim of the window, gazing in.

'Skye,' Morgan hisses, 'what are you doing?'

I barely hear her. There's something bizarre in here. 'What on Earth is that?'

Eddie glances back at me. When he sees where I'm looking, curiosity gets the better of him. He rises slowly, and carefully he peers over the rim of the glass pane.

The room beyond has glass panels on three sides. A laboratory of some sort. There's a stainless steel table at room's centre. Something lies on top of it. Some sort of animal. It looks like an Entity. I can't be certain but it looks like a female. I picture the one I fed the other day with Reid. I feel a pang of sudden sadness. That it might be her. What are they doing to her? What have they done?

I can't help considering the stranger again. How he was killing Entities and piling up their bodies in the Barren Wood. Maybe he's killed more. Maybe the city authority found their bodies. Maybe they're trying to determine how they died.

'It's an Entity,' Eddie murmurs.

'What's it doing here?' Morgan asks, gazing into the room now too.

'I have no idea,' I find myself answering. I spot something else.

In the lab adjacent to this one, people in blue smocks and face masks are cutting into the flesh of another creature.

Only this creature is huge. Taking up several stainless steel benches. It looks like a giant horse, complete with forelegs but possessing a long fishtail where its hind legs ought to be.

'What on Earth is that?' Morgan asks softly.

'I have no idea,' I murmur.

'Another portal must've opened somewhere,' Eddie says. 'It must've fallen through.'

Morgan lowers herself below the window frame. 'Come on, we've got to keep moving.'

We push on. Staying low. Crouching. Pushing toward the end of the hallway. Here the hallway ends at a large door. A sign reads HANGAR 3.

We push through it. Cautiously. I see the exit signs: large green signs showing off a small figure running from fire. 'That way,' I point.

The hangar houses solar carts and bicycles and other vehicles. There are automated droids too, half a dozen of them arranged in formation by one wall.

Morgan and I freeze.

Eddie looks around at us. 'They're not currently operational,' he assures us. 'They're in for repairs.'

I glance at him. 'Are you certain?'

'Well, mostly sure.'

'Mostly?'

'Mum says this is where they are powered down and stored when they come in for maintenance.'

'Bloody hell, Eddie,' Morgan says, 'I hope you're right.'

To be safe, we stick to the shadows of the taller vehicles like the waste tug and the city core filler. There's a stretch of open space between the last vehicle, a huge fire dozer, and the exit way. It means that in order to reach the door, we'll have to risk being in full view of those dormant droids.

'They would've detected us by now,' Eddie insists.

'Maybe they're just watching us,' Morgan tells him. 'Wondering what we're up to.'

'None of their running lights are on,' he argues.

We wait here beside the fire dozer, watching them. They don't move. Eddie surveys the hangar exit point. There are two enormous roller doors, both currently pulled shut, no doubt put to use when manoeuvring larger vehicles in and out. There's a smaller door down at one corner, for general access.

'We need to get to that doorway,' Eddie points out.

With one eye on the droids, we leave our cover...

Just as we do, the mighty roller doors begin shifting upwards. From outside we hear someone yelling. We hear a screech. We hear something squealing.

We divert and race toward the enormous skip stationed by the wall in the corner of the hangar. The area there lies in heavy shadow. We dive behind just as the roller doors lift high enough to submit a mighty rush of people.

From our vantage point, hiding behind the skip, we watch them. Members of the city guard carrying laser gaffs. They're frog marching someone between them. Someone we can't quite see in amongst the crowd. Whoever he is, he's been cuffed and he has a cord tied around his neck.

Outside in the dark, we spot automated city droids standing there under the orange glow of floodlights, each of them poised in a defensive stance, as if anticipating an attack by an outside force. The muzzles of their laser guns are smoking, recently used. We see several bodies scattered about. Entities. They've been slaughtered. They're all bleeding. It's ghastly. What on Earth is going on?

The prisoner is marched across the hangar and out of sight. But just before he's hauled from our view, I see his face.

I hold my breath.

It's the stranger.

I'm so surprised to see him. Even after the reports that he's been sighted. Because I fired the star blazer at his chest. I heard him struggle. I imagined I'd killed him. Or wounded him at least. Saw him off.

Then he's dragged away into the facility and the hangar doors begin rolling down.

We huddle here unable to shift from our position. The droids remain outside. We'll be spotted if we move. And judging by the current state of alert, we're likely to be gunned down.

Before we can work out what to do, the doors lower into the cement floor, shutting us in.

6

I'm frustrated. Angry by our indecision. I check the time. It's ten o'clock. A couple of hours before the portal is due to materialise. But we're not going to make it if we're stuck in here.

'What do you think is going on?' Morgan asks.

'Don't know,' Eddie says, 'who was that guy they just marched in?'

Morgan looks at us. 'You think he's this stranger we've heard about?'

I don't look at Morgan. Or Eddie. 'Maybe.' I don't know what else to say.

'What about those Entities?' Eddie says. 'Did you guys see them out there?'

Morgan swallows. 'Couldn't miss them.'

'So what are they doing in Jupiter?' he asks.

I shrug. No-one has an answer. 'Is there no other way out of this place?' I ask Eddie.

He doesn't look positive. 'From our current position, our only options are out these hangar doors or back the way came. And right now I'm getting multiple readings from both directions.'

We sit. We wait. I search the ceiling. There has to be another way. Maybe we could climb our way out of here. A ladder... or chains we could scale. Find some manhole in the roof, find our way out. But there's nothing I can see.

Time drags on. Eddie continues to report the presence of the droids outside the hangar doors. And the presence of people in the hallway.

'We can't just sit here,' Morgan says, frustrated, checking the time on her wrist-com.

'I know,' Eddie says back at her, 'but what do you expect me to do about it?'

Forty minutes go by. A group of people enter the forward area of the hangar from the pathology wing. There's a heated conversation back near the fire dozer. We can't exactly hear what it's all about. Then we hear them all marching back into the corridors of the facility.

Another half an hour goes by. The time's now 11:15. Forty five minutes until the portal is due to show. I fear we're never going to reach it. According to Eddie's proximity scanner the automated droids are still stationed outside the hangar doors. I keep checking the time. I'm getting restless. Anxious. Eddie studies his proximity device.

Several minutes later he's staring at the screen and I see him frown. 'What is it?' I ask him.

He shakes his head. 'Either this thing's gone faulty or those droids have just up and left.'

Morgan views the screen. 'The droids outside?'

'Yeah.' He presses some buttons. Switching the unit off and then on again. It's still picking up nothing beyond the hangar doors. 'They're gone.'

'Are you sure?' I ask him.

He scratches his neck. 'Yeah.'

'Okay then, let's move. If we don't get out of here soon we're going to miss our window.'

We stand. We check the way back near the fire dozer is clear. We scurry from our hiding spot, hurrying toward the smaller door. Eddie fishing his mum's keys from his pocket. We reach the door. Eddie turns the door handle. It's locked. He slots one of the keys into it, turns it.

Nothing happens.

'Wrong key.' He tries another key. I look back toward the fire dozer near the rear of the hangar. We're still alone. But for how long?

Eddie's second key doesn't unlock the door. Neither does the third and fourth keys. The droids stationed against the far wall remain inanimate.

'Eddie,' I say anxiously.

'The door's locked,' he says, frustrated. 'None of these keys seem to work.'

'Try them again,' Morgan urges him. 'Maybe you missed one.'

He goes through them again. Systematically. Methodically. Calmly. One by one. He reaches the last. It doesn't work. 'Blast it,' he says.

We hear the door leading back into the facility opening again, we hear footsteps, we hear people shouting.

We scramble back for cover behind the skip. We get there just as the huge roller doors begin to slide upwards again, just as solar carts begin trundling out of the hangar.

Outside, the bodies of the Entities are still lying there under the orange glow of the floodlights. The solar carts zoom out into the night. Five of them driven by members of the city authority. Maerren, Garlan, Jonah, Fotcher, Hoak.

They speed away and we're left here in silence as the roller doors shudder and begin to lower once more. We're wondering what's going on. Something odd is certainly happening in Jupiter tonight.

Gazing outside... it's vacant out there.

The roller doors keep lowering. We have maybe half a minute before they shut us in again. Half a minute to make up our minds about what to do.

'We have to make a break for it,' I urge the others.

Eddie's gazing round the corner of the skip. 'No-one's there,' he says.

'Good,' Morgan says. 'Let's get out of here.'

7

My skin's crawling as we leave cover, as we race across the open floor, as we duck beneath the roller doors and scurry out into the night. We steer clear of the dead Entities, my hand over my mouth, shocked at the carnage. I don't want to look. I can't help wondering if these are some that I've fed.

We hug the fringes of the yard, sticking to the shadows, trailing a tall rusting fence, leaving the slaughtered Entities behind us. We find the gate into the street is hanging open.

We search both directions before we dash across the roadway and into the shadows of the buildings around us. We crouch and gain our bearings. Once we do, we slowly pick our way back to our bikes. The time is 11:35 pm.

ETERNAL KNIGHTS

1

IT takes us almost fifteen minutes to ride across town. Navigating our way through the dark city streets. I'm so relieved to be out of that hangar, away from the city authority complex. Fresh air on my face and skin. Still, as my helmet light cuts through the dark, I'm increasingly conscious of the time, I keep hoping the portal hasn't already come and gone. We need to hurry.

We arrive at Jupiter's old entertainment district, cycling up to an ancient establishment called the Eternal Knights bowling alley. This is where Morgan and Eddie believe the portal is due to appear. Inside somewhere.

Outside the complex, the old neon lights are all smashed. But the frame on which they once hung remains in place, depicting a giant throwing down bowling balls into goblin shaped skittles. The rest of the building looks like a derelict shell with its roof sagging heavily in the middle. It's a place we used to play when we were kids. And we were always warned that the roof could cave in at any moment. But it hasn't. Not yet.

I'm feeling both excited and nervous. And guilty. The promise I made to mum that I wouldn't go after Reid. I keep telling myself that we'll be back before she even knows we're gone, that I'll be tucked up in bed, hopefully with Reid, by morning.

2

We park our bikes and stand outside the Eternal Knights bowling lanes. Gazing up at the giant. 'You both ready to do this?' Morgan asks with a no nonsense look in her eye. Like we all need to be on the same page here. Like she's checking if we're still up for it.

There's no doubt in my mind. 'Yeah,' I tell her.

Eddie's eyeing off the bowls building before us. He nods. 'Yep, good to go.'

'You both certain?'

I glance at her. 'Morgan, yes we're doing this, okay.'

'I just want to make sure, Skye.' She steps over and gives me a quick hug. 'Good luck.' She turns and hugs Eddie. Kissing his cheek.

There's a moment of panic when we can't open the door to the complex. Eddie heaves against it but it won't budge. And then Eddie's proximity scanner begins bleeping.

We all freeze, our eyes going to the scanner. There's something moving inside the Eternal Knights complex. I wonder if the portal has already opened and spat out some awful monstrosity. But then through a huge gash in the outer wall dashes a doe with her calf, both belting from the building's interior. Across the street they stop and eye us briefly before scampering away into the night.

We use that same hole to clamber inside. It's as dark as death in there, except for patches where moonbeams cut through the crumbling ceiling. There's a stink like deer pee. A really heavy stench of it actually.

'Wow, cop some of that,' Eddie says out loud.

We wash our torch lights around. We see the old empty bowling lanes, covered in dust and dirt, and weeds growing up through the floor. The bar area is as deserted as I remember it when I was a young girl. But the whole place looks even more dilapidated than I recall.

There's no sign of any portal. And no sign that one has recently been here. No scratch marks on the floors. No trailing debris left in a spiral pattern. The time is five to midnight.

Eddie hefts off his backpack. 'We better suit-up,' he says.

We join him in getting prepared. There's a deathly quiet amongst us as we do. We don our steelskin armour and headlamps, we equip our aqua gear, our rebreathers, our masks, and the rapid ascent units. We clip knives and guns to our belts. I put on the segments of my absorption suit over the top of my tight-fitting steelskin, clipping the absorption mask to my chest guard. I feel the load of my gear weighing me down. Still, it also gives me a sense of confidence. Protection. That I'm guarded, that I shouldn't be messed with.

Eddie reminds us about the rebreathers. 'They're integral,' he says. 'There's lots of water over there. There's gonna be times when we're gonna have to swim. So have these close.' He clips his to his collar. We copy him. 'Now these things,' he says, 'these Rapid Ascent Units. Strap them around your upper arm like this.'

He shows us. They're like a band of material with Velcro strapping. They have a small push-button beneath a flap. They carry a tiny aerosol capsule.

'You find yourself in deep water,' Eddie says, 'or if something pulls you down, press this button. The pillow will inflate instantly and pull you to the surface. There's a five minute refill time. So you can use it over and over. Okay?'

We nod as we clip them to our arms.

When we're done, Morgan checks the time on her wrist-com. 'Midnight,' she says looking around. 'Game time.'

3

We begin searching the place. Checking on stock rooms and an administration office and the rest rooms. Just in case this portal has decided to show itself somewhere other than where the bowling lanes are situated.

'Are you pair certain it was due at midnight?' I ask.

Eddie scratches his chin and looks about. 'Well... I mean... yeah.'

Morgan takes the Ephemerys from Eddie's bag. 'Our calculations told us it'd be sometime around midnight,' she says, checking over their notes, checking over figures and data.

'Hate to ask,' I say, 'but you do have the correct date? Like, you're sure it's tonight and not tomorrow night? Or last night?'

'Skye,' Morgan says, 'yes, we're certain, okay? Just give me a few moments to double check.'

I resign myself to waiting, trying to be patient, standing in the dark, the only light coming from the pale moon beams or that from our headlamps. There's a couple of bowling balls lying around. Eddie goes over, picks one up and bowls it down the old weed strewn lane. It makes a heck of a racket and both Morgan and I glare at him. 'What on Earth are you doing?' I hiss at him. 'You want the city guard to find us?'

He shrugs. 'No.'

I roll my eyes at Morgan. She gives me a Can you believe it? look. Then she returns her attention to the Ephemerys.

Time drags on. We're nearing half twelve now. I'm filled with angst. I can't help feel we've missed the portal. I'm beginning to believe it appeared last night. That we're twenty four hours late. I keep wanting to ask Morgan if she's verified anything yet but I don't want to keep pressing her. I keep scouring the empty bowling lanes for any sign. Any flicker of light. Any peculiar movement.

Eddie's at Morgan's side now. They're both seated on a set of old bowling seats, leafing through the Ephemerys under torch light.

I watch the time on my wrist-com tick slowly toward a quarter to one. The bowling lanes remain silent, showing no unusual activity.

I'm getting more and more antsy. I'm pacing along the head of each bowling lane. Hoping to spot even the tiniest sign that something's about to occur, that our portal is about to show itself.

Morgan stands and moves down one of the lanes. I wonder if she's seen something. I watch her. Eddie's still got his nose stuck in the Ephemerys.

Watching Morgan, I ask, 'Have you spotted something?' Above her the sagging ceiling looks like it'll collapse on top of the lanes at any moment. I eye the lowest point of the sag. I tell Morgan to be careful.

'It's meant to be here,' she says frustrated. 'At midnight. Somewhere over these lanes if we've got the coordinates right. I don't understand it. Maybe we're not reading the book right.'

I frown. 'Over the lanes?'

'Yes.'

I gaze up at the sagging ceiling.

I head for the gash in the wall and vacate the premises, stepping back into the street. I walk backwards away from the Eternal Knights building, keeping my eye on the complex until I can get some sort of view of the roof above the bowling lanes. I see nothing at first. Morgan and Eddie have followed me out, wondering what I'm up to. But I think they get it once they see me surveying the roof.

Just as they hurry forward, I spot it. 'There! On the roof. It's there.'

They rush to my side, turning to take in what I'm pointing at and they see it. About the size of a basketball, a glowing, swirling mass of blue light.

4

It's drifting. Like the one we saw at Argonauts, it's drifting. And growing.

'Right,' Morgan says, urgently, hurrying back to the bowls building. 'Let's get moving.'

I'm after her, Eddie following. We fetch our bags from within, hitching them over our shoulders. We retrace our steps into the street. There's an old service ladder that, when we were kids, we'd climb to reach the roof. But it's rusted and corroded and lying across the street.

The three of us attempt to lift it but it's far too heavy. We can barely heft it an inch off the road.

'What about there?' I say, pointing to the eastern corner of the complex. Part of the wall leans inwards and the roof sags almost to the roadway.

'Come on,' Eddie says.

We hurry to the point in question and scramble onto the roof. Gingerly we step our way toward the anomaly. The glowing ball of light seems to be drifting slowly to the opposite side of the building.

'Hurry,' Morgan says, rushing forward but as she goes, one of her legs suddenly punctures through the corroded roof material and she sinks to her thigh.

'Wow,' is all Eddie says as we struggle frantically to drag Morgan out.

We get her free and there's this moaning sound and suddenly the roof shifts beneath our feet, as though the entire complex is about to collapse in on itself.

'That can't be good,' I say, looking about.

The ball of light has elevated another foot or two. 'And if that thing rises any higher, it's going to be out of our reach,' Morgan warns.

'Come on,' I say urgently.

I try and follow a path where I believe the steel beams run beneath the roofing, trailing a line of exposed bolts. Morgan and Eddie follow behind. We're all sort of half-running, half-walking, not wanting to pound the roof with heavy footfalls. But the building shifts again. The structure seems to moan. And then it lurches violently to our right, throwing us off our feet.

For a moment, lying on our sides, we stay put. Wondering if the roof is about to give way and swallow us. Slowly we get to our feet. Looking around.

'Shit,' Eddie says. 'That was close.'

We go to move on when we hear a tremendous groaning sound and the entire northern part of the roof flops inwards, throwing up a mighty cloud of dust.

'Quickly!' Morgan calls.

From our current position, the roof slopes sharply upwards. We're mostly on all fours now. Scrambling. Crawling. Going as fast as we can in our steelskin armour and our wetsuits and our bags strapped to our backs. Ahead of us, the portal has grown larger but is now out over the street.

'Hurry,' I cry. 'We're not going to make it!'

We reach the edge of the roof—we're a good five or six metres above the street from here. The portal's drifted a metre or two out from the complex and has descended a bit so by now it swirls two or three metres below the level of the roof line. 'We gotta jump,' Eddie says.

From the collapsed portion of the structure billows a thick dust cloud, threatening to engulf us. I begin coughing as I breathe it in. The complex lurches again and somewhere behind us we hear a concussive thumping noise as another portion of the roof crashes in on itself.

'You're right, Eddie,' Morgan says, 'we have to jump.'

It's a long way to the ground. If that portal doesn't swallow us, the three of us will, at best, break legs. I think of all those people who have tumbled out of Jupiter's towers. I don't want end up like them. With my head smashed apart, with my belly split open, with my legs broken up like sticks.

Eddie backs up, he's almost lost in the swirling dust cloud as he rushes forward. He leaps just as the roof shakes under our feet again. Morgan and I manage to keep our footing long enough to watch Eddie sail out over the street and drop down into that swirling portal.

He vanishes. Without trace.

I stare at it, that frightening little vortex. My mouth goes completely dry. Morgan startles me out of my shock. 'Skye, we have to go!'

She drags me backwards into the swirling dust bloom and the roof shakes as she takes off for the edge of the roof. I follow behind her, running... ahead of me I watch Morgan leap outwards... I watch her drop out of sight into that swirling mass of blue light... I rush to edge of the building, the entire complex falling down behind me. But the roof holds just long enough for me to leap out into nothingness.

Behind me, the entire Eternal Knights bowls centre collapses, throwing shards of timber and concrete up into the air. Ahead of me Morgan has already vanished into that strange swirling anomaly...

I'm right behind her, plummeting...

I drop as if without sound, into that terrifying mass of light.

Then I'm swallowed.

~ PART TWO ~

◦ ◦◦F R O G T O W N ◦

### INTO THE DEEP

1

WATER. So much water. I'm submerged deep inside a lake. Or a well. Or an ocean. I can't tell. I don't know which way is up. Which way is down. All I know is that I'm immersed in deep, warm, murky water.

I try to search the space around me. I try to orientate myself. There seems to be daylight far above my head. I see someone swimming up there. Is that Eddie? He's ten, maybe twenty metres away. Oh Mother, how deep am I? There's debris floating about me. There're strange fish-people with scaly arms tugging at my feet. I'm terrified. My heart is thumping against my ribs. I kick them off me and I spot Morgan. She's not moving. The fish-people have her in their clutches. I kick at them and I grab her and tug her free. The fish-folk seem wary of me and they swim off some distance. My lungs are burning. I pull Morgan with me and kick upwards.

Eddie, if it's him, looks as if he's broken the surface. Below me I see the shimmering remains of our portal beginning to flicker from existence.

I'm not going to make the surface. I can't hold my breath much longer. Hauling Morgan with me, with all the weight of our gear, it's slowing me down. I'm not sure if I'm even getting anywhere.

I remember my rebreather. I had it clipped to my collar. I reach for it but can't feel it anywhere. Did it come off when I entered the water? My mind is going dizzy, I feel my lungs burning for air. Soon my brain's going to override my willpower and simply force me to take a mighty involuntary breath. Then I'll suck down a lungful of water. And I'll drown and those fish people will feast on my body.

I reach desperately for my rapid ascent unit, I had it attached to my arm. But... I can't get hold of it. It's slipped around so that it's now clamped between my arm pit and the shoulder straps of my back pack. I can't reach it, I can't free it.

Eddie comes back for us. Just as I'm about to suck in water. He reaches me and jams a rebreather in my mouth.

I breathe but it's so difficult sucking oxygen through the apparatus. I can't help thinking I'm still going to drown. That the rebreather isn't working. But I begin to feel my light-headedness subside, slowly my panic settles.

I see Eddie grabbing Morgan, kicking at the fish-people who are still biting and picking at us. He heaves her upwards, grabbing me and activating his rapid ascent device...

It inflates in an instant, thrusting us toward the surface.

We break into hot muggy air in an explosive blast of water, gasping for breath, choking, coughing, spluttering, both Eddie and I trying to hold Morgan's face above the water.

Towering skyscrapers loom above us. And above them, in a cloudy blue sky, there looks to be something of a mighty glass dome. I see colossal orange lichen attached to buildings. I see snails as big as houses clustered around the bases of reed-like plants that stick out a hundred metres above us. I see giant tube worms snapping at enormous flies. There are massive bugs flying around us, their wings buzzing like solar saws. There are gigantic yellow stemmed plants growing from mud banks, howling as they regurgitate what looks to be the desiccated remains of giant insects.

I don't have time to take it in. We have to get out of the water. Morgan's unconscious. Eddie holds her chin above the water line and swims with her for shore; a shore which looks like a stretch of bitumen strewn with lilies and enormous water cress. I feel the fish-people pulling at my clothes, clawing at my feet. I see them below the surface, their ugly fish-eyed primate faces goggling at us. I kick at them again and again as I make my way to the shore.

I hear something croaking in the distance. And then there's this monstrous groaning sound rumbling throughout the city street. Alien birds flock above us. Giant pond skaters zip around us in the water. I have to ignore it all, I have to somehow ignore my angst and fear and paranoia and shock and terror and get out of this lagoon before something drags me down, before some flying beast snatches me up. I can't defend myself stuck here in this swamp water.

I make it to shore and drag myself through mud and weeds, and Eddie's checking Morgan for signs of respiration. She's not breathing. Eddie's checking her airways, checking her vital signs. We're all trained in Old World first-aid techniques, it's a compulsory school subject.

'She's got no pulse,' he says, panting. He begins thrusting his hands on her chest. 'Keep a lookout,' he tells me. He blows air into her mouth, pumping on her chest again. He repeats the process. I watch on, anxious.

'Come On, Morgan,' I pant, my voice wavering, dragging her sodden hair from her face. 'Come on, please!'

Eddie keeps pushing down on her chest with both hands pressed against her. Something swoops directly over our heads. I duck. I look up. An enormous beetle flies away from us. I feel so exposed here. There's so much wildlife. So many things flying and climbing and swimming and squealing. There's a nonstop cacophony of sound. Frogs croaking. Critters chirping, screeching. It's unlike anything I've ever seen or heard. It is completely and utterly wild. I am completely overwhelmed.

'Keep a lookout, Skye!' Eddie tells me again.

'I am!' I have my blunderbuss in my arms. I'm watching the airspace above us, looking everywhere at once, but my gaze keeps shifting back to Morgan. I don't want her to die. I'm desperate for her to live. 'Come on, Morgan!' I cry, 'breathe! Come on, please breathe!'

Suddenly she seems to burp... and then all this water vomits up out of her like a gushing tap. We haul her over onto her side so that she can cough it all up out of her lungs without choking. I slap her back. 'It's okay, Morgan,' I tell her gently. 'You're okay. Spit it up, spit it up.' I look back at the body of water. I see those fish-people watching us, their heads poking just above the water's surface. For the moment they don't seem keen on following us.

Eddie sits back panting. Not saying much. Except, 'Heck. That was close.'

Morgan spits the last of the water from her mouth, her matted hair hanging in her face. I drag it aside again. Her eyes roll about like she can't focus. She shuts and opens them a couple of times, eventually looking up and seeing me.

'Skye?'

'Yes,' I tell her, 'it's me, it's okay.'

She blinks water off her eyelids. She's still trying to focus on my face. 'Did we make it?' she asks with a grimace. 'Are we here?'

It brings an ironic grimace to my face. I help her sit up and I hold her against me so that she can regain her strength. 'Yeah,' I tell her, looking about at this peculiar alien world. 'Yeah, I think we made it.'

2

We rest a few moments to catch our breath, trying to take stock, trying to get our bearings. I ask Morgan if she's good to stand, I tell her we need to keep moving. Her voice is croaky when she answers. 'Yes... yes, I'm okay.' With my help, she struggles to one knee. Then she waits a moment to catch her breath, gaining her strength. 'What happened to me?' she asks. 'Did I pass out?'

Eddie and I aren't sure. Maybe she was struck on the head by parts of the collapsing roof of the Eternal Knights building. Or maybe it had something to do with our transference from Jupiter to here, the process of passing through that portal.

'We don't know,' I tell her. 'I think the portal opened under water. Somehow you lost consciousness. Maybe you swallowed too much water. We had to drag you out.'

Eddie fetches his bio-scanner from his backpack. 'Right, we can't hang about,' he says, strapping the gadget to his wrist. 'I've got multiple readings. Some really big signatures.'

Another deep rumbling growl echoes through the street. We look around trying to spot what's making it. I keep expecting to see one of those giant nautilus creatures. Or something like the monster that snatched Eddie and Reid and Imogen through the Stardream portal, something with long spiky spider limbs. I don't want to end up as lunch in the belly of such a thing.

'Whatever it is,' Eddie says, 'it sounds like it's getting closer. Let's get moving.'

3

We arm ourselves. Eddie with his Gas-hog rifle, Morgan with her Scattercat and I'm gripping my blunderbuss, with the spear gun hitched over my shoulder. I help Morgan to her feet. She's still weak, her legs wobble. We follow Eddie toward the closest building. He recommends we take shelter there temporarily to gain our bearings. It's not easy getting there though. There's muddy water everywhere. Sometimes it's simply lapping at our knees or ankles, no deeper, but other times we're wading through it waist deep. And sometimes the mud's so thick there's a risk of sinking into it and never getting out again.

The throaty grumbling sound echoes through the street once more, sounding much closer this time. We all turn. And we see it now. An enormous salamander creature emerging from a side street, covered in warty black skin and bearing a mouth so large it could gulp down an entire house. It's the largest animal I've ever seen. For a moment I'm just struck by dread wonder.

'Oh Mother,' I hear Morgan gasp, her mouth ajar.

'Skye!' I hear Eddie hiss. 'Morgan! Get moving!'

We turn and trail him, hurrying, wading around a dozen mud tubes that jut up out of the water's surface, mud tubes covered in toadstools and buzzing with flies. Bizarre little skipping fish hop out of our way in waves as we trudge by. By the time we reach the cover of the building we're spattered in mud and flecks of vegetation, and that giant salamander is closing on us.

We rush into the foyer. The water's deeper here, up to our bellies. I feel things grabbing and pecking at me beneath the surface. I kick at them. I shove away knots of swamp grass that get tangled around my legs.

'Over there,' Morgan says, pointing to a grotty stairway that leads up to a mezzanine level.

We push through the flooded foyer, the sound of the salamander growing closer and closer every second. Sunshine casts down through tall broken windows whose remaining glass panes are smothered in green moss and algae. Swarms of gnats buzz about our faces and small blue-shelled crabs clamp themselves to our clothing. As we leave the water we snatch them off and throw them aside, minding their long yellow pincers. We scale the stairs. They're muddy and soft and slippery. Hundreds of clam shells are packed against the bannisters. Bugs and flies buzz about. Flies that are constantly landing on us, biting into us, stinging. We're forever slapping them against our bodies.

We reach the first level. There's a vast open gap in the building where there must once have been a large bay of windows—it's a space now hanging with thick dangling vines. We crawl toward it through grime and lice. There are large green slugs suckered to the walls. We peer out into the street.

The big fat ugly salamander thing continues to lug itself toward our building. It's so repulsive but I'm utterly fascinated by it. The way it lunges at giant insects zipping about its face. The way it burps and growls. The way it snatches a giant purple beetle from the air in its rows of spiny teeth and gulps it down.

I'm speechless. I simply can't believe what I'm seeing. And not just the salamander. All of it. Everything out there. The monstrous pink mushrooms piling out of building windows. And the ominous shadows swimming beneath the swamp water. And the dragonflies as big as dogs zipping around the muggy airspace between buildings. And the giant slugs. And the enormous plants still regurgitating the shells of bugs that have been sucked dry. The plant life and wildlife here is terrifying and incredible and completely at odds with anything I've known in my life.

'Eddie, what on Mother's Earth is this place?' I hear myself saying. 'I mean, if it's Jupiter, how can it possibly be?'

Morgan's speechless, dumfounded. Eddie's shaking his head. 'I don't know, Skye,' he says. 'I just don't know.'

Morgan coughs, still spitting up water.

I eye her a moment. 'You okay, Morgs?'

She nods, grimacing. 'Feel like I swallowed half that lagoon,' she says, wiping her mouth.

'I think you probably did,' I tell her, rubbing her back.

Another croaking sound echoes off the surrounding buildings. The salamander lumbers ever closer to our position, gulping at the giant dragonflies that now spin about its head.

We back up from our position. Last thing we need right now is that ugly brute getting a handle on our position.

Eddie opens his pack and fetches out a map. 'Anyone got any idea what part of Jupiter we're in?' he asks.

The building opposite us, as far as I can tell, is Jupiter's National Exchange building. Which means the block out there must be Founder's Square. In Jupiter, our Jupiter, there are dilapidated statues of the state's founding fathers standing out there. But in this place, this world, they are nowhere to be seen. It's nothing but swamplands. Perhaps the statues have been knocked down. Or they're submerged. Or maybe in this version of Jupiter they never existed.

'I think it's Founder's Square,' I tell him.

Eddie looks up at me. 'Founder's Square?'

'The National Exchange is opposite us.'

Morgan's like, 'Skye's right. I noticed it too.'

Eddie sighs, studying his map. 'If that's the case then it would've been nice to arrive a little closer to our target.'

Beside him, I run my eyes over the map, taking in the numerous streets and blocks between us and the war memorial on Liberation Avenue at Victory Parks, the location of the craft in which Eddie claims Reid and Imogen are likely to be hiding.

'Wow, this isn't gonna be fun,' I say, contemplating the path ahead of us. 'Is nothing ever simple?'

Eddie reaches again into his pack and pulls out some device. It looks like one of the gadgets he brought back from this world the first time he was here.

Morgan and I both watch him.

'What's that?' I ask.

'Imogen stashed it in my pack,' he tells us. 'I'm hoping it's gonna home in on their bio-readings.'

'Imogen's and Reid's?'

'Yeah.' The screen lights up. He pans it around.

'How does it work?'

He shrugs. 'Imogen took a blood sample from each of us. She said if one of us got lost or strayed from our group, this unit would help track us down.'

'How?'

'Don't know exactly. Imogen claimed once our blood samples were scanned, this thing would be tagged to our DNA. She said it can pick bio-readings from several kilometres away. She said it was technology that military units utilised before the emergence of PIT technology. I don't know if that's true or not but I've never seen anything like it. It's like it's not even Old World tech, but other world tech.'

I frown. 'What do you mean? From this world?'

'I don't know, Skye. Maybe. Maybe this Jupiter is like the backwater of this world. Maybe there's an advanced human civilisation out there somewhere.'

Looking toward the vast open window bay strangled in thick vines, I find that hard to believe. 'But how? I mean, I still don't know how any of this can even be possible?'

Eddie doesn't have an answer. There's a deep frown on his face. He's studying his scanning device. He presses buttons. 'This thing's not picking up any signatures.'

I blink at him. I don't even want to say out loud what I'm thinking. If there are no bio readings of Reid and Imogen... Does that mean...?

Eddie keeps flicking switches on the device. Suddenly without warning a mighty tentacle squirms through the window bay and whips around at us. It collects Eddie and heaves him up against the wall.

It happens so quick, for a moment Morgan and I just sit there stunned.

Then as the tentacle tightens around Eddie, making him grunt, forcing the air from his lungs, it suddenly begins dragging him out of the building. I grab my knife and lunge at the thick wet limb, driving my blade into the soft flesh.

Thick green blood squirts out and there's a squeal from outside. The tentacle retracts, almost pulling Eddie with it except Morgan and I grab him and hold him here, hauling him away from the window bay.

It takes us a few moments to realise it's not a tentacle but the salamander's long slimy tongue. It slides in again, the salamander's great ugly face suddenly pushed up against the window bay, its ugly black eyes peering in at us. We scramble for the opposite side of the mezzanine and stumble down another stairwell, falling and tumbling out into the street on the opposite side of the building.

It's here that Eddie's DNA scanner begins bleeping.

4

We're in water again, it's lapping about our hips. I see ominous shapes beneath the surface, circling us.

'I think I've got a fix on them,' Eddie says.

'Are they still in that craft?' Morgan asks.

He studies the readings, checking for geographic markers. As he does, I gaze upwards, staring once more at the mighty glass dome suspended over this city. It's such an awesome structure. Grotty and blemished and there looks to be critters clinging to its underside. Why on Earth someone would build such thing is beyond me.

'Are they still in the craft?' Morgan asks Eddie again.

He shrugs. 'As far as I can make out, yeah.' His brow creases.

'What is it?' I ask him, stabbing my knife at the critters swimming about us.

He bights his lower lip, in thought. 'Not sure. I'm not sure now if I'm reading Reid and Imogen or... something else.'

I swallow, puzzled, worried. 'What do you mean? I thought you said it should train in on their DNA.'

'Well, okay so I don't know what's going on... maybe it's faulty, but it's picking up multiple organic readings from their craft.'

I feel exasperated. I don't want to think about what Eddie's saying. I don't want to think that the craft where Reid and Imogen are hiding might be overrun with monsters, that Reid isn't there anymore. That in this timeline he may have vacated the city years ago.

Or that he may have... died.

'Look, we just need to get there,' I say. 'We need to check. Who knows, maybe they're in there stranded, waiting for us.'

Eddie glances at me.

'What?' I ask him.

He pushes out across the street, digging the bayonet of his Gas-hog at the shapes that continue to swim about us. I hurry forward, the water slowing me down. 'Eddie, what aren't you telling me?'

He acts like he doesn't hear me.

I grab his arm. 'Eddie, please. What is it?'

Dragonflies circle overhead, perhaps thinking we could be something new to feast on.

'Skye, honestly, you won't wanna hear what I'm thinking.'

'I do. Tell me.'

He sighs. 'Okay. Remember how we speculated that time here might be moving faster than it does in our Jupiter? Well, what if Reid and Imogen found a way to survive here? Found food and fresh water? What if they're living in that craft?'

'Yeah, so?'

'Well, I picked up multiple life signatures.'

I'm still frowning at him. Not getting it. 'Yeah, I got that part.'

'So, what if they're a family now?' he says. 'What if they've made babies?'

I blink at him and swallow.

Morgan's at my shoulder. 'Look, let's just keep moving,' she says. 'We won't know anything till we get there. The damned device is probably faulty anyway.' Morgan takes me by the arm. 'Come on, Skye. Right now, wherever Reid is, he's yearning for you just as much as you are for him.'

I don't know what to say. I feel empty.

'Come on,' she says. 'Let's just keep moving before something eats us.'

5

It's not easy though, trying to get anywhere fast in this city. The water doubles or triples any time it takes to get places. We are constantly snagged in the twisting roots of lilies, constantly knotted up in reeds and marine vegetation. Things bite us. Leaches. Flies. Gnats. At one stage I feel my leg abruptly sucked backwards and when I turn to see what's got me I find the lips of a giant grotesque tadpole sucking around my thigh, my entire leg gulped down its throat.

I squeal. I can't shift myself. Another tadpole with great goggling eyes swims up and starts sucking at my arm. 'Eddie, Morgan!' I try knifing the critters with my free hand but I'm in an awkward position, it's like trying to stab things with both arms tethered behind my back.

Morgan wades quickly back through the water, hacking wildly into the tadpoles with her dagger, pulling me from their sucking mouths. We kick away from them, tadpole guts floating to the water's surface, a horde of pond skaters zipping over to feast on blood and flesh.

We climb up mud banks that span the roadway between buildings. Ahead of us huge domes of mud and clay block our way forward. At the base of each there looks to be a cavernous opening with a deep dark tunnel leading down into some subterranean grotto.

'I don't even want to think what could be living down there,' Morgan says, fearfully.

'We need to get around them somehow,' Eddie says.

'Or we turn back,' Morgan says when we realise there's no space to squeeze between them. They span the street, from building face to building face, packed in like barnacles on a rock.

Eddie looks about. There's a side street maybe thirty metres behind us. But to reach it we'd need to swim back across the body of water teeming with those tadpoles.

'I'm not going back near those tadpole things,' I tell him.

'We gotta climb over the top then,' Eddie says, gazing up the slopes of these mud stacks. 'Just keep clear of those openings.'

He doesn't need to tell us. We're already giving them a wide berth. 'Sweet Mother,' Morgan says as we begin to claw our way up the nearest mud mound, one with what looks to be an easier gradient than the others. 'Please tell me nothing lives down there!'

I'm trying not letting my mind go there. I just want to scale these stacks and put them behind us.

But as we start our climb, we suddenly hear noises. Wet sucking sounds. Hissing sounds. Groaning sounds. Coming up from the depths of the tunnels. Things deep down beneath us, stirring, waking.

We abandon our climb, sliding down the mud.

We can hear them, creatures scrambling up the dark funnels.

The first visible sign of them are their long spiked limbs, the sort that impaled Reid and Imogen and Eddie that day at the Stardream portal.

Eddie, holding his proximity unit, clambers backwards. 'Move back!' he cries, 'move back!'

Another of them comes up from a separate mud dome. Hideous creatures with spider legs and bulging oval shaped bug eyes. They have soft curling bodies that they drag along behind them, their spiny forelegs jabbing wildly in our direction.

Eddie shoves both Morgan and me aside and blasts his Gas-hog hydrogen gun, blowing out a mighty cloud of gas that is then ignited a second later by a laser.

A mighty fireball erupts before us, blooming, engulfing the monsters, their bellies blowing open with oppressive waves of guts and innards splashing against us, knocking us back into the swamp water.

More of these creatures wriggle up from the mouth of these funnels. Two, three, four of them, emerging, scuttling toward us.

Eddie closest to them, dodges their attacks as they rush forward, striking at him. He narrowly avoids becoming impaled as they jab their spines at him. But as he dives for safety, one of the limbs slams into him.

Eddie's steelskin armour prevents it from impaling him but the force of impact throws him up into the air. He crashes heavily against the wall of the closest building and he drops headfirst into deep water.

Morgan and I are in the swamp, trying desperately to stay afloat. Creatures tug at us from beneath the surface. Dragonflies zip down, pecking at us, attempting to grab us in their long legs. The beast that thrust Eddie aside comes skittering down the mud banks toward us. There's another close behind and two more emerging from their dens. Morgan's tangled up with her Scattercat but I manage to shoot some rapid fire rounds from my spear gun. The spears punch through the creatures but it seems they barely feel it. I drag my absorption mask over my face and swing round my sonic boomer. Morgan sees what I'm about to do and she sucks in a breath and dives for cover beneath the surface of the swamp. I haul back on the trigger and there's complete silence...

Then BOOOOMMM!

Wearing the full absorption suit, I manage to remain on my feet, and feel little more than a squeezing pressure against my temples and chest.

The effect on the creatures however is out of this world. In a single moment, every one of those bug-eyed spider things is obliterated, the sonic boom blowing guts and limbs and brains all over the street, splatting bits of flesh and bone up against city buildings a block away.

I'm gobsmacked. So are Eddie and Morgan when they emerge from the water and begin swimming for shore. 'Wow,' I say, spitting bits of meat off my mouth. 'You guys see that?'

Reaching the bank they both shake their heads. Neither of them were witness to any of it but they can certainly see the aftermath clearly enough. Bloody mess stuck all about the entire block. An odd assortment of creatures already feasting on it.

'That was the Blunderbuss?' Eddie asks dumfounded.

I nod. Still spitting flesh morsels off my lips. 'Yeah.'

'Bloody hell,' Morgan says. 'Are you alright?'

I look down at my torso and limbs, a little surprised that I'm actually still standing. 'I guess so.'

6

We waste no time, pushing onward, navigating our way over the mud mounds, encountering no more of those spider things. We hurry on, firing at enormous water beetles that scramble toward us, the projectiles of my spear gun piercing them viciously, bursting them open, yellow guts spattering the mud.

We slide down onto grassy mud banks, trying not to get ourselves bogged. Beyond here there's another body of water, a lagoon covered in lilies and enormous lotus flowers and swamp trees. It spans the street, from building to building. About thirty or forty metres from us though, across the water, there's an island of bitumen and mud and weeds.

Eddie's scanning the waterway for life signs. I don't know why he bothers. His bio scan readings are off the charts.

'This isn't good,' Eddie says.

'None of this is good,' I tell him.

Suddenly from somewhere high above us we hear the sound of a large object crash into one of the buildings. We look up to see a shower of glittering objects tumbling down against the far stretches of the lagoon. We've no idea what they are. At least not to begin with. Not until we spot something tumbling end over end high above the skyscrapers. There are several of them actually, glinting in the sunshine as they fall without sound. It's not until they begin smashing against the sides of buildings do we realise what they are.

Huge glass panels. Dislodging and dropping out of the frame work of the city's massive dome.

'Marvellous,' Morgan says flatly. 'So we have to contend with raining glass too do we?!'

We hear a hideous groan, followed by a howl. The howl comes from one of those massive tube worms, clinging to the side of a building to our left, regurgitating a mass of desiccated organic matter. But the groan comes from somewhere behind us. We turn around and see the huge warty salamander clambering over the top of the mud mounds behind us.

'Oh Mother,' I say below my breath.

Without warning, it hefts itself over the last line of mounds and comes sliding down the mud bank on its fat, puffy belly. We attempt to dive out of its way but it slams into us with all its bulk, knocking us off our feet, pushing us beneath the water. We swim, we surface, we struggle to stay afloat and get out of its way, but the beast writhes and snaps, inadvertently ramming us under the water again.

I surface once more, gasping for air. I've lost sight of Morgan and Eddie. I can't touch the bottom of the lagoon, it's too deep. I'm floundering in the water. I try to swim from the creature but it thrashes about, knocking me about wildly as it tries to manoeuvre itself into a position where it can snatch me up in its spiny jaws.

I hear another roar. I've got sodden marine vines twisted about my face. But I see it. A second salamander at the summit of the mud mounds.

For a moment the first salamander is distracted by the newcomer, roaring, turning around to face it, perhaps to ward it away from its prey. That being us.

It grants me precious moments to find shallow water. I get some sort of footing. I lift my boomer from the water to get a shot away. But the first salamander slaps its huge tail into the water's surface and the waves swamp me and once more I'm sucked back into deep water. And again I'm struggling to get to the surface. To keep afloat. I see Eddie. He's scrambled onto the bank, pulling Morgan behind him. He's reaching for his Gas-hog. He aims it at the first beast and yanks back on the trigger. A pulse of hydrogen pumps from its bulbous tank, followed by the beam of fire that ignites the gas cloud, blowing a mighty hole out of the salamander's belly.

The monster roars and rears up, lunging wildly at Eddie and Morgan. They attempt to dive for cover beneath the swamp but the beast crashes down on top of them, slamming them into the mud. Burying them.

'No no no no,' I whimper. 'No no no, please no please no.' I tread water until I can feel the slimy floor and gain my footing. The two salamanders growling at each other. The first still thumping the water with its tail. Thrashed about by the waves, I lift my blunderbuss from the water. All I can think of is Morgan and Eddie. All I can think is that they're squished beneath that ugly beast with a massive chunk of flesh ripped out of its gut. I waste no time in yanking the trigger.

Utter silence...

Then BOOOMM!

The salamander doesn't go to pieces like those spider beasts did. But the blast is enough to rock it over onto its side, its small legs flailing in the air.

I spot Morgan, surfacing from the muddy water at the shoreline, coughing up liquid, spluttering, rubbing grime from her eyes. I'm calling out for Eddie. He hasn't surfaced. Morgan's looking about, uncertain what's happened.

It's here the second salamander comes sliding down the tall embankment, crashing into the first. Knocking it over onto its back.

Eddie emerges at last, gasping for air. His face and head covered in thick oozy mud. We're yelling at him to get out of there. My sonic boomer is recharging. Morgan brings her Scattercat into play. She pulls on the trigger... but nothing happens.

The first salamander wriggles in the mud, still trying to right itself, roaring in fury. It whips its mighty head around, clamping its jaws against the second salamander's throat. The latecomer thrashes and drags the first brute under the water. They wrestle and bite, growling and spitting, thrashing up frothy brown liquid. We struggle to put distance between us and them. Another pane of glass smashes into a building somewhere above us.

Eddie's coughing up liquid mud. I grab him, hold him upright as he catches his breath. 'Eddie, are you okay?' I tip water from my canteen onto his face.

He nods. He splutters. He engages the portable propulsion unit attached to his forearm. It sputters to life. It's little motor whirring madly. 'Hold onto me,' he croaks, mud still dripping down his face. That's when the propulsion unit suddenly sputters out.

'No,' he growls at it. 'Don't pack up now!' There's a trigger button he keeps pumping, desperately trying to get it working. The salamanders keep biting into each other.

Suddenly the propulsion unit kicks into life again. 'Hold onto me!' Eddie yells above the roar of the tiny engine.

We grab hold of him as he plunges the unit into the water. There's this immediate thrust as Eddie's arm is shoved wildly out from his body, the unit whirring like mad. Eddie repositions his arm, gritting his teeth, struggling to hold the unit against his side. The propulsion unit squeals, working overtime, but it picks up our weight and begins to pull us away from immediate danger.

7

We reach the island, dragging ourselves up onto it, panting. Eddie switches off the propulsion gadget. We look back at the distance we've covered. We've put some space between us and the salamanders at least... But we're not out of peril by any means: one of the salamanders is floundering on the mud bank back there bleeding while the other is swimming after us.

'Come on,' I say. Panting, we trudge across the island, slipping on mud, tripping on vegetation and enormous clams. Then we're back in water. I can feel fish pecking and biting and nibbling at me. Every now and then something much larger grabs hold of my legs and attempts to tug me under.

We reach yet another island, dragging ourselves onto a bank of reeds and mud, kicking off more of those fish-people with their long thin arms and goggling eyes and flaring gills. I stab at them with my knife, Morgan and Eddie kicking at them. All the while the salamander's gaining on us swiftly through water. It's currently submerged, but we can see its bow-wave drawing closer every moment. It's evident that while it's got our scent, we're not going to outrun it.

'This is hopeless,' I cry. 'We need to find shelter.' I'm scanning the buildings on either side of the street. Hoping to be able to find our way in through some window.

Trouble is, where we're situated, the mud banks that hug the buildings on one side of the street are sheer and steep. No way we'll be able to reach them and scale them in time before the salamander reaches us. And on the other side of the street, the base of the buildings are choked in swamp weed so thick we'd be tangled and knotted up in it far before we found any cover indoors.

For the moment, the only option appears to be a bank of land maybe fifty metres ahead of us. Rising up out of the swamp. Covered in tall reeds, and stunted trees, and giant sea shells basking in the sun. Where that bank of land stretches out toward the southern edge of the street there's a building there that, from this distance, looks to have a wide open foyer where we might be able to find shelter.

Morgan's seen it too. 'We need to get to that building,' she says.

'Let's hurry then,' I tell them.

We slide down the bank toward the opposite body of water, Eddie trying to back his way down the embankment, keeping his gun trained on the coming monster. Then as we hit water, the salamander heaves its bulk up onto the small island behind us.

Eddie digs his feet into the mud, aiming his rifle at it, setting himself to going toe to toe with it. 'Go!' he yells at Morgan and me. 'Run! I'll hold it off!'

'Don't be silly,' Morgan calls back. 'It'll kill you!'

He pumps out a cloud of hydrogen. 'Go!' he yells and ignites the cloud. The fire ball billows outwards and engulfs the monster.

Trouble is, it doesn't stop it. The salamander comes wriggling through the blinding orange flames.

I race to Eddie and grab his arm, dragging him with me, feeling the intense heat of the fire ball. 'Come on!' I say. 'This is ludicrous.'

We turn and charge into the water. Luck's on our side, the water here seems to be relatively shallow. We make quick time, running through mud and charging across flattened beds of reeds and rock. We're about halfway across when we hear this terrible screeching sound and over our shoulders we see this enormous long limbed crab beast come screaming up out of the water from an adjoining alleyway, scrambling up the bank behind us with such ferocious speed it takes us all by surprise.

It's a complete blur what happens next. The crab thing piles manically into the salamander, driving spines into its flesh. Tearing it to pieces. Blood, guts and bone spitting out in all directions.

We don't hang about, pushing hard through mud and reeds and the skeletons of long dead beasts. And when all suddenly falls silent at our backs we're wondering what's going on.

We look back and we see the back of this crab thing. Only it's not entirely crab. Its shell is covered in what looks to be shaggy fur and it's got these long primate-like arms. Whatever it is, it's obviously enjoying the spoils of its attack. Biting into the rent carcass of the salamander, chewing off chunks of meat.

Morgan's still catching her breath. Wiping sweat and mud off her face. 'We have to keep moving,' she urges us, keeping her voice low.

Without further hesitation, we trudge onwards across the body of shallow water, hardly even daring to breathe, not wanting to make a sound, not wanting to alert that thing back there.

Giant lady beetles cling to the tall stems of enormous flowers that we pass beneath. Leech things grip to our clothing, sucking blood through the fabric. Eddie burns them off by heating up the firing cylinder on his rifle. As they burst and drop into the water they give off an ear splitting squeal.

We grimace at the noise and stop where we are, gazing back at the ape-crab thing. It has stopped eating. Cocking its large ghastly head. Listening. Its back still to us. Has it heard the dying leeches?

We stand there poised knee deep in brown, brackish water. Waiting... Quiet... Small amphibious fish with strange stunted frog legs swim about us, gobbling up the scorched leeches.

When the monster finally goes back to its feast we press onward as quietly as we can. Stumbling on submerged obstacles like rocks or clumps of mud or broken chunks of bitumen. Red squid creatures as big as dogs bite at our boots, their hideous tentacles curling up about our legs.

We reach the opposite mud bank, stabbing at the squids, narrowing the distance between us and the building with the large open foyer. I'm hoping once we're inside we'll be able to move through the building's interior and press closer to where we need to be.

But as we trudge around the towering sea shells (hoping they're not occupied), pushing closer to the building foyer, Morgan suddenly grabs my arm, pulling me to a stop. 'Did you see just that?' she gasps, pointing at the foyer.

I'm looking but all I'm seeing is vacant space and possible safety.

'What was it?' Eddie says, staring too.

But then we see it, like a funnel web spider down its hole, something's shuffling about in there. All we see is limbs and spines and red eyes in the dark.

I sigh. 'Okay, so we're not going that way then.'

We look around, eyeing off the other buildings, trying to find other entry points to get ourselves off the street. I mean, the salamander's dead, but it's not the only threat to our health out here. By pure luck I spy a rusting street sign that tells us we're on Admiralty Drive. I point this out to the others. 'Doesn't that mean we're not far from Victory Parks?'

The others are staring at the street sign. Trying to get their bearings.

I put my hand out to Eddie. 'Let me see the map.'

He gets it out. It's soaked through. And beginning to tear. But we're able to pinpoint exactly where we are. Turns out I was right. Ahead of us lies the intersection of King Street, almost concealed by a forest of gigantic mushrooms. But it means we're a block away from Park Drive, the fringe road that runs between the central business district and Victory Parks.

I hand Eddie back his map. 'Come on.'

8

We trudge through more mud and dirt, reaching King Street, picking our way through the strange woodland of enormous mushrooms. The area is teeming with a million bugs. As we trudge onwards, we're frantically waving flies and gnats from our faces, slapping them off our sleeves as they land on us. We pass the carcass of some walrus looking creature, slugs piled all over it. We give it a wide berth and keep surging forward. Beyond the forest of mushrooms, great swathes of earth have somehow been pushed up against the buildings like the slopes of hills. Reeds and grass grow here amidst gorgeous red and blue flowers the size of sun-carts that jut out above the street catching the sun's rays. Mighty fans of yellow and orange lichen grow from the rotting bark of downed tree trunks. Thick gloves of moss smother the brickwork of buildings. And as we finally reach the end of King Street, another glass pane smashes into a building somewhere nearby.

