CONTENTS
A Note from Bruce
1. My Dangerous Brain
2. The Beast’s Dangerous Belly
3. Indigestion
4. Gone with the Wind
5. Water Boy
6. The Weeping Forest
7. Nuts
8. Mental Exercises
9. Negatrons
10. Pet, Peeved
11. “I Still Live!”
12. Swapping Stories
13. The Worms’ Turn
14. The Spy
15. Bargaining
16. Mom Is Not Amused
17. Disgrace
18. Event Horizon
19. Time to Choose
20. Journey to the Center of the Galaxy
21. Transfer Student
22. Me at Last
23. Homeboy
About the Author and the Illustrator
For Justin John Bonafide, most loyal of fans, who has already gone on to the next adventure
A Note from Bruce
A long time had passed since I last heard from Rod Allbright, and I was beginning to get worried. So I was relieved when I came into my office last week and found a package from him, describing his latest adventures.
I’ve never actually met Rod, you understand. But he occasionally sends me one of these packages. They always arrive under mysterious circumstances, and without explanation. That is, I leave the office at night, locking the door as usual—and the next morning I find a manuscript on my desk.
(If only it was always that easy!)
I’m not sure, exactly, why Rod has chosen me to receive these packages. My guess is that it’s because I had already developed a reputation for writing books about aliens before his own adventures started. So I probably seemed like a natural person to bring these stories to. Or maybe it’s just because we live in the same area. Whatever the reason, it’s clear that these stories can only be published as fiction, since the League of Worlds is not yet willing to admit to us Earthlings that it actually exists.
If you haven’t read any of Rod’s previous adventures, there are a few things I should tell you before you plunge into this one.
Rod first got tangled up with the Galactic Patrol when the good ship Ferkel accidentally landed in a vat of papier-mâché he was making. The ship’s captain, Grakker, enlisted Rod to help the crew catch a vicious little villain named BKR (you pronounce it “Bee Kay Are”), the cruelest being in the galaxy.
After that adventure was over, Rod figured he had seen the last of the aliens. But that summer he and his cousin Elspeth were kidnapped into Dimension X by a huge orange monster named Smorkus Flinders. The monster was using Rod as bait to get Grakker and his crew. And, indeed, the crew did come to rescue him—though by the time that adventure was over, it would be hard to say who rescued whom.
It was at this point that Rod discovered his own missing father was also an alien. Known to the greater galaxy as Ah-rit Alber Ite, years earlier he had been working with BKR on a scientific breakthrough. But when he discovered that BKR was actually trying to build the most terrible weapon ever imagined, Ah-rit fled to Earth, taking with him the key bit of information BKR needed to finish the weapon.
After arriving on Earth, Ah-rit Alber Ite lived quietly for several years under the name Arthur Allbright. He married, and had three children, Rod being the oldest. When BKR finally figured out where Ah-rit was hiding, he came after him. For the sake of the universe, Ah-rit fled once again. But before he left, he took the secret information out of his own head and stored it in Rod’s brain, thinking this would make it even harder for BKR to find it.
After a series of wild adventures, Rod finally caught up with his father, only to learn that Ah-rit wasn’t quite as alien as he had been told. His father was actually from ancient Atlantis and had left Earth 35,000 years ago. (Ah-rit had spent a lot of the time since then in suspended animation, which is why he doesn’t seem anywhere near his age.)
Unfortunately, no sooner had Rod and his dad reconnected than BKR showed up again. In order to save his father, Rod agreed to surrender to BKR. But unknown to BKR, before the swap was made, Snout, the Master of the Mental Arts, emptied the contents of Rod’s brain into the large (and largely unfilled) brain of Seymour the chibling, a strange creature from Dimension X to whom Rod was psychically bonded.
That worked just fine as far as saving the universe goes. But it left Rod without a body of his own.
As you can imagine, he was less than happy with this situation.
As for what happened next—well, I’ll let Rod tell you that in his own words, in the pages that follow.
I’ll be back next time I hear from Rod. Until then, keep your eyes on the stars. And always remember Galactic Law Number One: Be Kind!
Your friend,
CHAPTER
1
My Dangerous Brain
IT WAS HARD TO DECIDE what was the worst part about not having a mouth—not being able to eat, or not being able to talk.
It wasn’t like I was going to starve; Edgar, the other half of the two-part alien creature my brain patterns had been merged with, was beaming energy into “our” body. But I missed the pleasure of tasting things, of chewing and swallowing. After all, I had been doing it for twelve years (doing a lot of it, actually, which was why I used to be slightly pudgier than I would have liked). So eating had gotten to be a real habit with me.
Talking, which you also need a mouth to do, wasn’t quite as much of a habit. (I had started eating at least a year earlier than I had started talking.) Even so, I had some important things I wanted to say, and not having a mouth made it a lot harder.
Though I found this personally inconvenient, it was just as well for the world at large, since my brain happened to contain the secret for making a bomb that would destroy Time itself, freezing everyone in the universe in a state of total despair.
