gesticulating wildly with all six of his arms.
Andromeda shook her head. ‘That was many centuries ago, before we were born. Our technology has improved since then. Please take hope!’
‘Hope!?’ bellowed the Mastodonian.’ What good is hope!? What we need now is Divine Intervention! Sunev! The Holy One! Why is he not coming to our aid? Where is our Saviour when we need him!’
A loud chorus of agreement greeted this. The name ‘Sunev’ echoed round the hall. Andromeda indicated a holographic frieze behind her, depicting the Plutonian Priests. ‘The last remaining member of the Holy brotherhood, Sunev’s spiritual guardian, will bring our Saviour back when the time is right! It is not yet time for the prophecy to be fulfilled. He cannot return.’
There was a general cufuffle as everyone in the hall sank to their knees. Anxious that he would not to be left standing on his own and seen by his parents, Skye quickly dropped to the floor. Everyone around him began muttering strange, incoherent incantations, fingering the beads and charms that hung around their necks. A universal cry went up.
‘Sunev, hear our prayer! Please come to our aid!’
Now Skye knew why he had woken with such a nagging feeling of foreboding this morning. He must have greater psychic powers than he thought. But there was something else bothering him, something beyond this immediate danger. Not enough was being done. Andromeda was being too passive. Just taking defensive measures, rather than striking back. And if the Chags had already invaded Vardin, what else might they be up to? What could they be doing that nobody knew about? Yet.
The pleading chorus rose to a crescendo and then everyone in the hall began to leap around in a sort of frenzy of terror. Skye took the opportunity to slip away unnoticed, dodging the security guards on the way out.
‘Hey stop!’ honked one of them. He sounded the alarm through his trunk, but Skye had long prehensile feet and his tribe could outrun most of the others on the planet. Minutes later he was on a Skytram, heading back to the school, where the Starmath exam was half way through. He crept along the floor out of sight, slipped into his place next to Chokra and nobody noticed he had been missing.
‘I’ll send you all the answers I gave to the Starmaths exam later on in an ethertext,’ hissed Chokra. ‘But this is the last time I crib for you, okay?!’
At lunchtime, it seemed that the news had already seeped though the Ethernet. As soon as the schoolkids got out into the playspace, they switched their holophones on and the news spread like wildfire, complete with holophonic images of Andromeda making her speech. How the news had leaked out nobody knew, but many of the people on this planet had thought transference abilities, especially the Vishnuvians. The air was full of electric speculation. Frightened school kids hung around the play area in groups, whispering and staring at the horizon. Kumarian children were all a flutter, lifting off even though they were forbidden to use their wings in the school grounds, the Vishnuvian kids couldn’t keep their arms still and the Mastodonians were honking in alarm.
‘What in Sunev’s name is going on?’ said Chokra to Skye as they clustered together with their mates. ‘Have the Chagrinians really risen from the deep and invaded Vardin?’
‘Yes. They have! I know cos I was there!’ said Skye importantly.
His friends stared at him with new respect.
‘You were there?’
Skye nodded.
‘So that’s where you got to this morning!’ gasped Chokra. ‘You sneak! Why didn’t you take me with you?’
‘Two of us would have been noticed.’
‘But how did you get in?’ said Noog, a half blood Feral, shaking his shaggy mane in disbelief.
‘Never mind that.’
‘What happened?’
‘Everyone in Andromeda’s audience chamber was totally was narged out. They’re all running round like headless farkles now. Look!’ He pointed to the city skyline, where countless flying craft were dispersing in all directions like frenzied wasps. ‘They were all going on about bringing back Sunev back from his new incarnation before the Time of the Divine Prophecy!’
His friends gasped and their questions came thick and fast.
‘Sunev??’
‘But why? How? ’
‘Where is he now then? Which planet? ‘
‘How old is he?’
‘Nobody seems to know. That’s probably all a state secret. But anyway, Queen Andromeda says it can’t be done yet. We have to wait till the Plutonian Priest who’s looking after him says the time is right for the Prophecy to be fulfilled. So I don’t know what they’re going to do! She mentioned something about a protective force field, but a lot of people seemed to think that’s not going to do any good!’