But we hardly notice it because all of a sudden before us is Victory Parks. And it's Victory Parks as I've never seen it. Like Eddie warned us, beyond the tall banks of earth and mud that have been deposited along the length of King Street, it's flooded. Nothing but water for as far as we can see. And no islands or mud mounds we might use as stepping stones.

Still, out there in the distance we see it. The war memorial.

And a glinting metallic object.

'The craft,' Eddie says excitedly, 'it's still there.'

From our current position, this craft is mostly hidden beyond a small pocket of trees but its smooth upper curve is visible above the tree line.

I feel relieved to see it. Nervous but relieved. Because I feel Reid is close now.

I only hope it hasn't been years since he last saw me.

The question though is, how do we reach it?

'What now?' I hear Morgan asking.

Eddie points. To our left, along the flooded street, wooden boardwalks have been constructed along the side of the buildings, suspended above the water line. And moored to the boardwalk maybe a hundred metres from us is a cluster of wooden boats.

'You guys see those boats?' he says.

'Yes,' Morgan says. 'Unless my eyes are deceiving me.'

I glance at Eddie. 'Are there intelligent species living here?'

He scratches his head. 'We didn't see any last time I was here.'

'Whatever the case,' Morgan says, 'we need one of their boats.'

To reach the boats however we must first reach the boardwalk. It lies about twenty metres from us across open water. It means we have to swim.

I'm reluctant to go back into the water. I'm sodden and cold, my fingers are wrinkled, and as this city has already proven, any number of untold creatures are bound to be down there submerged, watching us, waiting to drag us under.

Still, we've no time to wait around. Eddie activates his propulsion unit. 'This'll get us over there in quick time,' he says but as soon the gadget whirs into life it begins to smoke and spit.

Eddie rips it from his wrist just as flames flare from it. He ditches it and it sparks and blows apart. Shielding our faces, we stand here regarding its smouldering remains.

'Right,' Eddie says. 'That's that then. Come on,' and he steps off the bank of earth that we're currently standing on and drops down into the water. He goes completely under, surfaces, spits water. 'Bloody hell, that's deep. Be careful.'

Morgan and I take a breath and leap out into the drink.

9

There's no touching the bottom. Like Eddie said, it's deep. We're forced to swim. Choppy water splashing our faces. Half way to our destination I feel as if I'm going under. Like my gear is slowly pulling me down. But then something hard and ridged swims by me, nudging me and my flesh goes cold and a burst of adrenalin sees me swim like mad for the edge of the wooden platform. 'Swim, hurry,' I yell at the others, 'something's in here with us!'

They don't need to be told twice. In no time we've crossed this submerged portion of the King and Parks intersection and we reach the boardwalk, hauling ourselves frantically up the slimy wooden ladder that is covered in barnacles and lichen. We pull ourselves up onto the rickety woodwork and stand there, catching our breath, gazing back at the way we've just swum. Looking for that thing. It's gone under. It doesn't surface. I shudder.

'What was it?' Morgan asks.

'I don't know, Morgs,' I tell her, my skin coming out in goose bumps. 'It was huge, whatever it was.'

Eddie pulls me out of my fear. 'Come on, let's keep moving.' We hurry onwards, Morgan pointing to several planks that have turned black and green with rot. 'Mind where you step.'

Regardless of any decaying planks, the entire platform shudders beneath our feet. And seems to sway wildly where it spans the space above a flooded city street from one building to the next. And if that's not bad enough, its entire length is jumping with lice and crawling with crabs.

We push nearer the boats. They bob about the water's surface, moored up against the boardwalk outside the Global Development Bank building. Frogs with a mottled blue skin sit on the railing here. They don't budge as we approach. They are content to simply watch us as the sky begins to spit with rain.

We reach the boats. Below us, waves crash against the support struts of the dock and brown froth seethes against the side of the residential apartment blocks against witch the boardwalk is tethered. Frogs have also gathered inside the boats, perched amidst the wooden oars. In one of the boats some large dead bird lies there, rotting, stinking. The stench makes me want to retch.

Eddie grabs one of the mooring ropes and hauls one of the boats into dock. He leans down over the edge of the boardwalk, taking hold of the gunwale, trying to keep the vessel steady as Morgan and me to climb down into it.

The boat bobs about on the waves as I crawl on my hands and knees to the bow of the boat, Morgan behind me, rain still spitting down.

Eddie unties the rope, climbs down into the vessel and heaves us away from the boardwalk. I take up an oar and begin paddling. Eddie takes up another oar, but Morgan's stronger than him so she grabs the oar off him and together both she and I make good time out into this huge expanse of water. Eddie kneels there, clasping his Gas-hog, waiting for any surprises.

It doesn't take long for them to come.

10

We're get about halfway across this flooded version of Victory Parks, halfway to the memorial. Liberation Avenue is entirely submerged. City skyscrapers loom back there behind us like looming spectres in the gloom. Rain begins to fall harder now. Tumbling through the broken panels of the glass dome. Every now and then more glass panels slam into the buildings at our backs. There's a gusty wind that creates ever more chop in the water and rustles the trees ahead of us. To our east, the sky beyond the dome is clotted with heavy grey cloud. We begin to hear distant claps of thunder.

Morgan's the first to spy the creatures swimming around our boat. I don't know what they are. I can describe them only as mermaids or merpeople, like the ones I've seen in school books. Only they're hideous to look at. They have angry eyes and gills and spiny teeth. They surround our boat as we paddle toward the war memorial. They swim up out of the water and pull at the edge of our vessel.

We swat at them with our oars. But they begin reaching their bony arms up, trying to snatch the oars from our grasp. Eddie starts firing his Gas-hog into the water at them but they are swift, darting this way and that, and Eddie can't get a decent aim and the explosive blasts that rock the water below the boat only threaten to topple us. I begin firing my spear gun, emptying one magazine then clipping on another. I manage to shoot down half a dozen of those things but that just seems to attract a hundred more. All of a sudden they're clambering into the boat in a frenzy. We're wrestling them off, fighting them, kicking, punching them. Morgan flails her oar at them, whacking one or two but there are so many. The surge of numbers threatens to capsize our boat.

I manage to drag my blunderbuss from my shoulder but the creatures bite and pull and smother me... In the madness I attempt to just yank on the boomer's trigger but I can't get my fingers to it. I feel the boat leaning. I lose my footing and hear Morgan screaming somewhere. In the mayhem I spot Eddie suddenly dragged overboard, pulled face first into the waves. I try to lunge for him. And that's when the boat tips over...

11

I plunge down into the murky depths. I can't surface, the capsized boat is on top of me. I kick as hard as I can, trying to swim away from the boat. It's sinking. Dragging me further down. I reach out and take hold of the boat's rim, pulling myself out from under it, pushing myself upwards. I've got my eyes open under water but I can't see anything except shadows darting back and forth around me. I can't hear anything except warbling underwater sounds.

I break the surface and just as I gasp for breath something grabs my legs and drags me under again. This time I feel myself being pulled down and down and down. I struggle, I try to wriggle my legs out of the grip of whatever has me. But my legs feel bound, I can't move them at all. It feels like a number of creatures have hold of me.

My rebreather's clipped to my breast pocket. I grab it and push it into my mouth. I unclip the facemask and latch it over my face, blowing bubbles up into it. It's not perfect, some water sloshes about the faceplate, but at least now I can see.

The water is clearer down here. And as I look down I see several of those merpeople hauling me further into the depths. There are lights below me. As if I'm being pulled away to some underwater city. I see columns and stone ruins like I'm about to enter some long lost civilisation.

But it's not a place I want to go. The shoulder cord of my blunderbuss is snagged around my chest. I untangle it and reach around for it. I get it into my grip, aim it downwards and pull the trigger. There's this dull Whumping! sound as a mighty concussive wave bursts through the water, sweeping all those ugly merpeople off me. The force thrusts me upwards with such ferocity that my lungs punch out a huge gush of air, popping the rebreather from my mouth and knocking both the goggles from my face and the boomer from my grip.

All I can think is that at least I'm surging upwards.

I kick for the surface. Strange fish with long tentacles swim by me but without my mask I can't see them properly. And the higher I go the murkier the water seems to become. Still, I can see the surface now. I have no idea what's become of Morgan and Eddie but the way above me is growing lighter.

I'm almost there, almost at the surface, ready to break into fresh air and gasp for breath... But something grabs me again and once more I'm being dragged downwards. I kick and wriggle and squirm, but my legs are pinned together.

I won't be able to hold my breath much longer. I try to reach down, hoping to grab whoever has me, hoping to prize them from me.

But I can't reach them.

I hear a mighty splashing sound off to my left. I look and see some sort of mechanical thing zoom downwards. There's underwater laser fire and I'm suddenly released and this mechanical object swishes up to me and something grips me around the waist and it's hauling me upwards.

I break the water's surface with explosive force, sucking back huge gulps of air and before I know what's happening, I'm airborne. I'm being carried away. I fear it's one of those giant dragonflies. But I can't tell, I can't see it. I'm squealing and wriggling and struggling to get out of its grip.

But when I look up I gasp.

I'm being held by a trio of mechanical arms that are connected to some transparent bullet shaped flying contraption. Someone's concealed inside it. Someone whose face I can't quite see. 'Hang on!' a muffled voice yells out at me, 'don't panic, I've got you.'

The craft flies to a wooden platform situated near a cluster of trees toward the end of Liberation Avenue. Here the contraption hovers, the mechanical arms lowering me down and releasing me.

My legs are unsteady. The craft lands vertically on retractable metal struts and a panel swishes aside and my rescuer steps out and I'm aghast when I see who it is.

'Reid?!'

My hand is over my mouth. I can't believe it. Tears fill my eyes. I rush to him. He holds me in his arms. It feels so wonderful. Feels such a relief. He drags my dripping hair from my eyes. 'Skye, are you okay?' he asks, his face a mask of concern.

I cough up some water. I stare into his eyes. He's not an old man. He's not aged one bit. I want to hold him. I want to feel his kiss. 'Oh Mother, Reid it's you!'

I want to know he's okay but he says, 'Stay here. I have to get the others.'

He lets me go and jumps back into his flying contraption, its transparent doorway sliding shut with a hiss. I stumble backwards and watch him engage a pair of levers and suddenly the tall slender vehicle rockets out into the air once more. I watch it arc and then it dives headlong into the water.

He's gone for a number of seconds. Then the craft bursts from the water some fifty feet from where it'd dived, Morgan held in its arms, re-breather in her mouth, merpeople clinging to her. She's kicking at them, hitting them, one by one ridding them as they plummet back into the lake.

Reid flies her to the platform, releasing her before going back for Eddie.

When he resurfaces, he's got Eddie, but something's wrong. The craft is smoking, merpeople clinging to it, piercing it with spears. Reid seems to be struggling to keep the contraption airborne. Eddie slashes at his assailants with his knife but the craft wheels about wildly, spinning and careering out of control.

The whole thing goes down amidst the trees on Liberation Avenue, exploding in a burst of sparks and fire while Morgan and I cower from the sudden flare of heat, our arms covering our heads.

When the explosion dissipates, I struggle to my feet. 'Oh, Mother no!' I can't see Reid, I can't see Eddie. Just flames and smoke engulfing the tree line. 'Mother, no! Where are they? Where are they?' All I can think is that the impact has torn them to shreds. All I can think is that I need to get to them, I need to help them.

But as I'm about to rush to their aid, I suddenly see someone swimming toward our platform. I hurry to the edge and drop to my knees and it's Reid, hauling himself onto a slimy wooden ladder. Behind him comes Eddie. Reid has this strained grin on his face as he takes Eddie's arm and helps drag him from the water. Together they climb the ladder to the platform where they both collapse on their backs panting, trying to catch their breath.

'Wow,' Reid says, 'that was close.' He rolls over onto his side, ruffling Eddie's sodden hair. 'Beginning to think you weren't coming back, mate,' he says with a smile, looking around at us all.

Eddie's gathering his breath. Looking more than a little stunned. 'I was always coming back. We've just been held up that's all.'

Reid gets to his feet, grimacing in pain. He helps Eddie up. I ask if they're both okay. They nod. Though Reid doesn't look entirely at ease. He looks a tad on edge, if anything. He turns his head, searching the choppy water that covers Victory Parks. Is he searching for more of those merpeople?

'We're not out of the woods by any means,' he says. 'Rain's coming. And rain tends to bring out the frog beasts. We've got to get indoors.' He holds my hand. I take it. 'Good to see you,' he says. His voice sounds so warm, so comforting. 'Come on. Follow me.'

He leads the way along the wooden platform that winds through the tree tops. Molten segments of Reid's small flying contraption drip down through the foliage. There are leaves and branches on fire, thick grey smoke billowing in the rain. There is space on the platform where we're able to avoid going near the savage flames, keeping back from the intense heat. More dragonflies buzz overhead. I hear more thunder. I see lightning flashing in the dark clouds above the dome. I see glass panels in the distance still tumbling silently down. With his spare hand Reid grips a peculiar handgun.

The boardwalk leads us to the end of Liberation Avenue where it opens onto the war memorial.

And it's here Morgan and I see the strange craft in full for the first time.

It lies in what looks to be shallow water. It's circular. It's silver. It has no markings. And as we get closer, the bigger it seems to grow, looming over us. It is maybe four or five metres in height. Maybe eight to ten metres in length. Its entire hull looks perfectly round, perfectly smooth, not a square edge to it anywhere. There's a thin disc that runs around the outside, like a continuous fin, maybe two metres off the surface of the water. There is not a single obvious or discernible window.

Reid gazes out at the sky. Far above us, rain hammers the dome. In vast sheets, water runs down the outside of it. And where the glass has already cracked and fallen away, more and more rain tumbles through, inundating the city—several columns of cascading water can be seen, scattered across the city skyline.

A bolt of forked lighting slams into the dome and glass shatters and explodes downwards. 'Another reason we need to get indoors,' Reid tells us.

With Liberation Avenue elevated, the depth of water here isn't so overwhelming. We jump down into it, it's only as deep as our knees. Eels, or something like them, snake about our legs. 'It's okay,' Reid says. 'They're harmless.'

'Makes a change,' Morgan comments, grimacing as they worm about our ankles.

Reid talks into a wrist-com device, a sort I've never seen before. 'Im. We're coming in.'

Im?

I watch as he pushes his palm against a faint exterior panel on the craft and a dull series of silent lights flash into life. It's almost as if they exist beneath a skin, beneath an outer layer of this strange metallic exterior, as if the metal is transparent. (I can't help but recall the bizarre bits of metal we found in Juke's Star Wars rucksack.) Then from seemingly nowhere, a thin perforation appears in the hull and there's a loud hiss and above the fin, a circular doorway opens and a ramp extends down toward us from within.

'Right,' Reid says, 'everyone inside. Quick.'

THE CRAFT

1

REID leads us all up the ramp. It has the appearance of sheer metal. I'm expecting it to be slippery beneath our wet shoes but our boots don't slip once. The ramp surface seems to relent beneath our feet so that small foot grooves form as we place each step, grooves that revert to their original shape once we move on.

We enter the craft. Into a large spherical space that seems to run the length of the vessel. You can see down to the far end. And what strikes me immediately is although we couldn't see in from the outside, I can most certainly see the outside from within. As if I'm behind nothing more than tinted glass. And like the exterior of the craft, there are no hard edges in here. The walls are smooth and rounded. As if we're inside a gigantic transparent egg shell. A womb.

Behind us the ramp retracts and the doorway lowers and it seals with a gentle hum. After that, the sounds of thunder, the sounds of crackling flame, the sounds of the brisk winds through the trees are shut out, we're left with a dull quiet.

Reid leads us forward. The floor I believe is metal, although like the ramp it seems to give a little. Like a wooden floor. Like rubber matting. At a guess, the shape of the craft seems to be elliptical. And centrally placed, accompanied by a series of flight seats arranged around it, there stands a rounded console that rises up out of the floor like a gigantic mushroom. Printed on the stem of this "mushroom" a peculiar emblem: what looks to be a planet hovering between a pair of suns.

Otherwise the space in this cabin is bare. Except for seats at the "tapered" end of the craft. They look like lounge seats but of course I can't be sure. There's a peculiar artificial smell in here.

Imogen pops up from one of the flight seats. There's some sort of mechanical unit on the floor. Cords run from it into the primary console. Imogen's seated there now watching a type of holographic projection on the unit's small screen.

'Please tell me the Dogfighter's not out of action?' she says, scowling.

'Permanently,' Reid replies.

I'm assuming they're talking about the odd little craft Reid utilised to drag us from the merpeople.

She eyes him closely. 'You okay?'

'Good. Surprisingly.'

She continues to watch him. A flicker of concern rolling across her face. 'Oh Reid, you're hurt.'

She stands, steps toward him. I watch her touch his arm. It's a tender touch. As if they've shared more than just each other's company here in this place. There is blood on Reid's arm. I hadn't noticed. I feel terrible I hadn't seen it. And jealous that it's Imogen who's discovered it.

Reid eyes it briefly and shrugs it off. 'It's just a scratch.' There's a moment where I think he's about to touch her arm in return. But then he throws me an awkward glance. She sees this and there's this strange, uncomfortable moment between the three of us.

I can't help but feel I'm intruding here, that I've crashed their party.

'Anyway, how're we looking?' Reid asks her.

'Clear,' she says. 'For the time being anyway. I can't see them anywhere. But we ought to maintain our watch. The rains are returning. You can bet they will too. We need to keep vigilant.'

'Any luck on the portal?'

'Well, I've got a fix on its possible whereabouts,' she tells him. 'But you're not going to like it.'

'Hit me.'

There's a map projection that Imogen brings up on a separate holographic unit. It seems to hover there above the console, a three dimensional lay out of Jupiter. She points. It looks as though she's indicating one of the buildings.

Reid frowns. 'Which building is that?'

'The Monetary Bureau,' Morgan says.

'You're saying it's going to appear on its roof?' Reid asks her gravely.

Imogen improves the angle of the projection and this time when she points, her finger seems to indicate an area some distance above the building. 'Not exactly on its roof,' she tells him.

Reid leans over. He's very close to Imogen here. I notice his knee touching her thigh. It could be an innocent action but there's no effort from either of them to move apart.

'Above the building?' he asks.

'About eighty metres.'

Reid exhales a deep breath, his eyes watching the spot on the projection, his fingers gently tapping the console. 'When?' he asks.

'I'm uncertain,' she tells him. 'But I'm hoping Eddie, now that he's back, might be able to tell us if the Ephemerys has any information.' She casts her gaze upon Eddie. It's the first time she's looked at any of us, acknowledged that we're actually here, since we arrived. 'If you've brought it of course.'

He doesn't say anything. He simply checks his backpack and pulls out a waterproof bag.

Imogen relaxes. 'Great.' She takes us all in now. Looking from Eddie to Morgan... and finally to me. She looks away quickly. I'm not sure it's or shame. Or disdain. 'Good to see you guys finally made it to our little party.' She regards Eddie. 'Though it probably complicates things having you all here.' She sounds a tad irritated that we're standing here actually. 'I must say though, I'm glad to see you're alive, Ed. The last time we saw you, you were being swallowed up by that creature.'

'Yeah it spilled back through the portal with me,' he tells her. 'How did you guys make it out of there?'

'We swam for it,' Reid tells him. 'Then we had to fight our way back here.' He watches Eddie closely now. 'I assume the portal delivered you back to Jupiter. I'm curious, exactly where did it open onto?'

I answer. 'The Argonauts.' My voice a little stern. 'Where you left us.'

Imogen looks at me coldly. 'Where we were yanked through,' she corrects me.

'The exact location?' Reid asks.

'It was the very same portal that carried you lot here,' I tell him. 'It flickered out once you vanished but it flickered back into existence a minute later. That's when Eddie fell out of it.'

Imogen eyes me closely. 'It appeared again a minute after we were gone?'

'Between you all vanishing and Eddie's reappearance?' I say. 'Yeah. About that.' I look at Morgan. She nods.

Reid's looking confounded. 'But we were gone—'

'We know,' I tell him, 'five days. So how long has it been now since you left Jupiter?'

Reid frowns. 'We believe it's been somewhere in the vicinity of five or six weeks.'

I blink at him. I swallow. Six weeks he's been with her. That's all I can think. Six whole weeks. Together. Here. It makes sense now. They're acting really strange with one another. Like they're trying to hide something. Like they don't want me to know. I find myself wishing now that it had been forty years. At least then I might have forgiven him.

Reid's still looking at Imogen. 'Is it normal for a portal to materialise in the same spot where one has existed previously?'

Imogen shrugs, dismissively. 'I wouldn't know.'

Reid watches her. I'm watching him.

'How have you survived here for so long?' I hear Morgan asking.

Reid looks across at her, considering her question. 'Well, it hasn't been easy, Morgs,' he tells her. 'We've been kept nourished by freeze dried rations that were stashed in this craft. But we've had no way of knowing if and when, or where, a portal might open up to take us back. We managed to fire up this power unit.' He points to the large object on the floor. 'But it powers only rudimentary systems. And only one at a time. It's been quite a basic existence really.' He sighs. 'Frogtown's certainly not an easy place to survive in.'

'Frogtown?' I ask.

Reid shrugs. 'That's the name we've been calling it.'

'I looked for the power pack you talked about,' Eddie says, looking at Imogen. 'We broke into the city authority to try and find it.'

Reid looks impressed. 'You broke into the city authority?'

'We thought they might've had it. But it wasn't there.'

Imogen sighs and nods. 'Look, as it turns out, if I'm right about this portal, we won't be here much longer anyway.' She regards us all, looking quite smug, I feel. As if she's somehow in her element here. 'Eddie, I'm hoping you might be able to confirm whether I'm right or not about where I believe it's going to appear.'

I glance at Morgan. If anyone, she's the expert on this stuff. But either Imogen's far more relaxed asking Eddie for his help. Or it's a snub.

2

There's a lower level to this craft. There's another of those smooth metallic ramps near the "lounge chairs". We follow Reid and Imogen down and I feel like I'm entering their house. Because there's a living space down here. It's not that large but it's big enough for two. A bit sterile though, if I'm offering my opinion. And like the upper level, the outer walls are transparent, which, down here, offers a unique view of the underwater surroundings. Fish nibble at the outer hull. Seahorse critters float in and out of tall beds of lake grass. Crab things fight each other. And disconcerting creatures that Reid calls monkey fish hover out there in the depths, simply watching the craft with large white eyes, as if willing it to be gone.

I can't help feeling uncomfortable. Not only because of the creatures out there. But because I can't shake the feeling that if it had've been Reid and I who'd been snatched through that Stardream portal at the Argonaut Carnival grounds, then this might have been our "home" for the last six weeks. Not Reid's and Imogen's.

Reid hardly looks at me at notice. Like he's uncomfortable too. Like he'd rather I'd stayed at home. I try to push it to the back of my mind. I mean, it's not exactly the time or place to be getting myself paranoid and upset about these things. He's obviously got a lot on his mind. He's had a lot to deal with.

Still, I can't get it out of my thoughts. I need to know if anything's happened between him and her.

'What's this craft made of?' Morgan asks Reid. 'Is it metal?'

I'm removing my absorption suit, putting its various components aside. I lost my blunderbuss out there when the merpeople had me in there clutches, so the absorption gear seems pointless now. I realise I've also lost the spear gun. And my wrist-com. And my rebreather unit.

'I have no idea,' Reid says. 'It can shift, it's pliable, but it's tough. Can't be perforated. I've seen some mighty beasts try and toss this craft about, puncture its hull. None have managed it.' He leans his palm against a pattern on the wall. The walls about us suddenly turn opaque, shutting out the swamp version of Jupiter. Or Frogtown, as Reid had called it. Like he's pulled down some shutters. 'You can alternate the transparency effect at will,' he tells us. 'But we like to keep an eye on the outside world.'

There's a kitchenette. All the "cupboards" look like small bubbles or cells. I guess it's so nothing falls out and goes flying about when the craft is moving. There are rounded seats and a table, all of which seem to have grown from the floor. If you place a cup or plate on the table it appears to merge with the table surface. But items lift off easily when you pick them up. There's a slight downward force when you do.

Reid fetches us water which he says they have a lot of. 'We've managed to get the recycling unit up and running. It seems to run on solar energy. But with all the water available in this place we've just been putting the outside water through sterilisation filters.

'Food though is the real trick. I've tried fishing but most things around here taste pretty foul. Except for a species of marine bird which we've roasted on occasion. As for fruit and veg, well, we have a ready supply from the farm pod.' He points down a central walkway. There look to be small shrubs or trees that grow directly from the walls. They're laden with fruit. He produces some of their latest harvest. 'Apples. Oranges. Grapes.'

It's fruit none of us has ever tasted, nor ever seen before. Never but in books. We're fascinated. Reid places them on the table. He slices up the orange and apples. He offers them to us. He offers us the grapes. We eat. The flavours are amazing. So sweet. Grapes bursting in my mouth. Reid can't help smiling. 'What do you think?' he asks. 'Delicious isn't it?'

Our mouths are so full, we can't answer, we can only nod and smile. Juice runs down our chins.

Imogen stands back, watching us. I feel it's she who looks uncomfortable now. As if she may have hoped to continue her relationship with Reid away from our interference.

Reid serves up more refreshments. Tea, juice, water. Occasionally he catches my eye. I see a look there that says, I'm so happy to see you.

I feel a little better about things as we sit here. The food and drink helping to revitalise me. I don't feel so vulnerable. We even get a guided tour. We inspect the farming pod. We inspect the bathroom pod. There are three bedrooms. I am heartened to see that two bedrooms look lived in. As if Reid and Imogen might've coexisted simply as friends and nothing more, sleeping in separate rooms. The inner walls of each room can be made transparent or opaque. I begin to feel silly for being so jealous earlier.

Imogen returns to the upper level, once more scanning the holographic projection. It's raining beyond the craft. Eddie and Morgan are going through the Ephemerys, hoping to report back to Imogen about the portal she believes will materialise sometime in the next few hours.

While the others are preoccupied, it allows me some quiet time with Reid. It's awkward to begin with. He doesn't seem talkative. Something's holding him back.

Slowly he opens up though.

'It hasn't been easy, Skye,' he declares quietly, troubled, as we sit alone together in the lower level. 'There have been times when I thought this was it, that we're stuck here. For the rest of our lives. We've only just managed to hook up the power device in the last day or two. Then last night Im worked out she might be able to determine if and when another portal will open. But we're uncertain. Hopefully Morgan and Eddie might tell us soon enough.'

'I missed you,' I tell him.

I watch him as he looks back at me.

'For us it's only been about three or four days,' I say, taking his hand, 'but I've missed you so much. When we realised there was a severe time differential I feared that by the time we got here you'd... you'd be an old man.'

I watch his eyes for his response. He eyes me sympathetically. He touches my cheek.

'What's with Imogen?' I ask. 'How does she know so much about this craft? She seems quite at home here. Eddie claims she said she's seen such a craft before.'

Reid shrugs. Says he's not sure. 'I'm not certain even she really knows. That's what I've been able to gather. She says the craft is somehow familiar but she doesn't know why.'

'Is it from Earth? Or, somewhere else?'

He looks at me quizzically. 'Somewhere else?'

'Like outer space? Is it alien?'

He considers this. 'I'm not sure. Much of its instrumentation is in English. So I'd say it's from Earth.'

'Who made it? How did it get here?'

He shrugs. 'I haven't any idea. We haven't been able to access any flight data. It's all quite a mystery.'

I search his eyes. I can't help but wonder if there are things he's not telling me. I feel he knows more than he's letting on. That he's holding something close to his chest. It hurts to imagine why he wouldn't be telling me. That he's protecting Imogen somehow. I sigh. 'How have you spent the last few weeks?'

'Truthfully?' he says. 'In boredom. At times we've sat here considering our destiny. We've discussed what would happen if a portal never opened again. If no-one ever came for us.' He taps his finger on his knee. 'Would we, you know, want to go on living?' He smiles an almost sad smile. 'It sounds pretty drastic I know, but when you're in a situation like this, well you have some pretty weird thoughts.'

I swallow. I don't know how to ask the question burning in my mind. In the end I just come out with it. 'Have things changed between us? Have you fallen out of love with me?'

He watches me... then looks away.

'Reid?'

'Yeah?'

'What's your relationship with Imogen?'

He looks at me and sighs. He doesn't answer. My heart sinks. I feel a lump in my throat. It confirms all of my fears.

'Do you still love me?' I ask.

He turns back to me and takes my hand. 'I do, Skye. Of course I do.'

I watch him closely. 'But what?'

He takes a while to answer. Again his gaze falls away from me.

'Reid?' I say softly, trying to get him to look at me. 'Please, Reid. Tell me.'

'Skye, look, nothing... nothing happened between us.'

Still... there's something he's not saying.

'It's complicated, that's all.'

We're interrupted by a loud beeping noise. Reid immediately leaves me and makes his way to the foot of the ramp and calls up to Imogen. 'What have we got?'

'Like we feared,' she calls back. 'They're coming.'

I go to him and take his hand. 'Please, Reid. How is it complicated?'

He gently touches his palm to the side of my head. Then he kisses me tenderly. On the cheek. 'Let us get through this. Then I'll explain, I promise.'

I have pleading eyes. I need to know now.

'Skye, I promise,' he says, and with that he strides up the ramp.

3

I follow. We all crowd around the central console. The hologram shows the Jupiter school grounds. They're mostly submerged with enormous lilies growing around the tops of the school buildings. But our focus is on the writhing mass of horrifying creatures.

It's difficult to get an exact handle on what they are, what they look like. Most of the time they're submerged beneath the choppy waves. At first they look like black-eyed snake fish, like the ones we used to catch at the Jupiter reservoir, snake fish with rows of fangs. Only when they rise out of the water we see that they have these ugly toad bodies and long black octopus tentacles that curl and wind about old trees and buildings, propelling them forward.

They're hideous and ugly and there are literally hundreds of them.

'Great.' Reid looks around at us. 'We better batten down the hatches. Morgan, Eddie, any news on the portal?'

Eddie looks puzzled. He doesn't speak. It's Morgan who answers. 'We believe it will appear where Imogen says it will. Above the Monetary Bureau.'

There's a collective silence as we look at both Morgan and Eddie.

'When?' Reid asks.

Morgan swallows. 'Forty five minutes from now.'

Reid looks back at Imogen. 'We have to leave then. Now. Before that horde reaches us.'

Imogen takes a moment more to watch the wriggling surging mass of monsters on the holographic projection. 'Yes,' she says. 'I think you're right.'

4

Morgan, Eddie and I grab our gear. Slipping back into our steelskin armour, hoisting on our backpacks, strapping on our rebreathers and weapons. Reid and Imogen dress in similar gear, outfits from the craft, light fabric armour and headwear. They equip bio-scan units and they present us with a cache of weapons. Reid tells us to grab what we need, anything we can take. With my spear gun and sonic boomer gone I choose one of the rifles on hand. Something called a Skyripper. Reid takes a gun called a Banisher. There's a stash of devices Imogen calls Shredders. Small grenades with a pull cord. We stuff as many as we can into our pockets.

We gather at the down ramp as the door opens onto the swamp. The wind hits us and rain gushes in and the swampy stench assaults us. Reid steps out first, his Banisher held before him. He scans the immediate vicinity with a bio-scan unit.

'Looks like we're clear,' he reports. 'For the moment. Quickly now!'

Imogen strides down the ramp, her own gun, a Reaper, a forearm mounted mini cannon, pushed out in front of her. She wears a chest brace equipped with a fully automated shoulder canon. The rest of us trail her, the deluge drenching us instantly, rain drops stinging our faces.

I gaze down Liberation Avenue, blinking against the rainfall. The flooded Victory Parks is almost lost to the showers. I gaze toward the Monetary Exchange building. Like the Avenue, it is but a faded ghost beyond the downpour. I wonder how on Mother's sweet Earth we're ever going to reach the top it. How we'll ever get ourselves up to that portal.

'Morgan,' I say, 'did you confirm that the portal will open somewhere above that building?'

'Yeah. Eighty three metres.'

I look at Reid. 'How do we reach the portal from the top of the building?' My eyes go to Imogen, then back to Reid.

It's Imogen who answers. 'We meet it in the air.'

I frown at her. 'How?'

5

Knee deep in water, Imogen skirts around the edge of the craft and presses her hand against a pattern of block blue numbers on its hull. Reid stands guard behind her, willing us to do the same. 'Keep your eyes open,' he says. 'All of you. Blast the first thing that slithers out of the water.'

'Watch yourselves,' Imogen warns us and the hull of the craft suddenly hisses and a long perforation opens on the craft's underside. I'm watching, fascinated because it's like something giving birth, this long cylindrical object squeezing out and flopping into the swamp. Whatever it is, it floats, and several struts extend like bug's legs from its flanks, dropping down into the water, steadying the thing against the ground below the surface.

It looks similar to the flying craft that Reid rescued us in, like a tapered tube with a transparent plastic or glass capsule spanning its upper half. Only it's like ten times larger.

Imogen presses her hand against another pattern of block blue numbers, only this pattern is on the flank of this boat thing. The moment she does so, the glass "lid" retracts, sliding laterally down into the hull. It's here I realise the interior is equipped with several seats.

'Hurry,' Imogen commands. 'Everyone inside the Flydrone.'

She wades quickly to the tapered end of the vehicle and hefts herself out of the water, climbing into a flight seat, pressing buttons on a small console. The craft comes to life humming, punctuated by a brief series of low mechanical droning sounds.

Reid's helping us into the vehicle, moving quickly, with purpose, water dripping off our clothing, pooling on the soft metal floor. Then he hoists himself inside. I watch as Imogen presses a pad that raises the transparent cap about us. It seals us in, muting the sounds of the rain and wind. The struts retract and as they do I feel the push of the waves against the hull. I fear that, with our combined weight, we're going to roll over and find ourselves hanging there upside down, submerged and helpless. But I feel a surge as the craft suddenly pushes off, Imogen piloting this Flydrone away from the mother ship.

We're heading south. Fast. Slicing effortlessly through the waves. Leaving Liberation Avenue behind us, the half-submerged school buildings rushing by on our left. Rain continuing to pelt down, streaks of water sliding backwards along the exterior of the glass capsule as we speed onwards.

Reid glances around, scanning Jupiter's watery landscape behind us. 'Imogen,' he calls out, 'we're going to need more pace.'

Morgan, Eddie and I follow Reid's gaze and my muscles go rigid. About a hundred metres behind us there's this enormous seething wall of beasts surging through the water. Following us.

'I hear you,' she calls back, 'not easy with the extra weight.'

I watch the scrambling wave of monsters with dread. I keep waiting for the Flydrone to lift us out of the water, to get airborne and fly us up to the heights of the city skyscrapers. But nothing like that happens. With every second we zoom further from central Jupiter, piling through the choppy waves, never for a moment taking flight.

'Is something wrong?' I ask, confused. 'Does this thing not fly?' Beyond the school we zoom through eerie swampland that in our Jupiter would be parkland and neglected sport's fields. Enormous leaf insects cling to trees, strange white glowing worms swing in the wind on silken thread. It's dank and dark and the rain batters down while fierce gales batter the vegetation.

'The Flydrone's hover mechanics are ruined,' Reid declares.

I look around at him. 'So, we're not flying?'

'No.'

I'm confused. 'But those creatures, they'll catch us.'

'Not if we stay ahead of them.'

'But how do we reach the portal?'

Before he can explain, we emerge from the swamp and ahead of us I see the enormous base support struts of the giant dome that covers this city. They stretch away like a line of pylons, left and right of us, circling the city I guess like the perimeter fence of our Jupiter. And above us, the mighty glass dome soars out to dizzying heights. I have the sense we're on the inside of a gigantic greenhouse. And being this close to it, I see how rusty the dome's frame looks. And the large cracks in the grimy glass panels.

'Oh Mother,' I hear Morgan murmur behind me. 'Don't tell me.'

I look around at her. 'What is it?' But as we close in on the dome's base, Imogen cuts power to the Flydrone and that's when I realise what's happening, where it is we're going. Because that's when I spy what must be the service ladder running up the outside of the colossal dome structure.

'No way,' I say. 'Tell me we're not climbing that thing!'

'You tell me another way,' Imogen says sternly.

6

Imogen hits a pad on her flight controls and the Flydrone's clear roof slides open, the wind and rain assaulting us instantly. 'Everyone out!' Imogen yells as the bug-like struts engage, stabilising the vessel. But behind us I watch with complete dread that seething wall of creatures sweeping toward us. Maybe eighty metres away. A cold shudder gripping me. 'I shouldn't have to repeat myself!' Imogen calls. 'Those monsters'll be on us in no time.'

'Come on, Skye!' I hear Morgan say. She's left the Flydrone, she's perched beside our craft on lumps of giant green and red coral that looks like brains, her hand out to me, a million tiny coral mouths sucking at her shoes. Like me, Eddie too is simply watching the oncoming horde, frozen by the sight of them.

'Hurry!' Reid yells, grabbing my hand and yanking me out of the craft.

I stumble onto the coral bed. Behind us, Imogen's pulling three objects from the Flydrone. Compact packages wrapped in blue cloth. I take them for rucksacks, assuming they're full of gadgets Imogen raided from the mother ship. As she climbs onto the coral bed, she keeps one to herself and tosses the others across to Reid. In turn Reid passes one to Morgan, then hands the third and final one to me.

'What's this?' I ask, confused, clambering toward the edge of the dome, the coral all spongy and soft beneath my feet.

'Drop chutes,' Imogen replies, scurrying past me.

'Drop chutes?'

'Yes. Put it on!'

I watch as Imogen unravels the one she's holding, climbing into its harness, hastily buckling the clips at her groin and chest. 'We'll need them to slow our descent once we jump for the portal. Now put it on!'

I blink at her. 'Jump for the portal? What? Wait! There's only three of them.'

'Yep, I noticed that,' she says shortly. 'But that's all we have to work with. We're going to have to share. That okay?' She pulls herself through a rent in the dome's framework, through masses of thick green seaweed, reaching the outer shell and immediately she's taking to the service ladder.

Reid scrambles up to me, helping me into my chute. 'Is she serious?' I ask him.

'We'll make it work, Skye, I promise.' He glances around at Morgan who's looking equally as flummoxed. And at Eddie who looks utterly bemused that so far he's going without one of these chutes. 'We'll make it work,' Reid assures us all. 'Now quickly, get moving.'

With my chute secure, Reid turns and helps Morgan with hers, glancing back at the oncoming horde. They're no more than fifty metres from us now.

'You guys might want to hurry things up a bit?' Imogen calls down to us. She's already several metres up the service ladder. Further above her I see giant dragonflies zipping through large gaps in the dome where glass panels don't exist anymore. It seems so crazy that they are the least of our worries right now. And above them, gazing up at the dizzying heights of the structure, the sight of it leaves me giddy, turning my legs weak. How am I ever going to do this?

'We see them,' Reid calls back as we begin scrambling through the dome's steel shell. I push amidst the thick mats of seaweed. My mind is elsewhere, trying to distract my thoughts from the climb ahead of me. Suddenly I hear Reid yelling, 'Skye, look out!'

A black insectile humanoid rises up from the waters beyond the edge of the dome and comes scurrying as me. I make a desperate effort to retreat through the dome's bulky frame work, but my chute gets tangled in the seaweed muck knotted around the steel.

I have no idea what happens next. I don't really see any of it. The sensors on Imogen's shoulder cannon must detect the beast because above us, her cannon fires off three rapid rounds and blows the creature apart, blood and bone splatting against me. I gasp as black blood runs down my face.

I've barely got my breath back when another beast rises up out of the water, a murky demonic thing with a morbid face and white eyes but Reid is there by my side, firing his weapon, putting a gaping hole through the thing's chest and it flops back into the water.

'Go,' Reid says, dragging me out of the knots of thick green seaweed. 'I've got you covered. Go.'

A little dazed, rain splatting my head and face, black blood still dripping off me, I crawl after Imogen, starting up the ladder. Imogen's already about fifteen metres above us. Behind me comes Morgan, Eddie, Reid last.

As Eddie and Reid are squeezing their way through the frame work something surges up from the swamp in a mighty wave of water that bursts up the coral bed and slams against the inside wall of the dome. The surge shoves Morgan through the dome but the backwash drags Eddie and Reid away into the water. I fear the snake-heads have already reached us but then I see it: an enormous serpentine creature with a hundred scaly legs, sliding back into the swamp.

Eddie and Reid have both gone under.

It's Eddie who surfaces first, coughing, trying his desperate best to swim for the coral bank. The Flydrone has rolled to its side and is taking on water. I see Reid frantically clawing at its sheer hull, trying to gain some purchase.

Squealing, the serpent rears up and collapses on Eddie, taking him under. I've got my Skyripper trained on the choppy water. But I don't fire. I don't want to risk hitting Eddie or Reid. About forty metres away the surge of snake-heads presses ever closer.

Above me, Imogen leans through the frame of the dome where a glass panel has long gone. She withdraws what looks to be a silver handgun with a fluted end. She fires it and what happens next is so bizarre, so truly weird, I don't actually believe what I'm seeing.

A wall of water is thrust back from the coral bank, and for a few seconds, in a twenty metre radius, the water is held there by some invisible force, the muddy, weedy floor of the swamp completely exposed. Nothing moves. The serpent, hundreds of giant shrimp, strands of seaweed, crabs, shellfish. Everything is motionless. It's like a snap-print. It's as if time there has completely stopped.

Except, out of the water wall, as though it were jelly, Reid wriggles and plops into the mud and scrambles for the bank, dragging Eddie with him.

Rain comes down heavier as Eddie and Reid claw themselves up the coral toward the dome. Below them, time returns and the water thumps back against the exposed coral bed, heaving up a mighty spray.

'Go!' Reid yells at all of us, aiming his gun at the waterline, anticipating a follow up attack by that serpent. 'Hurry, go!'

He's coughing up water. Waiting. But a follow up attack never happens. Now he pulls himself through the dome and begins to climb after the rest of us. Imogen's still leading the way, Morgan just behind me. The snake-heads surging ever closer.

We're maybe fifty feet up the service ladder when the wave of beasts reaches the dome base and they burst from the swamp. A dozen of them, then two dozen, then too many to count. Leaping with their powerful tentacles, grabbing the inside of the dome, wriggling their way after us.

We hurry, slipping on the steel rungs of the service ladder, rain pelting down, thunder cracking and peeling in the gloomy grey sky.

We climb as quickly as we can. But the snake-heads are far quicker. In no time their black tentacles are grabbing at our limbs and clothing. I stab at them with my knife but it's of little use. They don't flinch, my blade barely cuts them. And there are far too many to fend off. Reid, still below me on the ladder, fires at them, cutting them to shreds. But there are so many, they come at us from all angles. They seem able to climb the inside of the dome with little effort, their suckers gripping the glass panels and the steel framework. Some panels dislodge under their weight, flapping end over end down into the swamp below. Other snake-heads, in their maddening scramble to get at us, lose purchase and tumble down with them. But it makes no difference to their numbers, their horde must range in the hundreds. And those who fall, if the impact against objects in the swamp doesn't kill them, quickly leap back up and begin climbing after us once more.

'Don't they give up?' Morgan yells at Reid. We're now about a hundred metres from our starting point, we're all panting, our muscles screaming with the exertion. Up here the rain seems far more ferocious and the squally winds threaten to drag us from the ladder. My hair flaps about wildly. 'I mean, it's not as if we're the only things to eat!' Morgan yells against the storm.

'Just keep climbing!' Reid yells back.

The climb is arduous, tough, unforgiving. And every now and then we reach areas where rungs of the ladder have corroded and we're forced to clamber across nothing but rusting steel frame-work. And more than once I feel the dome shake beneath us.

But it's the height that begins to make my hands tingle. Far below us are trees and streets submerged in water. I'm telling myself constantly, Don't look down, don't look down. But it's hard not to. So hard not to.

Our pace slows as fatigue begins to grip us. All of us are panting like mad, rain and sweat dripping from our faces. Reid tells us we can't afford to rest, to go on, to hurry. But as we grit our teeth and climb onwards, he stops where he is, wedges his feet against the service ladder and fires his weapon fire through the dome into the coming horde.

He's outnumbered. We halt. We hold our position, and everything we've got at the monsters. For a while it doesn't feel like we're hurting their numbers. They just keep coming. Squirming and squealing.

But eventually it feels as if we're knocking them back. Getting the upper hand.

'We can't hold this position,' Imogen calls to Reid. 'The portal's not likely to hang around long. We can't afford to lose our window.'

We go to move on but a single snake-head leaps from where it's perched some fifty metres lower down on the inside of the dome. It's a monumental leap but it manages to grab Eddie from beneath, dragging him through the structure.

Miraculously, Eddie manages to cling to the rusty steel frame by the tips of his fingers. I lunge across and grab him, holding him, the beast still clinging to his legs. Reid turns and blasts holes through it. The snakehead releasing Eddie and plummeting away into the flooded parkland below. Reid climbs up to help me get Eddie back onto this side of the dome.

Eddie's trying to gather his breath, watching us, trying to speak, looking spooked. But there's no time for him to gather himself, to calm his nerves, because the snake heads all suddenly mimic that same death defying leap. Some don't make it, tumbling down into the city parkland. But those who do are suddenly snatching at us from the inside of the dome, their ugly goggling fish heads just below us, snapping at us in a frenzy.

We scramble back from them where we can. But one of the beasts jams its fangs into my pack and pulls me sideways toward a gap in the dome. Reid fires at it and it tumbles away into the swamp. I stop myself sliding down the side of the dome by wedging my boots against the steel framework, my full weight pushed against a mighty pane of glass. Then Reid, caught off guard, is yanked through the dome. For a moment he is at the complete mercy of the snake-head that grips him in its tentacles. For a moment, Reid is simply dangling high above the city—if he falls, it that thing lets him go, then that's it, there's no way back, he'll tumble down into the swamp. He'll miss our jump to the portal.

Imogen screams at Reid to hold on and Eddie jabs knives into the monster's tentacles and while it's distracted, Reid manages to reach up and cling to the steel framework. Just as he does, Morgan fires her Scattercat, and for once it's actually functioning, sending out a million projectiles that puncture a whole swathe of those creatures, cutting them to shreds, sending them to ground in hundreds of meaty chunks.

Reid climbs back to the surface of the dome. We sit here catching our breath, staring at Morgan.

'Wow,' Eddie says. 'You guys see that?'

Reid clasps Morgan's shoulder. 'I owe you one, Morgs.' He gazes back at the way we've come. On the inner side of the dome, another wave of snake-heads is scrambling toward us.

We set off again. But it's clear the monsters are catching us. Reid pulls one of the Shredders from his pocket, one of the hand-operated grenades taken from the weapons cache back in Reid's and Imogen's craft.

Imogen yells at him, 'No, Reid, you'll harm us all.'

'We've gotta slow them,' he yells back. 'We'll never make it to our drop point.'

The head of the swarm closes on us fast. Morgan fires her Scattercat and Reid yanks on the pull cord of his explosive and throws it into the horde.

The grenade detonates, ripping snake-heads to pieces, blood and meat splatting us, the dome shaking, a million shards of glass exploding outwards below us. Still, in a single hit, Reid has taken out almost two dozen monsters.

Yet still they come.

Reid pitches another Shredder, blowing snake-heads apart. He tells us to move but we stay where we are, even Imogen, digging Shredders from our pockets, tearing out their pull cords and pitching them at our pursuers.

A series of explosions rock the dome, and maybe a hundred snake-heads bear the brunt of our attack, blown to bits, showering blood and flesh down across Victory Parks.

It buys us precious time. We've cleared the area immediately behind us. But far below us, at the base of the dome, more snake-heads are already on their way.

'Hurry,' Imogen urges. 'We can't hang about!'

7

The going gets relatively easier the higher we go because eventually the dome levels out. So instead of hauling ourselves up, we're now scurrying horizontally along a steel service gantry. But it's terrifying. Much of it is rusted through. And I've never been so high above the ground. Or felt so precarious. Far below us, the ghostly tops of buildings hang in the rain gloom. Not for the first time today I find myself wondering who built this dome. And why? For what purpose? Without maintenance it's a disaster waiting to happen. Its steel frame is rusted beyond belief and our clambering over it sends a continuous shower of mighty chunks of steel and glass down into the city below us.

We press onward as quick as we can, making our way closer and closer to the air space above the Monetary Bureau. Behind and below us, the snake-heads keep coming, squirming up the inside of the dome. Rain keeps pelting us. Thunder crackles. Lightning ripples through the mass of cloud.

We come to a spot where the metal walkway looks to have corroded and fallen away. From here for as much as fifty feet ahead of us, there's just the compromised steel framework and cracked glass panels covered in grime and mildew and strange insectile creatures sucking at the glass beneath.

It's here that Eddie gasps and points. 'Look! I see it. The portal.'

We stop and gaze in the direction he's pointing. It's not difficult to see actually. In a city gone grey with rain it's the only point of light. A star burst of sparkling blue. Still, it looks like a speck from where we are. At a guess, we've another two hundred metres before we're directly over the top of it. And then to leap from this dome and hope to drop directly into it... The prospect is terrifying.

'Alright,' Imogen says stepping down from the steel walkway onto the dome's frame work. 'Let's keep moving!'

The others follow. But I'm the one who suddenly can't move. I don't leave the walkway. I'm panting. I'm sitting here with my head between my legs, trying to get my breath. I see the tops of those buildings so far below us. All of a sudden it hits me, how high we are. My head feels giddy. I can't go any further.

Morgan comes back for me. 'Skye, what's wrong?'

'I just need a minute.'

'Skye, we don't have a minute.'

Behind us, snake-heads are only a couple hundred feet from us, surging closer with every passing moment.

Reid stops and looks back at us. 'Skye?'

'I'm okay,' I tell him. 'This height is killing me though.'

Eddie and Imogen are about thirty metres ahead of us now, heading for our drop point. Reid hurries back and puts his hand on my shoulder. 'It's just like the harvest buildings at home,' he tells me. 'We're used to this.'

I don't share his confidence one bit. 'We're not roped in,' I remind him, panting, my eyes squeezed shut. 'There's no life lines if we fall.'

'You've got your chute,' he tells me.

It makes no difference. I can't move.

I hear him sigh. I hear him say, 'Granted this isn't easy, Skye...' I feel his hand on my shoulder. 'But we have to keep going.'

I open my eyes and watch him. He gazes back the way we've come. The snake-heads are closing in fast, growling, grunting. I can hear them.

'Come on, Skye,' he says. 'Take my hand.'

I'm frozen, I can't budge from this position.

He levels his eyes with mine. 'This is like that morning on the flyover,' he says, 'remember?'

'We're higher up,' I tell him, my voice weak and quavering.

'The principle still applies,' he tells me. 'Take my hand. I won't let you fall.'

I hear Imogen somewhere ahead of us. Yelling at us to hurry.

I hear the oncoming snake-heads.

I grip Reid's hand. Slowly he guides me forward off the walkway.

'Step where I step,' Reid says. 'Concentrate on my feet. Don't look down at the city if you can help it. Look at my feet. We're only a couple of metres off the ground. Tell yourself that. Remember? We're only a couple of metres off the ground.

Morgan's behind me. Telling me I'm doing good. But we're a few metres further on when glass falls away beneath my feet and the rusty steel crumbles and I almost go down with it. I squeal but Reid has me in his grip.

He and Morgan pull me back onto a stable footing and I'm shuddering, realising how close I went to falling. I'm shuddering, I can barely breathe.

'It's okay,' Morgan says. 'It's okay. Take a moment, get your breath.'

Reid reminds me once more about the drop-chute secured about me. 'Look,' he says. 'You're not going to die if you fall. You've got this chute. And if you fall, I'm coming with you. Okay?'

'No,' I say. 'I don't know how to use it.'

He shows me a pull-cord. 'If you fall, pull on this. The chute opens. You flutter down like a feather.' He eyes me warmly. Beneath my terror, I feel nothing but love for him. His caring nature toward me has always been unquestionable. Such a beautiful trait. I take in a deep breath, shut my eyes for a moment and talk to myself, 'You can do this, Skye,' I whisper. 'You can do this.'

I move now, on Reid's tail. I look over my shoulder. Morgan's at my side. But those monsters are barely a hundred feet behind us. And below us, the tops of the skyscrapers loom through the rain. I can't see the street anymore. It's so dizzying. I have to stop occasionally as my skin turns cold, as I feel the buildings beckoning me. Wanting to pull me through the dome.

'Come on, Skye,' I hear Reid say gently, urgently.

I shut my eyes for a moment and gather my breath. Then I push on. Concentrating on the steel. Telling myself below my breath, 'I'm only a couple of metres off the ground. That's all. Just a couple of metres off the ground.'

8

Below and ahead of us, the swirling portal begins to evolve and grow. And like the others, it's drifting. Descending. But slowly.

Behind us, the snake-heads have almost reached us. We've no choice but to blast the beasts as we track along the roof of the dome. Throwing down a wave of Shredder bombs, blasting the front of the swarm, obliterating the monsters, inadvertently blasting holes in the dome.

I'm desperately trying to shake my fear, I swallow it away. Adrenalin surging through me. I gain momentum and we hurry onwards, the construction shaking wildly, but slowly we're getting closer to the vicinity above the swirling anomaly.

When we bump into Imogen I see we're suddenly right over the top of it. 'Reid, it's now or never,' Imogen yells firing at the squealing swarm.

'I know, Im,' he yells back, blasting at snake-heads. He glances around at us. 'Eddie you're jumping with Morgan. You'll have to hold her tight.' Then he regards Morgan. 'Deploy your chute as soon as you can. It'll help you steer toward the portal but it'll also slow your descent. We don't know how close to ground we'll be once we materialise on the other side of that portal.'

