Star Blaze (16 page)

“Thank you,
Astricida
,” said Nicky, slipping effortlessly back into the strange language of before. “We should leave the ship while we have the chance,” he said, turning to Johnny and speaking in English again. “Are you able to fly?”

It was such a strange question Johnny didn't know how to respond. Slowly he shook his head, showering the floor with a few more droplets of blood. Nicky turned again to a holographic display in front of him. As his hands brushed a combination of different-colored dials, the clear pentagonal roof of the diamond bridge changed through a sequence of ever darker tones, until it became black and then vanished. Nicky waved an arm and this time the console disappeared. “Then hold onto me,” he went on, offering his left hand out to his younger brother. As Johnny placed his palm inside it, the hairs on his arm began to tingle and he felt goosebumps. The sensation traveled around his body and he tried to make sense of it.

An image came into his head of himself lying on a trampoline, seeing the effect his body had on the very fabric of space–time itself. The longer he held Nicky's hand, the less impression he was making on the canvas—it was straightening out and, after a few moments, the sheet became taut and flat and he saw his body leave the surface and begin to float.

At the same moment, he lifted into the air with his brother, soaring toward the junction where the blue rivers of electricity came together. Now he was closer, Johnny could see five huge white monoliths, like giant teeth, standing at the point the currents met, as though enclosing a giant mouth. Above their heads, light streamed into the massive ship as its jaws opened. Greeting them was the most welcoming sight in the galaxy—the view of Earth from space. Somehow able to breathe, he flew,
with Nicky, past the teeth and out of the mouth, which slowly closed behind them. The sensation was even better than piloting a shuttle with shields on—there didn't seem any walls around them—just the perfection of the cosmos. Then, beneath Johnny's boots, a piece of the Earth blurred, before his feet touched solid, but invisible ground. It was a clear platform, floating thousands of kilometers above the planet's surface. Nicky let go of his hand and Johnny could sense space–time bowing again, as he returned to his normal mass. He stood with the Earth beneath him and his brother at his side, and could almost forget the deathly spikes of the
Astricida
above.

Nicky turned to Johnny and smiled. “Alone at last, little bro',” he said, reaching for Johnny and pulling him into another powerful embrace. Finally, after it seemed as though all his ribs were about to crack, Johnny was released. He gulped down some extra air and turned around, trying not to let his discomfort show. Nicky said, “It's good to see you,” while slapping him hard on the back, sending more shooting pains through Johnny's broken nose.

Johnny steadied himself. He couldn't quite see where the platform ended and empty space began and didn't want to fall over the edge. He felt his brother's arm around his waist, guiding him forward. “Come, we have much to discuss,” said Nicky. Johnny let himself be led for a few meters, but then the sharp edge of the platform came into view and he tried to dig his feet into the smooth glassy surface to stop himself moving. Nicky laughed. “Don't worry—we can't fall off. This thing is encased in
that
many fields. It's just the best place to sit and, sadly, I very rarely get the chance. You see I've not been myself very often these last few years. Not since that night.” He let go of Johnny and settled down right at the edge of the platform, his legs dangling over the side pointing down toward North America, which was clearly visible beneath a near cloud-free sky.

Slowly, and very carefully, Johnny followed suit. He couldn't help thinking of Clara. She would never be able to sit here, however beautiful the view. He wondered whether Nicky knew about her. Probably not or he'd have brought their sister aboard the
Astricida
as well. It was only fair not to tell Nicky about their other sibling until he'd told Clara first.

“You see this,” said Nicky, nodding between his feet toward the blue and white globe below. “All this can be ours when we join together.”

“I don't understand,” said Johnny. “What do you mean, ‘ours'?”

“Ours to rule, of course. And not just Earth. You won't know, but there was a time when our homeworld had an empire spanning half the galaxy. We can build that again.”

“Atlantis,” said Johnny, quietly.

His brother stopped and studied him, as though seeing him properly for the first time. “Yes, Atlantis,” he said. “The greatest civilization our planet has ever produced, destroyed by that excuse for an emperor.”