This information being in my brain probably wouldn’t have mattered much (heck, I hadn’t even known it was there myself until a couple of days earlier) except for one problem: BKR, the cruelest being in the universe, was after it. That was why he had stolen my body—to get at the information in my brain. So transferring the contents of my brain out of my body had saved the universe. Which was all fine and good, except it left me stuck sharing the body of a six-legged, one-eyed, no-mouthed creature named Seymour, who also happened to be a major wise guy.
It was no picnic, let me tell you—and not just because I couldn’t eat fried chicken.
To make things worse, Seymour and I were always fighting. Not because we didn’t like each other. The problem was we just couldn’t get away from each other, no matter what we did. We both had a growing fear that we would be stuck this way forever. Whenever I started grumbling about it, Seymour would reply, Look, Uncle Rod, this is no bed of roses for me, either. Love it or leave it!
Unfortunately, leaving was easier thought than done.
So we were already in a bad mood when Captain Grakker called the crew of the Ferkel together for a meeting that ended up making us even crankier.
With Edgar-the-furball riding on our shoulder, we joined the other members of the crew in the ship’s main meeting room. I noticed that the aliens had shrunk my father to half his normal height, which made him almost as short as them. This was just as well, since it also made it easier for him to fit into the room. Elspeth (my annoying little stowaway cousin) was her normal height, which made her a few inches shorter than my shrunken dad. As for Seymour and me, we came up to everyone’s knees.
Sometimes I felt like the family dog.
Grakker called the meeting to order. He had a head like a hairless gorilla—well, a hairless gorilla with green skin and a pair of nubby little horns sprouting from i
ts forehead. His brick-red uniform fit tight to his bulky, muscular body. He was incredibly cranky. Even so, I had become very fond of him during our adventures together.
As soon as everyone had settled in, Grakker growled, “It is time to decide on our next course of action.”
“Well, we go get Rod’s body, of course,” said Elspeth. “That should be obvious.”
I appreciated the sentiment. Even so, as a stowaway, Elspeth didn’t really belong at the meeting, so she shouldn’t have been speaking out—especially not before anyone else had a chance to talk. But the mere fact that she shouldn’t do something had never stopped my cousin before, so there was no reason to expect it to slow her down now.
“It’s not that simple,” said Grakker, glaring at Elspeth from under his heavy green brow. “We are still in renegade status. Now that the immediate threat to the universe is over, the most appropriate thing for us to do is return to Galactic Headquarters and surrender ourselves for proper discipline.”
“You’re out of your mind!” cried Elspeth. “What did you do, Madame Pong? Slip the ‘Demented Ding-Dong Module’ into his skull?”
This was the first time I was actually glad I didn’t have a mouth, since laughing would have been a big mistake. Elspeth, for a wonder, immediately realized she had gone too far. Of course, given the look on Grakker’s face, a blind man sitting behind a closed door on the other side of the planet probably could have figured that out.
Anyway, that was why Elspeth got thrown out of the meeting.
Once Elspeth was gone—and she didn’t go quietly—Tar Gibbons requested permission to speak.
Tar Gibbons is the Ferkel’s Master of the Martial Arts, and also my special teacher. It (you don’t call the Tar “he” or “she”—that’s offensive) has a lemon-shaped body, four legs, and enormous eyes. The Tar had invited me to be its krevlik, which is kind of like an apprentice, while we were in Dimension X. Since then, it had taught me amazing things. I loved the Tar very much. There is nothing better than having a true teacher.
“The thing is,” said the Tar, craning its long neck forward, “even though the danger is over for the moment, that situation will not necessarily persist. After all, it will not take long for BKR to realize that while he has Rod’s body, the information stored in Rod’s brain is not there, since that brain is now completely empty. Once BKR realizes that, it is likely he will come looking for young Deputy Allbright. Warrior Science tells us it is better to meet the enemy than to let him seek us out. Therefore, I suggest we try to determine which direction BKR will go, then beat him to it.”
“Your plan is a good one, noble warrior,” said my father, speaking for the first time.
Seymour and I turned our one big eye in Dad’s direction. He was a lean man, with a thick head of dark brown hair and a bushy mustache. Except for his eyes, he didn’t look anywhere near 35,000 years old.
I was still amazed that we had actually found him. I mean, he had disappeared nearly three years before—just run off on our family, I had always thought. That was before I discovered he was actually an ancient Atlantean, and a semi-alien.
Talk about having a secret life!
Now, you would think that after crossing thousands of light-years and traveling right into the belly of an ancient stone beast to find my father, I could have had a little while to enjoy the fact that we were together again. But no—I hadn’t even had an hour with him before Snout, the Master of the Mental Arts, had poured the contents of my brain into Seymour’s belly (which was where his brain was located). Okay, so Snout did it to save the universe. Even so, it was annoying that instead of being father and son, Dad and I were now more like father and pet.
I couldn’t even talk to him, since I no longer had a mouth. Fortunately, Seymour and I could communicate mentally with Snout, who would then speak our words aloud so that we could be included in conversations. The frustrating thing was, while Snout could “open a line” into our head, we weren’t able to do the reverse. It was like being locked in a house with a telephone that only took incoming calls—and then only from one person.
So the only way I could communicate with Dad was through Snout.
