“... and you want us to climb all the way down to the surface. It’ll take days,” grumbled Heen.
“It won’t take long and if you leave now you will beat the skycart. More to the point General Bluetash will not be expecting you. Now suit up I’ve one last job to do.”
Cleopatra climbed high into the air and disappeared. Smoke and flames rose from the crates containing the money and the remaining tattoos.
The four, now practised in the art of putting on suits, dressed quickly. An annoyed Tycho found he had to remove his boots to get the spacesuit on. He hung them around his neck.
Hanging from the ceiling were a dozen ropes each with a hook on its end.
“I have a nasty feeling about this,” gulped Jaime.
Cleopatra, able to penetrate the thickness of Jaime’s suit and rise above the group taught them how to hook the rope to a metal hoop on the front of each suit. Then the tattoo checked their air supplies.
“See you all down below,” she shouted.
Heen felt the floor under her feet give way. Moments later she was floating in space along with the others who were little more than touching distance away. At first it was as if they weren’t moving, but looking upwards the skycart was getting smaller every second. Soon it was a mere speck against the background of stars.
“Wow, this is fantastic, I wish this could last forever,” cried Heen.
She tugged the rope shifting her position so that she peered down at the world that was slowly rising up to meet her. It made her feel queasy and the next thing she knew her face was covered in particles of floating vomit.
“Ugh. Don’t any of you laugh,” she screamed, but no one was listening. Sound didn’t carry through the suit or the emptiness of space, and besides, the others were suffering similar fates. All Heen heard was the calming chatter of her tattoo requesting that she operate the helmet’s inbuilt cleaner to stop her from choking to death.
The sensation of falling made Carina feel exhilarated. A few minutes later they fell level with the tops of the highest skyscrapers and she wondered if anyone was watching them from behind the millions of windows. Jaime tried to steer his rope towards the buildings but they were too far away. He spoke to Cleopatra worried that they would land at the spaceport right into the arms of General Bluetash.
“It’s alright Jaime, I have control. We are going to meet President Rotanev. There you will be safe,” Cleopatra sounded reassuring.
Jaime was far from reassured. He had a deep distrust of adults, even adult tattoos, and only liked it when he was in control. Dangling on the end of a rope and travelling downwards at a terrific speed was not his idea of being in control, but there was nothing he could do to change it. When they were in space falling didn’t seem so bad, but the lower he got the more nervous he became. Window after window and building after building flew by with no slackening of speed.
After forever the descent slowed. Buildings and windows didn’t rush past quite so quickly and Jaime tried to prepare for the landing. Last time they jumped, when they had escaped with the money, they had a nice gentle landing, but would it be the same this time, or would he smash into the ground? Occasionally he heard Cleopatra’s soothing words but chose to block her from his thoughts. He braced himself and screwed his eyes shut. More minutes passed and he still dared not look. By now they must be close to the ground.
“Take off your suits and leave them. You won’t need them anymore,” instructed Cleopatra.
Slowly opening his eyes Jaime glanced down, he was standing on a large circular platform. The others were already removing their outfits. He hoped that no one had noticed his hesitation. Hopefully they had been too busy concentrating on their own landings.
“That was awesome! Though I kept my eyes closed right at the end,” laughed Carina.
She looked at Jaime and smiled. He wondered if she had noticed his nervousness and was covering for him, he hoped so.
Tycho removed his suit and put his boots on. Who knows where they will end up, they might yet have to run. Cleopatra directed them towards a series of stairs. A little way ahead the steps ended in a solid wall, yet oddly they appeared to continue on the ceiling.
****
As soon as the skycart landed the door was blasted open and General Bluetash and his troops rushed in expecting to find the children hiding behind the crates. A few maggots crawled blindly across the floor and a few birds fluttered in the air but there was no sign of the sewer rats. The general signalled for the first soldier to advance. Running between the crates, gun in hand, the soldier heard a noise.
“Chiut chi chi chi chig.”
He gave thumbs up to the general and then pointed in the direction of the sound.
“Go on, go kill me a rat or four,” encouraged the general.