Eddie takes a deep breath and nods. Morgan's just gazing down at where we've got to be. None of us are keen to do this. None of us. There are too many variables, too many ways all of this can go completely wrong. Eddie takes a deep breath and clips himself to Morgan. Three clips. Nice and secure.

Reid turns to me. 'Skye, are you ready?'

I shake my head. Flustered, I wipe a tear from my eye. 'No.'

He scrambles over and touches my cheek. 'It's okay. We'll do this together. We'll be okay.'

I hug him and kiss him. There's a flicker of discomfort in his eyes. I notice Imogen watching us over her shoulder. I try to ignore it. The snakeheads are advancing. Reid's busy checking the dropchute straps, making sure it's fully secured around me.

'Right, Morgan and Eddie,' Imogen says. 'Here.' She's indicating a point at her feet, directly over the top of the portal. 'Go now. Quick.'

There's nothing quick about it. Morgan's suddenly terrified. Eddie holds her. And the look he gives her is one of love. Something I've never seen in his eyes before. And I know right then that he's been harbouring feelings for her.

'Morgan,' he says gently. 'It's okay. I'm with you. Shut your eyes. We'll do this together.' He pulls her gently toward the gaping hole in the dome and he grips her and she's like, 'Eddie, no, I can't do it, I can't do it.'

'You can. Both of us. On three.' Eddie lifts her off her feet and without counting down he carries her with him and they drop away out of sight. Morgan squealing. Eddie silent.

The snake-heads reach us and there's sudden mayhem. Reid orders both me and Imogen to jump. But I realise I'm several metres from the optimum drop-point, the anomaly having shifted in the last few moments. The snake-heads show our weaponry no regard. They pile into our suppressing fire like ants to meat. I'm knocked sideways onto a pane of glass. Somehow it holds my weight. But it begins to crack as I slide across it. More and more snake-heads crawl up beneath us. I feel Reid grab me and haul me backwards, his gun flaring and ripping beasts to pieces. Imogen comes under attack, her shoulder cannon shooting down each assailant with precision. But she falls through the framework... and is snatched up in writhing tentacles. Her forearm mounted gun is torn from her, her drop-chute is almost yanked free. She stabs at the tentacles with her knife... and suddenly, without warning, she's released and she's falling.

Reid hoists me up and says, 'Right Skye, we're outta here!' and he pulls me through the fractured glass and we drop away from the dome, falling after Imogen amidst a shower of glass chunks.

Suddenly, a violent jolt rocks me and I'm yanked upwards, the force ripping me right out of Reid's arms and away he plunges, gazing up at me, goggle eyed, yelling at me to fight them.

I'm at the mercy of the beasts. I'm snagged in a tangle of tentacles. My friends are all dropping away toward the anomaly floating above the city. I'm stuck here, dangling in complete terror. I have one final Shredder. I have no choice but to use it. I pluck it from my vest pocket. I pull the cord and jam it into the mass of beasts.

It detonates, ripping a mighty hole in the dome, throwing me downwards, tearing the straps of my drop chute. Shredded snake-heads and chunks of dome tumbling with me.

I drop vertically, headfirst. I see Morgan and Eddie far below me, their chute deployed but tangled, both of them spinning out of control. But by blind luck the portal drifts into their path and they vanish into it.

Then through the deluge I spy Reid, falling headfirst, his arms against his sides, spearing toward Imogen. He reaches her and grabs her and they cling to each other. I continue to plummet, bits of glass and rusted dome steel and snake-heads tumbling in my wake. My own chute has been pulled mostly from me. It's tethered to me now by a single clip. I'm trying to buckle the remaining clasps. But I realise the straps that should hold the chute to me are torn. All but one. I'm trying to gather them as I fall, trying to tie them together. It's not easy as I plummet toward the city buildings, the wind buffeting me, my fingers slippery in the rain.

Below me, I see Reid and Imogen fall toward the portal. Imogen has deployed her chute. They pass into the swirling mass of light... and blink out of existence.

I'm alone here now. No-one to help me. No-one to call out to. Falling... falling... Adrenalin pumping through me. I'm trying desperately to reattach the bulk of my chute. I drop toward my only doorway out of this world. The doorway back to Reid, back to Jupiter and my dear mother. It drifts further. I suddenly fear I'm at risk of missing it.

The tops of the city buildings get closer and more prominent through the rain. It only serves to remind me how high I am. If I don't secure my chute, I'm not going to survive the fall through the portal. I don't know where it opens onto. But if I miss it, then I'll most certainly need the chute to prevent myself splatting into the streets of Frogtown far below.

I manage to tie up one strap. I begin working on the other. I can't risk deploying the drop chute until I have it secured or else it'll just tear from me the moment I do. The clasp is flapping behind my shoulder. I hear it whipping against my back, feel it whipping my neck. I grab it in my fingertips but the wild updraft of air snatches it right out of my grasp.

I manage to grasp it again, pinching it between my knuckles and work it into my grip. But as I'm tying it to my utility vest the portal catches my attention.

It flickers as if a charge of electricity has just pulsed through it. Its blue light wavers in intensity, bright then faint then bright again before it completely flashes out of existence.

'No, no, no, no,' I cry, falling, my eyes bulging at where the portal was. 'No, no, no, where is it, where is it, where is it, oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please!'

It pulses into existence again. But it's drifting faster now. From south to north. Almost out of my path of descent.

It flares brightly for a brief moment and then vanishes. The rooves of buildings seem to rush up at me so much faster now.

'No, no, no, no, no, no,' I whimper, 'please no, please no, come back, come back, please, please, please...'

And it does. It glows radiantly as I drop but it's shifted from my line... it's below me, but off to my right... I'm going to miss it, I'm going to miss it, I'm going to miss it...

It seems to flash past me and away upwards as I fall and I squeal and cry. Then above me, it disappears.

This time it doesn't return.

I'm twenty metres from the top of the Monetary building, falling fast, the edge of the building directly below me, there's no time for me to get my chute launched, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die...

I miss the edge of the building by two metres and the side of it is suddenly rushing by me and below me comes the waterlogged city streets and I've got to tie up this drop-chute strap or else I'm dead, I'm going to be dead, and I have to live, I have to survive this, because I've missed the portal but I know Reid will come back for me. He'll come back for me. I can make it back to the craft. I can stay there and wait it out but I've just got to survive this fall first and it's not going to happen unless I get this chute strapped to me.

An altitude alarm on the chute begins to bleep, and a mechanical voice in my chute vest tells me 'auto drop-chute deployment will occur in five seconds...' and I'm telling it, 'No, wait, no wait, I have it, I have it!' and then it's three seconds, and two and then one and I haven't tied off the strap and suddenly the chute punches out above me and I feel my shoulder suddenly wrench from its socket and I'm flung violently sideways and then upside down and I'm tumbling and the chute is attached to me by one strap but it's twisted and knotted and has done nothing to slow my descent. I'm spinning and spinning and whizzing about, utterly out of control, screaming as the buildings rush by me, as the street rushes up to me. I see my reflection in any remaining building windows. I'm falling too fast to survive this. I'm twirling, twirling, twirling out of any control. The ground rushes toward me. I'm not going to survive this, I'm not going to survive this, I'm not going to survive this.

The g-forces are sending me faint. I go silent. Completely silent. I shut my eyes, I squeeze my eyes closed, I can do absolutely nothing... I wait for the fatal thump as the ground rushes up to kill me, as the wind scores my ears... I wait and I wait and I...

~ PART THREE ~

◦ ◦◦O U T W O R L D S◦ ◦

HOUSE ON LAST STREET

1

I WALK up Last Street on my way home. I'm not sure how but somehow I'm alive. It doesn't feel real. I'm not sure what time of day it is. I don't think it's morning. The angle of the sun suggests it's the other end of the day. Sometime before sunset. There're no strange critters out to eat me. I'm not falling. I'm relieved to find that my feet are on solid ground. Mostly solid ground. There's no swamp but there is water. As deep as my knees.

I watch a lizard. Basking there on top of the front fence of my mother's house. It seems large for a lizard. As I approach the front gate it just watches me. I expect it to scamper off but it doesn't. It simply sits there and throws up its frill to alarm me.

I see a submerged stone. I pick it up, water dripping from my arm. I toss the stone at the reptile. I don't want to hurt it, just want it out of my way. The stone hits its tail and it scurries off, climbing a bougainvillea tree up the side of the house. It jumps to the roof and perches there, gazing down at me. I see several others up there with it. They've all got their eyes on me.

I crouch and pluck another stone from the water. Holding it in my grip in case they lose their fear and drop down to challenge me. But for the time being they stay where they are.

I push through the front gate. The flooded lawn swims with small blue shrimp and seahorse. I wonder if Lanson Edwards has been over and seen this. Does the city authority need to know Last Street is under water? I wonder how long it's been since I left.

I tread down the flooded garden path. There are tortoises with their heads sticking above the water line, their little eyes watching me. Their shells a beautiful mottled brown. And as I approach the front steps that lead to the porch I see what must be a blue octopus of some sort, clinging to the guttering along the roof.

I try to ignore it. And the lizards. And the huge water horse beasts that have stopped in the street to gaze at me. It's as if I have strayed into their world and I am some odd curiosity.

I move up the stairs. I move to the front door. I hear no-one inside. I try the handle but the door's locked.

I knock. The action seems so loud in the stillness of the afternoon. I look around. All the animals are still watching me. As if urging me to knock once more.

So I do it. I call out, 'Mum? Are you in there?' And then I hear it.

Footsteps.

Beyond the door. Somewhere inside the house.

Soft at first. But then loud. And the sound of something thumping toward the door.

When the door swings opens I squeal and fly backwards as tentacles push through the living room windows, shattering the glass and the peace, and snake-heads are suddenly piling through the doorway, snapping at me, gripping me up in their arms, dragging me into the house...

DEAD DAYS

1

I OPEN my eyes.

I'm in my bedroom at home in Jupiter. I'm lying in bed. The room is dark but I see my chest of drawers and my vanity mirror with the snap-prints of Mum and Dad and Morgan and Reid and Eddie and Juke. There's a foul acrid taste in my mouth, as if I've recently vomited. My left shoulder throbs. I remember the force of the chute wrenching my arm sideways. It feels numb, swollen. I try to sit up. I moan as I do so. But wincing, manage it. I look around. I'm alone.

Except...

Wait...

No.

What's the dark figure standing by the window?

I squint in the dark. 'Reid? Is that you?'

There's no answer.

'Morgan?'

Still no answer.

The figure moves. The curtain flutters behind them.

Grimacing, I lean over to switch on my lamp but as they step from the shadows my breath sucks back into my lungs and for a moment I cannot move. For a moment, a chill so intense and fierce sweeps through my body that I'm frozen there.

It's the stranger.

The one from the Barren Wood. The one who followed me.

2

I clamber desperately from my bed and rush for the door but he runs at me and grabs me. I squeal and he clamps his hand over my mouth and drags me back to my bed and hefts me up and dumps me there like I'm nothing but a sack of dirt. Here he pins me down, his large strong hand pushed against my mouth. He leans over me. 'Listen,' he says gruffly, 'I'm not here to harm you. But you must be quiet. If you insist on squealing I will take you out. Do you hear? But I'd rather you were awake. Understand? We are in danger.'

He has a strange accent. Nothing I've ever really heard before.

I lie here terrified. He takes his hand off my mouth. I don't utter a peep.

I watch as he gets off the bed, raising his hands like he means me no harm. Then he returns to the window, peels open the curtain and peers out. I look around the room for something to defend myself with. If I can reach something, I might be able to hit him across the head with it. Knock him out.

I see the cricket bat. Sitting on my chest of drawers. I'm contemplating rushing across the room and grabbing it when he suddenly crouches below the window and puts his finger up to his lips, instructing me to keep quiet. I hear noises in the street. I don't know what's going on. Keeping low he returns to me.

'We need to leave,' he says.

'Where's my mother?'

'She's been evacuated to safe ground.'

'Where are my friends?'

'Keep your voice down. They didn't make it back.'

I don't believe him. 'How did I get here?'

'I saved you.'

'Saved me?'

'Yes.'

'How?'

'No time to explain.'

'What do you want with me? Who are you?'

'Listen, I'll explain all in good time. First I need to get you out of here.'

Under my pillow I'm gripping the old world police baton. I don't even think about my next action, I simply whip it out fast and before he even knows what's happening I smash him across the face with it.

He goes down with a grunt.

I leave my bed and rush for the door. I wrench it open and race along the darkened hall and down the stairs when suddenly something steps out in front of me.

His droid.

3

It snares me in its arms and holds me there, its ungodly eyes blinking at me. The stranger appears at the top of the stairs, running his hand over his cheek bone. He grimaces but he smiles. 'Good swing you've got there,' he says as he descends the stairs.

He steps by me, ordering his droid to release me. Then he disappears into the kitchen... reappearing just as quickly. 'I'm Maddinson, by the way. Thomas Maddinson.' He grins, one that hides bristling pain. 'Pleasure to make your acquaintance.' He yawns his jaw open. His cheek already bruising.

4

I sit at the kitchen table. It's dark. Nothing but the glow from the solar street lamps beyond the curtains. When I try to turn on the kitchen light this stranger, Maddinson, scolds me, but I find the light doesn't work anyway. I sit here in the darkness and fold my arms defiantly. It's the first time since I awoke that I realise my wrist-com isn't on my arm. I don't know where it is. Nor what became of it. I'm desperate to call Mum, or Reid or Morgan. I glance about the kitchen, hoping it's sitting on the bench somewhere. I can't see it. Maybe it's upstairs in my bedroom. Or maybe he's taken it, thrown it away so I can't contact anyone.

He stands there at the rear door, peering out into the night. His droid stands there watching me.

'We have to leave,' Maddinson says, his voice low. 'We can't stay here.'

'I'm not going anywhere with you. I want to know what's going on. Where's my mother? Who are you? What are you doing in our house?'

'I told you. I'll explain everything in good time.'

'Well, off you go then.'

'Now's not a good time.'

'I don't care. I'm not going anywhere until you tell me exactly what you're doing here.'

He sighs. 'We really don't have time for this.'

'Don't care.' I'm sounding petulant but I'm terrified. I don't know what's going on. For all I know, this stranger has kidnapped my mum, or harmed her, and now he wants to drag me off into the woodland beyond Jupiter. To what? Violate me? Kill me?

I sit here defiant. His droid regards me with its unblinking, glowing eyes. Its head swivels and watches Maddinson for a moment... then it's looking at me again.

It's here I can't help remembering Eddie and Morgan telling me about the murders of Crawter Mullins, Narnss Hupper, Greigs Bouton, and Hulz Faird. How they hadn't died in falls from work sites as we'd initially been informed but that they'd all been killed by someone wielding a hammer. How the city authority was going to hold a town meeting to tell us some crazy Outsider was getting around killing people.

'Are you going to hurt me?'

This Maddinson person smiles but looks puzzled, as if that's the last thing on his mind. 'Why on Earth would I want to hurt you?'

'I don't know. You tell me.'

He watches me for a while. He says, 'You remember falling from that glass dome?'

I feel my brow crease over as the memory sweeps back to me. The terror of that moment grips me. I hold my breath. I grip my chair. As if I expect to suddenly crash back into that reality and smash into the streets of that swamp city. The place Reid called Frogtown.

'I saved you from that fall,' he tells me.

I watch him closely. I don't believe him. 'You saved me?'

'Well, it certainly wasn't the cat's mother.'

I blink at him, not understanding. 'What?'

'Just a saying.'

'How did you save me? I fell from above the city. From a tremendous height. There's no way you could have saved me.'

'It's a bit technical but it's called a zero-grav pocket. I intercepted you before you hit the street. Quite easy, really.'

'Why would you save me? You don't even know me.'

'Perhaps so, but why would I not save you?'

'Because you murdered people. And... and I saw you... they took you in, the city authority, they captured you. I saw them dragging you into custody.' I remember that now. The night Eddie, Morgan and I were stuck in that hangar, we saw him being marched in. I recall it so clearly all of a sudden.

'Yes, well that was due to a mild misunderstanding, you see.'

'Misunderstanding?'

'Perhaps quite rightly, your city guard seems rather suspicious of, ah, strangers, so when I was silly enough to go and get myself caught, well, I was taken in for questioning.'

'Then what? They let you go?'

'Not exactly. They abandoned their building. There was some sort of emergency that needed tending to. I simply walked out.'

I don't know what to say. He looks so sincere when he speaks. But I won't believe him.

'Look,' he says, 'I promise you, I am not here to harm you. Believe it or not, I am here to save the people of this city from a potentially catastrophic invasion.'

'Invasion? What are you talking about?'

He peels open the curtain and looks outside. 'Come and take a look. But be quiet. Don't make any noise.'

I go over to him. I peer out into the street. The street lamps light up a shuffling shape. I frown. I'm not certain what I'm seeing. But it looks like one of the Entities. Other than the ones we saw dead outside the hangar at the city authority, I've never seen one roaming free inside Jupiter before. The Jupiter authorities fear them of course but like Juke showed me, like I showed Reid, they're friendly. They're peaceful.

I recall now the day I saw this stranger Maddinson in the woodland. Standing over a mound of Entity corpses.

I stand back from him. 'You were killing them. I remember. You were killing them and collecting their bodies.' I back away from him further. 'How could you? They're a friendly race.'

'Right, well they're not exactly friendly anymore,' he says calmly. 'Would appear they've been corrupted.'

I glance at the kitchen drawers. I think of the knives in there. If I could just get to one of them...

'They've turned into killers, you see,' he says.

'I don't believe you.'

His droid makes a beep and Maddinson suddenly reaches for me, gripping me, pulling me down below the line of the window. His droid has pushed itself flat against the wall, taking on the colour of the paint work.

'Quiet,' Maddinson murmurs at my ear.

Beyond the curtain I see a shape push up against the outside window. It's just a silhouette. I can't see who or what it is.

'Keep down,' Maddinson says quietly. 'It's one of these ah, Entities, as you call them. We must be quiet. If it alerts its friends, we're doomed.'

I still don't believe him.

I fear it could be Reid or Morgan or Mum come searching for me. 'It's my friends,' I tell him quietly. 'You're trying to keep them from me.' I go to yell Reid's name but Maddinson clamps his hand over my mouth again.

His eyes glare at mine. I can barely breathe. He shakes his head. 'No,' he says quietly but sternly. 'No sound. Understand? If you scream, we're doomed. Trust me. If you insist on making a peep I'll put you to sleep. Do you heed me?'

There is such ferocious conviction in his voice and eyes, I simply nod. And when he releases my mouth I stay silent.

'If it was your friends,' he says quietly, 'they'd knock, yes? Or they'd call out your name. They wouldn't just stand there, would they?'

He eyes me. I say nothing.

'You have to believe me, your friends didn't make it back. Your city has been invaded. That is why we must leave.'

We crouch here in the dark until the shape beyond the door has ambled off. Maddinson waits for his droid. When his droid shifts away from the wall and makes a soft purring sound Maddinson says, 'Right, we have a window. Let us not waste it.'

He orders me to remain low. I feel I have no choice. I feel it's better to go along with his demands. At least until I can find some way out of this, some way to escape him. Maddinson eyes his droid again. His droid crouches there beside us. I'm not sure what it's doing. But Maddinson watches it, as if waiting for it to say something. Some signal.

Eventually it bleeps like a small bird and Maddinson looks at me and says, 'Alright, the way's clear. Let's move.' He reaches for the door handle and pushes the door open.

The smell of night drifts in, the smell of damp grass and eucalyptus. The sounds of chirping bugs and crickets can be heard. I see the broken pieces of moon across the night sky.

The droid slinks out into the darkness, looking almost invisible somehow in the dark. 'We need to reach the Arachni. I've parked it behind your city's greenhouses. So this is the plan. I leave the house first. I'll dash for cover. When I signal that it's safe, you follow. Do you understand me?'

I swallow. I still don't know what's going on. I nod. He smiles. It's a warm smile, I think, but it's designed to fool me. I know that much.

'Good,' he says positively. 'I think we're going to get through this.' He turns and waits for another signal from his droid. When it comes in the form of what sounds like another bird call, Maddinson keeps low, dashing down the stairs, scurrying out into the night across the grass of the rear garden before stooping down at the line of eucalyptus trees that divides our property from the crops of corn and sugar cane that stretch out to the city fence line. I can just make out his form in the night gloom.

Another bird call from the droid has Maddinson ushering me to follow. All I want to do is run the other way. Out into the street, but his droid's there, no doubt blocking any attempt of mine to escape. I know now they're trying to avoid the automated city guard. That they're trying to kidnap me, lead me out into the woodland.

For now I decide to comply. I'll pick my chance to escape. I hurry down the stairs, and stooping low, I scurry down the garden toward the eucalyptus trees.

'Good,' Maddinson says in a hushed voice as I reach him. 'You're doing really well.'

His droid arrives just after me and off it skitters into the crops, its eyes scanning the way ahead in beams. 'Alright, now keep low and follow me,' Maddinson says and he takes my hand and leads me away into the corn crops.

I used to come and play out here as a child. But nowadays, unless I'm on work detail and harvesting the crop, it's not a place I regularly go. Too many rats and shadow cats and spitting toads and snakes. But I know more than ever that I'm being lead toward the fence line. Maddinson must've cut a hole in it. The most direct route from the outside world to my house. I'm being kidnapped. I'm being fooled. I think about turning and running off. But I need to be careful here. I need to pick my moment.

We trail down the corn rows and arrive at the service track that comes off the end of Genesis Street. The street lamps cast light down one end of this track. It doesn't quite reach us where we are. There's also the old packing shed across from us. Between us and it there's open ground that stretches for up to thirty metres. Maddinson stops here. He points back toward the city streets, indicating the shapes there ambling about.

'Be careful here,' he tells me. 'No sudden movement or noise.'

His droid shifts out into the dark. It seems to float toward the old shed. A short time later it sends back a bird call and Maddinson says, 'Alright, again I'll go first. I'll signal you when it's safe for you to cross. How're you feeling?'

I don't know what to say.

'Don't worry,' he says, 'you're doing well.' He leaves me, sneaking out into the dark, heading for the cover of the shed. And it's while his back is to me, while his droid vanishes beyond the opposite side of the shed, that I make my move.

5

I backtrack quickly. I have the advantage that I know the streets of my neighbourhood. I know the short cuts. I know the places to hide. I dart back through the corn. I cut right toward the backs of the houses along Last Street. There's a tall fence along the back of Mrs. Reardon's house. But there's a hole in that fence, hidden under tall grass on the southern corner. I break from the corn, crouching low, scrambling along on my hands and knees, tearing the grass aside, trying to locate the hole.

I'm breathing heavy. I'm trying to be quiet. All the while I think I hear him behind me. His pounding footsteps coming after me. Him or his droid.

I locate the access way and glance over my shoulder. I don't see him. I drag myself through the hole and dash along the line of fig palms down the side of the house.

I reach the front garden. The street looks clear. I push through the gate and race across the road to the vacant house directly opposite. I rush inside and straight through the front room, down the hall and into the back room. The rear door is open and I hurry outside. My skin goes cold when I think I hear him following me.

I duck right as I leave the house and rush into the greenhouse. I stop. I crouch, listening for footsteps. I hear nothing but chirping bugs. The howl of some lizard. Once more I wish I had my wrist-com, I'm desperate to contact Reid, desperate to tell him I'm being hunted by some crazy guy.

I gather my breath and peer over the old work bench... gazing out through the grimy greenhouse walls.

I don't see the stranger anywhere. But I don't wait around for him to find me. Keeping low I push toward the rear door, glancing through the grubby greenhouse wall toward the back door of the house, making sure the way is clear. I expect him to come bursting through that door. But he doesn't. Is it too much to hope that I've actually lost him?

I push my way out of the greenhouse and dart behind the Ixora hedging so that if he's trailing me, if he races from the house looking for me, I'll be concealed.

I scale the trampled down back fence and run toward the tennis court with its tall rusting fence wire. I duck around behind the sport's shed and run out onto Springvale Lane.

Morgan's house is only a block from here. So is Eddie's. Reid's is two blocks further away. I'm planning on making it to Morgan's first. From there I'll alert the city guard. I don't know why I haven't seen any of the city drones yet. But they must be out there somewhere.

I move across the street. Into gardens. And I see one now. An automated droid. Only it's sprawled across the grass. Not moving. I wonder what's happened to it.

I don't hang around.

I keep running. Sweat drips off me. I'm panting. I wish again that I had my wrist-com. I just wish I could call someone. Anyone.

I dash through another garden and it's not until I reach the rear of the house that I see something that both confuses and shocks me. Someone lying in the garden. Someone not moving. I stop. I watch. It looks like Mrs. Tippings. Something gruesome has happened to her. Something has bitten into her neck and arms.

My legs freeze. My eyes bulge. I clap my hand over my mouth.

I turn away from her. I stumble. Feeling nauseous. I manage to make it onto Hillbrow Road and it's here I stop dead in my tracks.

Without even knowing it, I've dashed into the midst of several ambling figures. I don't move. They stop where they are. I see their large unblinking eyes watching me. The solar lamps wash much of the street but their faces are still mostly in the darkness. Except I know who they are.

Entities.

Some look like individuals that I've fed. Some that I believe I have befriended. Why are they roaming Jupiter? Have they been frightened away from their dwellings in the woodlands that surround the city? Scared off by that sweet-smiling stranger, Maddinson? He was killing them. For whatever reason he was collecting their bodies.

They stand here. They watch me.

'Do you remember me?' I ask them. 'Do you? I brought you food. You must flee. He's following me. The one who killed your friends. You must run.'

But they don't run. They simply stand there watching me. One of them begins to amble toward me. There is a peculiar sound coming from her throat. A strained sound. Like a dog starving for food. I back up a step or two. Confused. Is this a threat like the city authorities have always warned us about? If I had food to offer would they be placated? I don't understand.

'You need to run,' I tell them all once more. 'He's coming. The one who killed your friends. He's coming.'

They don't listen. They don't seem to hear me. I decide I can't wait for them to heed me. Maddinson will be here any moment. I can't hang around. I turn to run but there's an Entity standing right there at my shoulder, his mouth open, teeth bared, as if he's about to bite into me.

I stumble backwards. His fingers reaching for me. I push his hands aside, trip on the curb and sprawl against the sidewalk.

They come at me now. One and then another and then more. At first as if they're uncertain. As if they recognise me. But then it doesn't seem to matter. Their large unblinking eyes are stuck on me, their large lipless mouths are wide open as if they've not eaten for weeks.

I scramble backwards. The tennis courts are behind me. The gate is held by an old chain. There's just enough space for me to squeeze through. I'm in the process of doing just that when they reach me and grab me. I'm halfway through the gap, squeezing my head and shoulders through but they've already latched onto my legs, they're biting into me.

I squeal. I manage to pull myself through onto the fringe of the courts but the Entities have my feet in their clutches. They're scrabbling at me desperately, like their meal is wriggling from their grasp. They begin to pile over each other in a sudden frenzy to get at me. I kick at them, collecting a couple in the face. They have torn off my shoes. They're tearing at my pants. Their nails ripping into my skin. They begin yanking me back into the street. I grip hold of the fence. I'm crying out for help. I'm screaming and squealing. I feel their teeth biting deep into my feet and legs. I feel hot blood flowing down my skin.

6

A sudden wash of light appears above the street. I hear the mechanical sound of an engine. Some of the Entities look up to see what the distraction is. Others are single-minded in their efforts to eat me, continuing to sink their teeth into my legs. The pain is excruciating. I can't stop screaming.

The craft descends to the street and pellets of fire shoot out like bolts of lightning, cutting through the Entities, dropping them like dogs.

The craft lands. I don't see it too well. The solar lamps don't light it sufficiently but my view is impeded by the writhing mass of Entities trying to get at me.

What I do manage to see is a doorway coming open and a ramp extending and that droid, Maddinson's droid, stepping out, and somehow, one by one the creatures are sucked from me, and as far as I can tell they are instantly vaporised in a violent explosive burst.

Maddinson appears in the craft's doorway, wielding some bulbous looking hand gun. He rushes down the ramp, running to my aid, kicking away Entities that continue to throw themselves at me and he zaps them with a green light ray that seems to shrivel them in an instant—they drop where they stand like desiccated lumps.

Maddinson pulls me gently back through the gap in the gate. Blood gushes from my wounds. It feels as though my legs are on fire, such is the excruciating pain. 'I have you,' he says gently. 'It's alright, Skye, I have you. You're safe.'

The sounds of squeals and growls goes on about me as Maddinson's droid deals with the horde of Entities, firing arm mounted weapons at multiple targets. Maddinson hoists me into his arms. I feel my head swim, I feel dizzy, faint. I feel thick warm blood pouring out of my legs.

'Stay with me, Skye,' Maddinson urges. 'Don't go to sleep. Stay with me, you hear?'

He stands, I'm cradled in his arms. He carries me back to his craft and up the ramp. I see hundreds more Entities rushing up the street toward us. It's as if the attack on me has attracted them, stimulated their hunger. Maddinson's droid backs up to the ship, vaporising them as they swarm the craft, as they scramble over it like ants on a dead rat.

The droid backs its way inside the craft, the ramp retracting as it does so. As the droid steps into the craft, the door slides shut, Entities throwing themselves at it.

Maddinson lays me down on something of a lounge settee and jumps into a flight seat. I feel my body lurch as the craft leaves the street and takes us out into the night.

7

I look about. I'm light headed, in pain, I'm bleeding profusely, but I recognise the craft. It's the one we sheltered in when we were in that swamp version of Jupiter. Frogtown. I don't understand... Imogen told us it couldn't fly.

I keep looking about, straining my neck to see beyond my head, wondering if Reid is here somewhere. Wondering if Imogen and the others are all here.

I feel something tugging at my legs. Instinctively I kick out, fearing the Entities have scrambled aboard.

'Skye, it's alright,' I hear Maddinson say. 'I need to sterilise and dress your wounds. You've lost a lot of blood. There's a bit of a mess here. I wouldn't recommend you look.'

I can't help myself... I look, and if my hands didn't feel so stiff I'd have cupped my mouth in shock.

Maddinson brushes hair out of my eyes. I see him smiling down at me. 'I did tell you not to look.'

I'm terrified, there's such a mess of blood. My legs are bitten to pieces. I feel faint, nauseous.

'It's nothing we can't fix, though,' he assures me.

He has a first-aid kit with him. He lifts some device to my legs and I hear several sharp hissing sounds and each time he does it I feel a cool sensation sweep through my lower limbs. I see his droid standing over me.

My hands hover in front of my chest. They seem to be going more and more stiff, more and more numb.

'What's happening to me?' I ask weakly, terrified. 'What have you done?'

'I've administered painkillers,' Maddinson tells me. 'Gryff's going to take a sample of your blood.'

I squint my eyes at him. 'Gryff?'

'My mechanoid. Gryffin, model zero-eight of her majesty's royal guard.'

This droid, Gryffin, puts its finger to my arm. It feels as if it briefly sucks at my skin. Moments later, after it has retracted its finger, it gives off three tweeting sounds. Maddinson watches it, like he's carefully listening to the droid's prognosis, his eyes staring at the floor.

He then looks up at me. He's not quite frowning but he's not quite smiling either. 'Well, it's as I thought. Wouldn't have expected any different the way you were taken to by those things.'

I try to sit but I can't. I'm groggy. My arms won't move. Maddinson urges me to lie still. 'What's wrong?' I ask him, shivering. 'What's happening?'

'You've been infected,' he says. 'We need to get you help.'

I try to ask him what he means. Infected by what? But my lips are shuddering and I can't speak.

'Don't fight it,' he says. 'You can't fight it. I will give you something to help stave off its effects for a short period. But I can't cure you. Not here.'

Another device he pulls from his kit. Something containing an ominous green liquid. I try to tell him I don't want it. I try to tell him to take me home to my mother. But my tongue feels numb. I can't utter a single word. He injects the liquid into my legs. I feel it like a dagger of ice and I jolt as it drains into me.

He holds me. 'You'll be feeling much better soon enough. It has a slight anaesthetic effect. So I expect you'll drop off to sleep. Trust me though, it's for the best.'

I can fight it no longer. The will has gone out of my body. I stop struggling. I lie there gazing up at him.

I want to tell him to help me. I want to tell him I'm frightened. I want to tell him to leave me be. But my thoughts are leaving me, my consciousness ebbing. I gaze up at him...

I watch him...

But he's fading...

CLOUDFYRE

1

I HEAR a voice. His voice. Maddinson's.

'Yes, I have a priority one infection so I'll need an eradication team and I'll need a quarantine team to hit the ship top to bottom. And she'll likely require surgery. Yes, she shed a lot of blood, most of it in the Arachni.' There's a pause and then I hear, 'Affirmative, Gryff conducted the test. Confirmed she's infected. So we'll need to transport her immediately to quarantine so she can be pumped with our anti-virals.' He pauses once more. 'Let's see. About an hour, I guess. Yes, we've got a tight window, I realise that, but she's our agent so it's crucial we keep her alive... Right then, landing in fifteen seconds.'

I open my eyes and sun light bites into them and it hurts so much that I squeeze them shut. I roll my head to the side and peel my eyes open and I squint and see Maddinson strapped into the flight seat of this craft.

The walls are translucent. I see the world below us. We look to be descending over a city. There are buildings below but none so tall as Jupiter's. The sun is out, but it's low in the sky, as if sunrise isn't long over.

I try to sit up. But I can't. I'm strapped into the settee.

Maddinson must hear me groaning because he glances over. 'Oh, you're awake. Hold tight, we're descending.'

The craft pitches and then levels out and for a moment or two it's as if we're hovering in the air. But slowly I notice we begin descend straight down until the landing struts gently take the ground.

Maddinson unstraps himself and strides over to me, undoing my clasps. 'How are you feeling?' he asks, helping me to sit up. Gryffin, his droid, stands watching us from the front of the craft.

'Dizzy,' I say although I don't feel as rotten as I did when I fell asleep. Still, my hands remain in that stiff, numbed posture.

'The dizziness shall wear off,' he says. 'Be warned though, you're not out of the woods by any means. You've been infected by a deadly contagion so we need to run a course of treatment. Do not fear however. You're in good hands.'

'What's wrong with my arms?'

'Effects of the contagion,' he says with half a grin.

I share none of his humour. I'm still concerned about being in his company. He seems far too erratic and far too smug for my liking.

I look about. I view the outside world through the transparent walls. We're in a sort of paved courtyard. We've touched down amidst several other similar craft. The courtyard is bordered by high stone walls. There's a red brick building ahead of us. Beyond that there looks to be a river winding through whatever city it is that we now find ourselves. There are people outside. Some dressed in a militaristic uniform. Others dressed like physicians, in long white coats.

Some sort of plastic module is fixed to the outside of our craft. It resembles an enormous white bubble. When Gryffin operates the door, it opens into this spherical chamber. It's big enough for a group of people to stand up within. Beyond it there looks to be yet another bubble.

'Airtight quarantine cells,' Maddinson explains, helping me to my feet. 'How're your legs? Can you walk?'

I don't answer. But they're okay. I can walk, but slowly, awkwardly. He leads me toward the exit. Women dressed in what must be full biological suits enter through the series of air-lock bubbles. They hand us gas masks and begin gushing some sort of silver gas about the place. Gryffin is sprayed first. He remains inside the craft whilst the quarantine procedure continues.

The silver gas seems to condense into water bubbles that float to the ceiling of the craft and collect up there in a glimmering pool of water that looks somewhat like mercury. It seems to swirl about in a clockwise direction, sounding like it's being sucked out somewhere.

I'm walked into the first bubble. It closes behind us. We are bombarded by another burst of gas. The atmosphere is then sucked out and a seal ahead of us parts and permits us into the next bubble. The procedure is repeated twice more.

My legs feel weak. Maddinson holds me, his arm around me. I feel my head lolling into his shoulder.

'You're doing well,' he keeps telling me.

The series of quarantine modules ends in a sealed corridor where I'm lifted onto a trolley and wheeled into what Maddinson tells me is a negative pressure bay.

One of the physicians recommends Maddinson be isolated in a separate bay.

'Please,' I tell him, 'don't leave me.' I don't know him but he is the only familiar face, my only link to home.

'Don't worry,' he tells me with a smile. 'I don't plan to.' He casts a stern look at the physician.

She doesn't argue.

I'm conscious through the first part of my procedure. I'm pumped with all sorts of drugs and then left for it all to percolate through my body. Maddinson stays near me the whole time. I keep asking him where we are but he keeps saying, 'Don't concern yourself with that just yet. I'll explain everything when this is done.'

Smart dressed people constantly come by to talk to him. They stand outside our cell. They converse via some sort of electronics communications system. I can't hear what they're saying, nor can I hear what he says in return. He keeps his voice low.

Along with Gryffin who stands there almost motionless the whole time, I have white mechanical droids that monitor me. There is also a physician assigned to watch over me. I'm hooked up to a bunch of strange looking devices that Maddinson insists are reading my vital signs: my heart and blood pressure, the level of contagion in my body, readings of peculiar medicines that have been pumped into system, how effective they're being.

The same checks are performed periodically on Maddinson.

His results however are negative. He carries none of this mysterious disease. Still, due to his exposure to me, to whatever we faced back there in Jupiter, he is kept here in quarantine, under surveillance.

Meanwhile, I'm told I need surgery. A team of surgeons prepares to tend to the bite wounds on my feet. My upper arm also needs tending to. Maddinson stands aside to give them space to work. But he never leaves our cell.

'They need to put you to sleep,' he tells me. 'I'll be right here.'

I'm nervous. I don't want to be put to sleep. 'Please, no. I'm frightened.'

'It's necessary,' he says.

Before I can protest, a mask is placed over my face. I gasp and jerk my head to the side, panicking. Someone grips either side of my face and attempts to hold my head still. 'No,' I argue, 'no.' I want to snatch their hands away but my arms still won't move.

Once more the mask is planted over my nose and mouth. Forcibly. I struggle against it. But my head is held firm against my will. 'Please,' I cry into the mask, 'let me be, let me be, please.'

It's no use. I taste the dry, sweet tang of anaesthetic gas. And already, I'm drifting away...

2

My eyes flicker open. Immediately the room about me seems to swim. My belly lurches. Someone beside me urges me to keep calm, that I'm okay, that I might feel nauseous for a little while.

I retch and a bag is held before my face. I heave hot, burning bile into it. I cough, I splutter. I heave again. I rest my head back on the pillow. I feel spit running down my chin. Someone wipes it clean with a damp cloth. I shut my eyes. I can't stand to watch the ceiling lurch and roll. It makes little difference, the darkness behind my eyes shifts and swims and turns me upside down. I vomit again. And again.

When I finally settle I look about. Gazing up at a smiling figure. A woman with a kindly face. I don't know who she is. I've never seen her before. She keeps reassuring me. 'Everything's okay,' she tells me.

I see Maddinson nowhere. I'm disconcerted and dizzy. Slowly my nausea passes. When I can manage it, I'm allowed to sit up. I'm brought sweet biscuits and hot sweet tea.

'Where's Maddinson?' I ask, my voice croaky.

'We shall take you to him shortly,' I'm told.

It's all very clinical. I'm in a small anteroom, which the nurse refers to as recovery.

Gryffin stands there like he's my loyal servant. But he never speaks. Just bleeps which I don't understand. I ask him where Maddinson is. He just bleeps.

The head physician returns to talk to me. I notice the small badge on her shoulder. It depicts a planet situated between two suns. I've seen this peculiar emblem before somewhere but right now I can't remember where. 'Good news,' she says. 'You're clear of the virus. And the wounds on your arm and both legs are mended. In four hours we'll administer another course of INSEC.'

I'm confused. 'Insect?'

'INSEC,' she repeats. 'Intravenous Nanocellular Surgical Emergency Care.'

I look at her blankly.

'It's a branch of medicine that aids in super-fast tissue recovery.'

I gaze down at my feet. They are covered in bandages to my thighs. Another bandage is wrapped neatly around my upper arm. I flex my fingers on both arms. I'm relieved to find the stiffness has gone out of them.

The head physician tells me that I'll soon be taken to a convalescent ward. About five minutes later two blue droids wheel me out and up a ramp to a higher level.

There are windows here that look out onto a river. It's a wonderful scene. Though I still have no idea where I am or what's going on. I ask the droids if they know Maddinson, and where he might be. They never reply.

I'm transferred to a bed. There are about fifteen beds here but I'm the only patient. No-one else is around.

I sit here feeling lonely, watching small punts going peacefully up and down the river. I see birds I don't recognise in trees beyond the complex. I hear a dog barking somewhere. I don't want to be here. I want to leave. I wonder if my legs will support me if I should get up and walk out. I look around. On the wall there's that emblem again: a planet floating between a pair of burning stars.

I hear a voice. 'How do you feel?'

I turn my head.

Maddinson stands there.

I'm relieved to see him, though not overwhelmed. He's a familiar face but he's also the one who stole me from Jupiter and dragged me here.

I try to remind myself that he also very likely saved my life.

'Better,' I tell him.

'You look better. And I hear you're clear of the contagion. Great news.'

He stands there. We look at each other. There's an awkward silence.

'You hungry?'

I watch him. 'A little.'

'Right then, would you care to join me on the terrace for a spot of lunch? Beautiful sunny day out. What do you say? Up for a bit of fresh air?'

3

I'm dressed in slippers and loose fitting hospital pyjamas. Maddinson escorts me from the ward.

It's cool outside. Much cooler than I'd anticipated, much cooler than I'm used to in Jupiter. But not unpleasant. The midday sun warms us. We are on a spacious lawn that runs down to the banks of the river. Birds I've never seen before get about. Birds I recognise from books in Jupiter's school library. Swans, geese, mallard ducks. Sparrows flit about our table, constantly chirping.

Across the river, there are other properties that line the river banks. Commercial businesses if I had to guess. Boat yards. A foundry. Timber and coal yards. A roadway trails the river course and I watch folk riding strange bicycles along this roadway. Awkward looking contraptions with one enormous wheel at the front and a tiny wheel at the back.

'Penny farthings,' Maddinson tells me, looking at me like I might already know their names, like I should recognise them.

But something else catches my eye then. Men driving long horse-drawn carriages that are loaded up with timber or coal and ferried away.

I stare at the horses out of complete awe. I've never seen such creatures. I've only seen horses depicted in books. They are such huge majestic beasts.

For a long while I don't speak.

I mean, what on Mother's Earth is this place?

I can't help but feel that I have somehow been transported back in time. That I've arrived in days before the Old World. Days I've been taught about in school. Industrial times. Yet, there are some aspects here that speak of a society moving into fields of advanced technology. Maddinson's peculiar craft for example. But not only that. Up river, suspended across the river course, is a most striking feature: a glistening rail line suspended from a tall gantry system that snakes off into the surrounding city. As we sit here, more than once, a peculiar vehicle zips by suspended from this rail line. It looks to be some sort of train, its momentum generated by what must be aircraft propellers situated at its front and rear. Some of these "trains" consist of several cigar shaped "carriages" that look to be filled with passengers. Others zoom by in the form of a single "carriage".

'George Bennie's Railplane,' Maddinson tells me like that should mean something to me. 'One of our modern modes of urban transport.'

But that's not all. Every now and then someone soars through the sky on what I would've said was a flying bicycle. They look airborne thanks to a pair of large horizontally situated discs or propellers where ordinarily a pair of wheels would be found.

'None of this makes any sense,' I say, still trying to clear my head of my recent anaesthetic. 'I don't understand what I'm seeing.'

At length Maddinson frowns at me. As if this intrigues him.

Droid servants arrive with two pots of steaming hot tea and a small ceramic jug of milk. There are cubes of sugar on a plate. And more biscuits which Maddinson calls "Scottish shortbread". Gryffin, his droid, stands back, but he's ever-present. As if acting sentry.

I sit here quietly. Still just staring at everything around me. Trying to make sense of it. Confused. Flabbergasted. Terrified. Unless I'm simply dreaming all of this, I am present in a living breathing city here. The sounds and smells of it are all about me, the sounds of industry and life. It's a scene I've never known. A scene I have longed to experience.

I can't help feeling betrayed. It's as though I've been living some sort of lie, some sort of fake existence. Have I lived my entire life veiled beneath some grand conspiracy? Is what I'm seeing the real truth of the world?

'You okay?' Maddinson asks me.

I shake my head. 'Where are we? What is this place?'

'You're in London, England.' The way he speaks, it's like he expects me to know this.

I stare at him. 'London?'

'Yes.'

'But... the world is dead. How can this be real?' I keep staring at him. Like he's pulled some magic trick.

He's quite easy to look at I realise for the first time. Dark brown hair combed neatly and a dimpled smile. Lean and muscular. With something cheeky in his brown eyes.

'Have I lived some lie?'

'A lie?' he says curiously. 'An interesting perspective.'

'But it must be a lie,' I tell him. 'Look where we are, this city. At school we're taught from a very young age that beyond Jupiter all cities on Earth lie silent. That the dead still sit at their desks, or sit in their cars, or still lie in their beds, that they all perished instantly in the Great Silence. That somewhere there might be pockets of human existence but for all intents and purposes the human race has been wiped out. But being here, seeing this living, breathing place, it mustn't be true. Someone's sold us a lie. I want to know why.'

A platter of sandwiches is brought to our table. Sandwiches of apple and cheddar. Of cucumber. Of ham and pickle. Of curried egg and lettuce. All cut into precise little triangles. There are also bowls of green pitted olives. Scotch eggs. Chicken drumsticks. Pickled onions. Pork pies. Most of this stuff I've never eaten before. Never even heard of. Maddinson has to point out which is which. We are served pitchers of sweet apple juice. Watermelon juice. Red wine.

'It's not a lie,' Maddinson tells me, popping a couple of olives into his mouth. 'What you've been told is the truth, more or less.' He pours himself some wine, takes a sip. Sits back. 'Can you tell me how you managed to get yourself to that swamp city? The place where I saved you from that fall.'

I watch him, wondering why he's changing the subject. 'You mean that place with the mighty glass dome?'

'Yes. How did you find yourself there?'

I gaze out at the river thinking back over the events that lead us there. It all seems so utterly ludicrous. 'There was this book. Called the Ephemerys. It contained coded information that lead us to... I don't know... a doorway. A portal. I still don't understand exactly what it was. When we stepped through it we found ourselves in that place.' I look at Maddinson. 'It looked like our Jupiter. It had the same streets and buildings. But I can't explain it. Eddie, my friend, seemed to think it might've been a future version of Jupiter. Where everyone has died out. Where the climate has changed and the weather has become more rainy and humid. Where animals have mutated and grown to enormous proportions.'

'An interesting hypothesis,' Maddinson says, crunching into a pickled onion. He chews. Swallows. 'And a very intriguing account.' He sips more wine. Places his glass back on the table. Thoughtful the whole time. 'So this book, this Ephemerys, may I ask where you found it?'

I'm watching his eyes closely. Why does he want to know?

'Humour me,' he says like he's read my thoughts.

I don't know if I fully trust him. Do I tell him or not?

After a few moments later I wonder if it matters.

'A year ago,' I say, 'my step brother went missing. His name was Juke. We set out to search for him and we found a rucksack that belonged to him. Ultimately it lead us to this book, the Ephemerys. We don't know where he got it. Imogen, one of my, well, one of my school mates, she claims Juke saw it drop through one of these portals.'

Maddinson watches me closely, a look of deep intrigue in his eyes.

I find myself waiting for him to say something. Something still tells me he's not being entirely honest with me. 'What do you know of that book?' I ask him.

'Nothing. But I find it highly intriguing.'

'What do you know of that city then?' I ask. 'That swamp city. Was is the future? Had everyone died out?'

Maddinson shakes his head. 'I can't tell you what happened to that city's people. But it certainly wasn't the future.' He sips more wine. 'What if I tell you it's what we call one of the Outworlds? One that has, until now, remained undiscovered. That there are actually thousands of such Outworlds out there? Possibly millions.'

I watch him closely. I have no idea what he's talking about. 'Outworlds?'

'Outworlds. Being separate versions of Earth.'

My head feels dizzy all over again. 'Separate versions of Earth? I don't even know what you're saying.'

He nods like that's okay. 'Right then, I'll try to explain. We currently sit here on what we call Earth One. We like to view it as the central hub. Around us, spinning in thousands, perhaps millions of other realities are countless other worlds, including the one on which there exists your city of Jupiter.'

I look at him as he talks. I'm wondering if he's telling me some grand lie. I laugh. 'That's so far-fetched it's impossible.'

'Any more far-fetched than believing that you had miraculously jumped from your world to a future version of your own city?'

I blink at him. It's a good point. Though I won't admit it. 'How did we get here then?'

'In the Arachni.'

'Your flying craft?'

'Yes.'

'But how?'

'To put it at its simplest, it has the ability to transverse egress points to pass into alternative universal planes.'

'Transverse egress points.' I grin, frustrated. 'I honestly don't know what you're talking about.'

'Egress points are what you're calling portals. The Arachni can open them on a simple command. It can hop dimensions.'

'Hop dimensions?' I laugh, but I'm not finding much funny at the moment. 'How?'

'Well, it's all based on rather complicated quantum physics, I'm afraid. String theory and the like. I'm not a physicist so there's much of it I don't bother trying to get my head around. I leave all that to the smart bods over at IEPA.'

'IEPA?'

'The Interplanetary Exploration and Preservation Alliance.'

I rub the back of my neck. I feel a dull throb in my lower legs. 'But... but, I don't understand. What am I doing here? Who are you? What is this place?'

'I am Thomas Maddinson. I am a Rank Four Gatherer with the Royal Cloudfyre Society, a specialist group commissioned by certain Lords and Ladies who report directly to her majesty Queen Katherine the First. We are a sub-branch of IEPA. Essentially we are a society of conservationists. I am involved with the Interdimensional Division, a secret group established to oversee the welfare and safety of Outworlds, to roam these Outworlds with the express purpose of protecting native flora and fauna and conserving ecology.'

I'm utterly speechless. Utterly incredulous. None of this can possibly be true. What I desperately want him to say is that we are simply a few miles from Jupiter, in a secret yet functioning city that I never knew existed. 'But... but how can this be? How do you know there are other worlds, these other versions of Earth? It doesn't make sense.'

'Bit of a long story,' he says with a smile.

'I want to know. You need to tell me.'

He gives me that odd frown again. Cocking his head as he pops another olive into his mouth and chews. 'You really have lost your memory, haven't you?'

I blink at him, my forehead creases.

'They warned me that you may have forgotten certain things. But not to this extent.'

'What are you talking about?'

He sits back. He eyes me thoughtfully. He reaches for his glass of wine. 'Right then, I believe I ought to give you the explanation you're seeking. With any luck, it'll go some way to jogging your memory.' He sips his beverage. 'At least, I hope it will.'

I have no idea what's going on. I don't know what he's saying.

But he sits back to impart his bizarre tale.

4

'Forty three years ago the Cosmic Survey Port at Greenwich here in London, detected an anomaly floating through Earth's solar system. It caused quite a stir in political circles, as you can imagine. Debates were held, astronomical specialists were called in. Lords, ladies and politicians squabbled and bickered about its presence, what it was, where it had come from, et cetera.

'A handful of high profile Lords suggested that the defence branch of IEPA send up attack drones to destroy it. Their fear being that the anomaly posed a significant threat to Earth stability and welfare.

'Others argued that we would stand to gain more not by destroying it but by studying it, learning its secrets. IEPA agreed and by the summer of 1841 they financed an operation to send a probe up to intercept the anomaly. To inspect it, study it, run scans, et cetera.

'And as to what this probe ultimately unearthed, well, it was intriguing to say the least. IEPA received data that suggested the object was a craft of alien origin. A craft of sufficient size that it may have been carrying travellers from the stars. Possible invaders.

'Scans however, showed no life forms.

'This of course puzzled the good folk at IEPA. For the alien craft had, by all reports, dropped into an areosynchronous orbit around Mars—an action, or programming, that would no doubt have been governed by some sort of intelligent mind.

'Subsequently, IEPA dispatched a contingent of drones to infiltrate the vessel. Alas, what these drones discovered within proved both fascinating and perplexing. The craft was reported to be fully functional. And IEPA's initial suspicions that the interior harboured travellers from the stars rang true. For there indeed were alien beings on board. However, for some unknown reason, they were all deceased.

'Now, to cut a long story short, the craft remained in orbit around Mars for eight months. In that time it came to be known as the Lostboy anomaly. And during that time, IEPA continued to send cosmic droids up to inspect it.

'At some stage, an independent royal committee set up to monitor the Lostboy craft, suggested that IEPA ought to retrieve one of the alien corpses detected within the Lostboy vessel and bring it back to Earth for the purposes of studying it. This, as you might imagine, caused a complete ruckus in parliament and ultimately it was decided that such an operation would likely jeopardise Earth, exotic diseases and bacteria being the primary concern, and thus the plan was voted down and the idea scrapped.

'When the Lostboy finally vacated Mars orbit in the spring of 1842, IEPA personnel monitored it closely, trying to speculate where it might turn up next. Fears of a terrestrial invasion were rife as four months later it dropped into a polar orbit around Earth—fears that were perhaps justified once IEPA detected that it was actively running scans of our world.

'This was followed by an ejection of hundreds of peculiar pods from the Lostboy craft. Pods that mysteriously seemed to vanish only minutes after being jettisoned. For a time, the purpose of these pods remained a complete mystery. Some wild conjectures regarding the purpose of these pods suggested that they weren't vanishing but that they were actually cloaking themselves, rendering themselves invisible in order to drop into our atmosphere unseen to carry out, in secret, whatever mission they'd been dispatched to perform.

'IEPA thus sent up tracer probes. The idea was to have these tracers attach themselves to the pods in order to track their movements.