“I think he had some help,” said Johnny, remembering how he and Clara had traveled into the past, met a very young Bram and rescued the Diaquant (the mysterious being who powered Atlantean society) from her cruel enslavement, only to discover later that she was their mother.

“Khari has spoken of this?” Nicky asked. “You must be close to him—another spy on Melania could be useful.”

Johnny bit his lip. He wasn't about to tell Nicky he'd actually been to Atlantis—not yet anyway. “Bram's my friend,” he said. “I would never betray him.”

“You're friends with a thief. He stole the Diaquant. If he hadn't, today Earth not Melania would be ruling the galaxy.”

“I think she wanted to go with him,” Johnny replied.

“Well of course that's what he'd say.”

“
He
didn't tell me—
she
did,” said Johnny, cutting across his brother.

“So the Diaquant was a she? I suppose you've met her, have you?” Nicky asked in a tone that indicated he didn't believe a word of it.

“So have you,” said Johnny, exasperated. “She's our mum.”

For a moment Johnny's brother fell silent. Then he lay down with his back on the platform and his whole body began to shake with laughter.

“What's so funny?” Johnny asked.

“Priceless … our mum … the Diaquant of Atlantis,” said Nicky, struggling to get the words out between belly laughs. Somehow he composed himself, sat up and placed a hand on Johnny's shoulder. “I hate to ruin your fairytales, but our mum wasn't the super-powerful galactic force you've been led to believe. She was a cleaner at the Derby Royal Infirmary.” Johnny brushed the hand off him, but his brother carried on. “OK—if she was, how could she allow a feeble race like the Krun to abduct her eldest son? Answer me that.”

Johnny looked away. The question hit him as if he'd just been thumped in the stomach. It had been nagging at the back of his mind for months. How could his mum have abandoned him, and Dad and Nicky, and unborn Clara? The Diaquant could do anything—it had been nothing for her to stop time, defy gravity and send him and Clara thousands of years forward from the past back to the here and now. Yet the night the Krun came, she didn't lift a finger to stop them. His family had been torn apart—he'd lived alone in a children's home for more than a decade.

“I'm sorry, little bro',” said Nicky, who might have noticed Johnny's eyes watering. “You're right—we are special. That's because we were chosen, but it wasn't anything to do with Mary Mackintosh from Littleover. It was him—the Nameless One—he reached out from another galaxy, searching for vessels fit to
fill with his power. And he found us.”

“It's not true,” were the only words Johnny could get out.

“Look at me,” said Nicky. Johnny refused to turn his head, but his brother continued anyway. “The thing is, he made mistakes. He made us too powerful. That's why he fashioned this hateful mask.” Johnny looked round and saw his brother's one visible eye was also beginning to water. “It is his way to control me. He made me Nymac. He sees this galaxy through me. His eye burns through my skull, controlling me. He's made me do terrible things, but has also shown me the path to greatness. And I have learned to fight. I grow strong—sometimes nearly as powerful as him. If only I'd known earlier that he gave you his power too, we could have thrown off his mantle long ago. Already, just on my own, I can be myself for hours, sometimes days at a time. The battle that rages—the important one—is not the Andromedans fighting the Milky Way. It's in here,” he said tapping his skull. “It's Nicky Mackintosh versus Nymac. That's what will decide things.” Nicky paused, hugging himself, rubbing his hands up the arms of his black outfit. Less certainly than before, he went on, “It's just that … in any war, you never fully know what your adversary is planning. He is still drawn to this place and has come to realize you're his genetic brother—he sequenced your whole genome to prove it. He's just loath to admit it and not all his schemes are clear to me. I am blocked … shut out some of the time, even while I lurk in the shadows, hoping to pounce. But I know one thing—Nymac hates you with the same fury that the Nameless One hates you. He's trying to erase his past. He wants the Sun gone, Earth destroyed, but, most of all, he wants you dead.”

“This Nameless One?” asked Johnny. “Why? What have I done to him?”