The soldier swung round the corner with his gun at the ready. Razor sharp teeth bit into his legs and dragged him screaming into the shadows.
The next soldier crept nervously between the crates his shaking hands holding a grenade. Tiny slemons ran between his feet cleaning up the maggots. In front of him lay an unopened crate.
“Open the crate. We will be gentle with you,” spoke ten thousand small gnat-voices inside the soldier’s head.
The soldier opened the crate and was met with a multitude of slug-like suckers and tiny chisel teeth. In less than thirty seconds there was only a crumpled uniform to show that the soldier had ever existed.
Then as more ravenous kaimons moved towards the remaining soldiers the general ordered his troops to fire. Pieces of ant-like bodies flew in every direction, but in their tens of thousands the kaimons continued their advance. They had almost reached the soldiers when the kaimons started to change. Their bodies split neatly down the middle and stepping out of the husks rose beautiful electric blue wasps. Each unfurling eight wings as they took to the air and flew out of the skycart door ready to explore their new world.
Though temporarily distracted by the kaimons General Bluetash now turned his attention to the remaining crates. All those containing the tattoos and banknotes had been burnt and the sewer rats were gone. Things couldn’t be worse. His face red with anger the general signalled for a group of soldiers to follow him. He inspected each crate as he marched by and shot at anything that moved.
Realising he had lost the battle he recalled his remaining men. To win the war his forces needed to regroup, print more money and buy lots more tattoos.
In a far corner, in a crate so far ignored by the general, something stirred. Branches flexed and tasted their surroundings. A quivering tree gathered its thoughts. It knew that the conditions were right. If it didn’t act now it might have to wait many more centuries.
Pop, pop, pop. Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. Pop, pop, pop.
The soldiers knelt ready to fire. Where had those shots came from? All they could see was a rising black cloud growing darker by the second. When the cloud reached the roof of the skycart it began to fall. It headed straight for them.
Plop, plop, plop. Plop, plop, plop, plop, plop. Plop, plop, plop.
The tiny poisonous arrowheads rained on to the soldiers and soon no one moved. At the front of the group a shocked General Bluetash lay still.
Not long afterwards a low whistling sound emerged from the general’s mouth as the tiniest black sapling emerged from between his teeth.
Chapter 19
The Pellets
One more step would bring Carina facing a solid wall. As she placed her right foot onto the final stair it rose involuntarily from the ground. Her left foot followed and she felt herself floating. Twisting her body she swung both feet over her head landing them on the ceiling. It was as if Heen, Jaime and Tycho were hanging upside down like roosting bats.
“Well stop hanging around. Come and join me,” Carina called.
Tycho and Heen spun for several minutes their feet not touching the ground. The two eldest grabbed their ankles and pulled them down.
/> “That was strange. I wonder what happened to the gravity back there?” asked Jaime.
“Who cares? I want one of those in my bedroom when I get home,” replied Heen.
After climbing for what seemed hours they reached a door.
“Shall we open it?” asked Heen.
“Well if we don’t we’ll be stuck here forever wondering what’s behind it,” joked Jaime.
Slowly and carefully Jaime pushed open the door fearing what might lie beyond. On the other side a dazzling orange sun shone onto an immense grass-covered park that extended way beyond where the horizon should be. The grassland rose up and into the sky. Yet there was no sky – only land, rivers, lakes, mountains, valleys, forests and a huge ocean that took up most of the area where the sky should be. Hung in the middle, the bright orange sun obscured most of the far side of the inner sphere.
“Wow, I’ve heard about worlds like this. It’s like living on the inside of a ball,” exclaimed Tycho.
“I didn’t think such places existed, except in fairy stories,” Jaime marvelled.
“Next you’ll be telling me it’s Earth,” laughed Tycho.
“Carina, release me from your pocket. I’m stuck,” the gnat-voice cried.
“What? Oh no, not again!”
Carina was becoming increasingly annoyed with the gnat voice. She pushed her hand into her pocket but withdrew it when she felt the sticky slime of a maggot. Trying hard not to wretch but unable to disobey the command her hand dug deep to the bottom of her pocket and found an empty carapace from which something crawled onto her. As soon as she pulled her hand free a beautiful electric blue wasp emerged. It flapped its eight wings and hovered in front of the children.