'But each time they did so, the pods vanished, the radio signal from each tracer becoming lost.

'Desperate, IEPA continued to adapt and modify the design of their tracers, hoping each time that they might find a way to crack the mystery of why their signals kept dropping out. Then one day the pods began to rematerialise and return to the Lostboy craft. It was here that the tracers mysteriously returned to operational capacity, blinking back to life, and sending peculiar data down to IEPA control.

'Two months of data analysis by IEPA technicians brought them to a curious conclusion: it seemed that the pods had been conducting scans on Earth in alternative planes. That they were somehow transversing dimensions.

'It was a concept that the Lords and Ladies of parliament initially found ludicrous, preposterous, even abominable. Such a concept were the realm of fantasy. Flights of fancy entertained only by madmen. And it was initially dismissed as pure nonsense.

'But apparently the evidence was there. Images and photographs of multiple alternative cities of London were returned by the tracer probes. Showing entirely separate realities to the one we know. Londons populated by amphibious beings. Londons packed with buildings fifteen times the height of our present ones. Londons submerged beneath the ocean. And it was not only London city. It was Cairo. Paris. St Petersburg. Lahore. Singapore. Peking. Bangkok. Sydney. New York. Cities the world over. There were also cities no-one recognised. Cities that do not exist on this plane. The question was: how could there possibly be images of such places? Of all these iterations and variants.

'Of course, the good people at IEPA aren't ones to jump to conclusions. To test their theory they dispatched tracers carrying more highly specialised research units, to be attached to the alien pods. Time and again they returned with similar data.

'Whilst many Lords and Ladies remained unconvinced, suggesting that the research tracers had merely been intercepted and sabotaged by some organisation up to no good, some began to question how there could possibly be these entirely separate realms of existence out there in the first place. And why on Earth would the alien craft continue to probe them?

'Obviously the Lostboy was operating on preprogramed routines. But still, why? Where had the Lostboy vessel come from? What was it doing here? Who had dispatched it on its mission?

'One theory put forward posed that the craft was a deep space research ship, exploring outer worlds. Perhaps sending back data and possibly awaiting further instructions.

'A second theory suggested the ship was fully automated and programmed to scan worlds for possible life, or worlds with a climactic condition favourable to the beings who had built it and sent it out into space, with the possible intention of colonisation.

'Yet, neither of those ideas explained why it was probing these alternative versions of Earth.

'Not until a third theory arose did we have some sort of an answer, a theory that was derived from an unexpected source. Since moving into polar orbit around Earth, the Lostboy had been emitting a strange signal. The cryptology boffins at IEPA had been doing their best to make sense of it. It seemed to be a long sequence of random numbers. And for a long while, IEPA cryptology had had little success in determining exactly what these numbers meant. Then finally some bright spark worked out that it was a coded mathematical message. One that could be translated into language. And the day they informed us and told us what they believed the message said, well it was quite a momentous occasion.

'They believed the message gave an explanation for the anomalous craft's purpose. That it was in fact a lifeboat. Carrying the last survivors of an ancient civilisation. Their home world, a planet the message had termed Cloudfyre, a planet orbiting a twin star system thousands of light-years from Earth, had come to grief during a mysterious event called Mortatha. Or the End Times. And this craft had floated immeasurable distances across the gulf of space searching for a world on which its passengers could land and set up home.

'The message did not specify who the Lostboy's deceased occupants were. But the speculation was that, whoever had built this alleged "lifeboat", were a peace loving race, one that did not intend to colonise the first habitable planet they came across, not if that meant compromising or disrupting the local indigenous populations. The belief was that this race, whoever they were, possessed the technology to open up doorways between dimensions, between separate planes of reality. That, if they chanced upon a world that suited their needs, and if they found that particular world was already inhabited, then they would simply explore each of that world's alternate forms, and ultimately colonise one where there would be little to no significant impact on indigenous life forms.

'A sound theory to be sure. However, the larger mystery still remained: what had killed all those on board the alien craft? And could it have consequences for our Earth?

'IEPA hatched a grand plan for attempting to capture one of the Lostboy's reconnaissance pods, to bring it back to Earth. Perhaps these pods, as was suspected, collected data and that they may have recorded the demise of the craft's crew. By year's end of 1842, IEPA had managed to do just that, bringing down one such pod, picking it apart and learning its secrets. On a side note, there proved to be some unexpected benefits to their actions: they discovered new metals, alloys, new chemical substances, and the most significant breakthrough was the method as to how these pods were jumping into alternate dimensions. A method which we have now adopted, of course.

'But as they had hoped, the good folk at IEPA did manage to ascertain what had caused the death of the alien crew. And it would prove to have far reaching consequences for all of Earth's alternate worlds. The alien craft had in actual fact been high jacked by something, an anomaly that mostly we still do not fully understand. It was a contagion that the folk at IEPA came to term the Darkness: something they believed had piggy-backed its way across the universe. It had infected the crew and killed them all in stasis.

'The mystery remained however as to exactly what this Darkness was. What purpose it served, and could it have any impact on Earth and its populations? It seemed to be a malevolent force that invaded the living tissue of organic matter. There has been much debate and scientific analysis, but IEPA could not, and still has not, determined whether this anomaly sits within the viral or bacterial spectrums. Some have postulated that it is something else, a life form that we have never encountered before. It does not respond to our current antivirals or antibacterials. It does not respond to microwave or radiation treatment. It is not deterred by our nano-cellular eradication technology. It has so far stood up to all modern medicine.

'IEPA would not know the full impact of this Darkness until some months after it was initially discovered, when they realised that something was corrupting many of Earth's Outworlds. It was here they deduced that the Darkness had been utilising the alien craft to invade worlds whilst the craft drifted through interstellar space, invading and corrupting not only one iteration of each world but all of its alternate forms.'

5

'So, this is where we come in,' Maddinson says. 'The Royal Cloudfyre Society. Or the Royal Society For Global Conservation, as we were known before we adopted the Cloudfyre moniker. Many of Earth's variant selves are, right now, under threat from this Darkness. And we have a mandate to stop it. To wipe this Darkness from existence. Sadly, it is too late for some worlds. For many have been invaded entirely and destroyed. We fear a domino effect might ultimately claim the rest of them. If we don't learn how to fight it.

'There is speculation that the crew of the alien craft were intentionally infected by the Darkness before departing their home world. By who, and for what reason, we don't, and may never, know. What we do know is that as we speak, this Darkness is corrupting indigenous life across many of the Outworlds. Turning peaceful creatures into murderous killers.'

I watch Maddinson. Trying to take all this in. I can't help think of that deer at the base of the Federal Exchange. The one with the bloodshot eyes. The way it looked at me. As if with hatred. But it's the Entities that really come to the forefront of my mind. The ones who attacked me. The ones I'd seen piled at Maddinson's feet in the Barren Wood. I gaze at him. 'Has this Darkness infected creatures in Jupiter? The deer? The Entities? Is that what's happened there?'

'Yes. Those curious folk you call Entities, they have most certainly been corrupted by it. Hence why it was imperative I got you out of there.'

'But I was bitten by them.'

'Aye, you were.'

'I was infected.'

'You were, yes.'

'And I'm cured?'

'Yes.'

I feel my brow tighten as I watch him. I'm puzzled. 'You just said that you don't yet have the means to fight this Darkness.'

'We've discovered a way to cleanse the blood during the stages of the initial infection. For reasons that we are yet to ascertain, the Darkness remains dormant for up to twelve hours in a human host. This crucial period is the stage where the Darkness has proven vulnerable to a specific mix of botanicals and animal substances, a certain remedy used during medieval times to treat people inflicted with, oddly enough, ghostly possession. This does not destroy it, but it would seem that, for want of a better word, this ninth century remedy manages to well, exorcise the Darkness from its host. Beyond this period however, once it wakes up, it begins to evolve, driving its host to madness and hunger. At this stage of its infection, it has fought off every drug or piece of technology we have thrown at it. Beyond this stage it instils in its victim an insatiable raging hunger and a pathological drive to kill.'

I watch him. I'm suddenly thinking of Mum. Mum stuck in Jupiter with those Entities roaming about unchecked. 'My mother,' I say, my bones turning cold. 'What about my mother? Is she okay? We have to go back for her. I can't leave her there.'

'Fear not, she is safe. We have removed her, and as many as we could save, from your Jupiter.'

I watch him, I don't know if I believe him.

'After I prevented your fall from that dome,' he says, 'I did not immediately return here with you to London as I was tasked with overseeing the removal of survivors from your Jupiter and transporting them to a safe zone.'

I blink at him. 'A safe zone?'

'Yes.'

'Where?'

'On one of the Outworlds not currently tainted by the Darkness. An Outworld we call Eden.'

I desperately want him to tell me that Mum's in a safe house somewhere nearby. That I might be able to go over and see her. Not on some other world. 'What about my friends? Are they at this safe zone too?'

He shakes his head. 'Sorry, but I have no idea where your friends are.'

I stare at him. 'But I saw them fall through that portal. The portal I missed.'

'I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that particular portal didn't open onto your Jupiter.'

'What?' I watch him, my eyes boggling. 'You mean they never made it back?'

'I'm presuming that's the case.'

I feel a sensation of dread sorrow, of deflation. 'But where are they then? Do you know? Are they safe?'

He offers me a look of condolence. 'Skye, I'm sorry, but I haven't the answers to these queries. Whoever your friends are, if they transversed that egress point, then I can only speculate that they have materialised on one of the many Outworlds.'

I swallow. I'm stunned by what I'm hearing. I can barely speak. 'So... so we have to search for them.'

He gives me a look like such a venture isn't possible.

'No,' I say, 'we must.' I'm thinking of not only Reid now, but of Morgan and Eddie. I lost Juke. I don't want to lose any of them. 'I can't live without them,' I tell him. 'My heart will break.'

'I'm sorry, but at the present our resources are stretched far too thin. And I've not yet fulfilled my current mission parameters.'

A sadness sweeps over me. That I sit here with this stranger in this strange city, in a world I know nothing about, and he will not help me get back to the ones I love. 'What mission parameters?'

He sighs and regards me. 'You asked why I was in Jupiter.'

I watch him, I feel anxious, I feel a tear form in my eye.

'My mission was not only to save the residents of Jupiter if I could...' He sits forward and his eyes are on mine. 'But to bring you home.'

I have never felt so confounded and puzzled in my life. 'Bring me home? What are you talking about?'

He frowns at me. As if he's not sure how to proceed with an explanation. 'Right. As I explained, ten years ago, before I started work with the Royal Cloudfyre society, a number of Cloudfyre agents were dispatched to the Lostboy craft as it orbited Earth. This Earth. Earth One. Their mission was to infiltrate it and learn the secrets of its corrupters, the Darkness. As I understand it, there were some complications. A handful of agents managed to collect the information they required but before they were able to relay it back to base, they came under attack from the Darkness. Sadly, many were killed. Yet some did manage to escape before they were infected. However, these surviving agents were sucked away into any number of Outworlds. We have been searching for them for many years now. But trying to locate them across hundreds of millions of worlds is no easy task. It is literally like searching for a needle in the proverbial haystack.

'We have one thing going for us however. Our agents were each imbedded with Royal Cloudfyre Society PIT technology.'

I blink at him. My brow has firmed. 'PIT technology?'

'Personal Imbedded Transmitters. Homing devices. The only problem is, the process of transversing the many egress points as they left our plane, seems to have disrupted these units. And mostly, we only happen to pick up their signals if we chance upon the particular Outworld upon which they have found themselves. Hence why it's taken considerable time tracking you down.'

I watch him, puzzled. 'Me?' I laugh.

'Yes.'

I laugh again. 'Me?' I shake my head. 'You're suggesting I am one of these missing agents?'

'That is what I hope to ascertain.'

I laugh. 'Impossible. You said your agents vanished ten years ago.'

'That's right.'

I eye him, wondering if he's lost his mind. 'Look at me. I would've been a small girl ten years ago.'

'It may have been ten years from our point of view, but due to time fluctuations, it may have been merely a year for you. Maybe two. And if you were attacked by the Darkness at the Lostboy craft, you have likely suffered amnesia.'

'No.' I shake my head defiantly. 'I would know if it was me. I have lived in Jupiter all of my life. I have memories of growing up there. I had a father. He died when I was twelve. I had a step brother, Juke. I had friends who I grew up with. Morgan, Eddie, Reid. What you're suggesting is impossible.'

'I cannot explain it, Skye. Imbedded memories? Imagined memories?'

'No. Not possible. I grew up in Jupiter. I'm not one of your agents.' I wipe a tear from my eye.

He looks at me with sympathy. 'Skye, listen, as far as my instrumentation is concerned, you're fitted with a Cloudfyre PIT device.'

I'm aghast. I almost don't want to hear this. It's so inconceivable. 'What? No. I can't be. It's impossible.'

'It's a fact. You carry one inside you.'

'No, you've got the wrong person. I am only seventeen.'

'Age has nothing to do with it. Up until two years ago, until Queen Katherine outlawed it, we had children working in factories from the age of five in this country. We had Cloudfliers aged as young as thirteen.'

I just stare at him. Tears in my eyes. I have no words. Nothing. I fear he's trying to fool me, con me. I have no idea why.

'Look,' he says, 'all we need do is ascertain who we think you are. And if tests prove positive, we need to extract the crucial information that is stored on your body.'

'Information? On my body? What information?'

'Crucial information as to how we might combat or destroy the Darkness.'

I feel sick. Physically sick. I feel it deep in my belly. My head swims. I want to lie down.

'We believe information detailing how we beat it was stored on the Lostboy craft. That the alien crew had detailed knowledge of the Darkness before they left their home world. We believe you accessed such information and up-loaded it into your PIT transmitter.'

I rest my head against the back-rest of my seat. I stare out at the sky then shut my eyes. I breathe. I just breathe. I will myself not to be here. I want to open my eyes and find myself back in Jupiter, that none of this is happening.

I hear him leave his seat, I hear him sitting beside me. I feel his hand on my arm. His touch is gentle but I flinch. I yank my arm from him.

'I realise this is all a bit of a shock, Skye. I don't know any other way to break it to you.'

I feel a tear spill from my eye. I wipe it from my cheek. I don't want him to see it. I open my eyes but I don't look at him. I leave the table and stroll down toward the river bank. My arms folded around me, tears spilling from my eyes.

I watch ducks and swans on the river. Weeping willows grow from the grassy verges. I watch river punts. I watch a kind of flying car hover by, mighty horizontal blades swirling beneath it, keeping it levitated. I'm an alien here. Completely out of place. I don't care what Maddinson says, I'm not from here. I'm not.

I sob and wipe my eyes and consider the test he wants me to do. I don't want to go through with it. Not at all.

I notice him by my side.

'I appreciate your concerns,' he says softly, kindly. 'I appreciate your predicament, but—'

'You could have tested me earlier,' I say softly, without looking at him, 'while I was under anaesthetic. You could have done it and not told me.'

'Believe me, they wanted to. But I told them not to. Not without your consent.'

I'm puzzled. I look at him sideways. 'Why would you care?'

He gives me this look as of someone who might have burgeoning feelings for me. As if he's puzzled, almost hurt, that I question him. It's the first time I see this side of him.

'Because I do,' he says. 'I have dragged you from your Outworld, from your Jupiter. The least I can do is show you a little respect and dignity.'

I want to believe him. I really want to believe he's being sincere. I gaze out at the river again. Tears still on my cheeks. There's a smell of blossoms on the cool dry air. The smell of wood smoke.

'Look, if you agree to the test, I'll commit to tracking down your friends.'

I look at him sideways again. I watch his eyes. They don't flinch as they look back at me. There's a kindness in those eye, I see. There's an empathy.

'Do you promise?' I ask him, wiping my cheek.

He offers a sincere look. I want so much to believe that it's genuine. 'I do. I promise.'

6

The test takes place inside the primary Cloudfyre building. In a room not dissimilar to the one in which I had my surgery. My legs hurt as I walk. I'm told I've been given painkillers but still my legs throb. My left leg worse than my right. Gryffin follows us. There's a couple of scientist types waiting for us, dressed in coats.

The head of the operation is a woman who calls herself Doctor Charlotte Astridge. She explains to me that the procedure shouldn't take long. 'We shall put you through a data scanner. If you're carrying an imbedded transmitter, as Maddinson claims, then it'll take some moments to extract the information it's carrying.'

'Will it hurt?' I ask her.

She shakes her head and smiles. 'No.'

7

I lie down on a gurney. Above me is a horizontal rail that spans the length of the bed. A male technician is busy powering up the scanning unit. Astridge sits at what looks to be a monitor. Maddinson stands back, observing. Gryffin at his side. The scanning unit bleeps, green lights flash. The technician presses buttons and the scanner unit begins to trundle along the rail above me, a beam of light washing over me as it passes.

The light is harsh. I've been given glare goggles but still I shut my eyes. There's nothing but the bleeping sound of the scanner. It reaches the area above my toes where it stops, and then begins to retrace its path, scanning my entire body once more as it rolls slowly back toward the head of the bed.

Astridge watches her monitor. It remains blank.

'Anything?' the technician asks her.

'Not yet.'

So, the scan has produced nothing. As I knew it wouldn't.

I hear Astridge say, 'Run it again, please.'

The scanning parameters are reset. Once more the scanner runs the length of the rail above my bed. Lights flashing, the unit bleeping. It washes back over me from toe to scalp.

Maddinson stands there silent throughout. As does his Gryff. Astridge maintains full attention on her monitor.

At some stage Astridge suddenly straightens, looking at some detail that has popped up on her screen. I watch her. Has she detected something?

A moment or two later she says, 'Well well, it looks like we might have something here.'

I blink at her.

Maddinson moves to her side. Gazing down at the monitor. I see the green glare from the screen wash over his face. The technician gazes over Astridge's shoulder. A few moments of silence passes. No-one speaking. I watch them from where I lie. Wondering what they've seen.

Astridge says, 'Right then, look at this.' I watch her point to something on the screen. 'My God, you were right all along.' She looks around at Maddinson.

Maddinson eyes the screen. He takes in a long breath. As if relieved. He turns to regard me. My skin feels cold. I almost don't want to hear what he's about to tell me.

'What have you found?' I ask, pensive.

'We can confirm that you are indeed carrying a Cloudfyre PIT unit.'

The news confounds me. Troubles me. I swallow. 'How can that be?' I ask softly. 'I don't know how that can be.'

The technician is back by his scanning equipment. 'We're picking up some damage,' he reports. 'Might take a while extracting data.'

So the wait begins. I lie here staring at the ceiling. Wondering how on Earth I could possibly have one of these Personal Transmitters inside me. Who put it there? When? How? I want to cry. All those memories growing up in Jupiter... are they false? Did none of that happen?

'Picking up its location,' Astridge says. 'In the muscle tissue, lower right forearm.'

When I hear this all I want to do is study my arm, for markings, for scars. But I'm ordered to keep still. The technician waves a portable scanning unit above me, concentrating it between my elbow and my wrist. 'Pinpointing precise location,' he says. 'Let me know when it hooks onto the signal.'

Several moments go by and then Astridge says, 'Right, looks like it's streaming data.' Her fingers press tabs on her keyboard. 'Back-up duplication commencing.'

I can only just see the screen of her monitor. Maddinson's returned to her side, watching the data display as it is relayed from scanning unit to computer processor.

There's no talk as they study the incoming information. Nothing but the sound of the bleeping scanner and the click and hum of the monitor.

'Hhmm,' I hear Astridge say. 'It's coded. As expected.'

Maddinson points to data on the screen. 'Some of it looks corrupted.'

'Yes, well hopefully there'll be enough that we can use.' Astridge turns to regard him. Smiling at him. 'Good work, Thomas. Personally, I doubted you'd locate anything out there. But this is the best lead we've had in years.' She leaves her seat. 'I'll notify the cryptology department, see what they can decipher.' She steps toward my bed and places her hand on my shoulder. 'You did well, agent. Welcome home.' She leaves the room.

I sit up slowly. What am I expected to do? I eye Maddinson who's still staring at the coded data on the screen. The technician drops himself into the seat where Astridge had been, arms folded, watching with great curiosity as the data continues to stream into the computer terminal.

Maddinson leaves the tech guy to it. He turns and regards me. I'm sitting on the edge of the bed, just watching him, my goggles dragged off my face.

'What happens now?' I ask him.

'Not really certain. We're in unchartered territory here.'

'Really?'

'Yep.'

'You've never retrieved one of your agents before?'

'Believe it or not, you're the first.' He eyes me thoughtfully. 'I guess first we ascertain exactly who you are. Or, who you were, before you left here.' He indicates the monitor. 'I'm hoping, in amongst all this data, there's an identification tag. Giving us your Cloudfyre employee number. Your name, if it wasn't Skye, of course. Your physical description. Blood type. DNA. Hopefully a mugshot.'

'Mugshot?'

'A photograph.'

'Photograph?'

'Ah, snap-print. I believe that's what folk in your Jupiter call them.'

'You don't have records? Nothing to say who I might've been,' I say. 'No snap-prints?'

'All destroyed by fire, seven years ago.'

'Fire? Really?'

'Afraid so.'

'Do I have any family here?'

'Perhaps. Although unlikely.'

'Unlikely? Why?'

'It was desired that agents who were sourced for the job of infiltrating the alien craft, be without family. Orphans, if you will. If you didn't return, Cloudfyre could wash their hands of you. There would be no insurance pay outs.'

'Your agents were considered expendable?'

'Not a practice the Royal Cloudfyre Society agrees with these days,' he assures me. 'Many things have changed since the infiltration programme first ran.'

'So, what happens to me now?'

'Well, I've been informed that for now you'll be housed in the cottage by the river. On the premises, of course. Once we work out who you are, who you were, if you do happen to have any remaining family, you'll be rehomed. If you wish to continue your employment with the Cloudfyre Society you will be offered the opportunity. They may wish to run some therapy sessions for your apparent amnesia but I can't see why you couldn't resume normal work, given time.'

My body feels heavy as he tells me this. I feel weighed down with it all. I cannot get my head around any of it. None of this makes sense to me. None of it. I feel ill.

LOST GIRL

1

THE cottage is situated by the river on the Cloudfyre estate. A quaint three bedroom construction built, Maddinson says, from Burnchess blue-stone, with a thatched roof and garden filled with bluebells and lobelias that backs onto the river bank. There's a little jetty with a mooring for small boats. Currently it is vacant. There are ducks on the lawn amidst beds of flowers. Adjacent to the property stands a small grassy meadow with black sheep and cows. I find I cannot stop staring at it all. But the fact that it's all so absolutely beautiful means nothing. I want Mum here with me. I want Reid. Without them, everything is lifeless, empty, soulless.

Maddinson shows me around the cottage. Giving me a tour. Showing me the larder where there is bread and fruit and cake and a ceramic pot of tea leaves. Milk and other perishables are found inside a cool chest, kept refrigerated, Maddinson tells me, by solar energy. He shows me each of the bedrooms. The bathroom. A selection of clothes in the wardrobe. There's a living room with a collection of books the Cloudfyre Society have provided. Maddinson suggests I read through them. He says that with any luck they might help jog my memory of good old London town before I'm reintegrated into society.

We sit in the garden for a while. He makes us both a cup of tea. We watch punts going up and down the river. Water barges, pleasure craft. I watch flying cars trailing the river course. Every now and then the sheep bleat. The whole time I find it difficult to believe that I'm not in Jupiter. That I am here in this alien place.

I watch Maddinson. 'You'll keep your promise then?' I ask him. 'To try and find my friends.'

'I will,' he says, sipping tea, thin tendrils of steam rising up about his face. 'Though I must inform you, I'll not be able to conduct any such search from here. From Cloudfyre headquarters, that is. I fear some of the stuffy upper crust who still walk these halls will frown upon such unofficial and unsanctioned activities if they were to discover it. But do not fear, I have a couple of friends who'll be happy to look into the matter for us.'

I watch him closely. Weighing this up. 'These friends of yours, I take it they don't operate from your Cloudfyre offices then?'

'No, they're based across the city in a town house in Lambeth. A pair of mavericks. Ex-employees of the Cloudfyre Society, actually. Their employment terminated after, shall we say, one too many indiscretions. But they're as fine a couple as you'll ever wish to meet, and they remain my dear friends.'

'Can we not go to them now? I'd rather be doing something than just sitting here.'

He shakes his head. 'Sorry. I'm afraid we cannot. As you are still under the jurisdiction of the Cloudfyre Society, as we have still yet to verify your identity, you are not permitted to leave these premises. By orders of the stuffy upper crust, I'm sorry to say.'

Hearing him saying this, all I want to do is run into the river, swim for the opposite bank, get out and flee.

'Also,' Maddinson says, 'while the cryptology people continue to process the data downloaded from your PIT unit, you may yet be called upon for assistance.'

'How could I possibly help?'

'Some of the data was corrupted. They may wish to attempt downloading the data once more to see if anything new can be extracted.'

I watch him as he speaks. 'How many agents were sent out on this reconnaissance mission? To try and gain information about the Darkness from this Lostboy ship.'

'Thirty five,' he says. 'Over a two year period.'

'And not one of them ever returned.'

'Eight were killed. Twelve of them returned alive, but none with any information. The rest were scattered, as far as IEPA has been able to determine, across the Outworld system.'

'And you've never located a single one of these people except for me?'

'We've found the remains of some. But none living. And none with any workable data from their PIT units.'

'And I'm the first?'

'Yes. And that fact alone has caused quite a stir in both Cloudfyre and IEPA circles. If we can identify who you are, prove you're one of ours, then I believe you'll be a pretty valued guest of honour at any homecoming party they decide to throw. I believe some of the upper crust are planning to stop by this very afternoon to personally welcome you home. You might be in for a very handsome bonus, I would suggest.'

It's too much. I feel the weight of all this pushing down on me. I still won't believe it. I'm not from this world, this place he calls London. It's not possible. I feel the need to dispute it. 'How did you come to save me? I mean, if you've never found one of your agents alive or with functional PIT units, how on Earth did you find me?'

'Bit of a happy marriage between a series of completely random events,' he says almost smugly. 'A year ago I picked up some unusual signs of independent ingress and egress events. We're trained to detect such anomalies in case they should turn out to be Darkness incursions into further Outworlds. It took me a while to zero in on the location because the trail went cold after the events suddenly seemed to cease. Yet in the last several weeks there has been a flurry of ingress activity over your Jupiter. I concentrated my search there and in the process, by pure blind luck, I happened to pick up your PIT signature. The moment the Arachni returned a positive signal I anchored it to my scanners. It was the first time I'd ever detected a working PIT from a living agent so you can imagine I was rather excited. Though I thought it best not to get too ahead of myself for we've chased down many a red herring in recent years. Thus I parked the Arachni beyond your city and proceeded to conduct a series of signal analysis tests.

'When you jumped worlds,' he says, 'I was still able to receive your PIT's signal. Anchored to it, it was a simple matter of trailing it across dimensions. Once in that swamp version of your city, I simply homed in on your signal. By the time I worked out your position, you were climbing that dome. I waited below, watching you. When you fell I set up gravitational dampeners around your drop point.'

I watch him closely. 'You do know there's a craft like yours there, don't you? In that place. Like your Arachni.'

He frowns, eyeing me closely. 'No, I did not.' This is news to him obviously. Bright, glaring, news, I can see it in his face.

'One of our friends... actually I don't exactly class her as a friend, not a close friend anyway, she seemed to recognise it. I think she'd been there before. With my step brother, Juke. I believe they'd been traveling these portals together. Like us, she was trying to find him.'

Maddinson's brow creases. 'How were they transversing these egress points?'

'The same way we did. With that book I told you about. The Ephemerys.'

His eyes narrow. 'Most intriguing,' he says thoughtfully. 'And you sincerely believe there was a craft present there? A stranded craft. Like my Arachni?'

'Yes. Just like yours. Exactly the same.'

'My Arachni did not detect it,' he says, eyeing me closely. 'Did you personally witness this craft yourself?'

'I sheltered inside it for a short time.'

He's frowning at me. 'Well, this is indeed a most intriguing development. I have no idea why I did not detect it when I was in its vicinity. If it is an older craft then it's likely it isn't fitted with any signal beacons. Though if it's one of the newer models, well, perhaps its SOS system is down, meaning there would be no emergency signal for my Arachni to latch on to. Was it in a state of ruin?'

'Not exactly. Well, it couldn't fly apparently but some of its systems were still operational.'

'Was there no-one else in it? No signs of Cloudfyre personnel?'

'Just us.'

He gets out a small notepad and pen from his pocket. Scribbling something. 'Right, well I shall report its presence to both Cloudfyre and IEPA command. Can you recall exactly where it was located within that particular version of your Jupiter?'

'Southern part of the city. At the end of what we call Liberation Avenue. Near the high school, if you're familiar with the city lay out.'

He writes all this down.

'Look,' I say, 'if I really am who you say I am, if I'm some lost Cloudfyre agent, then how did I reach Jupiter city in the first place? Did I once fly one of these strange craft like your Arachni?'

'It would have been an earlier model, but yes, you would have flown such a craft. Back then, before funding cuts et cetera, crafts were manned by a crew of four. We're uncertain as to what might have become of the remainder of your crew. They may have perished at the site of the Lostboy craft. Which means you crossed dimensions alone, crash landed somewhere, and somehow found your way to Jupiter City.'

Am I an Outsider then? I wonder. Like Imogen. Like Juke. Maybe I'm an Outsider and I never knew. 'So, if I crash landed, where is my craft?'

'Good question,' he says. 'Out there somewhere. Lost? Wrecked? It would be impossible to know. Modern day craft are fitted with flight recorders that emit SOS homing signals if and when they come to grief. Flight recorders that are fitted with a hundred year battery life. The IEPA and Cloudfyre craft of yesteryear were primitive and carried no such technology. That makes them difficult to locate if they've gone down.'

He finishes his tea and stands. 'Right then, well I ought to be off. If I'm to see about the whereabouts of your friends then I should delay no further.'

'Can't I come with you?' I ask him. 'Please.'

He seems to consider this. Then with a sigh he says, 'Sorry, Skye, I am not permitted to take you. I honestly have no say in the matter. I shan't leave you alone for long however.' He looks about. 'I shall leave Gryff here with you. You need me in a hurry, for whatever reason, you let him know.'

I gaze across at Gryff who stands there like a child watching the ducks. 'Does he understand me?'

'It may not seem like it, but yes, he does. Although, I dare say you may not understand him. Should you need me, just tell him. He will relay me your message.'

I stand there studying my vacant wrist. I still feel somewhat naked without my wrist-com. But I have at least remembered where I lost it: in the flooded area of Victory Parks. That memory has at least returned to me. Still, I want to be able to call someone. Even to just test what Maddinson's telling me. I can't shake the suspicion that I'm merely a few miles from Jupiter. That someone might pick up my signal. I want desperately for someone from home to know where I am, that I'm alright. I want desperately to hear that everyone there is well.

2

I am fed and looked after, as Maddinson said I'd be. I am given every comfort. I am bathed and given exotic oils and soaps. My wounds are dressed by a nurse who stops by. I'm given another course of INSEC. It seems to work remarkably well. The bandages can come off my wounds. Where only yesterday I had jagged gashes, they are now nothing but pink welts. That evening I'm served dinner. I have a pair of female house attendants who cater to me. I ask them if they've heard from Maddinson. They say they have not. They don't speak much. They get about their work with courtesy but with a perfunctory attitude. I want to scream at them to tell me that all this is a lie, a façade.

I ask them calmly, 'Have you heard of Jupiter?'

One of them says, 'Do you mean the planet?'

I say, 'No, Jupiter City. Have you heard of Jupiter City? Is it nearby?'

They both glance at each other and shake their heads. One says, 'Sorry, ma'am but there are no cities round 'ere called Jupiter.'

Gryff stands outside the back window, gazing at the river. I go to him every now and then and ask if he's heard anything from Maddinson. He appears to regard me with sympathy but when he beeps I have no idea what he's saying.

When night falls, sentries are posted around the cottage. I don't know if they're meant to keep intruders out, or me in. Whatever the case, the cottage doors are locked in such a way that I am unable to leave even if I wanted to.

I consider breaking a window, and running. But where would I go? I don't know this place. I am a complete stranger here. I recognise none of it. Not even after flipping through the books in the living room, after seeing pictures of some apparently well-known landmarks: Big Ben, the houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, the river Thames, Piccadilly Circus, none of them are familiar. I don't care what Maddinson says, I've never seen these landmarks with my own eyes before. I feel like a lost girl, I feel completely out of place.

I feel myself getting tired. But I fight it. I won't sleep. I sit by the window and stare out into the night, watching the lights of boats trailing up and down the river. And it's not until I see the moon rise that I know I'm nowhere near Jupiter City. It's as I've never known it. Full and round and utterly unbroken. The sight of it like an ungodly eye glaring down at me. It is almost terrifying.

I lie down in the bed provided in the main bedroom. I weep for my mother and my friends. I wipe my tears with my hands. I fear I'll sob till morning. But sooner or later, I shut my eyes and sleep...

3

When I open my eyes, bright sunshine pours in through the window. I squint in the glare. For a moment I don't recognise the room. For a moment I haven't a clue where I am. Then I remember what happened, how I got here, Maddinson and Cloudfyre.

I lie here, my spirits deflated, staring at the window. Thinking about that enormous moon. Wondering where my friends are. Wondering if my mother is safe, wondering if she misses me, or even if she knows where I am.

I think it's my birthday today. Or maybe it was yesterday. Or the day before. I can't tell. I've lost track of time. I think back to the calendar hanging on the kitchen wall at home in Jupiter. To where Juke's birthday was marked. To where mine was marked a week after his. I don't know how many days it's been since we left for the transmitter station. For all I know, months have gone by back home. Maybe years. But at some time in the last day or two I've turned eighteen and the occasion has gone by unrecognised.

The thought makes me feel sullen and melancholy. Ordinarily Mum will prepare me something special for breakfast. Pancakes with blueberries and yogurt. Or poached eggs. And I might have the day off school or off work and we might go on a picnic with Reid and Morgan and Eddie and Juke and they'll have sourced some peculiar gift like they do. Some strange gadget from the Old World that they've purchased from antiques.

I sit in the front room thinking about this. Even if I knew what day it was, exactly when my birthday was, or had been, there seems no reason to celebrate it anyway. Not with everything that's happened. My only birthday wish would be to have everything back to normal. To be in Jupiter with my mother and my friends, that the Entities were still a peaceful race living on Jupiter's outskirts. That none of this had ever happened.

It's raining outside. Drizzling. The day looks grey and drab and miserable. The pair of house attendants have returned. They bring me a cup of tea. They ask what I'd like for breakfast. One of them runs me a bath. I feel awkward having them fussing over me but they insist. I ask them if they've heard from Maddinson. They say they haven't. After they've left the room, I sit there sipping my tea, gazing out at the grey river, watching the bird life and the river craft through the drizzle. I keep an eye open for Maddinson's droid, but I see Gryff nowhere.

The rains begins to clear up. I see a break in the clouds somewhere distant. One of the attendants returns to remind me my bath is ready. She shows me to the bathroom. She offers to help undress me but I tell her I can manage. I sit there in the piping hot water, a selection of bath soaps and oils to choose from. There is heavy steam in here but I gaze out the large glass window at the field adjacent to the cottage, watching the cows and the sheep.

When I'm done, smelling fresh and clean and of exotic floral aromas, I'm given a selection of fresh clothes to wear. Strange clothes, I might add. Garments I'm not quite familiar with. Strange dresses and petticoats and corsets. I ask if there is anything else to put on. That these clothes look ridiculous. I can't help but be reminded of the snap prints I've seen in class at school in Jupiter. The old black and white images of women in nineteenth century Europe.

The attendants look about. They find a set of ladies riding clothes. I opt for these instead. They don't look half as silly. They consist of a pair of breeches that come to my shins and knee length riding boots. And a silk shirt with a frilly lapel and a jacket with what one of the attendants calls an attractive "peplum" and fancy "gigot sleeves". Perhaps I'm meant to be impressed, or feel privileged to be given such items of clothing. But I've never heard of such things and honestly I think they look stupid. I'm told that I ought to wear a petticoat and a dress over my breeches. I decline. 'How would I move about in such a cumbersome thing?' I ask. They glance at each other, uncomfortably, not knowing what to say. 'What?' I ask them.

'Nothing, ma'am, but without a dress and nothing but breeches you might be in for some unwanted scorn.'

'Really?' I shrug. 'I don't care.'

They give me a hat that matches my coat but I think it looks daft. 'The hat will help keep the sun off, ma'am,' they tell me, 'and maintain your pale complexion.'

I point out that with all the rain there doesn't seem to be much chance of the sun ruining my skin. I leave the hat with the dress.

I sit in the front room alone, watching a small boat glide along the water. The house attendants are in the kitchen preparing breakfast. I hear their quiet chatter and the tinkling of cutlery. I hear the squeal of the kettle. It's nice to have company but I wish they weren't here. I don't want them fussing over me anymore. I just want someone to talk to. A friend. Someone to take me away from this cottage. I long to be on that river going somewhere, anywhere, away from here.

I decide I'll eat breakfast and get my strength. I decide that once I do I'm just going to up and leave. I don't care anymore. I'll tell my minders that I'm going down to the river bank to watch the ducks. Then, I don't know, I'll just wander off.

I watch the small boat. I'm curious as it veers toward the shore and pulls up at the mooring at the bottom of the garden, ducks swimming to get out of its way. As light rain continues to fall, I watch a man in a large thick coat and hat tether the boat to a mooring and as he approaches the cottage across the sodden lawn, hunched against the downpour, I'm surprised to recognise that it's Maddinson.

He comes up to the window and peers in, his wet hands cupped about his face. He mustn't see me sitting there because he goes to the next window and peers in and after that on to the next window.

By now I'm curious about what he's up to. With the house attendant away in the kitchen I move to the rear cottage door and step outside.

I watch Maddinson for a moment. He hasn't seen me. I just watch him as he continues to peer into the cottage, water dripping off the brim of his hat.

'Should I call my carers and alert them to this peeping Tom?' I ask out loud.

Startled he looks over at me. He looks mildly embarrassed. He removes his hat and smiles. 'Skye, ah, good morning, lovely to see you're still here.' He looks me up and down, taking in my appearance.

'Something the matter?' I ask him.

He shrugs. 'No. Not at all. Breeches without a dress? How very modern.' He hurries over and offers his hand.

I don't take it. 'What are you doing?'

'Believe me, I'm asking myself the same question.' His hand is still on offer. 'Not quite the day for it with our wonderful British weather and all, but ah, would you care for a tour of London?'

THE SEARCH

1

MADDINSON'S little coal powered steam boat pulls away just as the cottage staff carry my breakfast into the rear room. I can see their shapes through the windows. But by then I am in Maddinson's boat, setting off downriver.

'Where are we going?' I ask him, seated beneath the parasol that Maddinson has provided, keeping the drizzle at bay. I watch the Cloudfyre facility vanish beyond a bend in the river behind us. We pass boat houses and other coal powered boats. I'm trying to recall my world history classes. When the Old World collapsed, London was a modern city. There were tall buildings and air travel and craft were powered by electricity or liquid fuels. None of that seems apparent here.

'Thought you needed some fresh air,' Maddinson tells me. Steam gushes out of the boat's stout chimney. It powers a propeller system. Maddinson sits astern steering the vessel. Wherever it is we're going, we make good time, the craft is swift. Though the odour the little vessel gives off smells like burning tar.

'I thought you said I wasn't permitted to leave the Cloudfyre grounds.'

'You're quite right, but well, let me say that I chatted to the good people at Cloudfyre this morning hoping for an update on their progress and things seem to be progressing at a snail's pace. So I requested that I take you out of that cottage for a while, get you out into the city, and naturally they declined.' He smiles. 'Alas, I thought, well sod them, I'll take matters into my own hands.'

His smile is infectious. I can't help smiling back at him. It's the first time I see him in a different light. And it's the first time, looking into his stunning eyes, that I don't think of Reid.

Still, watching Thomas Maddinson inevitably brings Reid to my mind. I feel ashamed that here I am safe and sound while Reid's possibly floundering in yet another deadly "Outworld".

And floundering with Imogen, a voice in my head reminds me.

I can't help but remember how awkward Reid looked when I kissed him before we left each other on top of that dome. How Imogen watched us closely. As if I was stealing him from her. How in that craft, he'd said things were 'complicated'. What on Mother's sweet Earth did that mean anyway? Other than their five weeks stuck together in that place, had he and Imogen shared something more? Being forced to live with each other would certainly have drawn them together. So did they kiss? I wonder. Did they go further? It hurts me to even consider this and I feel I dislike Imogen even more. It should've been me who'd been dragged there with Reid, not her.

It's ludicrous but I still can't help think she orchestrated it, to steal him from me.

I sigh and draw in a breath of the moist air. You're tired, I tell myself. You're tired and you're being irrational.

'Tell me, has Dr Astridge, or anyone from cryptology contacted you yet about their findings?' Maddinson asks me.

I shake my head. 'I've seen no-one but cottage sentries and my two house attendants since you left me yesterday evening.'

He raises an eyebrow. 'Is that so?'

'Yes. Why?'

'Just wondering. I was hoping by now they'd have picked through the data they lifted from your PIT unit. I was hoping they'd at least managed to puzzle some of it together.'

'Has your so called maverick acquaintances had any luck tracking down my friends?' I ask him.

He searches the shoreline as we cruise down river. 'Not exactly,' he says. 'Though, they have found something that might narrow down their search. Hence why I'm keen for you to meet them both.'

2

We dock at a mooring where there's a horse and cart waiting for us. The drizzle has cleared. The sun's actually beginning to poke through the stubborn cloud. Across the river I recognise the grand clock I now know as Big Ben. Maddinson holds my hand as I step out of the boat. 'After you, m'lady,' he says very chivalrously.

The river Thames is wide here and full of steam boats, and barges, and other vessels with sails. The smell of burning coal hangs on the air thick and rank. But the river is absolutely alive here, teeming with craft and people. And noise. The distant sounds of men calling to one another, of engines, of boat horns, the clickety-clack of horse's hooves on the cobbles, the sounds of water lapping at the docks.

I'm fascinated. I've never seen so much human activity in my life. The thrill is partly anxiety and partly a shock to my senses.

'You alright?' Maddinson asks.

I nod. 'Yes. I mean, it's so much to take in. It's crazy.'

Birds fly about squealing. Birds I've never seen before. Maddinson tells me they're sea gulls. 'Harmless,' he tells me. 'Unless you're eating hot chips and then they're likely to savage you.'

'Really?'

'That's perhaps a bit of an exaggeration. Though they can be rather ah, determined, shall we say.' Maddinson leads me to the horse and cart where a girl who must be no more than thirteen or fourteen sits reading a booklet with the title Penny Dreadful across the front.

'Oh, hello there Mister Maddinson, sir,' this girl says, 'I kept your horses how you ask me to. Fed n watered and out of the hands of undesirables.'

'Good lass,' Maddinson tells her, and passes her what I believe is money in the form of coins. 'Now, you best get along home to your dear mother before she scolds me for keeping you from your homely chores.'

'I will,' she says, rolling up her booklet and stuffing it into the back pocket of her trousers. The kid eyes me now. 'Oh, so who is the pretty lady then?'

'This is Lady O'Meara,' Maddinson tells her.

She jumps down from the cart, offering me her hand. 'Please to meet you, Lady O'Meara,' she says. 'My name is Annaliese Gribbens.'

I take her hand and we shake. She bows her head courteously. No-one has ever bowed their head at me before.

'Make certain your mother sees some of that coin,' Maddinson tells Annaliese.

'I will, sir, don't you worry,' and she starts off. 'Just after I purchase myself another of these Penny Dreadfuls.' She strides away with a final look back. 'Glad to meet you Lady O'Meara.' And then she's gone, ducking down an alleyway.

'Fine lass,' Maddinson tells me. 'Her dear old dad was a friend of mine. Died last winter after a terrible accident on the river. I do my best to support Annaliese and her dear mother, Jane.'

I barely hear him because I'm spellbound all of a sudden by the pair of horses tethered here to a hitching post. Being in such close proximity, I'm flabbergasted. I've read much about horses in Jupiter. Seen many images of them in books. I never thought I'd ever actually stand directly before one.

At first I keep my distance. Maddinson watching me. 'You act like you've not seen horses before,' he says.

I'm breathless. 'But I haven't. At least, not that I remember. They're absolutely gorgeous.'

He frowns. 'Would you like to touch them? They don't bite. Especially this pair. They're very well mannered.'

I'm reluctant to go forward, but Maddinson takes my hand and gently leads me toward them. They are so tall and majestic. They have such an aura of strength and vitality about them. Maddinson reaches up and strokes them both along their long noses. They seem placid enough. I watch their beautiful faces. Their inquisitive eyes. Maddinson's watching me curiously.

He takes my hand and guides it to the nearest of the two horses, telling me that it's a male, that his name is Bubbles. That he's a five year old gelding. Which means nothing to me. I gently, tentatively, place my hand against the creature's firm snout, still wet from the rain, and slowly I stroke it. It bobs its head about and Maddinson produces two carrots from his pockets. 'Here,' he says, handing me one and I watch him as he offers it to the other horse, a horse he calls Maple, a three year old mare, and I watch as she gobbles the carrot down gratefully.

I hold my carrot to Bubbles and delight in the way his big furry lips nibble it from my grasp, the way he takes it into his mouth, chomping it down.

I can't help smiling. I notice Maddinson watching me.

'What?' I ask him.

He shakes his head as he untethers the horses. 'Just admiring your sense of wonder. If indeed you are one of our agents, your amnesia is like none I've witnessed.'

He insists we keep moving and helps me into the carriage. He sits down beside me. I watch as he takes up the set of reigns. With a quick flick, Bubbles and Maple heave our cart forward with a shunt. Maddinson gives the reigns another flick and the horses pick up their pace a little, there's a rhythmic clippity-clop as their hooves navigate the cobblestones.

3

It's my first time immersed in a living city. There are people everywhere. It's overwhelming. In the streets, on the glistening wet cobbles, there are stage coaches, and motor cars. We pass by bakeries, and a fishmongers, a steelworks. There are men on those odd Penny Farthing bicycles. Kids running about chasing each other. Dogs fighting, or sniffing for scraps outside shops. There are folk who sit on steps, watching the world go by. There are women chatting in the street. Cats who sit upon brick walls. Sparrows fly about. Pigeons peck at things in patches of parkland or in the street, scurrying aside as carriages roll by.

'Tell me,' says Maddinson, 'seeing all of this, has none of your memory returned? You appear to be quite fascinated by your surroundings.'

I shake my head. 'I have no memory of any of this. As far as I'm concerned, I'm seeing everything before me for the first time.'

He nods but says nothing.

I stare up at the buildings. Most are constructed from red brick. None are more than five or six stories in height. Every building has a chimney poking from their rooves, pumping smoke into the air. Flag poles jut out the sides of some buildings, the Union Jack flag fluttering in the breeze. There are some buildings that look as though they've been sliced down the middle, with glass domes capping each half. Some buildings are entirely encased in mighty vertical bubbles of glass. Inside them I spy palm trees and gardens. Maddinson informs me that these glass bubbles act as solar cells.

I hear sudden bells tolling, so loud and booming I can't help but feel all of London must hear it. Should I be concerned? They grow louder as we head along the cobblestone street. 'Church bells,' Maddinson reassures me with a smile and we roll passed a building, a church Maddinson informs me, that reminds me of Jupiter's cathedral. From the mighty bell tower at its summit I see giant bells rocking to and fro, giving off their peeling chimes.

The trees are turning yellow and red (Maddinson telling me of the autumn colours), and we roll by children kicking a ball that looks more like the inflated organ of some unfortunate animal. People here seem formally dressed, I notice. Top hats and bowler hats and coats and waist coats and boots and trousers. Women are in large billowing dresses and bonnets and corsets and boots. There's a barber operating on the side walk, shaving a customer's cheeks with a cut throat razor. There are entire carcasses of pork and beef splayed and tied to racks outside butcher shops, and slaughtered ducks hanging by their feet. We come around a corner and there's London's central bank building and it's an enormous grey stone structure lined with columns and statues. And before it in the street there is a spacious paved square and at its centre, pointing to the sky there is what looks to be a towering Egyptian obelisk. Overhead the rail plane skims by and I arch my head to watch it go.

Maddinson can't stop looking at me. 'I have never seen such innocent wonder on someone's face before,' he comments.

'I have never seen anything like this place.'

'Don't apologise,' he tells me. 'I think it's wonderful.' His eyes linger on me, as if he has seen something in me he suddenly admires, or desires. It's a look that makes both of us uncomfortable. He smiles awkwardly and averts his gaze.

'You still believe I'm a Cloudfyre agent?' I ask him.

He watches me and shrugs. 'I must admit, Skye, I am beginning to question it more and more.'

There is a cool breeze through my hair as we press on. When Maddinson's not looking, I return my eyes to him. I watch him for a little while. 'You said I'm not permitted to leave the Cloudfyre facility,' I remind him.

'That's right.'

'Will this get you into trouble?'

He smiles. 'Oh, highly likely.'

'But you're doing it anyway.'

'Yes. Why not? My father's parting words to me were: "Thomas, don't forget to live a little." And they are words I try to live by. Time is fleeting. We live for but a mere speck of time in the great scheme of things. "Don't wait for life to come to you, lad," my dear father would tell me, "but go out there and take it by the reigns."' He shrugs. 'Who am I to argue with my dear old father? Besides, certain sectors of the Royal Cloudfyre Society suffer a lingering paternalistic authoritarian attitude. And well, just like my dear dad, I've a slight problem with authority and about being told what to do. And if taking you off-grounds for a wee while riles up some of those stuffy old codgers in Cloudfyre's upper echelons, well so be it.'

4

Maddinson pulls the carriage up at the curb of a cobblestone street where a series of iron bollards divides the sidewalk from the road. We are outside a townhouse with a glass bubble exterior, a web of steel frame work is woven through the glasswork. Inside I see exotic birds flying about. I see butterflies.

Maddinson holds out his hand. I decline it and step down from the carriage without his help. The sun shines now up and down the street, highlighting the puddles amidst the cobbles. Pedestrians stroll by. My excitement about being in this city wanes somewhat. I suddenly can't help feel conspicuous, that it must be known that I am not from this place. But as I step from the carriage no-one watches me, no-one shows me any more interest than they show Maddinson.

Maddinson leads me up the steps to a tall wooden front door where he presses a button. I hear a muted ding-dong sound from within. We wait.

'You look nervous,' Maddinson tells me.

'I am.'

'Don't be. You're quite safe.'

When the door opens I turn and see two women standing there. One with light blonde hair and fair skin, the other with dark hair and deep brown skin. I have an immediate sense they are both older than me. But not by much. Perhaps no more than two or three years, the both of them. Both are reasonably attractive. I hate myself for it but I feel immediately uncomfortable, immediately intimidated.

'Skye,' Maddinson says, 'allow me to introduce you to my dear friends and one time colleagues. Lady Penny Westgate and her wife, Lady Sapphire Scott. Or is it, Lady Sapphire Scott and her wife Lady Penny Westgate?'

'Either will do, Thomas,' says the brown skinned woman, Lady Sapphire, smiling at him.

'And ladies, this is Skye O'Meara, possible missing Cloudfyre agent.'

Lady Sapphire steps forward smiling, her hand outstretched. I take her hand and we shake. 'Pleased to meet you, Skye,' she says warmly. 'Any friend of Thomas's is a friend of ours.'

'Indeed,' says Lady Penny, smiling sweetly, offering her hand. 'Please to make your acquaintance, Skye.'

I smile in return, trying to digest what Maddinson just said, the way he introduced them. Did he say they were married? 'Please to meet you too,' I say.

They step aside. 'Come in why don't you?' says Lady Sapphire and they allow me to enter, and behind me, Maddinson kisses them briefly on the cheek, hugging them both. 'How are you both?' he says warmly.

'All the better for seeing you,' says Penny, 'now come on inside. We have the kettle on if you both feel like a cup of tea. Oh, and we've made some fresh scones if you're both at all hungry. Fresh London cream too. And raspberry jam up from Devon.'

'Sounds splendid,' Maddinson tells her, rubbing his palms together.

I'm standing here in the hallway. Looking about. It's so exquisite. So beautiful. And difficult to describe. It's not actually a hallway, if I'm being perfectly honest. That was the initial impression. It's more like an anteroom, or a small foyer. There are coats on a stand. And boots on a shoe rack but when I turn I see that the space opens up partly onto some sort of indoor forest. Or garden. A number of things tell me this even before I turn around to face it.

The smell of freshness, of moist air, of plants and water. The sounds of birdlife and the hoots of animals. The insect life, the butterfly that flutters about me. The small green frog climbing up the wall.

Breathless, I step forward through an arched ceiling hanging with leafy vines and out into this indoor woodland, contained within that monumental glass bubble. The bubble stretches up to the very height of the townhouse. Which at a guess is several stories high. Colourful parrots flit about the palm trees, squawking and tweeting. Lorikeets and doves fly about or pick at the leafy ground. I spot creatures I don't recognise. Maddinson has to name them for me. Sloths, moving as if in slow motion, and pygmy deer that stick to the forest floor. And lizards I've never before witnessed. And chameleon that can switch the colour of their skin from green to red. And Blue Tongue skinks swishing about the leaf matter.

'Welcome to our humble abode,' Lady Sapphire says at my side.

I can barely utter a word. 'It's so beautiful,' I murmur.

5

They invite me down to a table situated on paved area in the centre of this little forest. To the far side of us stands the glass wall and beyond it I see the street on which our carriage is parked and the people of London going about their business as if this inner world did not interest them in the slightest. On the other side, is the town house itself, bragging four or five terraced levels, each with its own veranda that opens onto this garden.

