Adam Brodie and the monster from the dark planet

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Luckily for Adam the androids aboard the vessel were fast and before he struck the hard steel floor and perhaps broken a few bones, an android had rushed to his aid and caught his falling body in the robot's arms. The android then gave him a good telling off for behaving like a twit.

"Told off by a machine," said Adam. "Now I seen everything."

"You haven't even scratched the surface," said Brigitte.

After the telling off, Adam had asked the android where they could get food and the robot lead them to part of the inner wall of the space ship. Again, Adam had the sense the ship was shrinking its so the journey across its girth would be shorter than it needed to be. Adam wondered exactly how bizarre his stay at the Nexus would get and agreed to himself that Brigitte was correct. He had barely scratched the surface. That in no way made him feel any better about his present and future.

They all came to solid bare wall and the android told Adam to stand in front of it. Adam did so and a red light darted out of the wall and scanned Adam.

"Brodie, Adam," said the wall. "Earth."

The wall curved inward forming a hole and Adam reached in and took out a small box. The box opened and inside were cheese and ham sandwiches, an apple, a small fruit pie and a soft drink. Brigitte walked up to him with her box.

"What did you get?" said Adam.

"Cheese and ham sandwiches..." began Brigitte.

"Fruit pie and an apple and a drink?"

Brigitte nodded. Other students were eating their lunch. Adam saw something that looked like a giant caterpillar eating what looked like small grubs. The caterpillar snipped them into pieces with large mandibles and his or her mouth parts ushered the pieces into the creature's mouth.

There was another student that looked like any normal boy but instead of a mouth he had a huge beak and was using it to crack large nuts.

The space ship was made of smart materials. The walls were intelligent and could mould themselves to other forms. The wall curved inwards to make a tunnel.

"Private dining," said the wall.

Adam and Brigitte accepted the invitation and stepped into the tunnel. A short distance from the entrance, the wall had taken the form of seats. Adam and Brigitte sat, and the seats moulded themselves to the shape of their bodies.

"Music while you eat?" enquired the wall.

"Christmas carols," said Brigitte.

While they ate they listened to Jingle Bells, Silent Night and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. The wall had a good voice.

"So, what're you doing here? Aren't you going to be the next Father Christmas?"

She shook her head. "The magic my father has to work Christmas must be handed from one male to another. Don't ask me why, I don't know. Nobody does. It's just the way things are done. I think it's in the title 'Father Christmas' My mother just had a little boy and my brother is to be the next Father Christmas so I have to find something else to do. I'm really going to take advantage of the opportunity of the Nexus. I will become a cosmic champion. What about you?"

Adam remembered the talk he had with his father a week ago. His father was exasperated.

"Why can't you be more like Jake?"

"I don't want to be more like Jake," said Adam. "In fact I want to be less like him. A lot less."

"Do you know what an amazing opportunity this is, to become a cosmic champion? This family have produced champions for generations."

"Dad, it's not what I want."

"Then what do you want to do?"

Adam was at a loss to reply. His father sighed.

"Alright Adam, will you at least give it a year at the Nexus and if you really don't like it I won't force you to go on. You can make your own mind up about what you want to do with your life. Suck it and see."

Adam had agreed. His attention returned to the present.

"I'm not sure."

"This menace you see at the Nexus. What makes you so certain it's there?"

"I'm not certain, and I don't want to vanish."

Both children had finished and tossed their boxes aside into a recycling bin where the boxes would be cleaned and later reused. The children left the tunnel. They were both thrown slightly off balance as the ship entered another universe, to travel to another world, and pick up yet more students.