“We kaimons thank you for bringing us to our new world. Soon I shall join the others of my kind and we shall live here for a thousand years. Only then we will begin our mission. We will eat every last human and take over the galaxy.”
The wasp hovered for a further three seconds, which was maybe two seconds too long. Carina clapped her hands together squashing the bug neatly between her palms.
“Thank goodness. No more gnat-voices and no more bugs,” she gasped with relief while the others stood in shocked silence unable to believe they had heard a bug speak and threaten humanity’s future existence.
“I think when I grow up I’m going to be a kaimon exterminator,” announced Tycho.
****
“This is wonderful. I wouldn’t mind living here forever,” said Heen.
“Well there’s no chance of that young lady,” came a familiar sound from behind.
Carina and Heen turned, recognising their father’s voice.
“Dad, how did you get here?” Heen screamed with delight as she ran to him.
Following behind her father Carina recognised President Rotanev leading a whole brigade of soldiers.
“Are we in trouble?” Carina asked innocently.
Her father smiled, “well I think you are both grounded for months. You can thank Gregori, the boy you call Tapper that it won’t be forever. He confessed to chasing you into that cave under the tram tracks.”
“How is Gibran?” Carina murmured. She didn’t want to ask the question. She knew the answer wouldn’t be good, but she had to know.
“He was extremely lucky. When you cut the wire fence the police were alerted and got there in time to save him.”
Carina let out a big sigh of relief. She hated Gibran but the gnat-voice had left her with a strong nagging guilt.
“Now young ladies, I hear you have been messing around with tattoos. I trust you’re not wearing one, you’re far too young. Show me your wrists.”
The girls held out their arms and as they did both tattoos vanished blending their inks to the colour of the skin around them.
“Coo-ool!” exclaimed Heen.
“What’s cool?” asked her father.
“Everything,” Carina quickly replied.
Jaime stepped forward and spoke to the President.
“So, where’s General Bluetash? Are we still in danger?”
The President smiled, “Not any longer. The general is dead. He and all his conspirators were killed by the seeds falling from an arrow tree.”
“Are you going to arrest us?” Tycho asked hesitantly.
“No, but I don’t want to see you here again. Next time I will arrest you.”
She addressed the boys, “you can keep your new tattoos, learn from them. They know how to operate the navigation panels on the star-hoppers so from now on you will know where you’re going. Don’t try using them to fight as we’ve ensured they are no longer able to hurt anyone.”
The President paused, “Oh, one last thing, as gratitude for helping us foil the plot against our world I would like to present these to you if it will stop you from stealing the work crew’s jumpsuits.”
A greasy-haired nervous man stood behind the President. In his arms he was carrying four jumpsuits. Coughing before he spoke, “These suits are tailored to fit each of you individually and the fabric is living so it will grow with you.”
Carina’s father shook his head, “Oh no, you are not going to need those, I guarantee your travelling days are over, for good!”
“Oh dad, they’re a memento of our trip”, cried Heen.
“And won’t we need to wear them to travel home?” added Carina.
Heen dug in her pocket and pulled out the remaining bean. She absent-mindedly began to juggle it.
“Heen, why are you holding a slemon pellet?”
“A what?” the sisters replied in unison.
“It’s what I use to keep slemons away from our garden. Toss one of those pellets at them and they turn and scamper at the speed of light. Why have you got one? They’re dangerous.”
Both Heen and Carina felt sick.
“So if we had used it against the slemon in the tunnel we wouldn’t have had this adventure. We could have just gone home to bed,” gasped Carina.
****
Underground in a small cave on Hub-World the kaimons ate. It was early days and they knew they had plenty of time to plot their invasion. After all, no one knew of their plan to conquer the galaxy and humans were too stupid to suspect.
*** THE END ***
About the Author
JT Griffiths was born in 1960 and grew up in the South West of England. He obtained a BA honours degree from Hull University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Computing Science from Stafford Polytechnic. He has worked for many years in the Computing industry and is currently working as a Primary School Supply Teacher.
This is his first children’s novel.
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