We sit beneath what Maddinson tells me are tree ferns. Ferns that stretch for several metres above us. There are fishbone ferns at ground level and coleus plants and tall flowering gingers and cycads. There is a pond I notice now brimming with small fish and I watch a turtle basking on a stone as bands of sunlight slant down through the glass, making the water's surface sparkle. I watch a sloth close by, munching on what looks to be a stick of carrot. It is so slow and unrushed, I feel it might just soon enough fall asleep.

I cannot stop looking. There is such a feeling of tranquillity here. I would love to live my life in such a home, surrounded by this pocket of nature, these animals. It is if a small part of Mother had arisen here.

Maddinson leaves us and heads off to prepare the tea and scones and I'm left with the two women. Though they both appear friendly and welcoming enough, I can't help but be reminded they are perfect strangers to me.

Friendly strangers, I tell myself.

'This is quite amazing,' I say. 'Are all houses like this in London?'

'That would depend on their owners,' Sapphire tells me. 'Many do not go for inner gardens like this one.'

'And those that do,' Penny says, 'are permitted to keep native flora and fauna alone.'

I look at her. 'Are these animals not from London then?'

'Actually,' says Sapphire, 'most of the creatures you see here are not even from Britain. But elsewhere. Amazonia. The Africas. Oceania. One or two critters from certain Outworlds.'

She points out one such creature. Or more correctly, a pair of them. Shy creepy humanoid beings that stand no taller than my knee, watching me from behind a clump of cycads. They have large inquisitive eyes, long froglike fingers.

'We possess a special licence to keep them,' Lady Penny explains. 'All of them have been rescued from captivity, unable now to exist in the wild. Hence why we have gathered them here to live out their days in peace.'

'It's so beautiful,' I say again.

'Yes, it is a delightful way to live,' Lady Sapphire says. 'Although I only wish we were here more often to enjoy it. Our work takes us far afield and more often than we'd like.'

I watch them both. 'What do you do?' I shrug. 'If you don't mind me asking. Maddinson, I mean Thomas, says you both worked for the Cloudfyre Society. He tells me you're not with them anymore.'

'A bit of a stuffy lot, the folk at Cloudfyre,' says Lady Sapphire with a laugh. 'One too many alleged indiscretions put us out of work. But a blessing in disguise it were, I feel.'

Lady Penny nods. 'Aye, indeed it were a blessing. These days we operate our own freelance agencies. Solving cold case missing persons investigations. As well as animal conservation and rescue, of course.'

They both watch me.

'Speaking of Cloudfyre,' Lady Penny says, 'are they treating you well? Have they made you comfortable?'

'To be honest, I feel a bit alienated. Plucked from everything I knew. From my friends and mother. I'm still trying to find my feet.'

'Yes, it might take some time to adjust,' Lady Penny says sympathetically.

'No need to fear,' Lady Sapphire tells me. 'You're in good company. I think it's most fortunate that Thomas found you. Other Gatherers are not such amenable company, believe me.'

'Aye, he's a good egg that one,' Lady Penny says hushly, as though it's a secret we ought keep to ourselves. She smiles. 'He's a good heart.'

'And he could do with a good woman at his side,' Lady Sapphire says.

Lady Penny gently slaps her wife's thigh. 'Come now, dear, Sapph. I'm sure Skye has more pressing things to concern herself with.'

Lady Sapphire leans toward me. 'He is you know,' she says. 'A compassionate, kind hearted soul. You could've fallen in with much worse.'

Maddinson returns holding a tray fully laden with kettle and mugs and a platter of scones and two glass jars―one with lumps of brown sugar and the other topped with fresh jam. The two ladies shut up.

Maddinson eyes us all curiously. 'Oh, missed something have I?'

'We were just talking about you,' Lady Penny tells him.

'Oh?' he says, his eyebrow raised. 'And pray tell, Skye, was it at all positive news or were this pair making up stories again?'

I watch the two women. I find it hard to think they're actually married to each other. Public displays of affection between a man and a woman aren't exactly frowned upon in Jupiter but you don't always see it. Affection between couples of the same sex, well, it must occur, I guess, but it's not something that's promoted. Or advertised. I feel envious of such a forward thinking society that these two woman can marry and live together without any apparent fear of prejudice or of being snubbed by the community, its institutions, the greater population.

'Making up stories?' I say. I shrug. 'That, I'm still trying to determine.'

Maddinson lays the tray on the table. 'How very cryptic,' he says.

6

I sip the tea that Maddinson has prepared. He sits beside me. We eat the scones layered with jam and cream. Perhaps the most divine thing I have ever eaten. I force myself to stop eating. I don't want to make myself sick.

Penny sits opposite me with a quill and paper. 'Alright then, so I guess we ought to get down to business,' she says. 'Thomas says we have a matter of your missing friends to clear up. So, firstly I would ask you to tell me each of their names, if you don't mind. After that, if need be, I shall request from you their physical characteristics. Is that alright?'

I nod and do as she asks, telling her their names. Reid Evans. Morgan Latterly. Edward, or Eddie Takeda. And Imogen Blake.

Penny dips her quill in a pot of blue ink and scribbles this down. 'Alright then,' she says, turning to a curious piece of technology that looks somewhat like ancient television set. 'Let's see what this turns up.' I watch her press buttons on a key-panel and the small pale monitor wakes up, its screen glowing green. It takes several moments to boot up. It's here Lady Sapphire explains what her wife is up to. 'Best place to start,' she says, 'is the quarantine databases of both Cloudfyre and IEPA. If your friends have been located and transported to Eden then they will have been processed and their personal details logged. If they have used their proper names and not, for some reason, given over pseudonyms, then we might, with any luck, locate them rather quickly.'

Penny moves her fingers across the key-panel, typing rapidly until a Cloudfyre homepage features on screen. She plugs in more system commands until I read EDEN QUARANTINE. A few moments later, after entering what I guess must be a number of security codes, she has access to incoming patient records. Here she inputs a search for my friends. Typing in their names, before pressing an engage key to kick off the search.

Next, she minimises the EDEN QUARANTINE page and proceeds to bring up the IEPA database, repeating her commands. 'By the way,' she says to me over her shoulder, wearing a mischievous grin, 'this isn't exactly above board, but needs must and all that.'

I don't exactly care. If it finds my friends then that's all I'm worried about.

'Alright,' Lady Sapphire says. 'This might take a few minutes. So, in the meantime, in case your friends haven't been picked up and registered with either group, why don't you tell me how you lot ended up in this swamp city?' She grabs her quill again and some paper. 'Without an Interdimensional craft, tell me how you managed it?'

As I'd told Maddinson, I explain to her about the portals, how we found the Ephemerys, how Morgan and Eddie calculated when and where these portals were due open by decoding certain tables and star charts in this book. That such portals had apparently been opening on and off for up to eighty years.

'Eighty years you say?' Lady Sapphire asks intrigued.

'According to data from that book,' I tell her. 'It's what my friend Morgan speculated.'

'Still, seems strange considering we've only had the Lostboy in our solar system for forty three years,' she tells me. 'After all, that was the catalyst for this portal phenomenon. Though I am aware of the time variances that plays out between Outworlds.'

The table before us holds the tea and scones. There's another object here I've noticed, hidden beneath a tea towel. It's here Lady Sapphire says, 'before we continue... this book you described, was it something like this?', and she removes the towel and when I see what's lying there, my mouth falls open.

I can't believe what I'm seeing.

The Ephemerys.

I'm fascinated. It can't be the same book. It's got to be a duplicate.

I lean forward and pick it up. I stare at the front cover. Right there before me it reads: EPHEMERYS. I open it up, I leaf through it. I see hand-scrawled notes in the book's margins. Actual notes I'd witnessed Eddie and Morgan making. And there are other notes written down on bits of scrap paper. Notes that say things like Morgan's Findings or Eddie's Results. Bits of paper that look marked by water damage, like they've aged and browned and frayed.

So, I is our Ephemerys. The very same item we pulled out of Juke's secret hideout in the Persephone building.

'Sweet Mother,' I say, hardly breathing, looking across at both Lady Penny and Lady Sapphire. 'Where did you get this?'

It's Maddinson who speaks. 'I unearthed it on one of the Outworlds.'

I turn and look up at him. He's sitting there sipping tea. 'You found it?'

'Yes. On an Outworld called Outerland 754. Or as we Cloudfyre Gatherers tend to call it, Hades. I uncovered the remains of one of our agents there. This book was amongst his belongings.'

'You knew about the Ephemerys,' I say, scrutinising him. 'When you asked me how I got to that swamp city, I told you we'd used this book. And you didn't utter a single word that you'd ever laid eyes on it, let alone found it. Why not?'

'I uncovered it two months ago,' he explains. 'In recent times I have forwarded any interesting items acquired on my travels to Penny and Sapphire. I find that Cloudfyre tends to hide certain objects away, and they often take their time to do anything with them. Or they withhold any information they might derive. I get far quicker results through the ladies here. As to the reason why I failed to say anything when you mentioned it, firstly, I did not wish to jump to conclusions and assume you were talking about this very item. And secondly, I wanted to make certain that Penny and Sapphire still had it in their possession before I went ahead and told you that I'd such an item here in London.'

I watch him. Do I trust him? Do I take him at his word? He looks so sincere.

I sigh, flustered. 'These notes,' I say, turning back to Lady Penny. 'These were made by my friends. They were carrying this book when we were separated.' I look back at Maddinson. 'Does this mean you've found them?'

'Afraid not,' he says. 'I detected no other signs of human life or habitation when I touched down in that part of Hades and located the doomed Cloudfyre agent.'

'What it means,' Lady Sapphire tells me, 'is that our search range has been drastically narrowed with the confirmation that your friends were carrying this book at the time they vanished. We now have a starting point from which to kick off our search. That being the coordinates on Hades where Maddinson located this book.'

'You think they're still there?' I ask hopefully, looking to Maddinson for an answer.

'Difficult to say,' he tells me. 'As I say, I picked up no other signs of life whilst I was there. However, depending on how long your friends have been there, or were there, they could have wandered. They may also have found another portal and got themselves home where, by some stroke of luck, they have hopefully been picked up and transferred to Eden.'

'I shall set up our interdimensional scanners,' Lady Sapphire says, 'and see what we find.'

'No chance of dispatching one of your recon pods?' Maddinson asks her.

'The few we have remaining,' she says, 'are currently in for maintenance. Still, I hope to have them back in operation by day's end.'

I'm watching them. My head in a complete spin. The portal that'd opened beneath the dome in Frogtown, the one my friends dropped into, the one I missed... it mustn't have delivered them home to Jupiter City. It must've deposited them in this other world. My mind is in a complete whirl about what this could mean. About their fate. About whether or not they're still alive.

'Rightio,' says Lady Penny, 'let's see if our initial scans are giving us anything.' She consults the pale green monitor of her unusual looking data scanner. I see the title IEPA QUARANTINE. Lady Penny presses keys and runs through figures. I watch her shaking her head, Lady Sapphire watching on closely. Penny repeats her examination of her search results on Cloudfyre's database. She sighs. 'So no positive response back from either the Cloudfyre or IEPA databases regarding the names of your friends.'

'They've not been picked up and taken to quarantine?' I ask, needing to verify this.

'Precisely,' she says. 'However, not all is lost. We turn our eyes now on Hades and thus get a bit more specific with our search parameters. But I'll need you to tell me a bit more about your friends. Their age, their gender, their race. Where you were when you last saw them, what time of day it was, what month you left Jupiter, et cetera. These details will help me narrow things down once we start scanning Hades and whatever other Outworlds we might end up having to search. The more I know, the less time it'll take to trace them.'

So with Lady Penny taking notes, with my thoughts still ticking over like mad, I begin describing them all. Reid, Morgan, Eddie, and Imogen. Age, sex, ethnicity. And height as best as I can estimate, standing up to indicate their heights in relation to me.

Lady Penny begins putting data into a strange device with a zillion buttons. It reminds me of the antique typewriter mum has sitting in her bedroom back home in Jupiter. Only this one is about five times larger. And set out on three separate tiers. And makes the odd beeping sound when Penny pushes its buttons. She tells me it speaks to both an antenna on the roof and to an Interdimensional Scanner placed in the court yard.

Lady Sapphire stands over Lady Penny's shoulder, correcting Penny when she presses the wrong button. Or reaching over, thumbing buttons with Lady Penny occasionally arguing that she's wrong and Lady Sapphire insisting she's right.

Meanwhile, I stare at the Ephemerys. Wondering what's happened to my friends. What happened to make them lose the Ephemerys? Are they stranded on some hideous Outworld? Are they safe? Do they have food and water? My anxiety builds as I speculate.

Lady Penny's at her device for some time. When I ask how long it might take, she shrugs. 'Hard to say. Like I said, we'll start our search with Hades, on top of the location where Thomas picked up the Ephemerys, where the Gatherer's remains were found. From there we'll work outwards. It might take a day, it might take weeks.'

I'm aghast. 'Weeks?' My spirits are instantly deflated. I'd hoped she might turn to me and say, 'A minute or two and we'll have their location.'

'Once we get our recon pods up and about,' Lady Sapphire tells me, 'the process ought to be quicker. Still, best we be patient.'

'While we're waiting,' Maddinson says. 'I was wondering, Skye, if we might conduct our own test on the Cloudfyre PIT unit imbedded in you. Lady Sapphire has the equipment here to extract the information stored in there.'

I frown, suspicious. 'Why? I thought your people extracted the data.'

'Yes. But I can't fathom why they're taking so long to decipher the information. And you tell me no-one has yet contacted you from cryptology to request a backup scan?'

'That's right.'

'Look, sometimes these things take time. But occasionally, as I said, cryptology and the IEPA withhold certain pieces of information. I'd like to know what they're sitting on. Lady Sapphire may or may not be able to tell us anything any faster... but I'm curious, that's all.'

I find myself questioning what's going on here. Who to trust. Cloudfyre. The IEPA. Or Maddinson.

I watch Maddinson. I can't help feeling that maybe a further scan might help more quickly to ascertain who I am, or why I'm carrying a Cloudfyre PIT unit. I sigh. 'Okay, I'll do it. But it better not hurt.'

Lady Sapphire's scanner is unlike the one I experienced at the Cloudfyre lab. I'm told it's one that she and Lady Penny devised themselves. I'm required to disrobe to my underwear. I'm behind a partition where none can see me, so my dignity is preserved. Lady Penny's at the little console. She asks me to now step into a tall glass capsule. I see Maddinson watching me. He looks away, embarrassed. Lady Sapphire asks me to stand as still as I can. A metallic bar wizzes around me. It lasts for a minute or two. Then that's it. Lady Sapphire fetches me my clothes.

Within a minute, Lady Penny confirms that I am carrying a Cloudfyre Society PIT unit inside me. And confirms that some of the data is indeed corrupted. 'Looks like your colleagues were speaking the truth,' she says to Maddinson. 'This is going to take some time to decipher.'

7

There's a conservatory at the rear of the town house that overlooks an outdoor garden. I sit there watching sparrows through the window. They're playing about a birdbath. I've been here an hour already. I've heard no news about either my friends or what data I've got buried secretly inside me.

Maddinson finds me and sits with me a while.

I gaze over at him. 'What's this Hades place like then?' I ask. 'Is it likely my friends could survive there?'

'If they're resourceful,' he says, 'indeed they may have found a way. Though it contains rather a hostile climate if I'm perfectly honest. We don't know much about its history. There are cities there but they're all empty. No sign of who built them. No corpses, no remains, no graves. There's a breathable atmosphere, though it can be rather acidic. Respiratory apparatus are certainly recommended. Though you can get by without them.'

'You think my friends have perished?'

He's quiet. I can tell he doesn't want to speculate.

I continue to eye him. 'Maddinson? You think they might have perished?'

'Skye, if they have been there for any prolonged period, then honestly, I can't see them holding out for long.'

I swallow. I didn't want to hear that.

'But listen, as I said, if they're resourceful people, they stand a chance. There are peculiar temperate zones dotted across Hades. Pockets of oases. If they've managed to reach one of these, and I believe there was one such spot not far from where I located the Ephemerys, then they could certainly survive for a decent amount of time. Provided they find sufficient water and food.'

'Is there water and food there?'

'Yes, surprisingly. There are reservoirs of water. Mighty hollowed rock spires filled with pure water. We don't yet know what their purpose is or was, but if your friends can find one and learn how to access the water they will have no shortage of fresh water to drink. As for food, well I witnessed tall breeds of what I might describe as doglike creatures. And there were certainly a plethora of rodents. So, I would not give up on hope.'

I sit in silence for a little while. Staring at the lawn. The fate of my friends weighing heavily on me. My mood and spirits are low. I feel homesick. Something I've never felt in my life. I think of mum. If she's okay. I look over at Maddinson. 'I'd like to see my mother,' I say softly. 'I want to know she's alright. I want you to take me to her, please.'

He looks regretful. 'Sorry, Skye, but I can't do that. Due to stringent quarantine protocols and the like, one requires special clearance to travel to and from Eden. I've not been granted such a clearance. But once she's been assessed and deemed healthy she'll be rehomed.'

'Rehomed?'

'Yes.'

'Where?'

'In another Outworld location.'

'She won't be returning to Jupiter?'

'It's far too dangerous there now, so no.'

'Will I see her again?'

He smiles sympathetically. 'Yes. In time. I assume once we confirm your identity, I might be permitted to take you to her.'

'Why can't she come here? To London?'

He shrugs. 'I suppose that's a good question. The powers that be have never resettled people here.'

'Why?'

'I can only assume that as the multiworld system remains largely a secret, integrating people from other worlds might go on to cause public suspicion and upheaval and thus create potential panic. Something I guess the good and God fearing people of London could do without.'

'Do they not deserve to know about the existence of alternative Earth worlds?'

'Not sure if that's really for me to say. But perhaps they don't. Would you have slept more soundly at night in your Jupiter had you known there were places like that swamp city?'

I swallow. 'Probably not.' I sit with my hands resting in my lap. I can't help think of Jupiter. And the world on which it sits. A day ago I felt that somehow Jupiter was just down the road from London. That I'd lived a lie all my life. That my world wasn't deserted as I'd been led to believe. But now I don't know what to think. I gaze across at Maddinson. 'Would you please tell me something?'

'Yes, anything, Skye.'

'The world on which I've been living... is it truly empty? I mean, the people of Jupiter City believe that they are all there is in terms of a human population. That something called the Great Silence wiped out all of humankind. Is Jupiter really the only place where people exist on my Earth nowadays?'

He takes a moment to answer. 'I must admit, the world on which your Jupiter sits has only a recently been discovered. It hasn't been one of the planets that the Cloudfyre Society has been aware of. So we don't know for sure. Certainly, when I managed to pick up signals of your PIT unit, I ran some rudimentary global scans for radio frequencies, satellite signatures, human bio scans, et cetera, but other than your Jupiter, I found no signs of human habitation there.' He watches me. 'Why do you ask?'

'Just curious. I mean, after witnessing this city of London, so vibrant and alive and teeming with people, well, it now seems difficult to believe that Jupiter City can be the only place on my world that holds any sort of human population.'

He shrugs. 'As I say, Skye, yours is a world that Cloudfyre has only recently discovered. Further exploration may turn up other pockets of human habitation. And now that we know the Darkness has arrived there, there is some urgency to search for signs of further human existence, so as to preserve them and protect them from infection.'

'If there are other people on my world,' I say, 'are you confident you can save them from this virus?'

He eyes me thoughtfully. Then he removes what looks to be a wallet from one of his pockets. He opens it, showing off what I assume is his identification card. On it I see another representation of that emblem: the planet and twin suns.

'You may have seen this symbol around the place,' Maddinson tells me. 'When Society heads learned of the Lostboy's plight, from where it originated, the doomed fate of its passengers and their world, they decided to adopt this insignia as a symbol of what we, as a group, represent. And it serves as a reminder of what could happen if we should ever take our sights off our goal. Should we ever relax, should we grow lazy, if our passion and determination wanes, then we face a similar fate to all those on that distant planet of Cloudfyre. But if we stick to our plan, to continue to search for and discover Outworlds, to seek out and assist if they need it, the millions of scattered human populations and the trillions of living creatures out there, to strive for a way to beat this alien disease, then we will have achieved what we set out to do and thus fulfilled our mission statement. And in the process, simply by doing our job, we will, with any luck, have saved your Earth.'

Here Lady Sapphire walks into the conservatory. 'Excuse my intrusion,' she says, 'but it looks like the fine people at the Cloudfyre Society are searching for our guest.' She directs her next sentence at Maddinson. 'They want to know if she's with you.' She holds up an odd looking device. There are two separate cone shaped components to it. Some sort of communications phone if I had to guess.

'Who've we got on the line?' Maddinson asks quietly.

Lady Sapphire holds the communicator away from her face, so as not to be overheard. 'Who do you think? Your most favourite person in the world. Picket.'

Maddinson grimaces. 'Great. This is going to be fun.' He stands and moves to Lady Sapphire, taking the gadget from her, lifting one piece to his ear and the second piece to his mouth. On the tips of each component there's something of a stunted node that flashes blue. Receiving and transmitting antennas perhaps. 'Picket, my good man,' Maddinson says cheerfully. 'How may I assist you on this fine day?'

Whoever this Picket person is, he doesn't sound best pleased with Maddinson. I can hear his blaring voice from the ear-piece. Maddinson holds it away from his head. Smiling at me as he does so. After a minute or more of this Picket person ranting on the other end of the line, Maddinson finally gets a chance to speak. 'Yes, right then, old boy,' he says into the mouth-piece, 'now that you've left me a moment to chat, let me declare that yes, the "Outworld girl", as you put it, is with me.'

This Picket blares on again for a while. Maddinson once more holding the receiver away from his ear. 'Do you hear that?' he asks me softly.

I can't help smiling. I nod.

Eventually Maddinson gets another word in. 'Right, well keep your hair on, my good man. I simply thought I'd take the poor girl out of your stuffy facility for a punt up the river. God knows she'll be cooped up in there waiting for you lot to decipher the data from her PIT unit... Yes, yes, of course, I'll have her back before tea time. And yes, she'll be in one peace. Don't fret, there's a good chap.' Maddinson smiles, I can still hear Picket shouting on the other end of the line. 'Right then, Picket,' Maddinson says, 'lovely to chat, must go though. Send my best to your wife, won't you. Ta ta now.'

The man's still blowing steam when Maddinson disengages the connection.

'Bit stuffy that Picket,' Maddinson admits. 'Lovely chap though.' He hands the communications phone back to Lady Sapphire. 'You're right about him,' he says smiling, 'a calm and measured old man.'

'He's the chap who gave Penny and I our marching orders, if you remember?'

Maddinson nods. 'Oh, I do remember indeed.' He looks at me now.

'So, you have to take me back?' I ask.

'Protocol's protocol, I'm sorry to say,' he says. 'I better not peeve off my superiors any more than I already have. As long as I remain on the Cloudfyre payroll, as long as I enjoy my pay packet and the free wine and chocolates at Christmas, then authority aside, I remain at the whim of my employers. So, yes, unfortunately I have to get you back.'

He stands and he calls Gryffin on a portable communicator. 'Gryff, old boy, would you pilot the Arachni to Penny and Sapphire's Lambeth address, we need to get Skye back to base before Picket starts having chickens. Oh, ah and then inform Cloudfyre command that I'll be conducting a maintenance flight while we wait for cryptology to get their finger out.'

While we wait, I realise I don't want to leave this townhouse. I feel safe here. Protected. But I've no choice. Then in what feels like no time at all, Maddinson's Interdimensional craft, the Arachni, descends into the rear garden. It's the first time I see it clearly. I see the colourful insignia printed on her hull: a luscious smiling woman with eight spider legs.

'Let me know if you get any bites,' Maddinson says to Ladies Sapphire and Penny as they stand there seeing us off.

'Will do,' Lady Penny says.

And then hushly Maddinson says to them both, 'By the way, just on the quiet, I thought I might take the Arachni out near the Untouched.'

There seems to be a complicit look that passes between the three of them. Lady Sapphire's like, 'Right then, got you. I must say though, you really know how to rile old Picket, don't you?'

'Just testing out the old boy's ticker,' Maddinson tells them. 'And if he happens to drop off the mortal coil, then hopefully they'll promote some younger blood into his role.'

'Sometimes I wonder if you are but the devil himself in disguise,' Lady Sapphire says with a grin.

'Devil or saint,' he says, 'I'll take them both. Oh, by the way, you know where to send any correspondence if Cloudfyre come knocking.'

They both nod. 'Yes, got it.'

'Right then.' He kisses the cheeks of both women and says, 'thank you both for your help.'

Lady Penny turns to me. 'Fear not, Skye. We'll maintain our search for your friends. With any luck we'll pick up their whereabouts before too long.'

I nod. 'Thank you. Both of you. It's been nice meeting you.'

They shake my hand. 'You two,' says Lady Sapphire.

Maddinson leads me out to the craft. 'So what's the Untouched?' I ask him.

'Oh, nothing,' he says. 'Just a place.'

The ramp descends and Maddinson leads me up into the cool, dry interior of the Arachni. Gryff awaits us inside, strapped into a flight seat.

It's peculiar being back in here. I had barely the chance to take any of it in when we'd fled my Jupiter. But I can't help but be reminded of that craft in the swamp city. It's a mirror image of that vessel. Translucent hull. Wide spacious floor surrounding a central mushroom shaped console with a planet and twin suns printed on the stem. A settee at the tapered end of the craft. And this didn't occur to me before now, but if I was looking down from above, I feel the craft would be shaped something like a teardrop.

Gryffin bleeps as we move into the ship, the ramp retracting behind us and the doorway seals. 'Good to see you too, old boy,' Maddinson tells him, moving over and patting the droid on one of his three shoulders.

Maddinson offers me a flight seat before seating himself, and he thumbs a soft-metal touch pad on the console. 'TM-R4 to Cloudfyre control, coming in now to drop off our patient. Do you receive?'

A crisp voice comes back at us, as if whoever's speaking is sitting right in front of us. 'Cloudfyre control to TM-R4, receive you loud and clear. Confirming that you're flying in now to return our agent?'

'That's right,' Maddinson replies. 'See you in five. Oh, and I trust Gryffin mentioned that I'll be out for a test run. So, log me in, please.'

'Test run? Yes, well don't go too far, Maddinson. We need you around.'

'Right. Got that.' Maddinson engages the drive unit and takes the craft out into the sky.

I'm not happy about having to return to the Cloudfyre compound but there are goose bumps on my skin as the Arachni lifts away from the ground. I can't stop gazing through the hull. Watching the streets and houses and carriages and gardens dropping away from us. The sheer weightless sensation of becoming elevated over London is exhilarating. And though my stomach lurches, I ignore it the best I can as I don't want to miss this experience.

Maddinson switches off his communications systems and turns to me.

I hardly notice him. I'm simply watching London drift by below us. As if we were but a cloud. Or a bird. I can barely breathe. I see Maddinson looking me, as if he's about to say something... but he's silent as he regards me.

When I look at him I see the expression in his face. It's as if he's looking at something he's quite taken by. Something he admires. Wants.

But I'm still distracted by this simple act of flying. Of being elevated in this craft. It's utterly exhilarating. 'This is amazing,' I tell him. 'This is so amazing.'

'Tell me then,' he says, 'if you had a choice, would you prefer I take you back to that little cottage on Cloudfyre grounds, or would you rather accompany me on a bit of a joy ride?'

I swallow. I'm eyeing him now. 'A joy ride? What do you mean?'

'Well, I can't help thinking that being cooped in that place might drive you a tad daft.'

I'm just watching him, not certain what he's getting at.

'Right then,' he says. 'You asked what the Untouched was. Would you like me to show you?'

'Is it in London?'

He smiles. 'Not quite.'

'Will this get you in trouble?'

'Highly likely. But then, what did I tell you about my dear old father. Don't forget to live a little. And I would hate to ignore my dear father.' He sighs. 'Plus, I guess I could go without the Yuletide chocolates this year.'

I have no idea what he's talking about, or where this Untouched is. But if it means keeping away from the confines of Cloudfyre for a while longer then I'm all for it.

'So,' he says, 'you ready then?'

Before I know what I'm saying, I tell him, 'Yes.'

Maddinson smiles and engages the Arachni's engines and the last we hear before we leave is Cloudfyre's fleet control requesting an update from Maddinson. 'We understand you are bringing in our agent. Confirm?'

'Central control, this is Thomas Maddinson, Level Four, CDS-G seven-five, ah, confirm, I am bringing in your patient.' Then he cuts the communication and says to me, 'But not right now.'

He pulls on what I assume is the drive shift and we streak away into the sky.

THE UNTOUCHED

1

THERE'S no discernible sensation that tells me we have crossed dimensions. Nothing except a sudden stillness. A quietness. And a subtle change in the light outside the craft.

'Have we left London?' I ask.

Maddinson smiles at his controls. 'Yes, you could say that.'

We fly through a predominantly blue sky, watching the clouds drift by below us. This must be how birds feel, I think. Soaring through the air. It feels utterly liberating. I want to reach out and touch the sky. I want to feel the wind against my face.

Maddinson brings up some floating holographic image that settles over the central console before us. I watch him press some finger-pads on his key panel. Across from us, Gryffin is still seated in his own flight suit, doing his own checks.

We begin descending through huge banks of cloud. Every now and then we break clear of them and beyond the translucent hull I get glimpses of the land far below us. We are at an immense height here. Far, far below, I see lakes and small islands, I see forests and plains. I feel excitement and a certain amount of fear at being so high above the Earth.

Eventually Maddinson brings the Arachni down upon what looks to be a colossal mountain ridge. Through the Arachni's hull there's this breathtaking view of what Maddinson calls an ancient glacial valley. It feels like were on the drop-off at the edge of the world. I'm desperate to get out and take it all in.

We unstrap from our flight seats and I follow Maddinson to the front of the craft where he operates the door. It opens and the ramp extends and I'm hit instantly with air so fresh and crisp I have never breathed anything so pure.

Maddinson leads me out. Gryffin exiting behind us, his sensors bleeping, his "voice" meowing softly, as he too seems to approve of the change of scenery.

I'm giddy by the view, I'm giddy by the fresh air. Warm wind buffets my hair.

Maddinson waves me forward. I'm not even aware that I've stopped on the ramp. My mouth is open, my hand holding my hair out of my eyes. When I don't move he comes and takes my hand.

2

We're on some sort of plateau here. There's an elevated hump of rock that juts up from the plateau and we climb it and stand there in the waving grass, gazing out across the glacial valley far, far below that stretches away to our east for as far as I can see. To the north about twenty or thirty miles away, there are grassy mountain slopes. They are so distant they are almost lost to the haze. Cloud shadows drift serenely across them. To the south, the valley is lined in a jagged cliff face that runs away out of sight.

I have never seen a vista so vast and immense and awesome.

I realise I am clasping Maddinson's hand. That I'm squeezing his fingers. I don't let go. I feel completely exhilarated. I've seen pictures like this in books but none of that compares to this. None of it. I am almost unable to speak. But I managed to ask, 'Where are we?'

'An Outworld we call the Untouched,' he tells me.

'The Untouched.' I say it like it's a magical word.

'No-one lives here,' Maddinson tells me. 'Anywhere on this version of Earth. It has evolved entirely without people. It is but a paradise unsullied by that of humankind. Primates have yet to flourish here. It is filled with all manner of flora and fauna. And none of it tainted by human hands. Perhaps the sort of untouched world the visitors in the anomalous Lostboy alien craft might have been searching for had they not been killed.'

The very idea of this is amazing, the very idea that no humans ever evolved on this world is so hard to get my thoughts around. 'You mean you and I are the only people on this entire world?'

He smiles and nods. 'Yes.'

I hear birds calling and see them circling on thermal currents. I see lizards in the waving grass. Bugs fly about. There is such a feeling of peace and tranquillity here, a sensation of pure serenity, a sensation I've never ever known.

Maddinson climbs down from the rock and moves toward the edge of the cliff.

I follow, but I'm tentative. I stop about five metres from the edge. I go no further. He looks around at me and beckons me to come to him.

I shake my head, smiling nervously. 'I don't think so. I'm not good with heights.'

'It's alright,' he says. 'I won't let you fall.'

I go a bit closer. I step carefully. I fear the sheer wind gusts will drag me over the edge. I stop again. I can see the valley far, far below us. 'Wow, how high are we here?'

Maddinson seems to consider this. 'Five thousand feet. Six thousand. Maybe more.'

'It's beautiful,' I say. I can hardly speak. I feel like crying. 'It is so beautiful.' The crisp dry wind brings tears to my eyes. Everything I know or long for, everything that worries me or hurts me, I forget in these moments. I feel a sense of freedom I've never known. I feel as if my mind is clear. I feel nothing but a strange inner peace.

I step closer to Maddinson, closer to the edge of the plateau. The sunshine warms my face and skin, the dry wind cools it. I am experiencing a total mix of sensations, emotions.

I don't even realise it but my hand reaches for Maddinson's. I tell myself it's purely because I want something to hang onto, that I'm nervous being this close to the edge of the cliff. But maybe it's also that I feel the need to share this experience with someone. And if I'm honest, Thomas Maddinson has been nothing but a gentleman since I've known him. And if I can't be here with Reid, then, well, Maddinson seems like a decent enough alternative.

'I'm speechless,' I say and my voice is almost carried off by the wind. 'I am utterly speechless.'

He looks at me and I'm aware that he watches me for a little while. My eyes go to his. In that moment I'm completely taken by him. In that moment something passes between us. I don't know what it is. But it's a feeling I've known only once before. The day I realised I had an attraction to Reid. That I wanted him.

I drop my gaze and smile awkwardly and there's an equally as awkward smile from Maddinson. I laugh and he laughs and it sounds a bit embarrassing which makes us both laugh even more.

'What are you laughing at?' I ask him.

'Nothing,' he says, still laughing.

'Stop it,' I say, smiling.

'You started it,' he says, wiping laugh tears from his eyes.

I shut my eyes and breathe in deep, feeling his strong fingers around mine. I take in several deep breaths. His hand feels so warm and firm and for a little while I never want to leave this place.

My eyes open and I follow the valley out to as far I can see. I study the distant horizon for a little while. There's a band of deep blue against the earth. 'What's that way out there?' I ask him intrigued.

'The ocean,' he tells me.

My mouth falls open, I look at him like he's playing with me. 'Tell me you're joking.' I gaze back at it. 'The ocean? Is it really?'

Maddinson nods. 'Yes, it is.'

'Oh, Mother, I can't believe it. I have never seen the ocean. Can we go to it? Can we please see it?'

He seems to consider this. He checks a time piece on his wrist. 'I suppose we could.' He grins at me. 'Live a little and all.' And without any warning, without any word, he grabs hold of me and pulls me to the edge of the cliff.

'Wait!' I squeal. 'What are you doing?'

And without a word of what he's about to do, he takes hold of me, lifting me from my feet and he swings me outwards, throwing me over the edge.

3

I'm falling, squealing, tumbling. Wind screeches passed me, ripping at my clothes and hair. The cliff edge races away into the sky above me at a terrifying rate. I cannot stop squealing, my arms flailing at anything to grab onto. But there's nothing. Just the cliff wall racing passed me and Maddinson back up there gazing down at me.

Then he steps away and disappears.

I'm screaming for help, for mercy. My squeals seem to echo across the valley. I'm tumbling around in mid-air, unable to control my movements. The edge of the cliff far above me swings into my field of view once again. And it's here I witness the strangest thing.

Maddinson. He must've taken a short run up. Because I see him suddenly leaping from the cliff edge. And as I spin I see him pin his arms to his sides and he rockets toward me like a bullet.

I hear him laughing. And I suddenly fear that I'm in the hands of a complete madman.

'Don't fight it,' I hear him call down to me. 'Trust me, enjoy it. You're safe, you're quite safe.'

The memory of dropping between the buildings in the swamp city floods back to me. He saved me somehow. He arrested my fall. He knows some trick, I tell myself. He must.

Slowly he nears me and I feel him grab me. I try to push him away. But he holds me and steadies my body, so that we're both now belly-down, our arms and legs splayed.

'Trust me, Skye,' he calls out to me and I hardly hear him, the scoring wind far too loud.

The valley floor seems to rush up to us. I have a fleeting thought that Gryffin will somehow catch us in the Arachni. But the craft is nowhere to be seen.

'Why did you do that?' I scream. 'Why did you do that? Tell me you're wearing a drop chute!'

'No chute,' he calls back.

'Oh Mother, we're going to die! We're going to die!'

'One day, perhaps,' he says, 'but not today.'

He points out a herd of strange animals. It's hard to make them out from our position and I'm not exactly in a state of mind for sightseeing, but they look like sheep. It's only when we plummet further I realise they are something like mammoths. If I wasn't so terrified I'd be fascinated.

Soon I realise that we are not simply falling. We are somehow moving eastwards. As if we are soaring birds.

And... if I am not mistaken, our descent seems to have slowed somehow. It must be an optical illusion, I tell myself. I has to be an illusion.

Still, the ground beneath definitely races away to the west, speeding by in a blur, as if we really are flying. Falling and flying. Soon we are a hundred feet off the ground, then eighty feet, fifty, thirty, twenty... the cliff from which I was thrown is already far, far behind us.

Then... somehow we fall no further, simply soaring across this earth.

I am flabbergasted all over again. 'What's going on? What's going on?!' I look at Maddinson beside me. He wears a smile. The wind tugs at his hair. 'Are you doing something?' I call to him. 'How are you doing this?'

He shows me his empty hands. 'Not my doing? It is a gravitational anomaly that we have discovered only on this planet. Magical, don't you think?'

I blink. My head is a whirl. My heart still pounding. But somehow I begin to relax. I even smile nervously now that I know I'm probably not going to die.

I reach out my arms. I'm utterly terrified when Maddinson lets me go, but I have my arms outstretched like a bird. I have never felt so exhilarated. I have never felt so alive. I can't explain it. I simply cannot explain it. I feel like crying but it's too amazing to waste this moment on tears. I am bulging eyed and aghast. I am dizzy with adrenalin.

Beside me, Maddinson plants his arms to his sides and spins like a cork-screw through the air, rocketing forward, showing off. I copy him, and spin and my speed seems to accelerate but I feel clumsy as I do it, out of control and as I reach him, he catches me and steadies me... before he lets go of me once more. We're side by side again, as if racing one another.

Ahead of us the ocean draws near and it's so immense, sweeping way out to the horizon, but I've barely any time to take it in as soon we're zooming over the tops of trees and then a sandy beach and as we descend closer and closer to the water I see how the sun sparkles on the gentle ocean waves.

My panic rises again. How do we slow down? How do we get out of this? I'm about to call out and ask Maddinson what happens now, when suddenly we drop toward the waves and crash heavily into the surf.

I feel control leave my body temporarily. I feel at the mercy of physics as the body of water kills our momentum and I'm thrown around in the surf like a doll.

I manage to orientate myself and swim desperately for the surface. I gasp for air and look around and Maddinson pops up beside me. He flicks his sodden hair from his face and laughs and yells at the sky.

Together we swim for shore.

4

Our wet bodies are together before we've even reach sand. We are kissing. I don't even know who instigated it. How it happens. I'm so high on adrenalin. I don't think I've ever felt like this. My brain is in a wild unbridled spin. It just happens. I feel crazy with desire.

I'm unsure how long we're lying in the shallow waves kissing each other. But there's a part of me that doesn't want it to end. When it does we lie there panting, the gentle waves washing over our feet and toes and legs, washing up and lapping against my shoulders and my neck. I feel my hair being tugged by it.

'Wow,' Maddinson says breathlessly, gazing up at the sunny sky. 'That was amazing.'

I don't know if he's talking about the kiss, or our flight from the cliff. But I don't care. It was amazing. All of it. Our flight and the kiss.

I roll onto my side and look at him and our eyes lock. He smiles at me and says, 'What?'

I can't help smiling. But I punch him in the ribs.

'Ouch,' he says, spluttering. 'What was that for?'

'For throwing me off that bloody cliff!' But I can't help myself, a moment later I'm kissing him again, leaning against him, my breasts pushed against his chest. I suck his lips and let his tongue into my mouth and I don't think I've experienced a kiss so powerful, so passionate. I expect him to tear at my clothes. To rip them from me. I almost want him to. To be naked with him on this warm beach, the only people on this world. It feels so exotic, so wild, I almost lose myself in this passion.

He's a gentleman though and he slows things down and I guess we both realise things are advancing too fast so we break the kiss and we lie side by side, gazing up into the wonderful sky, catching our breath.

5

We swim for a while. He splashes water at me. I wrestle him but he's stronger than me and dunks me. When I surface, I'm behind him, so I leap on him and catch him off balance and giggle as he goes under. He comes up laughing, his sodden hair hanging in his eyes. 'Right,' he says, 'so fair play's out the window then,' and he grabs me, hoists me up and throws me into the waves. I squeal as I go under and I relish the warm water as it closes around my face and hair and for a moment I stay there, submerged. I'm living a fantasy, I tell myself. This must be a fantasy. I must've died when I fell from the dome in the swamp city. I must've died and woken up here.

I hear a muffled call from above the waves. Then I feel Maddinson's strong hands grabbing hold of me and hauling me from the water.

There's an alarmed look on his face as I emerge from the waves. 'Bloody hell, are you alright?' he asks and I'm puzzled for a moment until I realise he's concerned for me.

I touch his face. Our eyes are locked. 'I was just enjoying the feeling of being immersed in this world.'

We watch each other. He still holds me. I see his lips. I feel this strange connection with him. It's almost frightening how quick it's happening.

6

Eventually we leave the water, my clothes sticking to me. My sodden blouse shows off my skin beneath, shows off my bra and the swell of my breasts. Maddinson notices though he doesn't insist on staring. He unbuttons his cotton shirt and I try not stare at his athletic build. His chest and his muscular arms. His flat belly. His back. He drapes his shirt around me. I smile, appreciating his thoughtfulness and we find ourselves strolling along the beach. I can't stop looking around. The beach stretches for miles behind us and in front. There's no-one here but us.

'Are we really all there is on this whole world?' I ask. 'In terms of people, I mean. It seems so unreal.'

He nods. 'That's right. Just you and I.'

It's something I still can't completely comprehend. That humankind never evolved here. On some levels, it's a lonely thought. But in other ways it's such a liberating notion. That there's no-one here to pollute this world with toxins and poisons. No-one to exploit it. No-one to hunt and kill its animals. No-one to fight over its territories and resources. No-one to kill each other over religion. No-one to corrupt the natural state of flora and fauna through genetics. All of it untainted and pure.

Maddinson points out to sea, to something in the middle distance, and I see some sort of enormous sea creature. Matter of fact there are a number of them. Their long necks poking out of the surf. They seem to be looking our way, as if they've spotted us.

'A pod of Elasmosaurus,' Maddinson says. 'According to the books from your Earth at least.'

I scoff. 'What? Dinosaurs?'

'Indeed.'

'Gosh. Are they dangerous?'

'I'd assume so.'

'And you let me swim in there with them?'

'Aye, well, Gryff, as he does, has been diligently scanning our area since we touched down here. The old boy's not failed me yet.'

We stop to watch them dive and they swim off. I'm amazed. I don't want them to go. I find sea shells then. The only time I've touched real sea shells was in the classroom at school in Jupiter. Here they are of such exotic shapes and sizes. Some even towering over us. And there are hermit crabs the size of my fist that scatter at our intrusion.

Gulls flock to the sand. And peculiar wolf-like mammals slink about the coastal grasses. I ask Maddinson if we should be concerned. 'Of course,' he tells me, 'they are wild untamed beasts, after all. I've personally witnessed a pack of them tear down a mammoth.'

I swallow. 'I do hope you're right about Gryff's protection then.'

Eventually we rest our feet and sit beneath the shade of some trees. We're growing thirsty so Maddinson calls down Gryffin who pilots the Arachni and lands in a grassy clearing.

Maddinson asks if I wish to get out of my garments but our clothes are dry now so neither of us bother. Gryffin brings us canisters of water.

'No alerts from Cloudfyre yet,' Maddinson tells me as he returns from the interior of his craft.

He collects old bits of drift wood and builds us a camp fire. Gryffin bleeps and looks about. I ask once more if we should be worried about predators.

'We're quite safe,' Maddinson assures me.

It's coming onto late afternoon in this world. A fire is soon crackling. There's a delicious odour of wood smoke mingling with the salty sea air. Maddinson asks what I'd like for supper. 'On tonight's menu,' he says, 'we have Angus beef steak, all the way from Scotland. Or perhaps you'd prefer fresh, wild caught Atlantic salmon. Your choice.'

I eye him. Is he serious? 'I've never eaten either,' I tell him. 'Are they tasty?'

'Are they tasty?' He laughs. 'Well, how about this? I shall cook up a little of both. We'll share a portion of each. Plus only the freshest vegetables from the farms of Somerset. Then you can tell me whether or not you think they're tasty.'

Maddinson rings his fireplace with stones and Gryffin hefts out a portable hot plate which he lies across them. I watch Maddinson cook. I have never watched someone cook with so much flare. I come from a place where cooking and eating is mostly a necessity rather than an indulgence. He steams the vegetables, finishing them with knobs of fresh butter. He fries the steak, and bakes the fish in a glass dish. The aromas coming off the campfire are truly divine. My mouth waters.

While our dinner sizzles away, Maddinson says, 'And from the vineyards of the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France we have Blanquette de Limoux, a sparkling wine I think you'll enjoy, and afterwards I have a wee bit of cognac to wash our dinner down, if you like. What do you say?'

I've never heard of these things. He pops the cork from the chilled wine and he holds up his glass. I mimic him and he tinks his glass against mine. 'Waterford Crystal.'

I've tried some homemade ale in Jupiter. Nothing I'm fond of. This wine though bubbles and sparkles and tastes like Mother's nectar.

Before sundown, the moon rises, full and orange, glittering across the ocean. As I did the night before from that Cloudfyre cottage in London, I cannot stop staring. The only moon I have ever known hangs in pieces in the sky. Here it is how it must've been before it was ruined. I don't fear it as I did the night prior. Here, after all that has happened today, it feels like a wondrous, majestic force.

'Oh wow,' I keep saying. 'This is so beautiful.' I laugh. 'I never want to leave this place.'

Gryffin carries out two chairs and a table and there we relax under the moonlight, with the sound of the waves rolling into shore, we eat dinner and we sip the sparkling wine. It is such a crazy magical occasion. And at one stage Maddinson calls Gryffin to his side and whispers something into his mechanical ears.

Gryffin bleeps then skitters away toward the craft and a minute or two later I hear music projected across our area of the beach. I look around. It feels as if it's all around us. Maddinson sits back, watching me, a smile in his eyes.

I listen for a while to the song. It's so dreamy and beautiful. 'What is this music?' I ask him. 'It's wonderful.'

Maddinson tells me it's from one of the Outworlds. 'Your Outworld, to be precise. From a period I believe you refer to as the Old World. The song is called Magic. By a group who were known as Coldplay. Company policy prevents me from playing such music in London.'

He stands and offers his hand. 'What?' I ask him. 'Where are we going?'

'Nowhere. Would you like to dance?'

We step away from the table. I realise all of a sudden that I feel so delightfully dizzy, so light and wonderful. I feel no inhibitions. I feel no pain in my healing leg. We dance together in the sand under the moonlight as the sun sets. It is truly romantic. The song is so dreamy and beautiful. I watch Maddinson's eyes. His hands are on my hips. Mine are on his shoulders. Gryffin stands guard. If some night prowler comes close he dashes off and makes some terrifying racket or some eerie sounds that scares them off.

The sparkling wine makes me giddy. I giggle. It allows me to let my guard down. Maddinson and I kiss. I taste the wine on his mouth. The evening breeze off the ocean is delicious. I feel so alive. I giggle again and Maddinson asks me what I'm laughing about. I say, 'I still can't believe you threw me off a mountain.'

He grins. 'I bet you never forget it.'

I watch his eyes. I say, 'No, I shall never forget this day. Any of it. Ever.'

The music is such a liberation. I have never heard sounds like it. At home, with Mum, it's Glenn Miller and Ella Fitzgerald and Elvis Presley and Etta James. But this music, I feel it pouring into me, as if it's speaking directly to me.

We continue to dance in the sand. More and more songs wash over the beach. 'These amazing songs,' I keep asking breathlessly, and he tells me, 'All songs from your Old World.'

He tells me their titles, he tells me who performed them. Lean On by Major Lazer & DJ Snake. Like You Want To by Kita Alexander. Drive by Tonight Alive. Don't Be Shy by Imany. Blow Your Mind by Dua Lipa.

Songs and artists long gone from my world. Their voices and music like ghosts.

We dance and we drop down into the sand and I kiss Maddinson with a lust and passion I've never known before.

7

We lie beside each other on the sand. In some ways I don't want this night to end. After the sun has long gone, the moon lights the night. So much so that the frothy white tops of the waves are visible rolling into shore. And the band of beach that stretches away in either direction almost seems to glow. And it's not just the visual aspect enhanced by the full moon, but the sounds of the waves. The gentle caressing sound as they roll to shore is hypnotic, like a soft motherly voice at my side. I've never known such peace as I lie here gazing up into the cosmos, a trillion stars twinkling down at us. I've never seen the universe as I do now. So clear and unobstructed by city skyscrapers. I feel so small and insignificant. It's such a liberating feeling.

As I stare out into the night sky, I can't help pondering the story of the Lostboy space vessel. How it crossed those vast empty distances. How it found Earth. I wonder if it's up there even now. I can't recall if Maddinson ever told me what happened to it. 'Is it still there?' I ask him as we lie here, my hand in his. 'The Lostboy craft, I mean.'

'Aye, it's still there,' he tells me. 'But it's dormant now. It sends out none of its recon pods. The IEPA dispatch the occasional research team up there. But possibly we have learned from it all we can.'

'What about the Darkness?'

'The Darkness has vacated the vessel. There is no trace of it. We believe it has spread out across the Outworld system now. Our Gatherers remain locked in a constant battle trying to contain it but we fear that it has somehow learned how to form its own egress points and jump worlds.'

I roll my head and look at him. Night bugs chirp unseen in the grasses. 'Could it ever come here?' I ask him. 'To the Untouched.'

'The Darkness's MO seems to be rather erratic and unpredictable. But certainly, and I hate to say it, but yes it could show up here at any moment. Which is why it is so imperative we find a way to destroy it. That these sorts of worlds continue to remain unsullied.'

I roll over and gaze at him. His cheeks and brow and nose are lit by the light from our campfire. He rolls his head and eyes me.

'Can I ask you something?'

He frowns slightly. 'Of course. What's on your mind?'

'What were you doing in the Barren Wood the first time we met? When I first encountered you and Gryffin. What exactly were you both doing out there?' I watch his beautiful eyes sparkling in the moonlight. 'Do you remember that day?'

He takes a moment to cast his mind back. To that morning we'd made our way to the transmitter station, the morning we were attacked and chased off by those Imps.

'Aye, I remember that morning well,' he says. 'I believe you and your friends stirred the local wildlife into a bit of a frenzy for some untold reason.'

'Actually, the local wildlife had decided it wanted to eat us,' I correct him with a smile. I move my hand to his chest. 'That was probably the first time you saved my life,' I say. 'From those Imps.'

'Imps?'

'The flying creatures that were attacking us.'

'Oh yes, those things. Curious little critters, if I recall.'

'Then you vanished. You and Gryffin without ever saying anything. Taking some of my memory with you, I believe. What were you doing out there?'

'I believe I've explained this to you.'

'Really? I don't recall.'

He watches me for several moments before gazing out at the stars. 'In the days leading up to that point, I had not long picked up the signature of your PIT unit. I'd parked the Arachni beyond the woods so as to avoid detection by folk in your Jupiter. It was also roundabout that time that I'd detected the presence of the Darkness. I discovered that it had already infected some of the wildlife around your Jupiter. I wasn't sure if it had yet spread to the human population. So I had to be careful about what I was doing. I had to make certain that whoever was carrying the Cloudfyre PIT unit I'd detected wasn't infected. I didn't know at the time that you were our missing agent, of course. Anyway, without blood samples from any of the human population of Jupiter I had to conduct long range sampling techniques, to see if I could pick up Darkness signatures within people.'

'And did you?'

'Long range scans are not always accurate. But at that stage, no, I picked up no such positive reports.'

'And so then I stumble into the woods with a cloud of Imps upon me, you take care of them, and then you vanish without saying a single word. And you did something that made me forget you.'

He looks at me and smiles. 'I thought it best that I remained scarce,' he tells me. 'I had not yet made sufficient observation of you lot to determine whether or not you were hostile. I thought it best not to hang about that morning to find out. Especially when I heard your friends approaching. I had already made myself known to you, albeit in a somewhat disguised fashion being that I was donned in my esteemed Cloudfyre Gatherer quarantine outfit, but I was keen not to be exposed to anymore of the local population until I'd conducted my initial scans. Also, Cloudfyre protocol dictates that, unless urgent matters call for it, Gatherers must remain anonymous and out of sight of intelligent indigenous species so as not to arouse suspicions or curiosity. There has been tales of Outworld lynch parties tracking down Gatherers who have been mistaken for aliens or mischief makers.'

I laugh. 'Lynch parties?'

He shrugs. 'Oh yes. Cloudfyre doesn't pay us hazard money for nothing, you know.'

I smile. And I watch him for a little while. Watching his face. There must be a small thought frown across my brow because he asks if there is something else on my mind.

'Yes, something still doesn't make sense,' I tell him.

'Oh? And what might that be?'

'You recall the second time we encountered each other?' I ask him.

Again he gazes out at the stars, searching through his memories. 'Mmm, yes I do. It was once again inside the Barren Wood, was it not?'

