Adam Brodie and the monster from the dark planet

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

"And who's this?" said Jake.

"Brigitte," said Brigitte.

"Father Christmas is her dad."

Despite Adam's uneasiness about the Nexus he and Brigitte had gone around speaking to the other students. Adam had got a thrill out of speaking to these weird looking creatures and getting them to speak back to him in perfect English.

Brigitte flicked a finger at her necklace. "These are great!"

"We just dropped out of the fourth dimension into normal space. We are now on the homeward run," said Jake looking towards the forward observation deck. "Let's go and get a good seat and watch the Nexus come up. Something wrong?"

Brigitte grimaced. "I'm not a good traveller. Even that spinning coloured whirlpool we saw earlier made me giddy."

"Don't worry, I done this before and it's fun," said Jake. "When we come into land, close your eyes."

Jake led the way.

The three children took their seats in front of a huge dome beyond which was now a vast black void in which glittered a single star.

"Look," said Jake, pointing to the small white speck in the dark. "That's a sun." He pointed at some rapidly descending numbers projected onto the transparent dome's interior. "That's the ship's speed."

"What I can't understand," said Adam to Brigitte. "Is why we can't just move from our world to the Nexus like that?" Adam snapped his fingers. "Mum and das can move between universes that fast."

"Yes but we're not cosmic champions."

"I know but why can't the champions move us from our planets to the Nexus? Why go to all the trouble with this space ship?"

Brigitte thought about this. "You have a point. It's like Star Trek. They got transporter technology so why build massive star ships when they can send people from planet to planet with transporters?"

"You watch Star Trek?"

"Sure."

"But we come from different planets. You even got magic on yours, or so I've heard."

"We come from parallel earths in two different universes and those earths are more alike than different. I probably see a lot of the same television programs you watch. We have cable."

"Where do you live?"

Brigitte smiled. "Christmas world."

"What are you two talking about?" said Jake.

"Star Trek," said Adam.

"We are actually living something way cooler than some dumb TV show, here and now. Look at that."

The star had become a white circle and beside it shone another star.

"That's the planet Logos which orbits the sun. On that planet is the Nexus."

The circle grew larger and larger and became very bright. The transparent dome darkened, cutting the glare. The great ship jerked forward and soon the planet Logos started to fill the dome.

It was blue like the earth and swathed in thick white cloud. Besides Logos was a smaller body. This was obviously a moon. The decreasing numerals on the dome told the room's inhabitants the ship was below light speed.

The chamber filled with sighs and gasps and twitters of delight from the other students. The great ship lurched towards Logos. Brigitte grimaced.

"We're going to make planet fall," said Jake.

"I beg your pardon," said Brigitte.

"It's tech talk. It means we're going to descend and land on the planet. Close your eyes."

"What do you think I'm doing?" said Brigitte.

Above and around them a loudspeaker squawked. "We are moving into the gravity well of Logos. Prepare yourselves."

Harnesses swept over the bodies of the seated passengers. The ceiling and walls bulged out and formed great fists and gently closed around those students hovering in the air or stuck to the ceiling or walls, holding them secure.

Adam saw the curve of the planet as the ship touched the atmosphere. He saw a thin band of dark blue, and above that the star less void surrounding Logos. The space ship swooped and plunged into the planet's atmosphere. Beyond the observation dome Adam saw boiling cloud.

Down, down the ship dove. Brigitte had her eyes tightly shut and her hands clenched. She was sweating. For Adam this was the mother of all roller coaster rides. Thrilled, he watched the drama of the ship hurtling through the planet's atmosphere towards the planet's surface unfold before him. Beside him Jake was asleep and snoring noisily.

Adam punched Jake's arm. "Wake up. I know you're pretending."

Jake opened an eye. "What gave me away?"

"You can't miss an opportunity to show off."

The clouds parted and Adam could see twin continents.

"They're Laurasia and Gondwana," said Jake. "With the great Tethys Ocean surrounding them both." The ship swooped lower and one of the continents filled the observation dome. "That's Gondwana. We are landing there."

Lower still and Adam could see green jungle covering the continent. Lower and Adam made out a single droplet of quicksilver amid the jungle.

"That's the Nexus."

The Nexus rose towards the ship, a vast reflective hemisphere. The top of the hemisphere opened and the space ship passed through into the Nexus. The ship swooped into a dense forest of steel towers and dove down, down, down, passing walkways with figures moving over them and flying vehicles hurtling past. A large vehicle, emerging from a tunnel in one of the towers, narrowly missed crashing into the space ship.

The ship banked slightly and Adam clutched his chair's side. His stomach lurched downwards and Adam knew Logos' natural gravity had replaced the ship's artificial gravity.

The ship slowed and emerged from the towers into clear space and glided over a mosaic pattern of small buildings. Craning his neck Adam could see figures looking like tiny insects moving among the buildings. The ship flew over a large gleaming plain and then swooped down and came to settle on the plain.

The harnesses swept off the children. Brigitte opened her eyes. Jake grinned at them both.

"Disney World, beat that," he said. "Let's get going."