This was not a situation that led to long, private chats.
Fortunately, Snout had opened a connection with Seymour and me as soon as the meeting started. I could always tell when he had made contact. It wasn’t like he actually said anything into our head, no Line open, ready to receive! kind of message. It was simply that I could sense his mind touching ours. It’s hard to explain the change, other than to say it was like noticing the way the light feels on your skin when the sun comes out from behind a cloud.
I was about to ask Snout to say that I agreed with Dad and Tar Gibbons about going after BKR when the ship’s diplomat, Madame Pong, spoke up. Her yellow face was serious as she said, “Grakker’s intention to return to Galactic Headquarters is wise and appropriate. The Tar’s suggestion that we seek out BKR also has great merit. But there is a third point that must be considered: We must, at all costs, keep Rod’s brain and the information it contains away from BKR. Therefore, Rod should not be on the ship if it goes in search of BKR.” She paused, then added, “I think Rod wants to say something.”
She probably figured this out from the way Seymour and I were standing on our hind legs and waving four little blue paws in the air.
Tell them I have to go after BKR, I thought to Snout.
I will tell them, he replied, but I do not think they will agree.
He was right, of course. My father shook his head and said, “Listen, Rod. I understand that you see this as personal between you and BKR. But if he gets his hands on the information I stored in your brain, it could mean the end of life as we know it for everyone in the universe. We simply cannot afford to let you anywhere near the little beast.”
Maybe you should just kill me, I thought bitterly.
Though I had not intended him to, Snout spoke the words out loud.
“That would probably be the wisest thing to do,” said Tar Gibbons.
Dad shot the Tar a ferocious look.
“I didn’t say I was recommending it,” said the Tar, stretching its long neck forward. “I was simply pointing out that there is a degree of wisdom in the idea. Rod’s brain is, after all, a menace to the universe. However, Rod is my krevlik, and I will fight to the death anyone who tries to harm him.”
Phil the Plant, our technical officer, waved his tendrils to indicate he had something to say. Well, something to burp, actually, since he talks by burping air out of the pods that hang from his stems.
Grakker pointed to him.
Phil spread his leaves. I could see his little symbiote, Plink, clinging to his stem. The plant burped once, to clear his pods. Then he made the most horrifying suggestion I could imagine.
CHAPTER
2
The Beast’s Dangerous Belly
“WE HAVE THREE DIFFERENT THINGS that need to be done,” burped Phil. He ticked them off on his leaves. “First, we need to pursue BKR to regain Rod’s body. Second, we need to hide Rod, so BKR can’t get him. Third, we need to re-establish contact with Galactic Headquarters. Therefore, we should consider dividing into three groups.”
No! I thought, so hard I was almost surprised that the others couldn’t hear me. We’re a crew! We have to stick together.
I could tell Grakker felt the same way. His eyes bulged, and he made a strangled sound in his throat. But he didn’t say anything, which let me know that even though he felt the same way, he also thought Phil was right.
No one else spoke. Everyone looked at Grakker, waiting for him to decide.
“Phil makes a wise suggestion,” said the captain at last. “I will take the Ferkel back to Galactic Headquarters—to surrender, and also to plead for mercy for my crew.” He turned to my father. “Ah-rit Alber Ite, I suggest you use your ship to search for BKR.”
“I believe that is a wise choice, Captain,” said my father, bowing his head slightly
. “Since I have worked with BKR, I may be able to track him more effectively. I know several of his hideouts and some of the people he has contact with. In fact, I suspect I know where he is heading right now. My hope is that since extracting the information from Rod’s brain will be a delicate process, he won’t attempt it until he gets to this particular lab, and that he will therefore be keeping Rod’s body in suspended animation for the time being. If that’s the case, he won’t discover the switch for some time yet.” Dad frowned. “Unfortunately, we can’t count on this. While there is no valid reason for him to animate Rod’s body, he might want him around just to torment. So we can’t be sure how long the trick will work.”
“I will go with Ah-rit,” said Tar Gibbons. “This is a trip where Warrior Science may be important. However, Warrior Science also raises another issue.”
“And that is?” asked Grakker.
“When BKR discovers the deception, he will renew his attempts to gain the information. Warrior Science tells us that when the enemy cannot reach us directly, it will sometimes attack those we love. Therefore, someone must be sent to guard Mrs. Allbright, lest BKR attempt to abduct her in order to get to Rod.”
I felt a cold chill.
“I will tend to that,” said Grakker. “As soon as we are away from the Mentat and on our way to Galactic Headquarters, I will send a message urging them to set a guard on the Allbright home. There should be enough ships in that sector to get one to Earth in a matter of hours, certainly no more than a day.”
“That should be more than enough time,” said my father. “Especially since I believe that BKR is currently heading away from Earth.”
That was a relief—and about the only good thing to come out of the meeting so far. I was still stunned by the fact that my father and my teacher were both going to leave me.
“Then that is settled,” said Madame Pong. “As for me, I think it wisest if I stay with Rod and Elspeth while these other missions are going on. Not, however, on the Planet of the Mentat. We need to find someplace obscure to hide.”