'Yes. I'd come to find you because I thought somehow you might've had news of my step brother. But I found you piling up bodies of the Entities. I thought you were killing them.'

His eyes narrow as the memory returns to him. 'Killing them? Why on Earth would I have been killing them?'

'I don't know. What were you doing then?'

'Conducting analysis and quarantine measures. I found those particular Entities already deceased. So naturally I wanted to establish what had killed them.'

'And what had kill them?'

'By my reckoning they had been attacked. Whether by their own kind or by some other beast, I found difficult to determine. Whatever the case, they were riddled with the Darkness. And so by gathering them together I could vaporise their bodies and thus minimise the spread of the Darkness from their corpses to other living creatures.'

'So why did you chase me that morning?'

He looks puzzled. 'Chase you?'

'Yes, you chased me. Or maybe it was Gryffin. I don't know but one of you came after me.'

He smiles. 'You fired at me, if I remember events correctly. With some wild weapon that would've set half that bloody woodland ablaze if Gryff had not been there to extinguish it.'

'But I thought you were going for your gun.'

'I was.'

'Why? What had I done to you?'

He smiles. 'It was not you I wanted to dispatch. Two of these, ah Entities, as you call them, materialised behind you. Firing your weapon startled them, but it was they who gave chase. Not I. I had barely enough time to find my feet, run them down and send them to their maker before they tore you to pieces.'

I watch him closely. If he's telling the truth, that was the second time he saved my life.

He continues to eye me. 'Oh, and by the way, I believe that was not the only time you fired a weapon at me,' he says. 'It's a miracle I'm still alive actually, when I think about it.'

The occasion he speaks of swims into my mind. Him opening the rear door of my house. Me firing the Star Blazer at his chest.

'You were attempting to break into my and my mother's house,' I remind him. 'I thought you were a crazed lunatic. How else should I have reacted? Invited you in for a cup of tea?'

He considers this. 'That would at least have been the civilised thing to do.'

'But what were you doing there that night?' I ask him. 'You had me terrified.'

'The Entities had found their way into your city. I was trying to keep track of them. It was no easy fete. Besides, that particular evening I had meant to make contact with you.'

'Contact? By sneaking around in the dark and stepping into my house uninvited? Without even knocking?'

He presents an awkward expression. 'Yes, well I can see how that might have unsettled you. Thing is, I'd wanted to introduce myself to you when no-one else was about. I had to save arousing suspicion, I had to remain hidden, I did not want your city authority to know that a stranger was getting about Jupiter, I couldn't risk being seen and hunted down. I simply meant to introduce myself to you, explain who I was, what I was doing there, and to inform you that you were a missing Cloudfyre agent and that I had come to take you home.' He smiles. 'Of course, it all backfired when you decided to blow a hole through my chest. A win for chest plate armour though I'm pleased to report.'

I can't help smiling. The way he talks. His manner. His demeanour. He's so charming without even trying. I lie beside him, his arm around me, my head resting on his bicep. Together we gaze up into the universe, watching the shapes and patterns scratched upon the glowing moon. I ponder everything we've just discussed. All those moments passing through my thoughts. It's here now I consider the metal ball that Maddinson seemed to have left behind after our first encounter. The thing I took back to Jupiter with me and kept secret. How I returned with it to the Barren Wood after Imogen told us about PIT units and the like. How I'd thought Maddinson, who I knew only as the stranger at the time, might've had some link to Juke.

'Can you remember that metal ball you dropped?' I ask him as we lie there, fireflies blinking on and off silently away from our dying campfire. 'That first morning we saw each other? You dropped it. Or left it there for me to fetch.'

'Metal ball?'

'Yes, don't you remember?'

'I do.' He takes a moment or two before he goes on. Then he says, 'That was a PIT unit Gryffin happened to unearth. Not one from Cloudfyre either. Not the sort I have seen before, actually. It was operational but empty of data. I thought it might've been the signal the Arachni's sensors had initially hooked onto. But it wasn't, as it turns out.'

'It was carrying no information?' I ask him curiously.

He shakes his head. 'None. Though it seemed pretty intent on reaching some preprogramed destination. I can say that much. I had been tracking it when the commotion you lot stirred up distracted my efforts. I had wanted to see where it was heading.'

'Was it trying to reach Jupiter do you think?'

'I cannot say. Possibly.' He pauses. 'Why? Is there something you know about it?'

'No. I mean, and I've told you this, but the reason why we went out to that transmitter station in the first place was to try and find information about my missing step brother, Juke.'

'So you've said.'

'Okay, so about three months back I found a hidden note in Juke's bedroom that suggested that's where he was heading the morning he vanished.' I gaze up at the moon. 'You didn't encounter him? Juke O'Meara. I mean, you haven't found someone by that name in your travels by any chance?'

Maddinson shakes his head. 'Sorry, Skye, I haven't. Though, when we return to London I could get Penny and Sapphire to run that name through the Cloudfyre and IEPA databases to see if it's been registered in the quarantine Outworld of Eden.'

I reach up and take his hand in my mine. 'I would appreciate that.'

I think of Juke now. And of Morgan and Eddie. And of Reid. All missing. All gone without trace. I ponder Reid and Imogen. Lost again together in yet another distant place. I resign myself to the fact that the intimate relationship Reid and I once shared is now perhaps no more, that whatever we had going must surely by now be dashed. The signs were there when I found him in the swamp city. He and Imogen obviously had feelings for each other. If we'd all been successful in returning to Jupiter after dropping from that dome, I can't help but feel I may have been in their way. I would've had to resign myself to the fact that they were both in love. It would've broken my heart, but I'd have had no choice but to live with it and given them their space.

I ponder Maddinson. The intimacy we've shared today. It's been wonderful actually. But quite unexpectedly a niggling question settles upon my thoughts. I swallow. I want to ask Maddinson. But I don't know how to. I play with his strong fingers. Thinking... thinking...

'Maddinson,' I say eventually. 'You mind if I ask you something else?'

'Not at all?'

'I'm a bit embarrassed to say it actually.'

'Go on,' he says gently. 'I won't bite, whatever it is.'

I roll onto my side again, getting up onto my elbow so that I'm gazing down at him. Our eyes lock and we watch each other for a few moments.

'I was just wondering, and it's probably not really my place to ask, but is there a Mrs Maddinson somewhere?'

He watches me. He smiles. 'Why, of course there is.'

I swallow. My skin crawls. I feel dispirited almost instantly.

'Or at least there was. My dear mother. The poor girl past away fifteen years ago in a riding accident.'

I blink at him. It takes a moment or two to register what he's just said. I offer a sympathetic smile. 'Oh. I'm so sorry to hear that.'

'So am I actually. I loved her dearly.' He eyes me. 'Though, to give you the answer I believe you're seeking, well, I've had close friendships with certain ladies in London, but unfortunately my work isn't conducive to holding down relationships. Although, I'm quite ready to give my heart to someone whenever she may come along.' He looks at me as if he hopes that person might be lying right here beside him.

I smile self-consciously. Then look away, embarrassed, my heart fluttering slightly. He reaches up and guides my chin back so that we're looking at each other once more. We watch one another. No words are spoken. I study the light twinkling in his eyes. I bring my face to his and there's still enough sparkling wine in me that I don't feel ashamed or awkward about kissing him.

8

In the end I sleep. Deeply and soundly and at some stage during the night Maddinson must carry me into the safety of the craft because at dawn I awaken in a soft bed with soft pillows, the sounds of twittering birds coming at me from somewhere.

I sit up and look about. I see no sign of Maddinson. Nor any sign that he shared the bed with me. I'm in a nightdress I discover as I pull off the covers and step out of bed. I leave the room. I find I'm in the Arachni. I check the adjacent bedroom. The sheets are ruffled on the bed in there but there's no sign of its occupant.

There is no-one in the bathroom or kitchenette either.

I head up the ramp to the primary cabin and the transparent hull affords me views of the beach and the surrounding land. The valley over which we flew yesterday stretches away behind me, wind flowing across the tips of the grasses. Ahead of me I see the beach and Maddinson swimming through the waves, Gryffin standing guard at the shoreline.

I leave the Arachni. The wind off the beach is cool and crisp. I stroll down to the sand. The sun has broken the horizon. There's a gorgeous view of the sun rising beyond wispy clouds, the clouds tinted pink. Maddinson sees me and leaves the water. He's in dark, knee length shorts. No shirt. He looks like a dream as he emerges and strolls toward me, his thick dark hair matted against his forehead until he drags it back. His athletic figure dripping wet.

'Good morning, Skye,' he says with his customary cheery smile. 'I trust you slept well.'

He approaches me. It's a bit awkward. Last night we kissed as if the world was about to end. Now when he puts his arm around me I find it hard to return the gesture. It's thoughts of Reid that confuse me. What will I tell him? What should I tell Maddinson? I feel so conflicted. Part of me wants to embrace Maddinson and hold him and enjoy the dawn breeze on my skin and throw all my concerns to the wind. But there's Reid to consider...

Maddinson eyes me with a faint wrinkle in his brow. He's already sensed that something's up. He leans back and watches my eyes. 'You alright?'

I nod. But I don't know how to express what I'm feeling.

'Skye, what's the matter?'

I hang my head. I can't look at him. 'Look, it's my friends, that's all. In answer to your question, yes I slept well. I slept wonderfully, as a matter of fact, thank you. But I've awoken this morning concerned about my friends. Has there been any news of their whereabouts?'

'Afraid not,' he says. I notice the breeze has brought goose bumps to his chest and arms. He puts his arm around me. 'Look, wherever they are, I'm sure they're quite safe.'

9

Maddinson prepares breakfast. 'Croissants from the continent,' he tells me. 'And raspberry jam from the farms of the Lincolnshire Wolds.'

Once again we sit outside beyond the Arachni. The sounds of waves roaring and hissing against the shore, the sounds of breeze rustling the trees. I sip tea that Maddinson has brewed. Perfect hot tea with cream and sugar. Though he takes his strong with only a spot of cream and no sweetener. He sits there in his shorts, a towel draped around his bare shoulders. I feel a dull throb in my leg this morning.

After breakfast, I move down the beach to the water's edge. Maddinson has asked me to relax, that he'll clear away our plates and mugs.

I crouch, my toes in the water. I place my fingers in the sand, the gentle waves lapping at my wrists. It's a delightful sensation. Accentuated by the murmur of the surf off the beach and the gentle wind through the trees and the wonderful warm sunshine on my skin. I shut my eyes and breathe in the salted ocean air. Then I search the horizon, where there is nothing but open sea all the way to the edge of the world.

I gaze over my shoulder. Reid still carries dishes into the Arachni. Gryffin stands not far from me. Keeping watch I assume. I feel warm and safe here. With this gentleman, Thomas Maddinson, and his droid.

I draw my knees to my chest and stare into the waves. I lose myself in my thoughts for a short time. I'm not sure how long I'm sitting here but at some stage I notice Maddinson sitting down beside me.

He wears a white cotton shirt. He looks at me. 'Is there something else on your mind, Skye? You seem awfully quiet.'

I look at him. My hair catching the wind. I watch his eyes. I know so little about him. I have but known him for a matter of days. Yet no doubting it, there is something between us. Some feeling, however odd it may seem, however premature. And I find myself drawn to him. And it's left me confused, conflicted. Being that my feelings for Reid are still quite raw.

I take his hand, our fingers interlock.

He watches my eyes. 'If I was perhaps a tad forward yesterday,' he says, 'then I apologise. I hope I have not scared you off.'

I smile. He's so polite. So kind. So gentle. Part of me can't help but wonder if it's some grand front. Part of me wants him to crack, to show a meaner side, as if I want him to do or say something that will make me hate him.

But another part of me wants to completely fall into his world, to be overcome by him. To experience his universe, his life, to be with him wherever he goes.

I shake my head. 'Apart from throwing me from the edge of that cliff, no you weren't overly forward or overbearing. I enjoyed every moment of it actually. Every moment. It's just that...' I sigh. I can't speak. I take my eyes from him and watch the gentle waves washing over my toes. 'It's just that, Reid... my friend who vanished... he and I... well, we had something. We were in love.'

I hear Maddinson holding his breath. He exhales quietly. And falls silent for a few moments. Obviously taking in what I've just said. Then he nods. 'My God, Skye, forgive me, I'm deeply sorry. I did not realise.' He looks genuinely regretful. 'My arrogance blinded me. Honestly, I am sorry.'

I eye him again. 'Maddinson, no, if I had not wanted you to kiss me, believe me, I would have told you.' I clasp his hand tightly. 'Truth is, things between Reid and I have become complicated.' I take a breath and gaze out to sea once more. 'The first portal we found, Reid and Imogen were pulled through by some monstrous creature. Before I could save them they were gone and the portal closed. I was devastated. I thought I'd lost Reid forever. But then Morgan and Eddie studied the Ephemerys and they worked out that another portal was due to open. So we made sure that we'd be there when it did. Anyway, it was a couple of days later but we managed to jump through into that swamp city. But by the time we'd managed to track down Reid and Imogen, while it'd only been a matter of days for us, they'd been stuck in that world for several weeks. And in that time Reid and Imogen had grown... close.' I hang my head, I stare again at the water lapping at the wet sand. 'I tried to ask Reid about their relationship but all he said was that things were complicated. But watching them, I knew they had feelings for each other. I knew they'd bonded, I knew they'd fallen in love.'

Maddinson listens patiently, politely, never speaking until I'm done. I look at him. He reaches up and wipes a tear from below my eye. His touch is tender, gentle. Then he curls a loose lock of hair away from my face.

I rest my head against his firm shoulder. 'You've helped take my mind off them,' I tell him softly. 'You've helped me see that it's not the end of the world.' I can't help laughing softly at my own words. 'So to speak.' I lift my head and gaze into his eyes once more. 'Thing is, I think I really like you,' I tell him quietly.

'Feeling's mutual,' he tells me tenderly, his fingers gently stroking my hair.

We watch each other. I feel so drawn to him. I can't help it. To be alone here on this exotic beach together, the only people on this entire world, the warm water lapping at our feet, the twitter of birds in the trees, the ocean breeze tugging at our clothes and the warm sun on our skin.

Our mouths come together. We kiss. It's less feverish than it was yesterday when we'd splashed down into the waves. Less lustful than it was after we'd indulged in the French wine. Right now it's tender and soft and slow and the feelings inside me are like electricity, like fire.

We're interrupted by a sounder coming from the interior of the Arachni. We break our kiss and look at each other. Maddinson then gazes over his shoulder at his craft. 'Well, well,' he says. 'Would appear that someone is trying to contact us.' He gets up and hurries to the Arachni, bounding up the down ramp.

I feel slightly irked that our moment has been cut short. A strange, almost alien part of me had hoped to forget my friends. To stay here with Maddinson. To never leave. Yet I'm eager to learn who it is that summons us. Is it Lady Sapphire and Lady Penny, I wonder? Have they located my friends?

I leave the beach and trail Maddinson to the Arachni and find him inside by the central console, he's pulling on trousers and boots. There's a holographic image of Lady Penny. 'Sending you the co-ordinates,' she's saying. 'And as you can imagine, Picket's not best pleased with your little excursion. If I were you, I'd stay away from London for a little while.'

As the co-ordinates come through on a separate monitor, Maddinson stares at them, frowning.

'What is it?' I ask him, intrigued, hopeful. 'Have they found them?'

Maddinson shakes his head. 'No, I'm afraid not. It would seem we've located another missing Cloudfyre agent.'

I watch the co-ordinates. They mean nothing to me.

'The bods at Cloudfyre headquarters believe they've his location pinpointed.'

'So what does that mean?'

'Well, seeing as all operating Gatherers are currently tied up on other missions, I've been summoned to go after him.'

Maddinson doesn't speak much as he summons Gryffin and preps the Arachni for take-off.

I fetch my clothes. I remove my nighty. I get dressed. When I'm done, Maddinson says, 'Right then, strap in.'

'So what happens to me?' I ask him as I slide into one of the flight seats.

'Well, as there's no time to get you back to London, it looks like, for the time being, you're coming with me.' He flicks some switches, plotting his course, tapping in the coordinates. He looks across at me. 'If that's alright with you, of course.'

I nod. 'I'd rather be with you than that stuffy cottage back in London.'

He smiles. 'Well said.' And he steps across and kisses me briefly. Then when he lets me go, he shakes his head, frowning slightly yet smiling. 'I hate to leave just when things are getting so interesting.' He steps back to his flight seat, drops into it, clipping his harness straps over his shoulders. Then he pulls some levers and the craft rises off the grass. 'Though I'm certainly looking forward to picking up where we've left off at a later stage.' He grins. 'Of course, if that's okay with you.' And with that, he thrusts forward on the drive shift and we rocket away into the atmosphere.

THE EXTRACTION

1

THE Arachni materialises in a cloudy sky. We're high enough here that we can't make out any landmarks through the Arachni's translucent hull. There's just a carpet of green and brown beneath the cloud bands far below us.

I can't help feeling pensive. What sort of peculiar Outworld have we just entered? What will we encounter here? I'm still trying to forget the swamp city and its host of monsters. I just hope, wherever we are, it's nothing like that place. That it's more like the Untouched... Granted there were creatures on the Untouched that may have eaten us given half the chance, but predominantly, that world seemed to be a place of peace and serenity. Not nightmares.

Maddinson engages his flight levers and the Arachni accelerates, shooting through the atmosphere. I keep an eye on the world below us. Through breaks in the cloud I see distant and empty highways. I see hills. Towns and settlements. Nothing down there moves. As if it's all lifeless.

The Arachni begins to shake a little. I grip my flight seat and glance across at Maddinson.

'Just a wee spot of turbulence,' he says calmly. 'Nothing to be concerned about.'

'Turbulence?' I ask nervously.

'Pockets in the air,' Maddinson says. 'That's the easiest way to describe it without going into specifics. We'll soon be through it.'

My stomach rises and falls nauseatingly as the craft lurches through these "air pockets". Gryff sits there across from us, beeping occasionally, his harness strapping him firmly to his seat.

As Maddinson promised, this so-called turbulence doesn't last. I take in a long, calming breath as the craft settles. And as we press on I study the holographic image hovering above the central console. It shows a pulsing green light. Maddinson tells me that's our target.

'Two hundred kilometres,' he says, 'Due east of here.'

2

We cruise on until we see the hazy outline of a distant city come into view through the Arachni's transparent skin. Skyscrapers jut up against the horizon.

'Is that where we're headed?' I ask Maddinson.

'Looks like it,' he replies, studying the holographic image. He taps some keys on his console and the image flickers and switches to a crude three dimensional map of what I assume must be the city there spread before us—on some point over its south eastern quadrant, the green light pulses hypnotically. Gryff appears to be watching it. I wonder how much of this he understands.

'That's the signal from the Cloudfyre PIT unit,' I ask.

Maddinson nods.

As we descend toward the city, I can't help wonder where we are. What lives here. What we'll find. What we'll see. Will it be like London? Filled with people going about their lives. Or will it be more like the swamp city?

We glide in over the city's outskirts and Gryff activates what Maddinson calls velocity dampeners and the Arachni loses speed. We approach now at a far more sedate rate. But as the craft descends, as we get closer, my forehead suddenly creases over.

And my skins seems to move.

I recognise this place.

I recognise the Stardream rollercoaster in the Argonaut carnival grounds. I recognise the Persephone building. I recognise the Federal Exchange Building.

'This is Jupiter,' I tell Maddinson, aghast.

Maddinson gazes through the Arachni's hull. He begins double checking his coordinates.

'It's my Jupiter,' I tell him.

He continues to conduct verification checks. But something tells me he already knows it's my Jupiter. I mean, how could he not? He's been here before—he'd have plotted the coordinates into the Arachni's flight systems more than once prior to now.

'Maddinson,' I say.

'Yes,' he says finally, 'I believe you're right.'

This is so perplexing. 'You mean to say, your agent is in Jupiter? My Jupiter?'

'I don't know yet. These were the coordinates I've been sent. Something's most certainly emitting a Cloudfyre PIT signal here.'

'You never detected this signal before now?'

He shakes his head. 'Strange as it sounds, but no.'

'How is that possible?'

He thinks this through. 'Well, there are two likely scenarios. Perhaps the beacon in question has only recently been switched on. Perhaps until now it'd been faulty. Maybe some factor has caused it to suddenly begin emitting signals. Or... one of our missing agents has only just arrived at this point.'

'How?'

'Quite obvious really. They have either crossed into this location having piloted their way in such a craft as my Arachni. Or perhaps they stepped through some egress point.'

We approach from the north-west. Passing over the tops of buildings. I try to convince myself that it's not my Jupiter at all, but simply another version of it. I keep looking for differences. I keep searching for subtle aspects that might tell me we're simply in another alien Outworld. A pall of smoke issues from the Shoppingtown District, and one of the skyscrapers near city centre is on fire. Still, all I see are characteristics that tell me I've come home. There are Harpy hounds flying about below us. And packs of spider-faced howler monkeys can be seen swinging from one building to another. And the upper portions of many skyscrapers are covered in thick layers of red and green where strawberry crops are yet to be harvested.

Maddinson homes in on his target and we descend over the roof tops of buildings situated in and around the CBD. He adjusts his course as we fly out over Victory Parks, veering left, Liberation Avenue panning around to our left. We're only a few hundred feet off the ground now. I can see the war memorial. I see Jupiter High School. And I gasp when I spot bodies lying scattered down there in the farmland and through the streets. From our height I can't tell if they're human or Entity.

'Oh, Earth Mother,' I murmur, 'what's happened here?'

'Classic signs that the Dark virus is wreaking havoc,' Maddinson says gravely. 'Those creatures have been corrupted. An insane hunger has driven them into your city. They kill and devour all they can. So, let me tell you, when we touch down, I need you to remain here inside the Arachni. Gryffin and I will conduct the extraction. We'll be in and out as quick as we can. Okay?'

I nod. More than happy to remain inside the Arachni. Memories of those Entities attacking me are still raw. Though my wounds are mostly healed, I still feel the throb of dull pain in my right foot.

We track along the airspace above Park Drive and the Metrodome stadium comes into view and Maddinson takes our craft toward it. He studies data on his console and watches the holographic image. He points toward the stadium. 'Looks as though that's where the signal's emanating from.'

He brings the Arachni over the top of the stadium and we hover momentarily as Maddinson confirms this as the extraction point. Satisfied, he pilots the craft down through the ruined domed roof of the stadium and onto the playing field. As we touch against the grass he speaks directly to his console, asking the Arachni to bring up the exact position of his missing agent. The projection of the stadium comes into view on the console. It rotates back and forth as it zeroes in on our target. Then it steadies and a flashing red light hovers over a certain area of the image.

Maddinson presses keys and the projection is replaced by another. Parts of the northern quadrant of the stadium come into view. And from here the image begins altering perspective as it seems to pass through the structural layers of the grandstand. Ultimately we see the reddish shapes of Entities crowded around a locked doorway, and inside we see a group of people huddled, depicted in red and orange and yellow.

'Well well well, looks like someone's conducting a right little get-together in there,' Maddinson murmurs curiously. 'Would seem that our missing agent is amongst them.'

Amidst the mass of colour represented by body heat, he counts out four people.

'Right then Gryff, this has turned from a simple retrieval exercise into a rescue mission.' Gryff bleeps and Maddinson runs his fingers across his keyboard. 'That's right. I'm picking it up now. A radio signal. Very faint.'

'Radio signal?' I ask.

'Looks like someone inside is indeed carrying a communications unit.'

'Can you tune into it?' I ask.

'Not sure yet.' His fingers click over his keyboard. A crackling sound comes from some speaker. He grabs a mouth piece. 'To the folk trapped within the maintenance room of this sports stadium, can you hear me? Over.'

Nothing but crackle. 'Gryff, you having any luck digging out this signal?' Maddinson says to his droid.

Gryffin's tapping his key-panel with slick rapid movements of his metallic fingers. When that doesn't seem to work he begins to speak what I assume must be a sort of electronic language directly to the Arachni's central computer. As he speaks, a crackling voice can suddenly be heard from the console before us. As it breaks into relative clarity Gryff shuts up so we can listen.

'...can you hear me... we need help... zzczle... please...zcczle... injured and unable to move unsupported...'

I frown. I can't believe it, I recognise that voice. 'Morgan?' I say desperately. 'Morgan? Is that you? It's me Skye? Tell me it's you.'

'...zczcsle... Skye?! Oh Mother, Skye is that you?...so good to hear your voice... zcszzcl we need help...'

'Morgan?'

The line crackles and falls silent.

'Morgan?' I cannot believe it. I turn to Maddinson. 'That's... that's my friends. You said they weren't in Jupiter.'

He shrugs. 'They weren't. I can only speculate that somehow they've since made their way back.' He vacates his seat and heads for the doorway, asking Gryffin to get it open. 'Looks like wherever they ended up after you were separated from them, well, somehow they've found our agent and dragged him or her back with them.'

Maddinson begins kitting up in some sort of battle armour. Pulling a helmet down over his head. Grabbing weaponry. Gryffin's poised by the door, waiting for Maddinson. 'Stay inside,' Maddinson tells me, 'with any luck we shan't be long.'

'Wait,' I tell him, concerned. 'How many did you say were holed up in there?'

'Four.'

'Four? And you... you believe one is your agent?'

'I'm picking up a single Cloudfyre PIT beacon, so yes, that's my guess.'

My skin crawls. 'That means one of them is dead,' I murmur. 'Or missing.' I feel a weight pushing into my shoulders. I don't want to consider who it could be. None of them deserves to die. Or be left in some hellish Outworld. Not even Imogen. But if it's Eddie, or... or if it's Reid... I swallow deeply. I don't want to even think about it. I just stare at Maddinson.

'Skye,' he says, 'are you alright?'

There's another suit of battle armour. More weapons. I rush over and begin to suit up. Maddinson looks around at me. 'Skye, no. It's too dangerous.'

I ignore him. He strides over to me and puts his hand on my arm, steadying me, a look in his eyes like he needs me to really consider what I'm doing.

'Those are my friends,' I tell him. 'They need my help.'

He sighs, his eyes still on me. He reaches up and touches my cheek with his palm. His touch is warm. I find I lean into it, my eyes on his. 'Look, here's the thing,' he says softly, 'I feel... I feel that I'm rather taken by you. And if something should happen to you then I shan't forgive myself.'

I reach up and clasp his hand affectionately, holding it against my cheek. What we shared together on the Untouched Outworld was life changing. I won't deny that. And I can't deny my feelings for him. Without thinking about it, without shame nor embarrassment nor self-consciousness, I lean toward him and press my lips against his. Briefly kissing him. And when our mouths part, I watch his eyes. 'I know,' I tell him softly. 'But they're my friends. I can't sit here and do nothing.'

He nods gently. 'Very well.' He puts his forehead against mine for a moment, his eyes on mine and I wish somehow we had never found cause to leave that beach. He straightens. And hands me a gun. 'This is a laser rifle. Safety here. Trigger here.'

I take it. Nodding that I get it.

He sighs. 'Stick close. Be safe.'

I nod. 'You too.'

4

Gryffin operates the door, the down ramp extends, and I trail Maddinson outside. Already, Entities are stumbling onto the grass oval beneath splotchy sunshine, already they're scrambling toward the Arachni.

'Gryff,' Maddinson says, 'umbrella formation.'

Gryff bleeps.

'Stick close to Gryff,' Maddinson informs me.

I nod, gripping my rifle. I stumble down the ramp at Gryff's side. I can't help goggling at the sudden hordes scrambling toward us. I lose my footing in the grass and stumble and Gryff and Maddinson, not knowing, keep running. I'm like a blind shadow cat, I'm just standing here frozen now, struck with dread, watching the Entities swarm toward us.

Gryff and Maddinson get some twenty metres ahead of me when Maddinson realises I'm not with them. He looks around to see where I am. That I'm only moments away from being swamped by the wall of Entities charging and howling at us from all angles.

'Skye!' Maddinson yells. 'Protect yourself. Fire at them!'

I can't bring myself to fire upon them. I remember them as the friendly race I took food to. A harmless people. But they're rushing at us, hissing, grunting. Their lipless mouths looking more menacing than ever. Their goggling eyes full of hate and hunger.

Sudden pulsing scatter fire from Maddinson, and Entities goes down in droves. But there are so many of them... so many I never knew... they keep coming, attracted by the noise and frenzy, pouring out from the passageways and concourses beneath the stadium.

'Skye!' I hear Maddinson yelling. 'Protect yourself!'

I've frozen. I shouldn't have left the craft. Maddinson yells at his droid, 'Gryff, get to her!' and Gryffin's rushing toward me in a blur.

Still, he'll not reach me before the swarm does.

Out of pure self-preservation I raise my rifle and yank back on the trigger. My eyes are shut as my weapon cuts them down. I hear howls and screeches and then I'm thrust off my feet.

My eyes snap open. Gryffin has me in his arms. Hauling me back up the ramp of the Arachni. Behind him, Maddinson is suddenly swamped by Entities.

Gryffin sees this, makes a series of bleeping sounds, stops, drops me onto the ramp and aims his limbs at Maddinson. What looks like inbuilt lasers fire sizzling pulses into the horde. His shots are precise. Quick. Clinical. And millimetre perfect. Entities clawing at Maddinson are blasted away in such a wild rapid blur I barely acknowledge what's happening. Yet still, the Entities keep coming, charging at us from all sides.

Gryffin spreads his limbs and I duck down. With the Arachni at our backs, he lays down a supressing one hundred and eighty degree assault. Cleaning out much of the rushing horde.

Maddinson shrugs off the last of his assailants, kicking it away, shooting it down. He rushes back to us. 'Skye,' he says, as he reaches us, 'Back inside the Arachni. Now! You're staying here.'

'No.' I swallow. Trying desperately to gather my senses. To shake off my fear. 'I'm rescuing my friends.'

'You'll be rescuing no-one if you're a corpse.'

Gryffin bleeps and whistles at us.

Maddinson nods. 'Yes, Gryff, I see them. Cut them down.'

Gryff fires sizzling pulses of energy into Entities that rush out toward us.

'Skye, into the Arachni,' Maddinson orders me once more. 'No argument.'

'Look, I froze. It won't happen again.'

He eyes me closely.

I eye him. 'I'm serious, it won't happen again.'

He sighs. There's the faintest of smiles on his lips. 'Right then, so let's get it right this time. Umbrella formation. That means we stick to Gryff's flanks. Where he goes, we go. Yes? Don't deviate.'

I nod, I'm trying to steady my breathing.

'Right then. Ready? Gryff, move off.'

The droid skitters forward once more down the ramp and onto the sports field. I try to stick with him. Maddinson seems to keep up with ease on Gryff's opposite flank with a graceful, natural running style. I feel clumsy, out of step. But somehow I manage to keep with Gryffin as he scuttles on. Above my head, laser bolts from Gryff's arm-bound canons shoot in every direction. My natural instinct is to duck, but I forget Gryff stands taller than both Maddinson and I, his limbs clearing the tops of our heads by almost a metre.

We hurry toward the edge of the sport's pitch and scale the fence, bounding up the concrete stairway between the thousands of empty seats, shooting down Entities as they continue to rush at us. We pass through an arch into the dim guts of the stadium. My eyes take a moment to adjust to the gloomy light. We trail the homing device on Maddinson's wrist unit.

There are less Entities in here it seems. As if most have already poured into the sunlight, acting on some sort of swarm mentality. Maddinson's homing unit begins to bleep faster and louder now. A holographic image that floats above his wrist unit shows we're getting closer to our target.

We race past vacant canteens and food bars, past toilet blocks and open doorways leading to what were once glass fronted corporate boxes and member's bars. We pass down a corridor dotted with maintenance lifts and dummy waiters and empty stock rooms and abandoned administration offices. There's a stink in here of animal habitation, urine, faeces. Monkeys are said to live in the innards of the Metrodome. And shadow cats. And rats sniffing for scraps to eat. We see skeletal remains of unknown creatures. We see desiccated corpses.

As we near a stock room door Maddinson's homing unit abruptly emits an almost continuous keening sound and his holographic unit tells us we're virtually on top of our target.

Maddinson tries the door knob. It's locked. 'Gryffin,' he says. 'Get this open.'

Gryffin plants his three hands on the door, his metal fingers burying into the wood and with mighty force he rips the door completely out of its housing, throwing it across the hall behind us in an explosion of splinters and mortar.

As the dust clears we peer inside, aiming torchlight into the darkness. We see a bewildered and exhausted looking bunch of people cowering within. Dusty, sweaty, bewildered faces gaze back at us.

I spot Morgan. Then Eddie. Both clasping knives. Imogen is on the floor. Sitting hunched up against the wall. She looks injured and bloodied. She holds her arm weakly across her midriff as if it's broken.

They all stare at us, their weapons held at the ready.

Where's Reid? Where is he?

A figure steps out of the dark to our left. For a moment I can't tell who it is. But then I recognise his grime covered features.

Reid.

I slip off my battle helmet and they recognise me now, relief sweeping their faces.

Reid swallows. 'Skye?' His voice is raspy. Like he hasn't had liquid in days.

Morgan rushes to me. She grips me, weeping into my shoulder. Then she holds my face, staring at me like she doesn't believe I'm actually here. 'Skye, it's you. It's really you.'

Reid comes forward. Still looking bewildered. He grabs me in a hug. Shutting his eyes and holding me like he won't let me go. He stinks, his clothing is damp with sweat.

Morgan can't stop staring at me. Eddie just stands there, looking at me and at Maddinson and at Gryff, like someone's hit him over the head.

'We thought you were dead,' Morgan says, tears in her eyes. 'We thought you must've died.' She sobs as she says it, as if she's sobbing out of pure simple relief.

I watch Reid's eyes. I feel like I haven't seen him in years. Like time has put a wedge between us. I can't place what it is. It feels awkward. I suppose I feel a certain level of guilt, that I've been intimate with Maddinson. That Reid and I never officially called time on our relationship. It's so confusing.

Main thing is he's okay. They're all okay.

'How did you survive?' Reid rasps. 'How is it that you're here?'

'I have Maddinson, to thank,' I tell them, looking about for another person. Panning my weapon's torch light around the darkened room. There seems to be no-one else here. But what of Maddinson's agent? Who or what could be emitting the Cloudfyre PIT signal?

Maddinson holds his own helmet at his side, stepping forward. 'Pleased to meet you all,' he says as he lifts his wrist scanner, directing it past Reid and Morgan, past Eddie. It takes him directly to Imogen huddled there at the rear of the stockroom.

I watch him closely. He goes to her, kneeling down.

Reid looks at me, as if to say Who is this guy?

'I'll explain everything when we get a moment,' I tell him. 'And I want to know how you guys ended up here.'

'Right,' Maddinson says, 'let's get you lot out of here.' Imogen grimaces as he attempts to pull her to her feet. But Reid steps up and insists he take her himself.

To me that's telling. Reid's protective of her.

'Very well,' Maddinson says. 'But we have to move fast.'

5

It's a series of pitch battles down the grand stand of the stadium as we make our way back to the Arachni. Gryffin leads the way firing and fighting as hordes of Entities rush at us.

Reid carries Imogen. She's sustained some wound to her leg. There's a deep gash in her thigh. A rope is tied above it to stop blood loss.

Reid pants and coughs. He looks weak and he keeps stumbling. At one stage his legs just seem to give way and he crumbles to his knees, hunched there breathing heavy, coughing endlessly. He tries to rise to his feet, to lug Imogen onwards, but he hasn't the strength.

I rush to him and help him up. Maddinson strides over, taking Imogen, hoisting her into his arms. Reid grimaces, glancing at Maddinson, evidently disappointed that he can't complete the job, that he's unable to carry Imogen himself. 'Go,' Maddinson says. 'Get to the craft.'

Gryffin storms forward, springing over the fence onto the pitch, letting out an arc of some sort of energy wave that seems to just drop a hundred Entities in one sweep. That pretty much leaves the path open for the rest of us.

We hurry down the stairs between seats, making it over the fence and onto the ground. More Entities swarm toward us as we charge for the craft. We make it up the ramp as Gryffin remains on the pitch, firing into the rampant horde.

We make it into the Arachni, Gryffin following, the ramp retracting and the door closing behind him, ravenous Entities tearing at the hull.

'Strap in,' Maddinson commands us as he engages the drive engines. The thrust from the ground is so violent it throws us all from our feet.

There's a peculiar sound outside the craft, the sound of something rupturing on the Arachni. Through the hull I see sparks and flame and Entities clinging to the craft's skin, tearing at it.

The Arachni lists to its side, the sheer weight of monsters compromising it. The craft lifts out into the air, zooming away from the Metrodome, but it's on a terrible angle. Maddinson's struggling to keep it level.

We fight against heavy g-forces as we pull ourselves to our feet, as we get into the flight seats, strapping ourselves in. Just as I secure myself, there's a sudden lurch and the craft drops elevation by several metres, lifting my belly into my throat. Then it spins. I'm terrified. I squeal.

'Blast!' Maddinson yells. 'Gryffin, the Interdimensional shift is faulty. The retro pulses aren't responding.' He tries again to take us higher. He tries reducing the spin. Outside the craft we see a twirling plume of smoke streaming from the Arachni's hull.

We soar over Jupiter's perimeter fence, drifting wildly above the Barren Wood, and zoom out across the old F17 freeway where rusting car bodies litter the lanes. We're falling. The Arachni's losing altitude.

An emergency alert siren begins blaring through the cabin.

'Brace yourselves!' Maddinson yells and we see the earth rushing up at us and at the last second before impact, Maddinson engages emergency airbrakes and retro-jets fire to cushion our fall and then a massive protective ball inflates around the craft, and as we collide with the ground we bounce over and over, wildly, violently, but then our landing bubble bursts, and the craft crashes heavily into rocks, part of the hull collapsing inwards before it piles into the muddy banks of some lake and we come to a brutish standstill.

STRANDED

1

THE first few moments after our crash are a blur. Lights flash, a siren blares, and the Arachni's console gives off a continuous ear-piercing pinging sound until Gryffin manages to shut it up. Everyone's dazed. Everyone's looking about unsure what just happened. The Arachni is on a slant. We're in our flight seats but gravity is dragging our limbs. I notice Imogen isn't moving. Her eyes are shut. Her head is lolled to one side. There's blood on her mouth. Reid looks around dazed.

Maddinson takes a moment to try and right the craft, to wrestle it from the lake where it seems to be slowly sinking into mud. 'Hold tight,' he says and fires what I assume is some retro jet and there's a dull roar from beyond the hull and the Arachni lurches wildly, throwing us about. The craft levels out slightly as it bounces up the bank. But if Maddinson was hoping to get us airborne again it doesn't work. And if he was hoping to free us entirely from the lake, that doesn't happen either. The Arachni settles half on the bank and half in water. And moves no further. A swampy smell invading the cabin. I look around and spy mud oozing through a rent in the side of the hull.

Reid calls out to Imogen, his voice weak and raspy. 'Imogen? Are you alright?' She doesn't answer. He unclips his seat harness and falls heavily, wincing. He claws the console to pull himself to his feet. Then groggily he makes his way around to Imogen's seat, using the flight seats as supports, hauling himself arm over arm around the central console.

Maddinson unstraps his harness, ordering Gryffin to set up a scan of the area. 'Long range scans of bio signatures and the virus. Run a continuous loop. Alert me if we have company.' Gryff bleeps in reply as Maddinson leaves his seat. He steps toward me, fighting the angle of the floor. He puts his hand on my shoulder. 'You alright?'

The side of my head thumps with pain. I reach up and touch it with my fingers. It feels numb. But there's no blood. 'Okay, I guess.'

'Good.' He strides around to Imogen, across the slanted floor. It's here I watch both Maddinson and Reid helping her out of her flight seat, watch them carry her to the lounge suite, Reid stumbling.

'What's wrong with her?' Reid asks, his voice still raspy. 'What's happened?'

I feel a pang of jealousy, watching them both fussing over her. Eddie remains sitting there, staring blankly at Gryffin. Like he's still trying to determine exactly what's happening, where he is. Morgan rubs the top of her arm.

'You both okay?' I ask them.

Eddie continues to watch Maddinson's droid. Morgan squints at me. She nods. 'Yes. You?'

Nodding, I unstrap from my seat. Morgan follows. Eddie stays where he is for the time being, taking in deep breaths.

Gryff gives out a series of bleeps. Maddinson answers from across the craft. 'Darkness signatures? How far from us?'

Gryff bleeps again, replying.

'Are their hosts advancing toward us?' Maddinson says.

Gryff twitters.

'Good,' Maddinson tells him. 'Looks like we might have some wriggle room. Let's hope it stays that way. Keep scanning though. Let me know if the situation changes.'

I cross the angled floor to the settee. Imogen's still not moving. Maddinson's conducting checks on her vital signs. Her clothes are ripped and bloody. She's got a gash behind her ear. A cut on her lip. I see the blood now dripping across the floor, watch it soaking into the settee.

'What's wrong with her?' Reid asks again. 'Why has she lost consciousness?'

'Possible blood loss,' Maddinson tells him. 'Possible exhaustion, exposure, malnutrition, dehydration, infection. Could be any number of things.' He hoists Imogen into his arms and carries her down to the medic bay. Reid following, reaching out for the wall in order to keep himself upright. I trail them. The stink of swamp mud is heavy down here on the Arachni's lower level. I see it now dripping through a pair of splits in the outer wall of the lounge cell.

'Where did you find her?' Maddinson asks Reid.

I watch as Maddinson tends to Imogen, sterilising her wounds, stitching her up, bandaging her. He's very precise in his work. He must be seasoned at this sort of medical care. He looks very proficient. He rolls her gurney into the infirmary. He drags what must be some sort of scanner out from the Arachni's soft metal wall, like he's removing something from treacle. Only there's no residue clinging to the object, no drips. As it leaves the wall, the wall remoulds to its original shape. I notice other objects stored beneath the wall's surface now, other pieces of equipment. Whatever the gadget is that Maddinson just extracted, it gives off an immediate zeep zeep zeep sound as he engages it.

Reid sits there, observing. He's dirty. His clothing torn and bloodstained. He drags his grimy hair away from his forehead. His eyes are watery and blood shot. 'What are you doing to her?'

'Running a full body diagnostic,' Maddinson tells him. 'You want to know what's wrong with her, well, this ought to tell us. Now tell me, where did you find her?'

Reid scratches the side of his neck, exhausted. 'I don't know what you mean.' He coughs. His voice is raspy and dry. 'We didn't find her anywhere.'

'So where is she from?'

Reid blinks, confused. He clears his dry throat.

'Imogen's from Jupiter,' I tell Maddinson. I explain her situation. That it was her and Reid who were pulled through the portal and lost for several weeks.

Maddinson's frowning at me. Then at Reid. As if what I just said makes no sense. Read-outs and figures in large white lettering and numerals begin scrolling across the infirmary's metallic wall. As if the wall is acting as a large monitor. Maddinson studies the data. A peculiar noise suddenly emits from the diagnostic scanner—a dull pitched mmrep mmrep mmrep sound. Maddinson continues to eye the read-out on the wall then grabs what I believe is a PIT scanner. He runs it over Imogen's body. It's silent... until it passes over her lower left forearm and a faint beeping sound comes back. 'Right, well I can confirm that she is indeed carrying a Cloudfyre PIT unit,' Maddinson reports, looking around at me.

This is a mystery. But I guess no more a mystery as to why I'm carrying similar tech. And for some reason I'm not altogether surprised that Imogen's got one of those PIT units inside her. I always felt she was hiding something. That she had secrets.

'And you tell me she's from your Jupiter?' Maddinson wants to confirm.

'Not originally,' I tell him. 'She turned up sixteen months ago. She's what we call an Outsider.'

Reid regards me with a strained look in his eyes, as if I've just betrayed Imogen, like I've betrayed him. He tries to say something but his voice croaks and he coughs. I fetch him water from the kitchen bay. He grips the bottle weakly. I help him get it to his mouth. He drinks thirstily. Doesn't bother wiping the drips from his mouth. The water repeats on him, a huge wash of it bursting from his mouth, splattering across the floor. He looks faint. He just stares down at the water and bile that just gushed up from his belly.

I tell him to sit where he is. I fetch a towel and lay it over the mess. 'Are you okay?' I ask him.

His eyes are even more watery now than they were. He nods. But he looks pale and faint. I tell him to lie down but he won't. I take the bottle of water from him because he looks as if he's about to drop it.

'Reid, honestly, you need to lie down,' I urge him.

He simply nods but he's watching Maddinson, drunkenly, suspiciously.

'Did she ever tell you where she came from?' Maddinson asks me.

'No.' I shake my head. 'She never said. She always claimed to have no memory of where she's from. She's never spoken publically about it anyway.' I look around at Morgan, hoping she might corroborate this. She nods.

Maddinson considers this. 'Possible amnesia then.' He eyes the continuous feed of data scrolling down the metal wall.

I stare at Imogen, wondering who she is. If at all she's a Cloudfyre agent. I can't help think back to what Eddie told Morgan and me after he returned from the swamp city the first time. How he claimed Imogen seemed familiar with that craft in which she and Reid had found shelter. With certain operational aspects of it. With certain gadgetry found inside. So, is that what Imogen was trying to do? I wonder. Was Juke trying to help her get back to London?

If I think about it now, the way she talks, her accent, it does sound rather like Maddinson's.

Maddinson inspects the rips in Imogen's clothing. He takes some scissors from a drawer below the medical bench and cuts them open, revealing ragged flesh and dark clotted blood. Maddinson regards Reid. 'Can you talk? I need to know what happened to you lot. Where you went after you were separated from Skye. How you managed to get back to Jupiter. Did you stumble across any other people while you were gone? I need to know if you were at all attacked by the Entities.' He indicates the bloodied marks on Imogen's legs and arms and neck. 'Were any of you bitten?'

It's Morgan who answers. She's sitting on the down ramp I notice now, watching us. Her arms folded around her. Eddie's behind her. Standing there, a blank look still in his eyes.

'Yes,' Morgan says, 'we were attacked. Imogen was bitten repeatedly.'

Maddinson watches her, digesting her answer. He runs his eyes down the figures of data on the wall. 'Right then, so the diagnostic probe is starting to pick up signatures of Darkness activity inside her.' Maddinson turns to face Reid and Morgan and Eddie. 'I'll need to run a screen for contagion. On all of you.'

'Contagion?' Morgan asks.

'A virus has infected the Entity population. It's highly likely it has spread to you lot.'

I take water to both Morgan and Eddie. 'Virus?' Morgan asks looking up at me.

'Maddinson believes an alien virus has turned the Entities mad with hunger.'

She just stares at me. 'Skye, please tell us what's going on. Who is this guy? How did you get this craft operational? How did you find us?'

'I am a Rank Four Gatherer with the Royal Cloudfyre Society,' Maddinson answers aloud, prepping a blood sampling kit in the infirmary. 'I rescued Skye from the swamp city version of your Jupiter. Your world is currently being corrupted by an alien infestation. If you are infected, if you do not receive anti virals within seventy two hours, you will succumb to madness and insatiable hunger. If you are infected I can administer retrovirals that will inhibit the virus for up to twenty four hours. But I cannot heal you here. The Arachni, my craft, has not the technology to treat you.'

'This craft wasn't operational,' Eddie says flatly.

'It's not the craft we found in that swamp city,' I tell them. 'Maddinson's from another world... another version of Earth. He believes Imogen's carrying some sort of PIT unit. That's how we found you. Homing beacons picked up her signal.'

Maddinson places a device against Imogen's arm. It's quick and vicious sounding as it sucks blood in an instant up into an airtight glass vial.

He performs the same test on Reid and then Morgan and Eddie. Each of them flinch and wincing as the vacuum sampler sucks blood from their arms.

Maddinson takes the tester back into the infirmary. From the level above us Gryff offers a series of loud beeping noises.

Hearing this, Maddinson moves to a console on the wall near the kitchenette, pushing his palm against the soft metal. The lower half of the Arachni's hull suddenly turns translucent. The surrounding lake becomes visible to us. Mud and water cover a portion of our craft. In the cloudy water we see fish with pointy teeth and bizarre shrimp things with razored talons, hundreds of them, skittering about the hull. They look to be in a frenzy to get in at us. My eyes go to the rent in the Arachni's shell. So far it remains clogged with mud. But I have an uncomfortable feeling about those shrimp things. I don't like the thought of them getting in at us.

Maddinson watches them closely.

'Should we be concerned about them?' I ask him.

'Yes, there's a high chance they're riddled with the Dark virus.' He calls up to Gryff. 'Anything else to report?'

I scan the banks of the lake. Trees surround the shoreline. There's some sort of white spiral shaped building poking up in the distance. I see no sign of Entities. Nothing but what looks to be a small herd of goat, standing on the opposite shore, standing still, all of them facing our direction, their attention on our craft.

More bleeping sounds come back from Gryff.

Maddinson answers him. 'Well, remain vigilant. Keep long range bio scanners active. We don't want to get ourselves ambushed here.'

'Are we safe?' I ask him.

'For the time being.' He returns to study the findings of his blood samples. Once more he calls up to Gryff. 'Any update on the Egress Shift?'

Another series of bleeps come down from his droid.

Maddinson breathes out. As if he's heard some bad news. 'Not what I wanted to hear. Are they irreparable?'

More beeps.

'Tremendous.' He sounds disappointed. 'Any good news you might wish to report?'

Another series of beeps come back at us.

'Our cross dimensional transmitters are down? How is that good news?'

More beeping sounds returns from Gryff.

'Yes, I got that, but it's not good news, Gryff.' Maddinson sighs. 'Right, well keep trying to get them reinstated. If not, we'll have to prime the drop pods. We'll need to get our new friends out of here as soon as possible.'

Gryff bleeps in acknowledgement.

Maddinson now reads the results of his blood tests. 'Right then, blood work... As I feared, Imogen's infected. Though, good news, the rest of you remain currently free of contagion.'

He thumbs a small patch on the wall and emerging from the ceiling comes a large clear sack and a tube attached to a needle. It seems to be fully automated. Like a snake it seeks out Imogen's arm, then with slow, precise movements, it inserts its needle into the crook of her elbow. Maddinson monitors the procedure. A clear liquid begins dripping droplets into an intravenous tube that leads into her vein.

'What are you doing?' Reid rasps.

Maddinson, with the diagnostic scope still in operation, steps out of the cell and pushes his palm against a panel. A curtain of translucent pliable metal seems to grow down from the ceiling, sealing itself against wall and floor, completely shutting Imogen within.

'What are you doing to her?' Reid demands to know.

'Keep your voice down. I heard you. Imogen has lost blood and fluids. She has borderline malnutrition. She is suffering from blood poisoning due to infection. She is also suffering several bone fractures in her hip, femur, and ribs. Currently I am administering fluids, antivirals and antibiotics. And for our own safety I have placed her in quarantine.'

Maddinson moves past me and I stop him. 'Maddinson, is she another of your missing agents?'

'I don't know yet. And I may not know until we get her back to Cloudfyre headquarters and run her through scans.' He stands there looking down at Reid and Morgan and Eddie. 'Right then, time here is critical. I need you lot to tell me exactly what happened after you were separated from Skye. I need to know where you went. And how you ended up back in Jupiter.'

2

It's Morgan who recounts their tale, telling us that the portal we were all trying to aim for when we dropped from the glass dome opened onto yet another alternative Jupiter city. Morgan claims that in some ways it was even more treacherous than the swamp city. A horrific crumbling place, where most of the city streets had plummeted away into deep chasms or crevices. That mostly, only the buildings of the city centre had survived, standing atop pinnacles of stone—most of the ground around them had given way. Morgan, Reid, Eddie and Imogen managed to navigate the city by scaling rope bridges that some forgotten race had suspended between buildings.

But there were strange critters there that constantly harassed them. Airborne things that would conduct ambush attacks. Morgan says they had to construct crude spears from shafts of metal. They had no food but foul tasting beetles and raw lizards. Their only source of water was moisture that dripped down the sides of buildings that they collected in whatever container they could find. While Morgan and Eddie got to work looking for another portal, Imogen was attacked and then fell, dropping three or four metres onto her right leg. None of them is certain how long they were there but they seem to think it was upwards of eight days. They were fortunate enough to track down a portal that wasn't far out of reach and even more fortunate that it delivered them back to Jupiter. The problem was, they lost the Ephemerys in the process. And when they dropped back into our Jupiter they found the place awash with Entities.

'You met no-one else between arriving in that swamp city and returning to your Jupiter?' Maddinson asks them.

'No,' Morgan says almost offended. 'Who do you expect we might have met? Either place was hideous. No-one could hope to exist there.'

'I'm simply trying ascertain whether your friend Imogen has been carrying her Cloudfyre PIT unit all along, or if she acquired it along the way.'

I watch him closely. 'What do you mean?'

'Pure speculation of course, but she may have come across another Cloudfyre agent in the field, one that may have been in peril, one who may have extracted his or her unit and passed it onto Imogen in the hope that she could get their details home to London. Remember how I found your Ephemerys? On a deceased agent in Hades. It's possible Imogen came into contact with that person.'

'Ephemerys?' Eddie says. 'Our Ephemerys? You were there? You found it?'

Maddinson nods. 'Yes.'

'And you didn't think to rescue us?' Morgan asks incredulous.

'I'm sorry, but I wasn't aware you were even there. I didn't detect any other human bio signatures during that mission. It's possible you had already vacated that world by the time I unearthed the book.'

Reid's still watching Maddinson with a measure of suspicion. He coughs to clear his throat. Grimaces as he swallows. 'Imogen made no contact with anyone else over there,' he rasps. 'In either world. Apart from when she fell, she was with us the whole time.'