“You escaped—the night he took me. You have the powers he gave you, but he's never been able to control them. You're a loose
cannon, when you should have been his most perfect weapon.”

“A weapon like you? Do you know about Alpha Centauri?”

“Ah, the Star Blaze,” Nicky replied. “I'm not proud, but it had to be done whether I was Nymac or Nicky.” Johnny shrank back, horrified. “The Tolimi weren't the target—it was Khari's Fourth Fleet. There's a war on. You have to expect casualties—collateral damage.”

“Not like that,” said Johnny. “Not a whole star system.”

“Did you not notice the
Astricida
?” Nicky asked, raising his head to the foreboding blackness above, blotting out all the distant suns. “She is the Star Killer. With her weapons and the power of my mind, you would be amazed what is already possible. Imagine if you and I joined forces.”

“It's wrong,” said Johnny. “You're wrong. He lied to you … about everything. I don't know why Mum couldn't save us, but she
was
the Diaquant. That's why we're who we are. Why he wants to control you. Can't you take the mask off?”

“How old are you now?” Nicky asked. “Ten? Eleven?”

“I'm thirteen and a half,” Johnny replied, feeling his face quickly turning red, probably matching the drying blood across it.

“Exactly. You're too young to understand. When you're older—when we rule together—you will lose your scruples. Sometimes, the ends justify the means.”

Johnny scowled and his brother's face softened, forming a sad smile. “More than anything I wish I could remove this curse he has given me,” said Nicky touching the blackened side of his face, “but I would die trying. Or worse still, he would return … take me over … force me to kill you right here and now. I feel him stirring inside me even as we speak—we don't have long.”

Johnny could see it was pointless to argue. If Nymac was really coming back, he had to get away from his brother before it happened. Behind, a bell chimed and Johnny looked round. A large, wooden box had appeared in the very center of the
platform, with an ornate design on the front that looked a little like a thistle. A door in the box slid open. It was a lift—the top of a new space elevator.

“Come,” said Nicky, standing, his one eye sparkling. “Let me take you to Earth while I still can.”

Johnny followed his brother over the clear floor until they arrived at the lift doors. “Art deco, mid-1930s design at its best,” said Nicky. He ran his fingers around the outside and carried on, “Oriental walnut. Just look at this marquetry—the workmanship's stunning.”

Johnny had no idea what any of this meant, but was a little dubious that an old wooden box would safely carry them through the atmosphere all the way down to the Earth's surface. “Is it safe?” he asked, as Nicky stepped inside.

“It's perfectly safe,” said Nicky smiling. “You'll love it. I was told the Krun sent you and another prisoner up in one a while ago. Surely you at least enjoyed the ride?”

If Stevens still hadn't said anything to Nymac about Clara, Johnny guessed there'd been no reason to also tell him that they were gassed unconscious during their journey. He hoped the same wasn't about to happen again. “You have no idea,” he told Nicky, before taking a final look at the beautiful planet below him and then entering the space elevator. The doors closed, there was a slight jolt and the lift began to descend. Once moving, the walls began to glow, a strange blue translucence that matched the color of Earth's oceans. Soon, walls and ceiling disappeared completely, leaving Johnny and Nicky careering downward. Above hung the ominous
Astricida
, blacker than the blackness of space, while America lay beneath their feet.

“Impressive isn't it?” said Nicky, as they plunged faster and faster. Johnny simply nodded. “I don't think I have long,” continued his brother. “But I will contact you again. Soon, very soon, I shall be myself properly, able to shake off Nymac forever.”

“What's Nymac … the Andromedans up to, Nicky?” asked Johnny. “Is Earth in danger? After Toliman, will the Sun be next?”

“Of course not,” said Nicky, but Johnny's relief was short-lived. “Yes, he intends to turn the Sun into a supernova, but I will stop him.”

“Let me help you,” said Johnny. “Let Bram help you.”

Nicky turned from the magnificent view and stared straight and seriously at Johnny. “The Emperor is simply using you. He is weak—he doesn't have the power that we do. Remember that when the time comes. We're … kin. We're all each other's got. You need to trust me.”