Eight

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Heads up, this one's a bit long.

We take the longboat most of the way, which is uncomfortable. It's not designed to hold as many people as it is, and we're all sort of squished up.

Finally, we come to point where we need to go ahead on foot. I swing down from the longboat, stretching my legs gratefully and looking around. John and Jim both follow, then the robot whose name is apparently Ben.

I fall into step beside Jim, telling myself firmly that the only reason I'm doing it is so that I can keep an eye on him, in case he tries to escape.

In Jim's pocket, Morph poke his head out and squeaks at Jim, sounding scared. I feel a pang of pity for the little guy, he's never been in a situation like this before.

"It's ok, Morph," Jim murmurs, patting him. "It's ok."

"Jimmy, I don't know about you, but I'm starting to see my life pass in front of my eyes!" Ben says, coming up on Jim's other side. "At least, I think it's my life. Was I ever dancing with an android named Lupe?" He shouts the last part, several lose wires in the back of his head bouncing frantically.

"Ben, shush!" Jim tells him, clapping a hand over his mouth. He looks at me, then at John up ahead, and whispers something to the robot that I can't hear.

Overhead, the pulses of orange along the green line are getting more frequent.

"We're gettin' close lads!" John calls, "I smell treasure awaitin'!" He grabs Jim's shirt, dragging him through the wall of fungi plants and out onto a clear, flat area. The path above our heads is pulsing frantically now, but it doesn't lead anywhere. It just disappears.

"Where is it?" Someone asks.

"I see nothing!"

"What's goin' on, Jimbo?" John asks as the path retracts into the sphere.

"I don't know!" Jim says, frantically pushing and twisting the sphere. "I can't get it open!"

"We should've never followed the boy!" Bird brain Mary shouts, jumping up and pushing Jim over. I step forwards and grab him before he can fall, letting go almost immediately. He looks at me, surprised, then away again, but I think I catch a tiny, if slightly confused smile.

"Hey," I say softly, crouching down. At my feet, there's a dark hole in the ground, covered in markings similar to those on the map.

"What is it?" Jim asks, peering over my shoulder. He holds the sphere next to the hole, then joins me on the ground as we scrape away the lichen and moss from the hole.

Around us, the crew are all yelling to kill Jim now, throw him over the cliff and be done with it.

"Shut up!" I yell at them, then turn back to Jim. "Try it."

He jams the map into the hole, leaning back from it and watching as light spreads from the spot through grooves in the ground around us, lighting up a wide circle. A holographic ball in the same green emerges from the place where the map is, rising before us about a metre off the ground.

I get up, stumbling back a few paces as more lines of light streak across the lower ground at the base of the cliff, converging beneath us and shooting straight up into the sky. They stop at a point, then the line separates into two, opening into a huge triangle.

"Oh have mercy," John gasps, stepping away.

"The Lagoon Nebula," I whisper in awe, because that's what we can see through the triangular doorway.

"But that's halfway across the galaxy!"

"A big door..." Jim murmurs, reaching out a hand and pressing a spot on the green ball of light. "Opening and closing."

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