'Very well,' says Maddinson, 'though if she is a marooned agent, perhaps she uncovered a PIT unit in this craft you claim you all found in the swamp city. She may have activated it and injected it into herself hoping that it might attract attention from Cloudfyre HQ.'

'If she was a marooned agent,' I said, 'would she not already have one of these PIT units imbedded in her?'

'Indeed,' Maddinson replies, 'but like so many others, it may have fallen to ruin. It may have turned faulty. After all, I failed to detect it on my initial survey of your Jupiter.'

I turn and look at Reid. He was with her the longest in the swamp city. 'Do you know?' I ask him. 'Do you know if Imogen might have picked up a PIT unit from that craft?'

He looks tired but he shakes his head. He casts his weary eyes toward Imogen where she lies unconscious in the quarantine cell. 'If she did, it's a secret she kept from me.'

Maddinson nods curtly. 'Right then, something we'll have to put to her when she awakens. For the moment though we can't hang around here.' He regards the shrimp outside the craft. 'We need to get ourselves away from this place as soon as we're able. Hopefully to London where we'll get Imogen the care she needs.'

It's Morgan who frowns at this comment. 'London?' she asks. 'What are you talking about?'

'That's where Maddinson's from,' I tell her. 'That's where his base is. In another alternative Earth.'

'But what about our families?' she asks. 'We need to go back to Jupiter to fetch them.' She looks from Maddinson to me and back again, as if I have any say in the matter. 'Skye, we can't leave them there.'

'Look,' Maddinson says, 'every person we could save has been evacuated. If your family members survived the initial onslaught by the Entities, then we will have shifted them out of your city.'

Reid watches him still with distrust. 'Shifted them to where?'

'To a quarantine zone at a location we call Eden,' Maddinson explains. 'One of the Outworlds. If they've been infected by the Darkness then they'll be treated. And once they clear quarantine they'll be rehomed.'

'Rehomed?' Morgan asks.

'Yes.'

'Where?'

'Another Outworld. A place we call Earth Two.'

'How can you be so certain that our families made it out alive?' Reid demands to know.

'One hundred and seven people were picked up from your Jupiter,' Maddinson confirms. 'One hundred and seven survivors we found huddled in your community hall. As to whether or not your families got out alive, obviously, I cannot say. Not from here. But there were no other human bio scan readings detected after they were removed. None showing signs of life.'

'Does this mean that those who weren't rescued...' Morgan swallows. 'Have they... have they perished?'

Maddinson doesn't want to say it aloud but it's quite obvious that's the likely outcome. I can't help thinking about something Morgan and Eddie told me. The night we jumped through the portal... 'Wait,' I say, looking at them both. 'There was a town hall meeting. You told me that, right? Remember? Before we left on our mission to retrieve Reid and Imogen, you said they were holding a meeting the following day for some reason. Compulsory attendance.'

Morgan nods. 'There was speculation over the deaths of Greigs Bouton, Narnss Hupper, and Hulz Faird. The city authority had called a meeting to alert people to the fact that they may have possibly been bludgeoned to death. That a stranger had been spotted in Jupiter.'

And suddenly Morgan's glaring wide-eyed at Maddinson. 'You,' she says abruptly, pointing at him accusingly. 'I know where I've seen you. They arrested you. We saw them dragging you into the authority building. Oh Mother, I remember it now.' She looks at Eddie and me. 'Don't you guys remember? They marched him into the hangar.'

Eddie's face sort of wakes up now. He's suddenly staring at Maddinson like maybe we've all been duped. That maybe Maddinson's rounded us all up just to murder us.

But I won't have it. I step to Maddinson's side and face my friends. 'Maddinson came to Jupiter to save us. Not kill us.'

'Save us?' Morgan says. 'Why? He doesn't even know who we are. Why would he care?'

'Because that's what he does. That's what they do. Cloudfyre. Who he works for. They're Conservationists. They get about saving people and animals and wildlife. He's not here to harm us.'

'So who killed Narnss and Hulz and Greigs then?' Reid wants to know coldly.

'I don't know but I can assure you it wasn't Maddinson.' I look around at Maddinson. I'm not sure why I'm defending him so passionately. But I just feel it's the right thing to do. The Maddinson I know is a complete gentleman. He's been nothing else since the whole time I've known him.

'I want him to answer us,' Reid says coldly, glaring at Maddinson.

Maddinson answers calmly. 'What Skye says is true. I work to help people like yourselves. Those who have come to grief. Those in peril. I do not set out to harm people, let alone murder them.'

'Look, the point is,' I tell them, 'our families would have been there at the Community Hall. They would have been extracted.'

Reid eyes me with the same cold expression. 'I hope you're right, Skye.'

3

From the deck above us, Gryff bleeps again. Maddinson cocks his head to hear what his droid has to say. He puts his hand on Reid's shoulder. 'Sit here a minute. Get your strength. If you need food, eat. All of you. We're not out of the woods yet. Skye, ah, would you care to show them where they might find sustenance?'

I nod. And with that Maddinson strides up the ramp, calling to Gryff, 'Right then, Gryff, my good man, tell me what the issue is with our drop pods?'

Morgan watches me a few moments. They all watch me. I feel like an Outsider, a stranger. 'Look, I don't know if our families made it out,' I tell them, 'or how many people the Entities have slaughtered, but... all I know is Maddinson has done nothing but help me since he rescued me. I believe he genuinely has our best interests at heart.'

No-one speaks.

'Come on, don't look at me like that. It's me, Skye. I'm on your side. You're my friends.'

They watch me for several moments. It's awful, their silence, the look of distrust in their eyes.

Still, it's Morgan who eventually gets up and comes to me. At first I think she's coming over to admonish me. But then she puts her arms around me and holds me to her. Her face buried in my neck. 'We thought we'd lost you,' she tells me.

I hold her to me. It's such a relief to be embraced by someone who knows me, loves me. I feel like I could cry. 'I thought I'd lost you too. All of you.'

'How did he save you?' Reid wants to know, his voice brimming with suspicion.

Morgan lets me go. She wipes tears from her cheeks, she wipes one from my face with her thumb. 'I don't know,' I tell him. 'I mean, when I last saw you, it was when we jumped from that dome. My chute launched but it became tangled. I spiralled out of control. But somehow Maddinson was there. He told me he employed gravitational dampeners and caught me before I slammed into the street.'

'Gravitational dampeners?' Eddie asks. 'What are they then?'

I shrug. 'How would I know?'

'But how?' Reid says, still suspicious. 'I mean, how did he know where you were? Was he in Frogtown all along? Was he following us?' I can see Reid's still agitated. 'If he was there in that city, then why didn't he make himself known to us? Why didn't he rescue us all if that's what he does?'

'I don't think he knew we were there, Reid. Not all along. He came to find me.'

He looks puzzled. 'You? Why? I don't understand.'

'Because, like Imogen, I'm carrying a PIT unit.'

Their eyes bulge. Except Reid's, whose eyes narrow at hearing this.

'One that is registered to Maddinson's employers,' I tell them, 'the Cloudfyre Society. Just like the one Imogen has inside her arm.'

Reid watches me closely. 'How is that possible?'

'I don't know. Maddinson seems to believe I'm a missing Cloudfyre agent. Like Imogen. But I don't know how that can be. Apparently he picked up my signal and it drew him to that swamp city. He managed to track me down just in time to catch me.'

Reid's not buying this. His eyes are still narrowed. 'Why would one of their agents be in that city?'

I fetch them food. I make them tea. I tell them to try and regain some strength. While they eat I explain what I know. I tell them again about the Royal Cloudfyre Society, exactly what it is they do, what their purpose is. I tell them about the alien craft that was orbiting Earth. How it seemed to eject strange pods that could jump dimensions. That it seemed to be surveying Earth's alternate states, for possible colonisation. But that some alien virus Maddinson calls the Darkness had piggy backed its way across the universe on board the alien craft. That it was infecting Earth's alternative versions. That Cloudfyre and another group, the Interplanetary Exploration and Preservation Alliance, or IEPA for short, were both trying to figure out ways to stop it.

'So, you've been to this London then?' Reid asks.

'Yes.'

He watches me. So do Morgan and Eddie. I don't know what it is but there seems to be envy or jealousy in their eyes. They look betrayed. Like I engineered this.

'So, we're not all there is?' Morgan asks. 'There are other societies out there. Functioning societies, I mean.'

'On other versions of Earth, yes.'

Morgan sits down as she takes in this news. Her hand over her mouth. I'm uncertain if this news brings her relief or horror.

'So why do you have one of their PIT units inside you?' she asks me, as though it's some secret I've kept from them all. As though I'm complicit in some great conspiracy.

'I have no idea, Morgan.'

They continue to eye me like I'm lying.

'Don't look at me like that. Please. I don't know how it got inside me. Honestly.'

Reid sighs. He sips hot tea that I made for him. 'I don't know why it is that you got whisked away to safety while the rest of us were forced to endure another agonising version of Jupiter. Seems a little convenient.'

I frown. I'm really hurt by that comment. 'Reid, I didn't engineer it to be that way. Okay? I'm as much in the dark about all of this as you guys.'

He just looks at me, not speaking.

Morgan regards him, like she knows he's being cold hearted.

'Hey,' I tell him, 'don't go getting pissed off with me for something I've had no control over. I was separated from you lot, I was taken away not knowing what happened to you. I was attacked by the Entities. I had my legs shredded. I was taken to some alien place where I was operated on and surrounded by people I didn't know. I had to be treated for this Darkness infection. Then I was told I had some piece of imbedded tech stuck inside me. I mightn't have been fighting off monsters in some alternate version of Jupiter, Reid, but I wasn't exactly having a bloody picnic either!'

He just eyes me. Sitting there grubby, bloody, stinking. I suddenly can't bear to be anywhere near him. The sight of him. I grab their empty plates, their empty mugs, and stride off angrily into the kitchenette to tidy up.

Tears roll down my face. But I won't give Reid the satisfaction of seeing me crying. My chin shudders, I swallow my sobs. I can't believe that I longed for him, and missed him, that as soon as I get him back he grills me over my whereabouts. I hate him. I won't speak to him anymore. Ever.

I overhear Morgan scolding him. I overhear her telling him to be a little more sensitive. He doesn't say anything. I don't care. I don't care for him. If he wants Imogen then good luck to him. As far as I'm concerned, they're made for each other.

4

Reid comes to me a short time later. He takes my hand but I snatch it away. He sees the tears tumbling down my face. I'm ashamed. I don't want him to know that he's upset me. I turn away from him. I tell him to leave me alone. 'I'd rather you weren't here right now,' I tell him.

He nods and sighs. 'Look, Skye I'm—'

I stride out of the kitchen. I leave him there. I move away to the bedroom, the one I slept in the night before on the beach. I want a door that I can slam. I try palming the wall to operate the partition but I don't know how to work the mechanism, if I'm pressing the correct part.

Reid stands there in the doorway. I'm sitting on the bed. I won't look at him. 'Please,' I say, 'go away.'

He refuses. 'Skye, look...' He sighs heavily. 'I'm sorry. For speaking the way I did. It wasn't fair. You don't deserve that. Honestly, I'm sorry.'

I still refuse to look at him.

'I'm... it's just that... I'm tired. None of us has barely eaten. We're not thinking straight.' He watches me. He wipes sweat from his forehead. He comes over and kneels before me. Looking up at me. 'We thought you were dead, Skye. We all thought that you'd died. We had to contend with that emotionally while were stuck in that other Jupiter. We had a struggle to survive and all I could think about was you, that I'd left you stranded in that awful place. That if you'd survived the fall from that dome, then there's no way you could've survived that place. Not alone. Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally. I blamed myself. That I hadn't managed to save you. I'm so sorry, Skye. I'm so sorry that I wasn't there to help you.'

There are tears in his eyes now. I see he's desperate to regain some sort of connection with me. I watch him. My anger dissipating.

I move off the bed and kneel beside him, holding him. My face against his ear. I feel him weeping gently against me. 'It's okay, Reid,' I whisper. 'It's okay. You have nothing to be sorry about. Honestly. Nothing.'

We remain that way for a little while. Holding each other.

In a little while I watch his eyes. 'You okay?'

He nods, watching me in return, looking into my eyes. 'I'm just so glad you're alive,' he says softly. 'So glad. We thought you'd perished. We really thought you'd perished.'

I hold him to me and shut my eyes. He smells of sweat. It's not exactly pleasant but I don't care right now. I'm just glad I've found him.

'Are you injured?' he asks. He indicates my feet. 'Your legs.'

'They're healing.'

Reid lets this sink in. 'So, this... this Maddinson...' He says nothing for several moments. When he does it seems to almost hurt him to say it. 'Is... is he a good man?'

I nod. Even though I'm still not sure. 'Yes. I think he is.'

His eyes hold mine for a few moments before they drop away. Tears in them. He watches his hands cradling mine. As if contemplating a life now that will never be. 'I'm sorry,' he says, looking up into my eyes again. 'I'm so sorry for everything that's happened. I wish we'd never gone to the transmitter station that day.' He smiles sadly, tears spilling onto his cheeks. 'I knew it was a bad idea. I wish we'd never found that Ephemerys.'

We watch each other. If I could reverse time, would I change that day? Would I not go after Juke? Would I leave the transmitter station alone?

I squeeze his hand. We're silent for some time. He wipes his eyes. Then he gazes back at Imogen.

I watch his eyes. 'Do you love her?' I ask him.

I can see his pain in admitting it to me. I touch his face, hoping to help him draw strength to tell me.

'Please, Reid, tell me.'

He swallows. Sniffles. Wipes tears from his face. 'I told you it was complicated,' he says softly. 'My feelings are conflicted.' He holds my fingers, watching as he squeezes them gently. A look of sadness swimming into his eyes. 'When Imogen and I were lost together for all those weeks, we didn't know if we'd ever be rescued, never knew if we'd see Jupiter again. We bonded. We became close friends. We only had each other to rely on. It was the worse situation to be in but we became close. You were still on my mind. I yearned for you but I had to resign myself to the fact I might never see you again. I mean... Imogen and me...' He sighs. 'I'm so sorry, Skye, when you're alone together with someone in such awful circumstances for such a long time, you have to rely on each other, you have to lean on each other, for your own mental stability, for you own emotional sanity. It just happened. With me and her. It just happened. I'm so sorry.'

I swallow. Hoping it'll take away the angst I'm feeling. But it doesn't. I feel sad. Because the truth is, I'm not the same person I was when I last saw Reid. I've been exposed to things I never could have imagined in a million years, other possibilities, new horizons, other worlds. And without even meaning to, without actually realising it, I may have opened my heart to someone else, someone who, on the whole, still remains a stranger.

I don't know what to say. Except I tell him, 'It's okay, Reid, it's okay.' And I pull him to me and we hold each other again for a little while.

'I don't wanna lose you, Skye,' he says. 'I don't wanna lose your friendship.'

I shut my eyes. There's a tear trickling down the side of my nose. 'I don't want to lose yours either, Reid.'

5

Eddie's standing in the farm pod, gazing through the translucent hull out across the muddy bank of the lake. We hear him say in a dull voice, 'Wow.'

We vacate the bedroom pod. We see what has taken his attention. Entities. Standing on the opposite shore, gazing toward the Arachni.

'They always told us the Entities would come for us one day,' Morgan says, standing beside him. 'Guess they were right.'

I call out to Maddinson. 'Thomas, do you see the Entities out there?'

We hurry to the upper level. 'Yes, we see them,' Maddinson says, surveying the scene. He turns to Gryffin. 'So, bottom line is, we're not getting the Arachni airborne? That what I'm hearing?'

Gryffin makes noises that don't sound too positive.

Maddinson listens, keeping his eyes on the Entities. 'Once again, not exactly what I wanted to hear, Gryff.'

Gryffin makes a mewling sound and Maddinson smile's at his droid. 'Now don't get tetchy, old boy. I'm not blaming you. How about the Egress Transfer Drive? You're telling me it's had its chips?'

Gryffin makes more mewling sounds.

'Right. And you're saying the Arachni's cross-dimensional emergency beacon is still off line?'

Gryffin groans this time and Maddinson shakes his head. 'And the good folk at Cloudfyre Technologies assured us the new models would be more reliable.' He sighs. 'Suppose that's typical.' He delves into his thoughts for a few moments. 'Alright then. So we've no choice but to take our chances in the drop pods.'

Gryffin mewls.

'I know you told me that, old boy, but we have to find some way to get them up and running.'

'What's the problem?' I ask him.

'Would seem we've found ourselves in a bit of a pickle,' he tells me, a slight smile on his face. Though his eyes portray a deep sense of misgiving, something obviously troubling him.

'The Arachni won't fly?'

'Well, that's one of our headaches,' he says. 'The emergency beacon that should ordinarily alert London to a downed craft has packed up. Even though they assured us we wouldn't be having that problem anymore. But the real dilemma is the Egress Shift. It was wrecked in the crash so even if we could fly, we can't jump dimensions.'

'So we're stuck here?'

'Well... hopefully not. We've still the Arachni's drop pods at our disposal.'

I watch him as he heads for the door. 'Drop pods?'

'They serve the same function as life boats on an ocean going ship. Only these contain their own power source. And, like the Arachni, they have been engineered with the ability to create their own egress points and are able to travel to any preprogramed destination across the multiworld system.'

'We can escape in these pods then?'

'Ideally, yes. However Gryff seems to believe that the pair of life boats on the Arachni were both damaged beyond operational efficiency when the Arachni impacted the ground. What I'd like to do however is to go outside and inspect them. Trusting diagnostic instrumentation is one thing. Trusting my eye is another.'

I gaze through the hull out toward where the group of Entities have been standing. They're no longer there. Have they left? Or are they advancing from another point? I scan the shoreline of the lake. They're nowhere to be seen.

'Is it safe to go outside?' I ask him.

'Probably not.' But he begins slipping into his body armour. 'Right then Gryff, hope you've got me covered.' He dons his helmet and takes a rifle into his grip.

Gryff bleeps and engages some buttons on the central console. We hear a whirring sound coming from above us and when I look up, I see through the translucent ceiling, a large cannon rising out of the hull.

'Thank you, old boy,' Maddinson says. But when he turns to leave, he suddenly hesitates, watching me grabbing a rifle and pulling on a helmet.

'Skye, no,' he says, 'I need you to remain in here. I'll only be a minute. Gryff's got me covered with the Arachni's automated sentry. Best you all remain inside.'

I ignore him.

I hear Reid somewhere behind me. 'Skye, do as he says.'

I ignore Reid too. 'Let's get this door open and stop wasting time.'

Maddinson eyes me for a moment or two. Then he sighs. 'Very well, but keep your wits about you. You hear?'

I nod.

He engages the door. The stink of the lake gushes in at us on a hot wind. The ramp extends over the central disk and we trail it down onto the muddy bank. I see other creatures out here now. Things that move at our presence, things that were camouflaged against the grass and trees. Strange critters that might look like a person if they were to stand upright. But they are so flat that when they skitter along the ground, they look like shadows rippling through grass, their limbs spread like a lizard's and their faces gazing upwards from the backs of their flattened skulls.

Maddinson watches them as they scamper away from us. They appear to be no immediate threat so he lets them be. He strides around the side of the Arachni. The rear end of the craft is still submerged in water and mud. We see the hull has crumpled inwards, we see where the mud is oozing in: a long jagged breach.

Maddinson wades into the water. I hear him speak over the radio in my suit helmet. 'Gryff, hope you've your eyes open. I don't want any beast to come surging up out of the water to eat me, do you hear?'

Inside the Arachni, Gryff bleeps.

I watch for shadows in the trees. I watch for ripples in the lake. I watch Maddinson, knee deep in water, then waist deep, I watch him pressing his palms against a panel on the hull, I watch those strange shrimp things begin to surround him.

He presses the panel again. Nothing happens. 'Gryff,' he says, 'try the auto release valves again, will you.'

There's a pause and then Gryff bleeps from inside the Arachni.

'Yes, well, they're not responding,' Maddinson informs him.

I see movement in the distance. I see shadows beneath the trees. I keep a keen eye on them.

Maddinson works at freeing the drop pods manually. There appears to be a lever which he folds out from the side of the craft. He begins cranking it around but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. 'Right then,' I hear Maddinson say. 'Looks like we're not leaving here any time soon.'

Gryff bleeps.

'The crank shaft isn't helping,' Maddinson says. 'Unless you can get out here and rip these things out of their housing with your bare hands then we're stuck.'

I hear Gryffin beep and moments later he comes skittering down the ramp and into the sunshine. He moves purposefully into the shallow waters of the lake, surging quickly toward Maddinson.

'See what you can do,' Maddinson says to him, stepping aside.

Gryffin regards the area of the hull in question. Then he lifts his three arms and digs his long metal fingers into the skin of the Arachni. The soft metal seems to fold around his hands like grey ice.

Now he hauls back on what I assume are the pods buried inside the hull of the ship. The soft metal of the Arachni stretches outwards like skin. Nothing gives though.

Gryffin relaxes and buries his arms further into the Arachni's hull. It's an awkward angle to work with seeing as this portion of the craft is submerged in the base of the lake. But Gryffin tries for a second time, leaning backwards, straining with all his considerable strength.

Once again the soft hull of Maddinson's craft stretches outwards. And I hear Gryffin straining this time, a low pitched sound coming from him, like a moan, or a growl. He doesn't let up though. Even when his arms begin to shake with the effort and a spark bursts from his chest.

Maddinson looks concerned.

A second shower of sparks fires from Gryff and Maddinson calls an immediate halt to proceedings. 'Gryff, ease up, old boy,' he calls. 'Ease up.' He grips Gryff's arm, staring at him.

Slowly Gryff complies and beeps almost despondently.

Maddinson smiles and claps him on the shoulder. 'No fear, old boy, you did your best. That's all we can hope for. I don't think it's worth jeopardising your safety.'

I'm watching the far bank. The Entities have materialised again. Once more they appear to just be standing there watching us. 'They're back,' I report to Maddinson.

He turns and gazes in their direction, contemplating them.

'What should we do?' I ask him.

'Best get back inside the Arachni.'

Gryff continues to regard the craft, mewling. Maddinson urges him to leave it alone. 'There are other ways out of this predicament, old boy,' he tells him softly. 'We just have to find one that works.' They both trudge back to the shore through the brackish muddy water. The rampant shrimp things teeming about their legs. And as Maddinson and Gryffin move up onto the grassy bank, their movements draw a small wave of water that dumps a hundred wriggling, flipping shrimps there in the cracked mud.

I back away from them. And Maddinson makes certain he kicks the last of them from his boots, warning Gryff to do the same. 'We don't want any of these little blighters following us back inside, you hear?'

'Are they infected with the Darkness?' I ask him.

'Highly likely,' he tells me.

Confident every last shrimp is floundering in the grass and not clung to either he or Gryffin, Maddinson casts the Entities one final glance before trailing me up the ramp. Gryffin bringing up the rear.

Once back inside the craft, Gryff seals the door and the ramp retracts and Maddinson gazes through the hull at the Entities where they remain on the far bank.

Reid and Morgan and Eddie stand there doing likewise. 'Why don't they attack?' Reid asks.

Maddinson stands there, one hand leaning against the inner hull. He turns to Gryffin. 'Gryff, old boy, set your long range Darkness scanners on that group over there. Tell me what you pick up.'

Gryff tweets and a few moments pass by where he's quiet, running his scans and when he tweets again Maddinson nods, looking slightly more at ease. 'They're not carrying the infection.'

I watch them out there. They stand so still, gazing back at our craft. I recall my times going to them with Juke or Reid. Or by myself. Feeding them and being in their company. The group over there look more like the Entities I've come to know. Curious but shy. Intrigued but reserved. 'They're a placid people,' I tell Maddinson quietly. 'Normally, when they're not riddled with this Darkness. I've met them. I've fed them.'

Morgan and Eddie both look at me. 'You've fed them?' Morgan asks in disbelief.

'Juke showed me. They're gentle. They're not killers.'

'I guess it serves as a reminder as to how potent the Darkness can be,' Maddinson says. 'Good thing is, if they're not infected, then we don't need to concern ourselves with them right now. Gives us time to concentrate on more important matters such as getting ourselves out of this wee predicament.' He taps the inner hull with his fingertips. 'So, this is what I suggest: we shelter in the Arachni for the time being and see if we can't get a message back to either headquarters or to Ladies Penny and Sapphire. Gryff tells me the transmitters are off line, that they took a hammering when we crash landed. But with any luck, we can find some way to fire them up. If we can get through to London, if I stress to our friends at Cloudfyre that we've uncovered another living agent, they may, with any luck, feel the need to despatch a rescue crew to gather us post-haste.'

6

Gryff turns his attention now to getting communications back up and running. 'If we can't get airborne,' Maddinson says, 'if the egress shift is damaged beyond hope, then Gryff old boy, our best option is to try and reinstate our com links with London.'

Reid and Morgan and Eddie are sitting there on the settee, quietly observing, the three of them looking ever more exhausted. I suggest that they go and lie down. Get some sleep if they can. That I'll wake them if I need to.

At the central console, Gryff begins to bleep and tweet.

Maddinson listens to his droid. Drumming his fingers on the flight deck console, gazing across the lake. 'Hmmm, yes, I know the com links are ruined, old boy. But can you mend them is what I need to know?'

Gryff bleeps.

Maddinson says, 'Right then, so why didn't you just say that? How long until you get them back up and running?'

Gryff beeps once more.

'Twelve hours? No sooner?'

A burst of twitterings and beepings comes from Gryff, and Maddinson puts his hand up. 'Alright, old friend, I hear you. I didn't mean to question your abilities.'

Maddinson strolls over to us. 'Verdict is, Gryff believes he needs to pull the console apart to reroute the wiring. He believes half the operating systems have burnt out.'

'So, what's that mean for us?' I ask. 'Will we be flying out of here?'

'Flying's out of the question with the drive engines ruined,' he tells us. 'But it means that in about twelve hours from now we should be able to at least talk to London.'

'Twelve hours?'

'Oh, my wish would be much sooner, of course.' He regards Reid and the others. 'In the meantime, Skye has a good point: when was the last time you lot slept?'

Reid's uncertain. He cannot answer. Morgan tells us, 'Thirty six, maybe forty hours.'

'Well, I'd be keen for a bit of kip if I were you,' Maddinson tells them. 'If we need you, we'll wake you, but you certainly look as though you could all do with some rest.'

'I need to tell you something,' Reid says, ignoring him.

Maddinson regards him. 'I'm all ears.'

Reid goes on. 'These life boat things you were attempting to access...'

'Yes, what about them?' Maddinson asks.

'Imogen claims she detected something before you pair arrived to pull us out of the Metrodome,' Reid says. 'Something she called ITD's.'

Maddinson frowns at him. 'Interdimensional Transfer Drives. Another name for the life boats. What do you mean she detected some?'

'That's what I'm saying. She picked up what she called an ITD signature. In a craft. East of here about a hundred kilometres.'

Maddinson wears a deep thoughtful frown.

'Imogen used sensor equipment she took from the craft in the swamp city,' Reid tells him. 'After we found ourselves trapped in the Metrodome she engaged these scanners and set them to conduct long range probes. I asked her what she hoped to find. She said she believed there was a craft out there that might still be functional. That it might get us away from Jupiter if we could reach it.'

It's me watching Reid now with a deep frown. 'How could she have known this?'

'I just told you,' Reid says. 'She had sensor equipment she took from that craft in Frogtown.'

No-one speaks. This news is a complete bombshell.

I turn to Maddinson. 'You think she knew it was there all along?'

'If she's a Cloudfyre agent then there's no doubt in my mind.' He regards Morgan and Reid. Eddie's just sitting there listening.

'She believed it had workable ITD's,' Reid says. 'The first time I'd heard her mention these things was when we were stuck in the swamp city. She said the craft we were stranded in should've had some. At the time I didn't know how she knew these things, she never really explained, but she told me we were out of luck because the ITD's in the Frogtown craft had already been utilised. They were absent.'

Maddinson considers all of this. Then he says, 'East of here, you say?'

'Yes, a hundred kilometres.'

'Can you give me any specific details about this craft?'

Reid shakes his head. 'No. All Imogen said was that if we could make our way to it, we might be able to use it to fly somewhere safe. She said if it was ruined then we'd utilise these ITD things. Beyond that, I don't know where we were going to go. Find another liveable city somewhere maybe. Come back and rescue our families afterwards. But that's where we were going to if we ever got out of the Metrodome alive.'

'Gryff,' Maddinson says, 'conduct a long range scan for this craft. Tell me what you find.'

Gryffin presses buttons. There's silence as we wait to hear what he'll report.

About a minute later Gryff begins twittering. Maddinson listens to his findings. Finally he translates Gryffin's words. 'Well well well, looks like you might be right about this craft. Gryffin has picked up a signal. Ninety three kilometres east.'

I frown. 'Really? There's another craft out there?'

'Would appear so.'

'A craft like this one?'

'I suppose it is.'

'But... how... I mean, why wouldn't you have picked this up sooner?'

'A good question,' Maddinson says thoughtfully. 'If one of our vessels comes to grief, a cross-dimensional beacon is meant to automatically begin sounding. London is able to pick up these signals from anywhere across the multiworld system. Or crafts like the Arachni, if they're in the field, they are programmed to pick up these signals and send coordinates back to Cloudfyre or IEPA. So, you're quite right, Skye, the Arachni should, by her very programming, have picked up the signal of this missing craft long ago.

'Yet, if the craft in question was damaged to the extent that the beacon had been ruined or compromised then, unless I had landed upon it by pure chance, we would have no idea of the craft's existence or where the craft had come down.' He looks thoughtful for several moments. Then says, 'There is also another possibility. Emergency beacons, provided they aren't faulty, are designed to lie dormant if their mother craft has been stranded and lost for any extended period of time. In this instance the beacon shuts down, as a point of conserving energy, and it is designed to begin transmitting once it detects a sister craft in range of its own. I can only speculate that the craft Imogen detected has picked up on the Arachni and its beacon recommenced operating.'

We all watch him. 'Is there no beacon on this craft?' Reid asks him.

'Not sure if you heard my conversation with Gryff earlier,' Maddinson tells him, 'but that's one of the problems we're facing right now—Gryffin's informed me the Arachni's beacon has failed us. So London won't know that we're in peril unless I fail to call in, or until we fail to return to base after seventy two hours. Trouble is, when they do realise that I've failed to return, they won't actually know where to search for us. Unless Lady Penny or Lady Sapphire, my contacts on the ground in London, forward Jupiter's coordinates to them.' He sighs. 'The really irritating thing is, we're carrying one of the new model beacons, which, I was told by the tech boffins at Cloudfyre, aren't prone to breaking down. So, I'll certainly be having a stern word with my superiors once I get home, I can assure you.'

'So these pods that Imogen detected,' I say, 'could they help get us to safety?'

'Short answer,' Maddinson says, 'if they're operational, if we can access them, then, yes, we'll use them to ferry us back to London in no time.'

I watch Maddinson closely. Wondering what his thoughts are. Do we stay put? Or do we vacate the Arachni and set out to track down this other craft?

He stands there gazing through the hull, out across the lake to where those Entities stand in the shade of a line of trees.

'What are you thinking?' I ask him. 'Is it worth staying here to see if Gryff can get communications up and running? Or do we make for these other life pods?'

He seems to be making some quick calculations in his mind. I gaze over at Gryff momentarily where he's already begun dismantling the console. Removing the upper casing, exposing all the wires and lights and workings beneath.

'Ninety three kilometres,' he says. 'Not a distance to be sneezed at. On foot, we might hope to cover up to twenty kilometres a day. Provided some of us weren't suffering fatigue and malnourishment. And we'd also be lugging Imogen with us. So, naturally, we'd rule out such a venture. The only option, as I see it, would be the Flydrone. Providing our hard landing hasn't done it irreparable damaged.'

I frown. Flydrone? That's what Imogen had called the strange pencil-shaped vessel that zipped us across the waves toward the glass dome in the swamp city.

'Gryff tells me that it might take him as long as twelve hours to repair our communications array,' Maddinson says. 'Though he does have a tendency to overestimate these things. So, it's likely he'll be much quicker. Provided he has sufficient parts and tools to work with, of course. Though if the Flydrone's operational, it might get us out of here at a far more speedy rate. Problem with that is, we risk being exposed to not only the Darkness, but also the elements. Ninety three kilometres is far enough away from the Arachni that if the Flydrone were to malfunction, or if the life pods over there were to prove unworkable, then we could be in for some peril. Staying here, we at least have food, water and shelter. For a number of days. By which time, if we get word to London, or if Penny and Sapphire inform Cloudfyre where I was off to, we might be a chance of getting rescued. Cloudfyre command always recommend that Gatherers who find themselves in trouble, remain with their craft.'

'So we stay here?' I ask him.

'For the time being,' he says, 'yes.'

7

Gryffin's an hour or two into his repairs. Reid and Eddie have passed out below in the bed cells. Imogen is still unconscious in the infirmary, still under quarantine; Maddinson replaces her fluids and antivirals and antibacterials periodically.

I sit with Morgan on the settee in the main cabin while Maddinson does his best to assist his droid. Though, judging by the argumentative bleeps that constantly issue from Gryffin, it would appear that perhaps Maddinson is being more hindrance that help.

'Alright, alright, old boy,' Maddinson says often, 'you do realise that I am actually trying to be of assistance here? I'm not deliberately being obstructive.' He looks across at us, rolling his eyes.

Morgan and I have been chatting. Sipping water and talking. About our escape from the swamp city, about everything that's happened to each of us in the interim. She enquires quietly about my relationship with Maddinson. I sigh and tell her quietly that I don't really know. I declare that I have feelings for him, even though I haven't known him long. I tell her about the Untouched. And what happened there.

'What might have happened if we'd never gone to the transmitter station that day,' she says.

I look across at Maddinson as I say this. 'That's what I keep wondering.'

It's about here Maddinson says, 'What's this then?'

I look back at him and he's left the console and he's peering through the hull and out across the lake. We follow his gaze and see some sort of commotion amongst the Entities. Morgan and I leave our seat and move toward the curved translucent wall for a clearer look.

Something's happening out there. At first I think there's some kind of fight taking place amongst the Entities. But I realise the Entities are actually being attacked. Some sort of tall, gangly, primate thing, with awfully long arms and legs is lashing out at them, tearing at them.

Another of these creatures comes surging up out of the lake in a mighty wave of water, scrambling on all four limbs, ploughing into the Entities like some crazed fiend. Through the rent in the Arachni's hull we hear the dull, muted sounds of squealing as the Entities are torn to shreds, as they are bashed against the trees, as mighty chunks of flesh are shredded from them.

'Gryff,' Maddinson says. 'You seeing this?'

Gryff's already abandoned his repair work. He's standing a metre behind Maddinson, his attention on the commotion. He beeps and chirps.

'What are your long range scanners telling you?' Maddinson asks him.

Gryff gives off a short series of beeping sounds.

Maddinson nods. 'Right then. Not quite what I wanted to hear.'

'What's wrong?' I ask him.

'Seems that whatever those things are, they're infected with the virus.'

I swallow. They are frightening in their savagery. They are both taller and stronger than the Entities. And move with frightening speed and agility.

'Marine apes,' Morgan murmurs.

I glance at her. 'What?'

'Don't you remember the stories? About the expeditions of rangers and resource hunters beyond Jupiter. When we were kids. The stories of the monsters and fantastic creatures they used to encounter. One of them was marine monkeys, genetically altered to live and breathe under water.' She looks at me. 'Don't you remember?'

'No, but whatever they are, they're hideous.' I look across at Maddinson, 'Are we safe here?'

He keeps his eyes on them. 'I'm not certain.' And then as if in answer, more slither up out of the lake, hurtling with single minded determination at the remaining Entities, ripping into them without mercy, tearing them to pieces.

I can't watch this. It's so gruesome.

When they're done they crouch there, gobbling up the bloodied remains.

While they eat, a number of them begin pricking up their noses, sniffing the air. One of them turns its head in our direction. It's difficult to know what it's looking at but I know the Arachni's conspicuous. The creature has obviously sniffed something of interest. Has our scent escaped the confines of this craft? Seeped through the ruptured hull and drifted across the lake?

It stands now, that beast, and when it leaves its pack, it begins ambling our way.

'What's it doing?' I ask nervously.

'Don't know,' Maddinson says, eyeing it closely.

More and more apes are watching it now. More and more of them casting their eyes and noses in our direction. As they finish off the corpses of the Entities they begin to rise from their haunches, standing there motionless, just gazing across the lake at our craft with their large glaring eyes, red blood glistening on their wet black fur.

It's only a matter of moments before they begin to follow their friend.

'Maddinson,' I say, worried.

'I see it,' he says, rushing for his armour and weapon. 'Gryff, is the Arachni's automated sentry still primed?'

Gryff groans.

'Good,' Maddinson tells him. 'We might be in for some unwanted attention.'

The Gen apes press on in our direction, following the shoreline of the lake.

'Wake the others,' Maddinson tells me. 'Quickly.'

Morgan and I hurry down the ramp to the lower section and up to the bed cells. Eddie wakes with a start, grunting, glaring at us with bleary red eyes, his arms flailing, like he's fending off an assailant.

'It's okay,' Morgan tells him gently, taking his hands in hers. 'You need to wake up. Something's happening beyond the craft.'

I go to Reid. He doesn't wake with the same bewildered panic as Eddie. Matter of fact he doesn't wake at all. I have to keep shaking him. I have to keep calling out his name. 'Reid? Reid! Can you hear me? You need to wake up.'

He groans but he won't stir. I keep shaking him. 'Reid. Come on, you have to wake up.'

Morgan and I pull him into a sitting position but his eyes are still shut and his head lolls about drunkenly. I rush to the kitchen cell and grab water, I dab some on my palms and pat his cheeks with it. 'Reid,' I say, 'Reid, can you hear me?'

His face contorts and one of his eyes opens and then shuts. He tries to lie down again, moaning, but Morgan and I hold him where he is, seated at the edge of the bed, slumped.

Morgan takes the mug of water and unceremoniously throws the entire lot of it in his face. His head recoils as his bloodshot eyes shoot open. He's trying to focus on us, like he doesn't recognise us, as if we're complete strangers, like he has absolutely no clue as to where on Earth he is or what we're doing with him.

I kneel before him, I grip his hand. 'Reid, it's me, Skye. You need to wake up! We might be in trouble.'

He swallows. Looks around. Taking in his surroundings.

'Reid, do you hear me?'

He focuses on me again. Then on Morgan. 'Wh-what's happening?' he asks weakly.

'You have to wake up,' I tell him. 'You've been asleep. There are creatures outside. We might be in danger.'

The Arachni suddenly shakes, pushing us off our feet.

I regain my footing. 'Gryff!' we hear Maddinson yelling. 'Do we have a problem with the automated sentry?!'

I rush to the upper level. I see through the hull the enormous ape fiends clambering over the top of the Arachni, gripping it, shaking it.

Gryff's working at the wires and electronics components of the central console to reassert control over the sentry gun and there's this moment of silence before a squelching, sucking sound emanates from somewhere outside our craft and the Gen apes are suddenly obliterated―one moment they're rampaging over the hull of the Arachni, and in the next they are but sprays of fur and bone and blood blasted across the air.

Still, more apes are coming. Faster. The annihilation of their friends seems to have sent their blood boiling. Either that or the action of the automated sentry has informed some intelligent portion of their brain that living meat lies within this craft. Whatever the case, they suddenly break into a stampede.

I rush to the weapons rack and pick out a rifle and as I do this follow up pack of apes comes charging at the Arachni, piling up against it as if they're thinking the craft is some living beast.

The sentry gun squelches and more apes are blasted into bone and blood and guts.

Reid and Eddie have trailed Morgan up the ramp from the level below, both stand there looking bewildered, both still trying to shrug off the heavy fog of sleep. Morgan's behind me now, snatching a weapon off the rack. Maddinson and Gryff are poised near the wall, gazing out at another horde of apes charging our way. As the monsters push toward us, they are vaporized by the Arachni's sentry. 'That's my girl,' Maddinson murmurs. 'Come on now, show no mercy.'

But then suddenly the apes seem to finally acknowledge the sentry's potency. And instead of fleeing, a group of them scramble up the sides of the Arachni, diving on the turret, tearing into it, yanking it from its housing, snapping it free in a spit of sparks, casting it aside like the bones of a carcass.

'My Lord,' I hear Maddinson murmur. And behind us Reid suddenly yells, 'The hull!' and when we look we see a cluster of apes ripping at the rents in the Arachni, their fingers squeezing into the tear in the craft's skin.

The combined strength of the apes must be immense. The metal is pliable but some strange force helps it maintain its design structure. But where Gryffin couldn't manipulate it enough to extract the life pods, these creatures, several of them hauling on it at once, are managing to pry it open, slowly peeling it back.

'Arm yourselves,' Maddinson yells at Reid and Eddie. 'We need all hands on deck or else we're not making it out of here alive!'

Reid and Eddie don't hesitate, groggily finding their way across the slanted floor to the weapons rack, pulling out rifles half imbedded in the soft metal wall. Meanwhile, Maddinson rushes across the floor, taking stance before the fissure and jamming his rifle through the recess and firing.

It's the weapon he used when I first met him in the Barren Wood. Because the Gen apes are blasted backwards into gloopy bouncing balls of soft, organic matter, pushing and merging together like clumps of clay, splashing out across the lake before floating or sinking.

But like the Entities at the Metrodome, the ape fiends keep coming, driven by a crazed hunger. Surging up out of the waters of the lake, rushing along the bank toward us, howling madly.

That's when we hear growling sounds from the lower deck. Confused, I step down the ramp to see what's going on and squeal as one of those fiends comes scrabbling across the lounge cell toward me, towering over me. I fall backwards against the ramp, firing my gun at it and its chest lights up, expanding before it bursts open in a mighty spray of blood and rib bones. But others are piling through the large gash in the hull, a gash that not long ago was nothing more than a pair of vertical splits in the Arachni's skin. But the edges of these splits have been yanked outwards and the fissures torn wide, and here they come, Gen apes and gushing water and hundreds of those jumping, flipping shrimp things, all pouring madly into the Arachni.

Reid's suddenly with me, hooking his arm beneath my armpit, hauling me backwards, firing his weapon with his free hand, taking down another Gen ape as it comes lumbering toward us.

Reid and then Morgan drag me to the upper deck and more and more apes keep tearing at the gash in the upper level. Reid shoves me out of the way and heads back for the down ramp.

'Reid?' I yell, 'what are you doing?'

'We need to get Imogen out of there,' he says but apes are growling and snorting and screeching from below and up the ramp they come and Reid's firing his weapon into them, cutting them down in wild explosive blasts but there are simply too many of them, they threaten to overwhelm him and inundate the main cabin.

Maddinson dashes passed me, yanking Reid back onto the main deck, slamming his palm against the wall—at the top of the down ramp, the metal floor suddenly seems to rise up like a thin wave of water, merging with the ceiling, sealing off the lower level just as apes come clambering up the ramp, bashing against the soft metallic partition.

'What are you doing?' Reid yells at Maddinson. 'Imogen's down there!'

We've got our weapons aimed at the partition. We're panting. Hearts racing. Manic squealing apes contained behind what feels like nothing more than a thin film of the soft translucent metal. We watch them bashing and hooting, they're having to stoop down, too tall for the interior space of the craft, their arms and legs cramped but every one of them screeching with madness and fever, red gills on their necks flaring and flapping.

'Imogen's safe inside the quarantine cell,' Maddinson tells Reid. 'If these monsters can't get through this wall then they're not likely to get in at her either.'

'But we need to get her out of there,' Reid stresses, his eyes mad with angst.

'And we will,' Maddinson tells him. 'There are other ways than needlessly blasting our way through that devil horde.' He turns to me, his hand on my shoulder. 'Are you alright?' he asks. 'No bites?'

'I'm okay,' I tell him, still catching my breath, staring at the pack of apes still trying to bash their way through the metal door. 'They didn't touch me.'

'Good.'

I turn and face Reid. He's still looking anxious, angry, flustered, his wild eyes trained on the fiends, weapon raised. I hold his arm. 'Thanks for getting me out of there,' I tell him.

He nods. But I know his thoughts are clearly with Imogen.

Meanwhile, Eddie stands with his gun aimed at the gash in the upper portion of the hull. For the moment the gash is free of apes as they concentrate on the lower hull tear. But the Arachni's listing further into the lake as the weight of both the Gen apes and the sheer volume of water pouring in below pushes the craft further down the slope of the lake bed.

Maddinson stands there assessing our situation, keeping his footing steady as the craft continues to shift, as the water level outside creeps up the Arachni's hull. The craft has slid deep enough now that water begins to flow through the upper rent, splashing against the deck. And with it comes those manic shrimp. Spilling into the cabin. Flipping madly about the floor, Eddie backing up. 'Gryff,' Maddinson calls, 'we need to evacuate, we need the Flydrone. We're not going to survive here.'

THE CENTAUR

1

THERE'S a flurry of activity now. Gryffin abandoning his console and heading for the Arachni's doorway. And while Morgan, Eddie and I stand guard, firing at any ape thing that tries wriggling into the craft, Maddinson presses his palm against a wall panel on the western portion of the Arachni. From below, like a globule of oil pushing through water, the quarantine cell rises up through the vessel, materialising on the Arachni's main deck. 'What good would these crafts be if we had no speedy evacuation system for the critically injured?' Maddinson tells us, glancing at Reid.

But he won't let Reid take Imogen. Not yet. Quickly he administers Imogen painkillers, and then drugs that should bring her around. 'She's not going to like it, but if we get her on her feet then it's going to make it far easier for us to transport her.'

There's no immediate change to her condition though.

Still, Maddinson removes her intravenous drip and then Reid hefts her into his arms. 'I'll carry her,' he insists.

Gryffin engages the main door, striding down the ramp, firing his arm mounted laser rifles into apes that come springing toward him. Maddinson's behind him, firing his strange organic-cluster gun. Morgan and I are behind him, and behind us comes Reid lugging Imogen in his arms, and finally Eddie, taking shots at the ape fiends sweeping along the shoreline.

At the base of the hull, Gryffin takes up a defensive stance as Maddinson palms the skin and the outer hull opens, the metallic material parting and giving birth to a long pencil shaped vehicle. It seems to flop out like a new born creature.

The object is immediately recognisable. Resembling the "boat" we'd used in the swamp city to get us all to the base of the glass dome. Metallic struts have folded out from its flanks, keeping it suspended free of the mud and grass and weeds.

Gryffin continues to blaze away with his weaponry, blasting apes to bits as they scramble toward us. We help Reid fix Imogen into one of the seats, strapping the harness over her shoulders. Her head lolls. The drugs Maddinson administered to rouse her still don't look to be working. The rest of us clamber into the small vessel. Still more apes are tearing along the banks or pushing up out of the lake.

Maddinson drops into the drive seat, running his fingers across press pads on the small console, the console coming to life with glowing lights. 'Don't just stand there, Gryff, old boy,' he yells, 'get into the Flydrone.'

Gryffin backs up to the craft. And is about to climb inside when he hesitates. There's a cluster of flowering yellow rosewood trees beyond the shoreline. He faces them now, as if sensing something.

'Gryff, into the Flydrone!' Maddinson commands him, the craft now producing a low humming sound. 'We are leaving!'

Then suddenly they come, bursting through the bank of rosewoods.

Entities.

Dozens of them.

'Gryffin!' Maddinson calls at him. 'Hurry!'

Gryffin doesn't obey. He strides out toward the swarming Entities, laser rifles flashing, cutting down the monsters. Yet they keep coming. And from the shoreline rushes another swarm of Gen apes.

'Maddinson!' Reid yells, taking shots at Entities, 'get us out of here!'

Maddinson engages the Flydrone. I feel it shunt. Then suddenly we're lifting from the ground, pitching left and then right. The struts retract. Maddinson takes us several metres into the air, searching the ground for Gryffin.

We see the droid, blasting both the oncoming Entities and the rushing apes. But there are so many of them, within seconds Gryffin is inundated. They pour over the top of him like ants swarming an injured bug, dragging him down, his weapons firing manically. But he doesn't give up. He keeps battling. Blasting his assailants to bits, tearing limbs off others.

Maddinson fires at them from the Flydrone with his cluster gun. But the weapon isn't effective from this height. 'Fight them, old boy!' Maddinson yells. 'Fight them.' But Gryffin's suddenly buried beneath them. And more and more Entities and Gen apes rush onwards, clawing their way up the side of the Arachni, leaping out at the Flydrone.

Maddinson sees them coming. He tries to manoeuvre the craft out of their way, engaging booster jets to lift us from their reach. But it's not enough. They leap, arms outstretched, and several reach us, grabbing the Flydrone, hanging from the sides, dangling below us. Under the sudden addition of weight on one side of the craft, the Flydrone pitches sideways, Maddinson struggling to keep it airborne.

We begin to spin horizontally. Maddinson fights to keep the Flydrone under his control. I see the large glowing white eyes of the apes hanging from the flanks of our vessel, I see their salivating mouths, their bloody teeth, their flaring gills, I hear their scraggy breathing. There are Entities too, with their bulging lidless eyes and gaping lipless mouths.

We blast them all, blowing as many as we can from our craft but their numbers have compromised the craft's stability and the Flydrone continues to spin, smashing into the tree tops of the Rosewoods, crashing through the canopy in an explosion of leaves and yellow flowers. The impact drags apes and Entities from the flanks of our little craft, our momentum pushing us right through the canopy. We blast out of the trees in an eruption of leaves and splinters of bark and wood and a beeping sound suddenly emits from the Flydrone's console as the craft plummets. I grip my seat. We're going down. We're going to hit the ground. We're falling, we're falling...

By some miracle, Maddinson manages to arrest control and the Flydrone's engine roars and somehow we're soaring skyward, climbing above the tree line. The beeping sound still blaring from the console. The interior of the craft is a flurry of leaves and twigs and bark. I'm spitting vegetation off my mouth. And I hear the sizzle of laser fire as Reid shoots at two apes still clinging to our vessel. He misses. He leans over the side, getting a better aim and blasts one of them in the face, killing it instantly. Away it tumbles, end over end down into the yard of an old abandoned business. The remaining ape hauls itself upwards, reaching for Morgan. Eddie and Reid take it down with a rapid fire bursts, blasting open its chest. It plummets away, crashing across the roof of the building below in vast sprays of blood and innards.

Maddinson pulls the craft up until we're maybe eighty feet off the ground and at last we level out. He drags the craft about, circling back. The beeping sound insistent and ominous.

'What's wrong?' I call.

'Flydrone's telling me her fuel cells are damaged.' He pulls the craft out over the surface of the lake. Searching the shoreline. Looking for Gryffin. Then we spot him. The apes have dragged the droid into the water, and there he sparks and fizzes, lying motionless beneath the surface. Entities dash along the shore, gazing up at us, trailing our path, screeching and howling.

Maddinson circles the lake twice. Keeping an eye on Gryffin. But his droid doesn't move. There's a slick of oil and some sort of greenish liquid floating above him on the water's surface.

'I'm so sorry, old boy,' I hear Maddinson say sadly. And only now does he straighten the craft and pull back on a small shift.

In an instant we rocket away from there.

2

Maddinson's quiet as we trail the freeway eastwards. We stay no more than a dozen metres off the ground. Everyone's silent, relieved to be away from the swarm of Entities and ape things. Maddinson manages to shut down the beeping sound and sets to work tuning into the signal of the second craft. We speed above the lonely highway, above rusting hulks of trucks and cars that have sat here for near on a hundred years. Much of it is covered in vegetation. Or the bitumen has crumbled and the roads are now long paths of tall grass and stunted trees.

'Should we be worried about the fuel cells?' I ask Maddinson.

'No doubt,' he replies. 'I'd say this is a one way trip. Hopefully they last long enough to get us within reach of Imogen's craft. Beyond that, I dread to say.'

We witness groups of strange wild creatures. Some we've never laid eyes on before. Things that remind me of giraffes from the books we've seen at school. And there are tall cat things with tusks. There are also other creatures, frightening things that look like mighty brown bears or tall lanky dogs that would tower over us by several feet if we stood beside them. Most of them bi-products of the abominable genetics experiments of the Old World. It is the first time I've ever been truly thankful of the perimeter fence around Jupiter, that it really has kept beasts like these away from our lives.

3

We reach the craft by late afternoon. It's immediately recognisable, looking just like Maddinson's Arachni. From above, it resembles a giant silver tear drop. It's situated a couple hundred feet from the freeway in what looks to be an abandoned back lot on an ancient industrial estate. There's a heap of rusting trucks, sunk down amidst an overgrown bed of weed and scrubby trees.

It's hot. We're sweating. We've flown over several towns. All empty. Not a soul about. No Entities. No crazed marine apes. Yet all of them inhabited by numerous unrecognisable denizens.

Whether or not any of them had been stricken with the Darkness, Maddinson could not say. He circles the area below us before landing, warning us that he needs to scan the vicinity for life forms before we come to ground. He says he's determined not to deliver us into the clutches of diseased, hungry beasts if he can help it. But the Flydrone's engine has been groaning for the last twenty minutes. Consequently, the craft has been lurching, losing altitude occasionally. Perhaps dropping in and out of power.

'Is the Flydrone alright?' I ask him.

Maddinson looks like he's struggling to keep it airborne. And before his scans are finished he takes us down rapidly and we slam heavily back to Earth, all of us grunting with the impact, the engine hissing then squealing, before falling silent.

There's a metallic odour coming from the underside of the Flydrone and I hear liquid squirting into the dirt. There are greenish fumes lifting into the air.

The transparent capsule of the Flydrone retracts laterally into the long narrow hull and Maddinson urges us all to exit the craft as quickly as we can. He helps Reid with Imogen. Imogen groaning, her eyes partially open. The whole way she's been in and out of consciousness.

