Emma's Six- The Final Year

Escaped Prisoner

We reach the estate Mr Smith pointed out to us. Most of it looks habitable, except for the gaping hole in one wall. 'This estate has been on the council's urban renewal list for years,' Mummy says as we walk up to it. We left the car in a car park a little way back and walked the rest of the way on foot. 'It looks like the life pod helped with the demolition.'
'You take us to all the best places, Sarah Jane,' Clyde says.
'It's just as well everyone's moved out.'
'Do you think whoever was in that life pod survived?' I ask. Someone shoots a laser at me, missing me by a few meters.
'GET DOWN!' Mummy screams, and we run towards a nearby wall, trying to avoid laser beams.
'I guess that answers that question,' James says. 'But who's firing at us?!' He takes a look. 'It's the Judoon.'
'Stop firing!' Rani yells when the Judoon fires at us again, and I hear someone scream. It's not one of us, so-
'It's not us he's firing at,' Mummy says.
'Sho bo ko jo!' The Judoon yells, and we can see what looks like a lizard man run away, or rather, try to while dragging a teenage girl with it.
'Get your hands off of me!' The girl yells.
'The lizard's got Sky!' Rani yells. The lizard and Sky disappear from view, and the Judoon puts its weapon away and starts stomping after the two of them.

'Oh, no....' Mummy says.
'What is it?' I ask.
'Remember the Judoon are policemen? I think what crashed here was a prison carrier.'
'What, and Rhino Rozzer's lost his prisoner?' Clyde asks.
'The Judoon's only interest is in stopping that creature from getting away. Humans don't matter. Under the Articles of the Shadow Proclamation, we barely exist- too primitive.'
'Fancy telling that to Captain Smith?' James asks. 'I'm sure he'd be happy to have a word with them. Besides, isn't our planet complex enough?'
'But how does Sky fit into it?' Harry asks. 'Why do the Judoon want her?'
'Maybe the prisoner kidnapped Sky?' Catalina suggests. 'Or maybe the Judoon is bringing her home.'
'Who's Sky?' James asks.
'My daughter,' I say, 'future daughter, anyway.'
'I thought that was Ruane.'
'I will have two daughters, Ruane Tudor and Sky Oceana Murdoch.'
'Come on,' Mum says, cutting into our conversation. 'Maybe we can help him catch his convict before anyone else gets in his way!'

We hurry in the rough direction the Judoon and his prisoner gone. We hear a crash. 'They went this way!' Mum yells, and we follow her to what looks like a small outdoor area. It's not quite a park, but somewhere people can meet up. Lying on the ground is the Judoon, out cold. The criminal tied Sky up to a bench after it made its escape. 'Sky?' I ask, hurrying over to her as the others go to see the Judoon. I start untying her as Mummy takes the Judoon's gun and places it on the bench. 'What happened? Why are you here?'
'The lizard guy that knocked out the Judoon kidnapped me from Miss Meyer's lab,' Sky explains as she stands up. 'Let me guess, younger?'
'Yeah, but your mum's here; she'd love to see you.'
'She's having a bit of a rough time at the moment,' James says, 'it seems like Cunard's considering her for the position of first officer when she doesn't want it.'
'Who are you?' Sky asks.
'My name is James Moody.'
'What, as in the James Moody that was on the Titanic?'
'Yes, we started coming back over the summer.'
'That's amazing!'

'Wo sho bro fro cho!' The Judoon yells.
'Whoa, you need a mint, mate,' Clyde says, backing away as the Judoon stands up.
'Careful,' Mummy warns, 'stand back.'
'Mo wo sho cho!'
'It's alright; we're friends, take it easy. You're injured.'

The Judoon grabs something and holds it out to Mummy. 'My name is Sarah Jane Smith. I mean you no harm. That is, as long as you don't harm us.' The Judoon seems to be recording Mummy's voice, and plays it back faster and puts the object in its armour.
'Language assimilated. Earth English. You will be catalogued.' He holds up something else and scans Mummy's eye. 'Species, human.'
'Well, you are on Earth,' I say.
'You have taken Judoon officer's weapon. You assist prisoner's escape.'
'We were not assisting anyone escape. Your prisoner left before we got here.'
'You impede Judoon in duties. Sentence is execution.' The Judoon sways, and we help him up.
'You're not in any shape to execute anyone,' Mum says, 'let alone the only friends you have on this planet.'
'Your prisoner hit you pretty hard,' Luke agrees. 'Who is he? More importantly, how dangerous is he?'
'He is destroyer of worlds,' the Judoon says.
'Maybe you should've thought twice before you let him loose here,' Sky snaps.