Nunya came hurtling out of the Kinderschool entrance in a state of high agitation and jumped into Skye’s arms like a monkey. ‘Have you heard the news?! That’s why Mum and Dad had to go to that meeting! Are we all going to die? What’s going to happen?’ She burst into frightened tears. ‘Don’t let those nargy Chags get me!’ she wailed.
‘No! I won’t let them,’ said Skye in a soothing voice and he held her close against him, glancing apologetically at his peer group.
A few moments later, the tannoy burst into life, and a voice announced that school was being closed early that day. Everyone was to go home immediately. Skye and Nunya poured out of the school along with all the frightened schoolkids and hurried home. Sarsi greeted them at the door and told them that their parents had sent a message that they would be home soon.
Dinner that night was a fraught affair. Skye’s parents looked drawn and pale, and Nunya kept asking endless questions which they obviously couldn’t answer.
‘But what do they look like? Are they coming here? Do they spurt green blood? Have they really got three sets of jaws? And lots of teeth? Are we all going to die?’
‘Calm down Nunya. The Queen has already put protective shield around the whole area. And plans are being made to ward off the invasion. She already has battleships lined up in the Sargossa Sea and many warcraft are being recommissioned. We can’t tell you anything else.’
‘But I thought the Chags had been driven away forever to that underground ocean place – the Chargrilledninny – ‘
‘Chagrinia,’ corrected Skye.
‘- Never to return again!’ wailed Nunya. ‘That’s what they’ve always told us! Why have they come back?’
‘Nobody knows,’ said Skye’s Mother. ‘Now stop thinking about it. It’s nearly bedtime.’
At these words Sarsi2 activated with a whirring sound and lurched towards them from the corner of the kitchen.
Nunya was not keen on this idea at all. ‘No! Don’t wanna go to bed on my own! I’m frightened!’
‘We’ll be up in a minute darling. Now off you go.’
A reluctant Nunya was led off jerkily by Sarsi2 and Skye turned to his parents. ‘So what’s all this talk of bringing Sunev back before the time of the Divine Prophecy?’
His Dad’s hair stood up with alarm and suspicion. ‘How did you know about that?’
‘Erm – just guessing,’ said Skye, trying not to look too shifty.
‘You know very well from your history lessons that his Serenity cannot return to Ventura before the time is right!’ boomed Skye’s father, his third eye flashing angrily. ‘When he was assassinated by the Chagrinians, his soul was transported by his High Priest of the Plutonian Holy Order through transmigration. Moments after his death, Sunev was reincarnated to his parents, on another planet in a secret location somewhere on the other side of the Universe. The High Priest has been guarding him ever since. Cosmic Lore decrees that we must wait until the end of his natural lifespan for him to be reincarnated back here on Ventura.’
‘You mean when he’s an old man? And dies of natural causes?’
‘Yes.’
‘But that might be too late!’ cried Skye. ‘We haven’t time to wait! I feel that something terrible is about to happen! Something more than what we alread
y know. How old is his current incarnation?’
‘Still young apparently, too young to die early,’ said his Mum, looking sadly at Skye, probably imagining a child on some other planet. ‘No-one should die before their time.’
‘But – what if, he didn’t have to die? What if he could be brought back here physically, just as he is, to help us as our saviour?’
His father looked thunderous. ‘That is impossible! Not only is it impossible in space travel terms, but this reincarnation can only be achieved by transmigration at the end of a natural lifespan. You cannot interfere with Cosmic Lore! You are only a child and you mustn’t concern yourself with these things. Let us deal with it.’
‘I’m not a child!’ cried Skye hotly. ‘I’m nearly 169 years old!’
(This was the equivalent of 13 or 14 Earth years, because of course time moves faster there.)
‘It’s still young. You haven’t reached full maturity yet. Let us deal with it. We are looking after your futures, all of you. That’s our job,’ said his mother in a conciliatory tone.
‘But it’s my planet too!’ cried Skye, leaping up, his hair waving about angrily. ‘And I think us young Venturians have a right to have a say in what’s going on! I don’t think it’s a good idea at all for us to wait for Sunev to reach the end of his lifespan! He must be brought back here sooner!’
‘How do you know?’ said his father.
‘I just have a feeling!’ blurted Skye. Frustration boiled up in him. ‘But you won’t listen to me cos I’m only a child!