'Back away from the craft,' Maddinson warns us.

We do as he says. Reid carrying Imogen in his arms. The little vessel continues to creak and hiss and dribble blue liquid. It gives off sickly coloured smoke.

'We're fortunate to have reached here,' Maddinson declares, keeping his eyes on the Flydrone. 'I've honestly had a fight keeping her airborne. Hence the reason I've maintained such a low altitude, to mitigate a catastrophic plummet to Earth.'

We all stand there, watching the craft, half expecting it to suddenly burst into flames. Or melt away into the dirt.

I watch Maddinson now, wondering if he's okay. I've been concerned for him since we fled the lake. After what happened to his Gryffin.

I go to him. I take his hand. 'You okay?'

He nods. 'Just glad we're here.'

I put my free hand on his chest. 'I'm sorry about Gryff.'

He looks at me and nods. There's a sadness in his eyes I haven't seen before.

'Thank you,' he says. 'He... he was a good friend.' He sighs. 'Anyway, we mustn't delay.' He turns his attention to the downed Cloudfyre craft behind us, the one initially detected by Imogen. 'Let us pray these life pods are functional.'

The Gatherer craft is called the Centaur. There's the image of a half man half horse creature on its forward flank. But the vehicle is a broken mess, it looks as if its landing balloon never fully deployed. By all appearances it has cracked in two.

Maddinson sets up bio scanners of our immediate area. 'I urge you lot to move with haste here,' he says. 'We have a window but sensors are picking up bio signatures not far off. Possible Darkness activity.' He regards Reid. 'You alright with her?'

Reid's still cradling Imogen. She groans. Her eyes roll. 'I can manage,' Reid tells him.

Maddinson heads for the Centaur. Rounding its ruined hull to a spot where a pair of double red lines circle a segment of the metallic hull. Maddinson presses his palm against a small red panel and instantly the red lines begin flashing and a pair of peculiar capsules begins to squeeze from the bulk of the Centaur.

'Looks promising,' I tell him.

'Let's not count our chickens,' he warns.

They slide out like the Flydrone did from the Arachni, as if being birthed. Once they've fully emerged, they appear to hover there, a foot from the ground, tall elliptical shaped pods, as if gravity has no pull on them. On the flank of the first it reads ANT 1. On the second, ANT 2.

Maddinson wastes no time, stepping up to the closest of the pods, ANT 1, thumbing a small pad on its exterior. A pair of doors swishes open in its metallic skin, revealing four scooped recesses arranged around its interior walls where body harnesses dangle down. Here Maddinson reaches inside, running his fingers across a compact inner key panel, setting what I guess must be destination coordinates.

'Hurry now,' Maddinson says, his hand out to Reid.

Reid carries Imogen toward the pod. Maddinson helps get her inside. 'Four person capacity,' Maddinson explains. 'Standing room only, I'm afraid.'

Reid holds Imogen upright as Maddinson clips the body harness around her. She groans. Reid speaks to her. 'It's alright, Im. Don't fidget. We're getting you out of here.' Reid stands back to allow Morgan and Eddie to board.

Maddinson, regarding Reid, Morgan and Eddie, shakes his head. 'Sorry,' he says, 'but I need you lot in the other pod.'

Reid frowns. 'The other pod?' He look confused. 'No. I'm traveling with Imogen.'

'I can't let that happen,' Maddinson tells him sternly. 'Imogen's coming back to London. So is Skye. You three are to be sent to a quarantine zone.'

'Quarantine zone?' Reid says. 'Why?'

'You'll not be permitted to enter London without going through a stint in quarantine.' He watches Reid. Eyes unflinching. 'I'm sorry, but I must follow protocol.'

'You said we were clear of infection.'

'I did, but folk in London won't have you until you've officially passed through stringent screening.'

'This doesn't make sense,' Reid argues. 'Imogen's infected. Yet, you're taking her to London. Something's not right here.'

'It has yet to be verified, but potentially she is one of our missing agents,' Maddinson explains calmly. 'Someone who might very well be holding information on how to destroy the Dark virus. We won't know until I get her back to London but as long as she's carrying a Cloudfyre PIT unit then she'll be cleared for entry. Believe me, you lot won't enjoy the same privilege. You could be euthanised the moment you arrive.'

'Euthanised?' Reid looks incredulous.

'We'll come back for you,' I tell Reid, taking his hand. 'I'll make sure we do.'

Reid's not happy with this. He won't leave Imogen. He opens his mouth to argue the point but Maddinson's proximity scanner suddenly begins going bip bip bip bip...

Maddinson glances at his scanner. Digesting the streaming data. Then he casts his gaze westwards to where a line of crooked electrical pylons pushes out beyond a range of forest clad hills.

'What is it?' I ask him.

'Don't know. Sensors seem to be picking up something in those hills.'

We stand there staring at the forested hills. A breeze sifts around us. We hear nothing.

'Let's be quick,' Maddinson says, eyeing Reid who's still standing there defiantly. 'We can't stand here and argue. You have to trust me that you won't be accepted into London.'

Reid's not at all pleased with the situation. But he must finally realise he doesn't have any choice. Because he leans inside the pod, puts his hand on Imogen's cheek. 'Be safe,' he tells her. 'I'll see you soon.'

Maddinson steps away to the ANT 2 pod. Engaging its door release. When it hisses open he leans inside and begins to enter what must be another series of destination coordinates on the small key panel. As he does so, a flashing red alert appears on the skin of the pod. An electronic voice speaks from within:

'Quarantine Zone on Eden, compromised. Unable to accept those coordinates. Repeat: Eden Quarantine Zone compromised. Recommend relocation to the following down-points. Greenwich, London, Earth One. Green Zone, Earth Four. Blackstone, Bloods Range. New Jupiter, Earth Two.'

Maddinson looks puzzled.

'What's wrong?' I ask him.

He swallows. 'It reports that the quarantine port is compromised. Something's the matter with Eden.' He glances around at me. As if he's in two minds about what to do.

He reaches into the pod once more and engages its key panel. I watch as he sets new coordinates. 'Right, quickly,' he says ushering Morgan and Reid and Eddie, 'you lot, in.'

'Where're you sending us?' Reid demands to know.

'To an alternative destination.'

'Where?' Reid asks, not budging.

'New Jupiter,' Maddinson tells him. His proximity scanner continues to go bip bip bip. 'Earth Two. Now hurry, get in.'

Reid doesn't shift.

I step in front of him. 'Reid. Please. You have to go.'

Reid's eyes find mine. As he watches me his demeanour softens. His eyes are still bloodshot. He still looks drawn, exhausted. And when he speaks, his voice is suddenly weak, beaten. 'Skye, I don't want us to end up stranded in another nightmare place.'

'You have to trust Maddinson,' I say gently. 'You've got to. He has our best interests at heart. Honestly.'

Reid watches me and nods. 'Okay...' He turns and regards Morgan and Eddie. 'Come on then. Let's do this.'

Morgan watches him. Then eyes me.

'It's okay,' I tell her and I take her into my arms. 'Come on, you've got to get moving.'

'Good luck,' she tells me, her eyes glistening with tears. 'You better come for us.'

'I will, I promise.'

I let her go and Eddie squeezes my shoulder. 'See you, Skye,' he says and turns for the ANT 2 pod. Morgan following him in. It bobs under their weight as they board. And as the pair of them strap themselves in, Reid regards me. 'Be safe,' he says.

'You too,' I tell him.

He takes me into his arms. We hold each other briefly. As he steps back, he puts one hand on my cheek. 'You better promise,' he says. Then he gazes back at Imogen. 'Look after her. Please.'

I nod. 'I will.' He turns away and I feel a pang of sadness, a lump forming in my throat, as Reid steps up into the ANT 2 pod, climbing aboard, strapping himself into the body harness beside Morgan. There are tears in my eyes. I can't help but feel that once more I'm losing my friends.

Standing at the doorway to their life pod, Maddinson reaches in and pulls a small leather satchel from a compartment. He shows it to Reid, Morgan and Eddie. 'Alright, listen carefully. I've set the coordinates for Earth Two. When you arrive, take this satchel. It has everything to help you get oriented in that world. Money. Instructions. Directions. It also contact details for Cloudfyre liaison officers. They'll help you adjust and settle in.' He replaces the satchel.

Reid nods. 'Okay. Now tell us what we need to do to operate this thing.'

Maddinson demonstrates. 'Once the door seals, press this engage key. There can be as much as a half minute countdown, sometimes longer, while the life pod establishes an egress port to the pre-set destination. If it doesn't fire in sixty seconds, I advise pressing the reset key and engaging it once more.'

'Why shouldn't it fire?' Reid asks suspiciously.

'Gaining access to egress points can sometimes be difficult to attain in these old model life pods,' Maddinson tells him. 'When the egress port is finally established, the pod will scan its desired destination for status and environmental conditions. If it senses an obstruction, or some other factor that might jeopardise the craft and its occupants, it will naturally reassess and re-establish its destination point until full safety protocols are met. Once these conditions are satisfied, an egress port will form where space will allow it, at a height of no more than fifteen metres directly above the pod and there will be a countdown sequence. Once it reaches zero, the life pod booster-rockets will fire and deliver the pod and its occupants through the egress point to an airborne location above the destination point. At this stage, a drop chute will deploy and carry the life pod safely to ground.' He watches them briefly. 'Any questions?'

Reid glances at the others. They look tired, pensive. 'No,' Reid says. 'I guess we're good to go.'

Maddinson nods at them. 'Good luck. Fly safe.' He shuts the door and through the transparent metallic skin I watch as Reid engages the lock. Then he pushes his thumb against the engage panel.

Maddinson steps backwards, flicking Reid a quick wave. Maddinson turns now for the ANT 1 life pod inside which Imogen is harnessed. 'Come on, Skye,' he says, 'let's make ourselves scarce.' His proximity scanner is still beeping, still picking up bio signatures.

I take one last look at my friends. They gaze back at me through the transparent casing of their pod. I wave at them and step up into the ANT 1 capsule. I turn and sink back against the alcove, strapping my body harness down over my shoulders. As Maddinson boards after me, his scanner begins beeping more rapidly. There's a screech somewhere in the distance. Maddinson turns to peer through the life pod's doorway. He's blocking my line of sight. I can't see what it is. I hear him say, 'Dear God,' and it's not until he sinks back against the body recess and begins strapping on his flight harness that I see them.

Out of the wooded hills to our west comes a howling horde of creatures. It's impossible to tell what they are from this distance. There's just this dark organic mass surging from the shadows of the woodland. At first I can't help thinking that it must be the marine apes all over again. Or the Entities. That they've somehow tracked us over almost a hundred kilometres from that lake outside Jupiter. That they still hunger for us.

Maddinson rams the key panel and the life pod's door hisses shut. He now thumbs the engage pad and on the wall of our pod a digital display awakens with numbers counting back from thirty. Maddinson peers across at ANT 2. He thumbs the panel, speaks, 'Reid, have you engaged your pod?'

The wave of creatures pushes further down the hill. I still can't make out what they are. Except, as they draw nearer, as they scramble down the grassy slopes, I get this nightmare impression that they're something like a tall species of stork. They're hideous and huge and beaked and covered in black feathers.

I watch Reid studying the interior of his pod, as if he's searching for something. Morgan points to what must be a coms button. Reid presses it and an electronic crackle sounds inside our pod. 'Fifteen seconds and counting.'

Maddinson searches the sky above their pod.

'What are those things?' comes Reid's voice.

'I have no idea,' Maddinson tells him, still searching the air space above the other life pod.

Our own countdown continues... Twenty four... twenty three... twenty two... I look across at Reid. He's watching me. Or Imogen. I can't tell. I'm waiting for their pod to shoot out into the sky and vanish from space. They should be about to depart. Any moment now...

'Reid,' Maddinson says. 'I see no egress signature above your pod.'

'We're down to five seconds,' comes Reid's voice.

'Abort and reset,' Maddinson tells him suddenly, gazing at the coming horde, urgency in his voice. 'Every second counts here.'

I see Eddie desperately thumbing their key panel. Nothing happens. I see the panel counting down on their wall.

'There's no response,' comes Reid's voice.

Three...

Two...

One...

Nothing but silence. Just the sounds of their breathing over the coms system. Their pod hasn't budged.

Maddinson watches them. Our countdown reaches seventeen seconds... sixteen... fifteen... 'Reset and engage,' Maddinson orders them again.

It's clear Reid doesn't know what to do. Eddie reaches forward and resets the pod. It seems to eat up crucial seconds.

The storks are nearing the base of the hills. Since they burst from the forest, they've not deviated from their path. It's obvious they're coming for us.

The countdown in our life pod hits twelve seconds... eleven... ten...

I grip my harness with pale knuckles, anticipating lift off, gazing across at ANT 2, hoping everything's okay, that their pod's not faulty, that they'll get out of here before that swarm reaches us all.

Eight... seven... six...

I brace myself. Looking across at Reid. Then I look back at the beasts surging our way. This is gonna be close...

Four... three... two...

I shut my eyes...

Our pod rockets away from the ground. G forces squash me downward into my body harness. We shoot skyward, I open my eyes. I've lost the ANT 2 capsule from my sight. Nothing but blue sky on all sides of us.

But suddenly our pod begins to tilt... I've no idea if it's meant to be at this angle. I try to speak. To ask Maddinson if something's wrong. G-forces slur my speech.

All of a sudden... there's no pressure at all pushing me downwards, our rapid ascent suddenly halts completely... The sound of the rocket dies to silence. I'm wondering if we're crossing worlds now... jumping the barrier of time and space and pushing into the atmosphere of an entirely separate dimension. For a second or two it feels like we're simply hovering here. In a pocket between worlds. There's no gravity. I feel completely weightless.

And then... our pod begins to tip. As it does, all remains silent. I feel my belly lurch and I sense the craft suddenly descending. At a rapid rate. The pod has almost entirely inverted. I'm yelling, 'What's wrong? What's wrong? What's wrong?' I see the blue sky out there beyond my feet, and below us the ground rushing toward us.

We're falling, oh Mother Earth, we're falling, we're falling...

My skin crawls, my pulse is pounding. Something's gone wrong. 'What's happening?' I yell at Maddinson, 'what's happening?' and I hear him cry out, 'Skye, brace yourself!'

I see the earth coming at us, I shut my eyes, waiting for impact.

I hear an explosive blast and I squeal, and I see the landing chute firing out below us, billowing and then engulfing the pod like a sleeve. A retro jet that must be designed as a failsafe measure in the event of chute malfunction, fires but rockets us sideways into the hull of the Centaur and there's a mighty concussive explosion as the shell of our pod crunches inwards and comes apart, the pod tossed wildly across the ground, Imogen and Reid and me thrown violently about, our harnesses holding us to the pod's interior, our limbs and heads flung wildly to and fro.

When the ANT 1 life pod comes to rest there's a blaring siren and smoke's quickly filling the interior. There's a jagged gash in the capsule's shell. Maddinson's trying frantically to unstrap Imogen. But the chords are tangled and the clasps are buckled.

'Get out of here!' Maddinson's yelling at me. 'Skye, get yourself out! Get to the other life boat!'

I'm struggling with my harness. The clasps are beneath my chest. I'm hanging, all my weight against the clasps. I can't get my fingers to them.

'Skye!' Maddinson yells again as he fights desperately to unfasten Imogen.

I can barely see him or Imogen. I'm choking on black smoke. I manage to unclip at last and I drop downwards, crashing against the pod's door. I palm the door release pad. There's a hiss and a groan but the door won't budge. I cough and try the door release panel again. Again no luck. I heave against the gash in the hull, trying to squeeze through the soft metal. I suddenly feel hands reaching in at me. The stork things, and I'm struggling against them.

'Skye,' a voice yells in at me, 'I've got you. Calm down, push out!'

It's Reid, grabbing me, dragging me out.

I fall onto grass and rock, choking for breath. Reid grabs me, hoists me up and hauls me toward the ANT 2 capsule. We rush toward it, I hear the squeal of those monsters. Where are they? How far away? Reid thrusts me inside ANT 2 and slams his palm against the door mechanism. I'm light headed, I hear the door sealing behind me, I notice the countdown for this pod is now at ten seconds.

Through the metal I see Reid rushing back to the stricken ANT 1 pod. I suddenly realise what's happening. 'Reid, no! Reid,' I yell, 'Maddinson!'

Reid gets to the ANT 1 capsule. I see him trying to reach in desperately for Maddinson and Imogen. The feathered monsters are screaming toward him. They're fifty feet off.

'We've got to disengage the count down!' I yell at Morgan and Eddie. 'We have to delay.'

Eddie watches me. Struck dumb. In two minds. 'We can't,' Morgan says terrified, 'Those monsters...'

The clock ticks down regardless. Four... three... two... I slam the termination pad.

There's no response.

Outside, Reid fires a blaster at the coming horde and beneath us rockets fire and I'm crying, 'No, no, no, no, no!'

We shoot from the ground, roaring out into the blue sky and I'm not strapped in, the G-forces slamming me into the floor of our life boat. My face rammed against the floor, and I see Reid through the transparent metal below us, I see the ANT 1 capsule still smoking, I see the swarm of those hideous storks closing in on it, slamming into Reid, swarming the capsule... burying Reid beneath them... and I'm screaming at him to get out of there... to somehow get away...

Then in an instant that world blinks from existence.

EARTH TWO

1

THE sounds of our life pod's screaming engines are all about us. The little craft begins to shake violently. I fear it's going to break up and throw us out into the sky.

Then just as the violent shudders grow unbearable, just as the rockets cut out and everything falls silent, we begin to drop and two large chutes blow out from the roof of our capsule, blasting out above us, huge mushroom shaped blooms that catch the air and billow out. The wires attaching them to us snap tight and there's a rough jolt as our downward fall is immediately arrested.

Slowly, gently, we drift to earth.

2

The pod comes to ground amongst woodland, crashing lightly into trees, snapping branches, throwing down a shower of leaves. The chutes become entangled and our pod is left dangling a metre off the forest floor.

I've climbed to my feet. I'm hammering the door panel. I look around at Morgan and Eddie. 'You two okay?'

Eddie nods. 'Yeah... think so.'

Morgan's unclipping her harness, wincing.

I ram the door panel again. Nothing happens. I pull the manual door-release rung and the door hisses and opens. 'We need to get back to them.' I jump down from the pod onto a forest floor layered in leaves and dead branches.

Morgan follows, climbing down from the life pod. 'Help them?' she asks, looking around, wondering where we are.

'Yes.'

Eddie jumps down beside us. I'm trying to train my ears for sounds of those creatures. Trying to orientate myself, find my way back to Reid and Maddinson. Morgan's looking at me strange.

I begin running. I'm not entirely sure which way I'm going, if I'm heading in the right direction. I'm desperate to reach the edge of the woodland, hoping to spy Reid and Maddinson. 'Reid?' I call. 'Maddinson? Can you hear me?'

Morgan catches me and grabs my arm, pulling me to a stop. 'Skye,' she hisses. 'What are you doing? Keep your voice down. Please!'

I'm sweating, I'm out of breath. There are tears in my eyes. 'We need to help them, Morgan,' I tell her desperately. 'We need to find them.'

She frowns at me, looking around. 'But we're... we're not there anymore. Haven't we jumped worlds?'

I won't have it. 'No. There was no egress portal above the pod. Okay? It malfunctioned. We never left. We've gone as far as the hills.'

Morgan looks at Eddie. He's doesn't know what to say. He looks dazed. I won't stand here debating this. I take off again. I'm unsure how far we flew from our stricken friends. As far as I know, we shot more or less straight up. Even given a bit of drift as we'd returned to earth, we shouldn't be far. A kilometre at most.

Morgan and Eddie are behind me. I'm running hard. I've heard some noise. Some sort of mechanical sound. I'm praying it's Maddinson's life pod, or the Flydrone, or perhaps they managed to flee to the Centaur, that they've somehow got its engines on line.

I hop over old moss covered logs and stones. I rush between trees, tripping and stumbling, the mechanical sound growing louder and louder. I'm heading in the right direction now. I know it in my heart. I don't know how I'm going to fight off those hideous bird things but if Maddinson and Reid managed to access the Centaur, maybe they managed to get hold of weapons, maybe we can help them make a stand against those beasts.

At last I spy the edge of the woodland. I see blue sky beyond the trees.

Maddinson, I'm coming, please be okay, please be okay, please...

I reach the forest fringe and push through into bright sunshine. But what I see makes my mouth fall open, makes me stumble and stop in my tracks. Morgan and Eddie exit the woods behind me. And I hear them gasp as they halt at my side.

3

The sight before us turns my legs to jelly. I collapse to my knees. My hands clasp my mouth. 'Oh, Mother Earth,' I say under my breath.

None of us speak. We just stare and blink.

The woods open onto a gentle slope that descends gradually for maybe a kilometre or more to something we've only ever seen in books. Something I imagined I'd never witness in my life time. A highway. A functioning highway filled with cars and buses zipping back and forth. And a railway line.

Beyond the highway there looks to be cultivated fields, green crops basking beneath a sunny sky. And to the northwest, it skirts the southern boundary of what looks to be a town. And to our east the highway rolls away beyond what must be an industrial precinct and off into green hills.

It's here we spot the industrial yards in which we'd located the Centaur craft. There are no rusting trucks there. Nothing overgrown in choking beds of weed. Nothing but what looks to be functioning businesses. And certainly no Centaur.

It's obvious now. We've left Maddinson and Reid and Imogen far behind. We've jumped worlds. Tears fill my eyes. I'm trembling. By now they will have perished. There was no way out of their predicament. Reid saved my life... he saved my life. And he died for it.

We watch people at the backs of the businesses. We watch them pointing at the hills.

'They must've seen the pod come down,' Eddie says numbly.

We eye them suspiciously, trying to keep low, out of sight. 'I think you're right, Eddie,' Morgan says. 'We need to make ourselves scarce.'

'We need to get back to the life pod,' I say abruptly. 'We need to reset the destination codes and get back to Maddinson and Reid.'

Eddie looks around at me. He glances at Morgan.

'You think it works that way?' he asks.

'I don't know but we have to try.' I watch them both. 'Don't you think?'

They don't know how to answer.

'No,' I say, 'we have to try.'

There's a vehicle now, skirting the backs of the industrial estate. Eddie believes it's a police vehicle. Because it has red and blue strips along its flanks. Red and blue lights on its roof. It turns from the sealed road and starts up a dirt track. Heading toward the range of hills on which we're situated. A pall of dust trails out behind it.

'They're coming to see what fell into the woodland,' Eddie says.

'Look, we just need to get back to the pod,' I say again. 'We need to reset the destination coordinates and go back and find Reid and Maddinson!'

I turn and rush back into the woodland. Morgan and Eddie following. For a while we've no idea where we left the life pod. Though I believe I can find it, recognising landmarks and gullies and rocks. They trail me, Eddie and Morgan, all of us dashing through the woodland, leaping over moss strewn boulders, over rotting old tree stumps. It's not long before Morgan yells, 'I see it.' She's pointing through the woods. I don't spot it until we burst through a thick tangle of undergrowth and there it is, hanging there before us.

We hear the sound of the police car growing nearer. It must be trailing the fringe of the woodland.

When we reach the pod, I clamber back into it, looking at the console. I palm the panel. There's no response. I palm it again and again. 'Come on!' I scream at it.

'Skye, it's dead,' Eddie tells me. 'It's out of juice.'

'No,' I tell him, 'it can't be.' I thump the panel. 'We have to help them!'

Morgan reaches up and grabs me. 'Skye. Listen to me. The pod's spent. Okay. And we need to get out of here.'

We hear voices approaching now.

'Eddie,' Morgan says, 'grab the satchel.'

I'm studying the key panel. I won't leave. Eddie climbs up beside me, taking the satchel, the one Maddinson had said was so crucial to orientating newcomers in his world. Eddie takes my hand. 'Skye,' he says pleadingly, 'there're people coming. We need to get out of here.'

I'm flustered and tired and stressed. I don't know what to do. I just don't know what I should do. Morgan reaches up and grips my hand and yanks me out of the life pod. She pulls me with her, even as I protest.

Eddie's behind us, we're all running, keeping low, scurrying down a gully, disappearing behind a large mound of moss covered deadfall.

We crouch there panting, sweating. We hear the voices of men. I can only guess they've located the pod. We hear one of them say, 'Put a call into the people at National Space. Tell them if they've lost one of their birds again. And that we're staring at. Christ, can't they keep their tech in the sky?!'

Morgan urges us to keep quiet, to keep moving. We crawl off the through the woods, as hushly as we can. When we feel we're out of ear shot, and deep enough into the forest to be out of their sight, we pull ourselves to our feet and run, making distance as quick as we can.

Eventually we slow down. Out of breath. Sweating. Nervous. The whole time, those images keep pushing themselves over and over and over through my mind. The swarm of storks punching into Reid, burying him and the pod beneath them.

Tears fill my eyes. I don't want Morgan and Eddie seeing them. I try to keep quiet as we go, I don't want them to hear me weeping. I keep brushing tears from my eyes. But Morgan looks at me.

I turn away. But she moves to me. Taking my hand. 'Skye, are you okay?'

I shake my head. I can't look at her. I stop and sit down on a rock, ferns brushing softly against my knees. I wipe my face but I can't stop weeping. 'They got Reid and Maddinson. Those things... They're dead. It should've been me. Reid should be here with you two.'

Morgan kneels in front of me. Small blue butterflies flutter about. 'But he's not. It's you he saved. Okay?'

Even Eddie doesn't look certain now. He stands there, his head hung, staring down at the leaf matter and the mossy stones that poke up through the forest floor all around us. I see the pain in Morgan's own eyes. I know she's hurting. She knows as well as I that Reid's gone. That Imogen and Maddinson must have perished. 'Look,' she says, 'this isn't the time to be dwelling on that.' Her chin is quivering. 'We can reflect on all of this later. Okay? Right now we have to pull ourselves together. We need to work out where on Earth we are. What we're going to do. Okay?'

I'm silent. Tears still on my cheeks. I just stare at the waving ferns, at ants crawling through leaf matter. There's a winding trail of them. Carrying things. Going about their life. In my mind all I see are those creatures barrelling into Reid. He would've stood no chance. He would've been torn to bits in moments. And Maddinson. Trapped inside that pod. None of them would've stood a chance. More tears spill from my eyes.

Morgan takes me in her arms. She pulls Eddie down to our level, dragging him into our hug. 'Come on,' she says. 'We can't do this now.' I hear a sob escape her. 'We have to keep moving. I loved Reid like a brother but he wouldn't want us all to fall apart right here. Would he?'

I stare up into the tree tops, thinking of Maddinson. How life delivered him to me. How it delivered both him and Reid. And then took them both away. How it's taken my mother. Taken Juke. Taken my father. And threw me away from the only home I've ever known. I sob into my palms, just letting it out.

I feel Morgan's comforting hand on my back. I feel her face next to mine. 'Come on, Skye.'

I look at her. My eyes and face wet. She rubs the tears off my cheeks and holds my face to hers. Our noses are almost touching. 'Believe me, I'm devastated about what happened today. Utterly devastated.' I see her own eyes welling up again. 'But if we've really touched down in a new world then we have to work out what on Mother's sweet Earth we're going to do.' She wipes her eyes and smiles sadly at me. 'Okay.' I nod and she kisses me on the cheek and then holds me again. Like sisters. Our eyes shut. Trying to get to grips with what's happened, how we ended up here. Listening to birds tweeting merrily in the trees above us.

3

Morgan lets me go. Eddie's just sitting there. Looking awkward. Looking around. I know he's hoping we haven't been followed.

Morgan places the satchel on her lap before unclipping it and pulling out its contents. There's a wad of paper notes we recognise as money. There's a list of warnings and instructions on how to survive in this world. Information calls this world Earth Two.

There're two or three booklets. One for new arrivals who've arrived on Earth Two via Cloudfyre transport from one of the quarantine zones. Another booklet has a heading that says READ ONLY IF YOU HAVE REACHED EARTH TWO VIA LIFE BOAT.

Life boats may not strictly arrive at accurate points, it states. It shows a map of the globe. Where we should have materialised. In an area called the Shire of Charlton. A regional map presents numerous towns and villages. One or two large cities. We spot what looks to be one of the larger cities. One called New Jupiter. The booklet suggests we need make our way there. It gives bus routes from every part of the shire. It lists contact details of Cloudfyre liaison officers based in New Jupiter. People we need to get in contact with for help in order to integrate into this new society. To help us find shelter, employment or schooling. It lists an address to seek out once we reach New Jupiter. It suggests to go there and wait until a Cloudfyre officer arrives to process us.

We read all of this with great intrigue, curiosity, fear. 'This is nuts,' Eddie keeps saying. 'This is just completely bizarre.' As if we're not supposed to be here. As if we're meant to be anywhere else.

4

It takes us time to get the nerve up to leave the shelter of the wooded hills. We're completely paranoid that someone might be looking for us, paranoid that we're going to be picked up and arrested, incarcerated, taken somewhere for questioning. It's Morgan who suggests we head toward the town we can see in the distance. 'If we find out what that place is called,' she says, 'we can work out where we are on this map.'

We're in the woodland for close to an hour. We're on the fringe, just watching the world out there, gazing down at the highway that groans with continuous traffic. We're some kilometres west from where we landed. The industrial yards are obscured from our view by the woodland and distance.

Beyond our current location, there are more cultivated fields. Some green and lush, others as yellow and golden as butter. They're all bordered by hedged lanes. As we sit and wait, I can't help thinking how beautiful it all looks. So ordered. So neat. So civilised. Nothing like the barren wilds beyond our Jupiter. Still, I find it all so hard to accept. That these worlds live and breathe. That they have a heartbeat. That the highway out there hums with traffic, with driver's going to and fro utterly oblivious to those of us living out our lives in alternate worlds. Why did these people get this world? Why were we born somewhere like Jupiter city?

Morgan suggests we've waited long enough, that we ought to get moving. 'The lane there,' she says pointing across the yellow field before us. 'Maybe we can follow it out to the highway? Then walk into that town.'

When we get up the courage to at last vacate the woods, we set out across the field, marching along rows and rows of a crop that blooms with the most stark and wonderful golden flowers. We find our way to the hedge row on the opposite side and trail its path until we find a dirt track that cuts through it, leading to the lane. As we start our way down the hill I can't help gazing back at the woodland. Feeling guilty. Feeling that with every step I take, the further I move away from Maddinson and Reid.

Morgan takes my hand. 'Come on, Skye,' she urges gently.

5

It's a peaceful walk. The lane winds between farmland and amidst small stands of trees. We cross small stone bridges spanning calm streams where we gaze at silver fish swimming amidst the currents and eddies. It's as we're crossing one of these bridges that we hear a strange droning sound further ahead and before we have time to react a car comes driving up the lane and we're sort of in a panic as it approaches us.

Its occupant, an old lady with white hair, gives us a friendly wave as she drives by.

The three of us are just frozen to the spot until the car passes out of sight around the bend. We swallow nervously, watching it go and then glance around at each other. Morgan's the first to smile. Her hand over her mouth. 'Sweet Mother Earth,' she says.

None of us can shake the idea that the men who found our craft are sure to be curious about the whereabouts of the pod's occupants. By now there must be folk searching for us. There must already be radio broadcasts streaming to the public to be on the lookout for anyone in this region who might look a bit strange or out of the ordinary. And yet that old woman just drove on by without so much as a second glance at the three of us.

6

We reach the highway and trail the train line. I feel utterly exposed yet cars zoom by with seemingly no care that we're here. It takes three quarters of an hour to near the outskirts of the town. Reaching the train station first. Signs on the arrival hall read Chilla Well. We consult our map. We pinpoint Chilla Well printed there on the paper. We watch people crossing a footbridge that takes them from the station over the rail lines and the highway.

As we take the footbridge I expect people to stare at us. To accuse us of being strangers, outsiders. But no-one cares that we're here at all. Everyone simply goes about their business. I glance nervously at Morgan and Eddie.

A train rolls into the station as we mount the walk-over. With great curiosity we watch it over the handrail. We've never seen such an enormous vehicle. It's majestic as it arrives at the station. Crowds of people pile off and get on. Some minutes later the train is pulling away.

We cross the walk-over and down into the town itself. It's a leafy place with manicured floral gardens and tall trees. The streets are spacious, filled with the constant movement of vehicles. We cross a road, moving toward town centre, and something hoots and there's a screech and we jump and look around. A car has stopped right there in the street. The driver calls out his open window, 'Your eyes painted on, are they?'

We're speechless. He looks a tad agitated. We're not sure what we've done wrong.

'Unless you lot have a death wish, keep your eyes on the road.' He puts the car into gear and drives around us and away down the street.

We find the town square. There's a fountain and a war memorial. People are sitting on the lawn eating lunch. Pigeons and a group of black headed ibis peck about the grass. The three of us stand here looking around, feeling utterly out of place. There's a mobile stall selling flowers. I approach it and ask the woman where we might be able to catch a bus to New Jupiter.

'The number four bus, my sweet,' she says. 'From the Chilla Well depot two blocks thatta way.' She points.

'Oh. Okay.' I turn away. But turn back again. 'Do you have the time at all?'

'A quarter of twelve,' she says.

'Oh. Thank you.'

We consult the bus times from our satchel. The number 4 from Chilla Well to New Jupiter doesn't leave until 2pm.

'We've a couple of hours to kill,' Morgan says.

'What do we do in the meantime?' I ask, looking around, feeling utterly out of place.

'Guess we sit and wait.'

Eddie's looking about. 'Anyone hungry?'

There's a place across from the square. Some sort of restaurant. A sign on the outside reads Jillie's Gourmet Burgers. We go inside. We stand there for probably too long trying to make sense of the menu boards. We ask for three hamburgers. 'What sort?' is the question that comes back at us from the man behind the counter.

We point to one.

'Want fries with that?' he asks.

We don't know what fries are. The man smiles. 'Did you guys just fall out of the sky?' He points at the menu board. 'There. Fries. Small, medium or large?'

We sit by the window. We eat and gaze out into the street. Mostly we're quiet. Mostly we just watch people going about their lives in this world. Like we're part of a zoo. Like we're part of the exhibits. Everything is fascinating.

'This just blows my mind,' Morgan says more than once. It's difficult to tell if she's excited or nervous or terrified. 'I just can't get my head around it.'

She asks me again what all this is. How it can be. I tell her what Maddinson explained to me. About the Outworld system. I have to remember that this is the first time Morgan or Eddie have seen proper civilisation.

'Seems so unreal,' Eddie says quietly.

We eat and we sit here and our conversation turns again to Reid and Imogen and Maddinson. Every other moment I'm consumed by what happened to them. I won't accept that they've died. I tell Morgan and Eddie that I believe they've somehow managed to escape that mass of bird creatures. 'They made it into that other craft,' I keep telling them. 'The Centaur. I just feel it. They managed to get inside and bunker down.'

'Or maybe Reid got into that pod and it, you know, took off,' Eddie suggests. 'Right now, for all we know, they could be sitting in that London place you told us about, Skye, sipping tea and eating sandwiches.'

I watch Eddie's face. I swallow at the thought, more hopeful than ever that Maddinson and Reid got out of there alive. I imagine them at the Cloudfyre headquarters. Imogen's probably in quarantine and her wounds are being operated on. And Maddinson's hosting Reid on the cottage lawns by the river. Eating apple and cheddar sandwiches and sipping wine or juice, Reid dumbfounded and flabbergasted at all he sees.

It's a nice thought, one I hold onto.

NEW JUPITER

1

AT two o'clock we're at the bus stop. We go to get on when someone comes hollering at us. 'You three feel like paying?' He points toward the ticket office. 'No such thing as a free ride.'

The bus pulls out of the shady depot by 2:10 pm, negotiating the streets of Chilla Well before we find our way onto the highway.

We pass through green hills and shallow valleys, passing farms populated by sheep and cattle and crops. We pass through hills and across a river. There's a song playing on the radio. It seems to pluck at my heart. The radio announcer says it's Electric Indigo by The Paper Kites. Again I'm thinking of Maddinson and Reid. I'm guilty that we abandoned them. That with every kilometre this bus travels, it takes us further and further from them. Tears well up in my eyes.

About an hour and a half into our trip Morgan shakes my arm. I've been asleep, my head crammed up against the window. 'Look, Skye,' she says.

Through the coach's large forward windscreen, a city skyline has come into view. I notice the farmland has gone and on either side of us now are the outskirts of whatever city lies before us. Houses and shops and business precincts and schools and hotels. There are signs above such places. Signs that read New Jupiter Hotel, or New Jupiter Primary School.

The cityscape ahead of us looks familiar. There are no such things as green gloves of vegetation around the upper reaches of the sky scrapers, and no visible presence of a giant perimeter fence. Yet something about it is recognisable. And it's not until I see the Aeronautical Monument in the centre of Civic Park that I know that this must be Jupiter. Another version of it. And soon I realise we're on the northern city arterial route. The place where Reid and I rode that morning to feed the Entities. It seems so bizarre, looking upon Jupiter is this alternate state of being. As if we're all in a dream. The bus then takes us in on the overpass that lies in ruin in our Jupiter, the same overpass Reid and I had to negotiate by crossing its exposed beams all those days ago. We cross the Freedom Canal. It's amazing to see it flowing with lush deep water, with ducks floating about. And geese. And people strolling along the path that runs beside it.

Eddie sits across the aisle from Morgan and me. The woman next to him seems intrigued by his look of surprise and wonderment. 'Your first time here?' she asks him. He nods. 'I guess it is,' he tells her softly.

Our bus pushes into the city proper. There are cars and pedestrians and shops filled with shoppers, and electronic billboards flashing in the street advertising all sorts of products from footwear to airlines to electrical goods. Fast food burger and pizza restaurants hug street corners. There are cyclists zipping through traffic, and council workers filling potholes in the road. There are the sounds of vehicles and people, tooting horns and people laughing. There is music from street performers. On the next corner, someone holds a banner protesting the "War in the South China Sea".

We pass a laneway advertising 24 hour snooker and someone's asleep on a sheet of cardboard on the sidewalk. We pass the Grand Jupiter Hotel, where bellboys assist guests with suitcases on trolleys. We pass the Eternal Knights bowling alley and it takes me a second or two to acknowledge what I'm seeing. Neon lights flash out the front, showing off the smiling giant as he bowls goblin heads into skittles, bowling balls flashing in sequence and the skittles sparkling red as the ball hits them. The whole building looks so shiny and rigid. I go to point it out to the others but Morgan and Eddie have already seen it, already staring.

As we drive on, there comes the sound of sirens and I feel myself tensing. I fear someone has been following us, that they've finally caught us. The bus edges up to the curb and a pair of emergency vehicles screams by with lights flashing and sirens persisting. They disappear down the street. I glance at Morgan. I suck in deep breaths. She sees my angst and takes my hand in hers. We pass a branching street that proclaims itself to be Little India. We pass a restaurant district with Thai and Vietnamese and Italian and Greek and American food houses. Constantly there are crowds of people. It is all so relentlessly overwhelming.

2

The bus pulls up at a city central depot. Passengers file off. Morgan and Eddie and I aren't sure what to do. Looking around us, the driver calls out, 'Last stop.'

So we get off. We have no luggage except our satchel. We stand here looking about. Other buses roll in and out of the depot, the stench of their exhaust thick and cloying, the heat of their engines can be felt as they trundle by.

We move away from the bus lane and through the bus terminal and out into what I believe is Queen Street. Though I barely recognise it. Some of the buildings are familiar. But even they have been masked by advertising banners, or by colourful pot plants on window sills, and by flags that flutter from wall mounted poles.

By contrast, the Queen Street I know is empty, deer trails winding through weeds and tall grass, and it's quiet and peaceful. Nothing like here. Nothing. Here it's the constant shifting movement of the city, of traffic, of people, the constant sound of motorcars and horns and music and the general hubbub of conversation and laughter as pedestrians go about their day.

'This is so bizarre,' I hear Morgan utter with an edge of nervousness in her voice.

I hardly hear her. It's as if we have to speak louder here.

I'm beginning to feel faint with it all. 'Anyone else feel as if this is too much to take in?'

The others both nod, both looking everywhere at once.

Morgan consults our notes from the satchel. She finds an address. 'The Cloudfyre agency. It's on Salvation Street. Two blocks from here.'

3

We walk. Feeling like utter strangers. Aliens. Foreigners. We feel like we're intruding on a city we've no right to be in. We have to keep avoiding walking into people. We've never known crowds like this. The entire population of our Jupiter would be contained on a single city block here.

We turn onto Salvation Street, keeping an eye on the numbers on the buildings and businesses. People dressed in clown suits and holding balloons stroll by. A woman walks a dog that's dressed up in a little coat. There's a street stall on wheels selling hotdogs piled up with bacon and cheese and relish and mustard, the savoury aromas lifting off the stall make our mouths water.

We find the Cloudfyre building. It's nondescript. It looks something like a financial institution. Constructed from cold grey stone, and large glass windows, and exposed polished steel. A sign out the front, hanging above the entrance doors reads:

CLOUDFYRE RESIDENCE – HOME FOR INTERGLOBAL REFUGEES

There's an emblem on the door below this sign. Three circles: one large, one small, one large.

A planet with two suns.

The doors open automatically which catches us unawares. We're not certain if we should proceed. The doors roll shut but then open again. This time we move inside. The sounds of the city are dampened as the doors close behind us. Soft music plays from speakers in the ceiling. There's cool air-conditioning. There's a woman behind a reception desk. She smiles as we approach.

We're not certain what we're supposed to do. There's still a wary, suspicious side to us. Do we reveal ourselves? If so, will we be reported to authorities?

'May I help you?' the woman asks.

She has a name badge clipped to her shirt. Rachael.

It's Morgan who speaks for us. 'Hi, um, we're not sure if we're in the right place. We were told to come here.' She shows the woman the satchel. 'We've come from... well, we're not actually sure where we've come from.'

Morgan looks at me like I might know, like Maddinson must have told me what they call our Earth. But I'm unsure. I have this vague feeling he'd told me that our world had only recently been discovered.

I shrug. 'From one of the Outworlds,' I say.

We watch the woman. Morgan shrugs. 'Does that mean anything to you?'

The woman smiles. 'Of course. Would you care to take a seat please? Someone will be with you shortly.'

She indicates a waiting lounge. She picks up a phone and talks to someone quietly. We sit and wait. We're quiet. Nervous. We watch people walk by in the street beyond the sliding doors. 'You think we're okay?' I ask Morgan quietly.

The doors are just there. We could simply get up and leave. Walk out. But then what? Where would we go?

'You trusted your friend Maddinson?' Morgan asks me.

I nod.

'Then we have to hope we can trust his instructions.'

We wait for close to five minutes. Then from another door comes another woman. Tall, with neat brown hair tied back, wearing glasses. 'Hello,' she says with a soothing voice. 'My name is Jeannette King.' She sits down. 'You all look a little weary. Have you just arrived here?'

We nod. Morgan shows her the satchel. 'We were told to come here,' Morgan tells her.

This Jeannette King sees the satchel and nods. 'Perhaps you're slightly confused about where you are. It's okay, that's quite normal. To feel some sense of displacement. I want to assure you that you're quite safe now and with people who will help you in your new life. Firstly, can you confirm where you're from and who sent you?'

We glance at each other. I'm surprised to hear myself speak up first. 'We arrived in a life pod from one of the Outworlds. We don't know if you have a name for it. There was a city, like this one. Our home. Jupiter. Thomas Maddinson sent us. He's a Rank 4 Gatherer with the Royal Cloudfyre Society based in London on Earth One.'

Has she heard of him? I can't tell.

'And you have some documentation with you?' She indicates the leather satchel in Morgan's grasp.

'Not exactly,' Morgan says handing it to her. 'This was in the life pod. Thomas Maddinson told us we would need it. We had to leave our world rather quickly. We have no papers to confirm who we are.'

Jeannette King sifts through the contents of the satchel. 'A standard orientation kit,' she says. 'Is this Thomas Maddinson with you?'

'No.' I swallow. I see once more in my mind the wave of horrid bird things crashing around the ruined life pod, burying Reid amongst them all. I shudder. 'No. Thomas Maddinson was stranded. With two of our friends. I don't know if you can help them or if it's too late, but they were in a bit of a state. They were under attack.'

'We will see what we can do. Can you tell me where you came to ground?'

We stare at her, puzzled, not understanding the question.

'Where did your life pod materialise?'

I look across at Morgan. 'Near a town called Chilla Well, we believe.'

Morgan nods.

'Our life pod came down on some wooded hills some kilometres from it. We suspect the authorities may have discovered it soon after we landed.'

Jeannette King watches us intrigued. She touches her right ear. I notice now for the first time a tiny electronic device attached to her earlobe, a small object I thought was nothing more than an earring. She speaks. At first I think she's addressing us but then I realise this "earring" must be some sort of communications device.

'Recon units to Chilla Well. Scan wooded areas of the Supplejack Hills. Consult local Chilla Well authority. If need be, enact national security protocol to retrieve Cloudfyre life pod. Report back.'

She casts her eyes over us. 'I guess I should explain what we do here and who we are. We act as a halfway house, offer bed and rooms and food for folk who have come in from the Outworlds. You will be given refugee status here, you will be given identification papers and residency. We will help you find accommodation. And school and or employment. We will help you adjust socially. Many experience culture shock but we will help put systems in place to mitigate that. You may wish to simply rest for a couple of days while you find your feet. It will take time for you to adjust, something we understand and appreciate, so you will be afforded as much time as you need to acclimatise to this world. You will be free to come and go as you please but firstly you'll be screened for any possible Outworld contagions and then issued with residency documentation so that we can avoid any identification issues with local police and government.' She lets this sink in. 'Do you have any questions?'

I sit here pondering everything she's just told us. It's so much to take in. Yet, I realise that while I can't help dwelling on the fate of Maddinson and Reid, my dear mother comes to mind.

'Our families,' I ask this Jeannette King. 'Our city came under attack. We still don't know what happened to our families.'

Jeannette nods. 'If your city was under attack, if Cloudfyre London knew about this, then measures should have been taken, where possible, to evacuate as many survivors as possible.'

'They were. Thomas Maddinson told me that people had been sent to quarantine zones. A location called Eden. But when he entered the life pod that delivered us to this world, an alert told us that Eden had been compromised. Do you know about this? Were our families there?'

'We've had some scattered reports about certain quarantine zones being overrun by undesirables. To my knowledge, most refugees from these quarantine zones have been processed and are being resettled.'

I feel a faint beat of hope in my heart. Morgan and Eddie must feel it too. 'Could they be here?' Morgan asks. 'In this city?'

'Possibly,' Jeannette King tells us. 'Though I won't make any promises. Firstly we need to process you and verify your identity. Some of the initial questions we ask is for you to detail possible family members you were separated from. Names, age, gender, their physical traits. If they are here, we will have asked them the same questions. Once we corroborate results, reuniting both parties can then begin to take place.'

I swallow and look across at Morgan and Eddie. I reach over and squeeze Morgan's fingers. With any luck, my mother is here. With any luck Morgan's parents and sister are here. That Eddie's mum and dad made it here safely too.

'Firstly I'll take you to accommodation. There you can refresh. We have showers and baths and food and beds. You can enjoy some comfort for a little while and then I'll send up my colleagues to interview you. Like I said, you will also need to be tested for contagion. If you have been dispatched here then I assume you have already undergone quarantine checks. Am I right?'

We nod. 'Yes, Maddinson tested us.'

'Good. Still, protocol demands we screen you again. We can't take chances.'

4

We're taken to a room with a balcony that looks out across lush gardens. We are left alone for a while. We are given fresh clothes to change into once we've showered. There is a refrigeration unit and a pantry stocked with food. There is a kitchen in which to prepare meals. There are booklets on how to operate ovens and things called microwaves. There are booklets on how to use electrical appliances. Jeannette King tells us once we begin to acclimatise we will have access to what she calls a television. Though she warns that content on the television has overwhelmed many people in the past so its use must be monitored, even restricted to begin with.

For a time we just sit here on the balcony gazing out at the garden. None of us knows what we ought to be doing. We feel like we should be doing something. We've come from mayhem and a state of simply trying to survive, to this. It doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem right that we should have left Reid and Maddinson and even Imogen back there overrun with foul creatures.

A small team of medical technicians comes by to screen our blood. They are chatty and friendly. They drain blood from our arms via needles into small plastic tubes. They have a small electronic unit that scans our samples. Within minutes our tests have come back negative. We are carrying nothing undesirable. No disease. No Dark virus.

After they've gone away, another person stops by to chat with us. An elderly man with greying hair and kind eyes. He asks us if we're okay. He wants to know if there's anything we need. We tell him we quite alright for the time being.

He says, 'Very well,' then pulls an electronic tablet onto his lap. He begins asking us for details about our families. He says they like to expedite this process as it often helps newcomers adjust to this world. 'If family members have arrived before you, they can help smooth the transition.'

Once he's written down everything we can tell him, he leaves saying he'll go and put these details into their system and see what results comes back.

Eddie falls asleep in an armchair by the open window. Eventually Morgan takes to one of the beds. She tells me she doesn't feel the least bit tired. That she simply needs to lie down to clear her head. But when I bring her a mug of tea, she's fast asleep.

I sit on my own by the window. I watch a plane fly over the city. I'm both terrified and fascinated to see it. It soon passes beyond my view. I listen to the sounds of traffic out there in the streets. It is constant. The sound of it. I wonder how people can live like this. With so much noise, amongst so many people. To me it's organised chaos. It's an assault on the senses, on sanity. I don't know how people find it enjoyable.

I consider Mum as I sit here. I'm dying to know if she's made it to this world. And if so, where she is. Is she okay? How is she handling this city? I keep hoping someone will show up and tell us.

I decide I'll have a shower. But the tap mechanism on the shower has jammed. I try using the intercom but no-one answers. I decide I'll go down to reception to let them know. I leave our room. The outside hallway is silent. Vacant. I look along the hall, seeing the other doors, wondering if there are others like me, new arrivals, who have come here from distant worlds, wondering if they'll ever fit in. I wonder if perhaps even Juke has been here, that maybe he walked these halls.

I near the end of the hallway where it seems to open onto office space. Most of the partitions are empty. There's a large window looking out across the city. I hear voices. I see the elderly man who interviewed us. He's chatting to someone. I hear them discussing what must be our case. 'The three who turned up earlier,' I hear him saying. 'Well, as far as I can determine, their families are here. Looks like we've also procured the same residence they were inhabiting in their own version of Jupiter. That should go some way to assisting their adjustment.'

'And what's this curious detail about Skye O'Meara?' the other person asks.

'There are reports that she's a missing agent. London want her. They say she's carrying crucial information. They inform us they'll be dispatching someone to collect her as soon as they're able. She's to be kept here. She mustn't vacate these premises. That's all they've told us.'

I backtrack quietly. I don't know what to do. My mind is racing. Did they just say our families are here? In the same houses we occupied in our Jupiter? That the Cloudfyre Society has purchased numerous properties throughout the city? That the house I lived in, in my Jupiter, has been bought by them?

I begin to make my way to back to my room. I feel I should wake Morgan and Eddie to let them know. But I hesitate. London are looking for me. If they come for me, they might take me away before I've even had a chance to see my mother.

I feel my skin crawl at the thought.

I make an on the spot decision.

I catch the elevator down to ground floor. The receptionist is busy on the phone. She smiles at me as I walk by.

Then I'm in the street. My pulse pounding. Trying to get my bearings.

HOUSE ON LAST STREET

1

I WALK up Last Street. There's warm afternoon sunlight on everything. There's a cool breeze. There are people in the street. People on bikes. People walking their dogs. There are people chatting to each other over garden fences. There's a van selling ice-creams to kids. There are sparrows flitting about the curb. A cat lies on a veranda licking its paw, watching me. There are no Gen deer. No automated city droids. No screech of howler monkeys. No harpy hounds. It is all so peaceful.

Ahead, on my left, I see the pear trees along the front fence. I see the rusting gate. The grass is short and clipped and neat beds of flowers run along the base of the porch. I feel a wave of emotion just laying my eyes on the house. I fight back tears. But I'm frightened too. What if she's not here? What if none of this is real? I almost feel I'm walking somewhere outside my own body. Like I'm dreaming.

I slow down a little, not sure if I should be here. I stop at the gate, gazing up the garden path, toward the short flight of stairs that lead to the porch and the front door. The door is shut. The curtain in the front room has been pulled aside but I see no-one within.

Is mum really here? It seems impossible. But I have to know.

I push the gate open. It doesn't squeak. It swings gently shut behind me. I look around. I expect people to be staring at me, wondering who I am, what I'm doing. But no-one seems to care. Cars drive up and down the street. Other cars are parked at the curb. Two houses down, a bunch of kids rush out, yelling, 'Daddy, daddy,' as a car pulls up and a man gets out. His kids fly into his arms, hugging him, his wife coming up behind them, smiling.

I push on toward the front steps of the house. I see the pale moon in the afternoon sky. It hangs there a wonderful unbroken orb. Somehow it feels like a good omen. I climb the stairs and at the top I stare straight at the centre of the door across the landing. It's white. It looks and smells like fresh paint. I leave the railings behind and take the last three steps to the door.

I stop. A foot from it. A smell wafts from the gap beneath it. Is something cooking?

I straighten my back, stand tall, raise my arm, reach out and knock...

A couple of moments later I hear footsteps.

I hear a lock disengaging. Then the handle turns.

The door glides inwards...

What I see there draws instant tears from my eyes. What I see there is salvation, and love. Instantly she comes to me and grabs me. My mother... weeping and sobbing against my face. 'Oh, Skye,' she says. 'You're here, I thought I'd lost you. I can't believe it. Oh, my dear Skye. You made it.'

___________________________________