'Here,' Rani pulls out a tissue for the Judoon.
'Hurrh?'
'For the blood.' The Judoon takes the tissue and wipes the blood away before throwing it back to Rani.
'I Tybo. Captain of 1,005th Judoon Guard.'
'We're very pleased to meet you, Captain,' Harry says, 'but we need to know who your prisoner is. As he is now loose on Earth, we need to know who he is so we can stop him.'
'Androvax the Annihilator. Wanted in five galaxies. Twelve counts of global destruction including the Qetesh homeworld.'
'The Qetesh are gone?' Mum asks.

We hear a woman scream. 'What was that?' Clyde asks.
'Luke, Rani, Emma, Harry, James, stay with Captain Tybo. Clyde, Ruby, with me.' Mum and Mummy hurry off, while Clyde hurries over to the bench and picks up the gun. 'And leave the gun!' Clyde leaves it on the bench and rushes after my parents.

'Don't worry, Captain Tybo,' I say, 'Mum and Mummy will find your prisoner.' Luke's phone starts ringing, and he walks away to take it. He hangs up and walks over to Tybo.
'Mum and Mummy think Androvax headed back to the crash site,' he says. Tybo growls and picks up his gun.
'I hunt.' He starts leading us back to the crash site, and we walk a little way behind him.

'This isn't going to work,' Sky whispers. 'Tybo will clock on at any moment.'
'We just need to give Mum and Mummy as much time as we can,' Luke whispers back.
'Tybo won't trust us when he realises we're lying to him.'
'It's a risk we must take. We need to buy Mum and Mummy enough time to find the little girl's mum. If Tybo storms in, he wouldn't care about a human. The best thing we can do is keep Tybo out of the way.'

Luke's phone rings again. He answers it. 'Mummy? Yeah, but he might catch on at any moment. Right, I'll tell him.' Luke hangs up.
'What's going on?' I ask.
'They found Androvax.' Luke walks over to Tybo. 'Captain Tybo? Mum and Mummy found Androvax at a nearby church hall. Mummy said something about Androvax taking over a little girl...?'
'Androvax Veil life form. Can jump into other beings unless they are Qetesh. Qetesh are the only ones that can control Veil.'
'Maybe you should've mentioned that before,' I say, 'if one of my mothers weren't a Qetesh, we'd have a massive problem on our hands.'
'We better get going,' Rani says. 'The longer we wait, the more chance Androvax has of escaping again.'

We start heading towards the church hall, but we cannot find anyone when we get there. The room is a vast open space with a stage. Tybo's machine starts whirring. 'Traces of Transbody fusion energy. Androvax was here.'
'He took someone over,' Luke realises. 'It could've been either Clyde or Mummy.' Tybo continues following the trail, and he ends up on the stage. He then goes to one of the backstage parts and throws objects onto the stage. 'Source located.'

We all hurry up the stairs to find Clyde. He seems to be in a trance. 'Clyde!' Luke cries, and he tries to wake him up the same way Mrs Wormwood woke up Gita. I place a hand on his shoulder, and Clyde wakes up.
'Emma?'
'You okay?' I ask.
'Androvax, he just... stepped inside her. Ruby and I tried to stop him, but....'
'Androvax can step into other beings,' Luke says, 'that's going to make our task more difficult. Where's Mum?'
'I don't know.'

'Is that the girl?' Rani asks, looking past us. I look over to find a little girl and her mum.
'We better get moving. Do you think Androvax would've gone to find Mr Smith?' I ask. 'If we hurry, we can catch up.'
'They would've taken the car. How else can we get back?'

I get my phone out and call Catalina. 'Hello?'
'Hey, Lina, we need some help. We're up against a body-snatching alien, and they have just taken over Mummy.' I tell her where we are, and Catalina promises to get over there as soon as possible. I hang up and turn to my friends. 'Catalina will be here soon.'

When Catalina turns up, we realise she brought my older self in tow. 'The others are helping out an Arcateenian,' she explains, 'and I couldn't leave your older self on her own. Not in the state she's in.' We look over at my older self as she covers her head with her hands.
'Emma, what happened?' Harry asks.
'Cunard made her first officer.'
'They did what?' Luke asks. 'Surely they know that Emma will not cope with that?'
'Maybe they ignored that. Anyway, where do you need to go?'
'Home, we think the adults took the car.'
'Right, come on.' We head outside, and Catalina finally acknowledges Tybo.
'You never said you had a friend with you.'
'This is Tybo; he's looking for his prisoner.'
'Has the prisoner taken over Sarah Jane?'
'Yes.'
'Then we better hurry. Hey, Sky.'

My older self finally looks at her. 'Sky!' She finally breaks into a smile. Emma hurries over to Sky and hugs her. 'Oh, I missed you so much.'
'I missed you too.'
'Come on, if we want to stop this alien, we need to go.' We all bundle into Catalina's car, and she starts driving.