The Star Agency (The Star Agency Chronicles) Read online

  He felt around in the ground either side of him for something to anchor himself on, and to his right he found what felt like a large chunk of house brick half buried in the ground. Anchoring his right foot on the brick, he put his left foot out in front of him and then leaned towards the object. His left foot began slipping backwards in the mud, but he kept pushing, leaning further and further towards it. Then, just for a moment, the tips of his outstretched fingers brushed gently against its smooth surface, and suddenly the force began to weaken. Startled, he fell forwards onto his hands, and for a moment he remained crouched in the mud on all fours, feeling rather stupid. Then he pushed himself to his feet and stood up, relieved to discover that the force, which had seemingly been trying to keep him away, had finally died away.

  Gently, he reached out and drew his fingers slowly across the object's surface once more. The sensation in his fingertips was like nothing he had ever experienced before. It was totally smooth with no friction at all, and as his fingers trailed over the surface, they left a faint glowing trail behind them. It wasn’t like the cold hard metal skin of an aircraft or car. It was warm and soft to the touch, almost as if it were alive.

  Amazed, Theo pulled his fingers away and stood back, and almost immediately the object began to emit a faint humming noise. Then hundreds of tiny flecks of light appeared and began dancing across its surface, and after a few seconds the whole object swirled with light as if covered by a swarm of fireflies. Then, almost as if under instruction from some unseen voice, the flecks began to move in formation towards the middle of the object until they formed a single, glowing, vertical line, stretching from the top to the bottom of the object. Once all the lights had merged into the middle, like a pair of curtains being drawn open, the glowing line split in two and the surface parted to reveal a chamber inside. Theo stared at the chamber in astonishment. It was human shaped and about his size.

  Then a small white light appeared at the top of the chamber and began to blink slowly, accompanied by a faint bleeping noise. Theo stared at the light for several seconds watching it blink on and off, and the more he watched it the more he realised – it was getting steadily faster. But if it carried on getting faster, how long would it be before it became a continuous tone? What would happen then? What was it counting down to?

  Theo had to think quickly. He had no doubt that the chamber was designed for him because it was exactly his size. So should he climb into it and let it do whatever it was going to do? Or should he turn away and head home? He thought back to the events of the last few weeks and all the things that had led him to where he was now. First there was the letter, and then there was newspaper. Then there were the emails, and finally the website.

  The Website! That was it. After he’d logged on, he’d seen a message:

  Wanna take a ride?

  Was that it? Was he about to take some sort of ride in the object? The idea seemed crazy. But then it hadn’t just fallen out of the sky and crashed into the ground, because it wasn’t even damaged. No, it had landed. If it had landed, it might be able to take off again. And with a chamber custom made to fit him, it could take him to wherever in the world it was going. Theo knew that any sane person would have walked away. But as he stared at the strange object in front of him, he realised that sanity didn’t exactly apply to this situation.

  With his heart racing, Theo knew exactly what to do. He pulled his rucksack off his back, hooked the handle around his neck and then hung it around his front. Then he stepped forward, lifted his foot and planted it at the bottom of the chamber. Grabbing the sides of the open chamber, he pulled himself up and then turned around so he was facing outwards. Then slowly, he edged himself backwards into the chamber, slotting his legs and arms into their correct positions. It was a perfect fit. As soon as his body was snugly inside the chamber, the walls closed around his arms, legs and chest to cushion him in position. He was held firmly but gently in place, and he found that if he moved his feet or hands, the chamber reshaped itself allowing him some degree of movement. Somehow, even though he couldn’t pull himself free, he didn’t feel trapped. As he stared forward, the open entrance to the chamber silently sealed itself shut. For a moment, he couldn’t see anything except blackness. Then, he began to make out one or two indistinct shapes in front of him. The chamber walls, it seemed, were becoming transparent. And the bleeping was getting faster and faster.

  The bleeping noise suddenly became a continuous tone and abruptly stopped. Then something began to press into him from behind and move, first across his back, then around his side, across his front and then up towards his mouth, almost as if a snake were writhing around the chamber. In front of his face, a mask began to form, moulding itself gently over his mouth and nose to form an airtight seal. For a moment, Theo couldn’t breathe and began to panic. Then there was a whoosh of cold, clean air and his lungs began to fill up. It was oxygen. Life support! The sides of the chamber slowly closed around his head, holding it upright and facing forward. Then, through the wall of the chamber he could see movement: vertical movement.

  Theo hadn’t even felt the object take off. There had been no jolt as it had freed itself from the ground and absolutely no feeling of acceleration as it climbed upwards. Yet climbing it was and fast. Seconds later, the object began lean forward, and he could see the lights of the nearby town shrinking quickly away beneath him. For a moment, his view of the outside world disappeared into a dark haze. Then, seconds later, the haze cleared and he could see the clouds racing away beneath him.

  He looked out in front of him, and as he watched, slowly at either edge of his vision, the horizon began to curve away. Theo knew for that to happen he must already be tens of kilometres above the surface of the Earth. That must have meant he was almost in…

  The realisation hit Theo like a thunderbolt. His stomach lurched, and even though there was no sense of movement, he began to feel sick. He closed his eyes and forced back the feeling, trying not to puke. That was all he needed with a mask over his mouth.

  After a few seconds, the nausea began to fade, and so, keeping his eyes squeezed tightly shut, he began taking deep, slow breaths to calm himself. After all, he couldn’t really be aboard some sort of space transportation pod, could he? No, it had to be some sort of movie or advanced simulation. That would explain why he hadn’t felt any acceleration when he had taken off. It was because he hadn’t actually taken off. It was, after all, impossible for him to really be in space. Wasn’t it?

  Nervously, he opened his eyes ever so slightly and peered out. The scene that came into view literally took his breath away, and as he opened his eyes fully and looked down, he gasped. There below him, was the beautiful blue/white globe of the planet Earth.

  As Theo stared at the Earth beneath him, he suddenly felt like he was hanging in space with nothing to support him, and that at any moment he was going to tumble all the way back down to the ground. Clenching his teeth, he squeezed his eyes back shut in blind panic, his brain now registering how high up he was. He was struggling for breath, and no matter how much air he took in it never seemed to be enough. Then, as his heart raced, the airflow in the tube seemed to change, and slowly but surely his breathing began to slow. Had the pod somehow changed the air mixture after detecting his panic? It seemed the most likely explanation.

  His breathing and heart rate now having slowed, Theo opened his eyes again fully and stared at the planet below him, his eyes transfixed on the amazing scene drifting slowly by. As he watched the Earth slowly turning, North America began to drift into view, with its patchwork of browns and greens, cut into with winding rivers and dotted with tiny clouds drifting lazily across the land. How high was he? Two, maybe three hundred kilometres above the surface? He didn’t really have any idea. As he looked towards the horizon, he could see Australia coming slowly into view. The sun was already high in the sky and out of sight behind him.

  The view was spectacular beyond his imagination and Theo was truly speechless. He knew that wha
t he was seeing couldn’t be a simulation, because it just looked too real. The descriptions and pictures from his astronomy books were suddenly lifeless and two-dimensional. They couldn’t even begin to describe what he was seeing or how he was feeling. It was so amazing, so stunning and so breathtaking. And as he stared at the Earth below him, a tiny tear welled up in his eye. All his life he had dreamed of looking back down at the Earth from space. But never, in his wildest dreams, would he have expected it to actually happen.

  As Theo stared at the view, mesmerised, the Earth suddenly seemed to drop away until the horizon was right at the bottom edge of his vision. The pod had, it seemed, changed direction. Then, he began to notice that the horizon was becoming more and more rounded. The planet was getting smaller by the minute. And that could only mean that he was leaving the Earth and heading out into space at phenomenal speed.

  Minutes later, with the Earth out of sight, Theo lifted his head up and stared forwards. At first there was nothing to see except the inky blackness of space. But as his eyes became accustomed to the dark, hundreds pinpoints of light began to pop into view. Stars. Suddenly, it was far clearer than any view of the night sky from Earth, and he could easily make out several familiar constellations: Cassiopeia, Orion, the Great Bear and many more besides. But after a while, as more and more stars popped into view, the constellations became lost in a glorious sea of light.

  *

  Theo had been drifting in space for what seemed like only minutes, when he happened to glance upwards and catch sight of a faint white glow at the top edge his vision. Craning his head up as far as the pod would allow, he looked to see where it was coming from. Then suddenly, a white horizon drifted into view. For a moment he had to squint to shield his eyes from the sudden brightness. But as he became accustomed to the light, a grey and white cratered surface came into focus. In a matter of minutes, he had travelled hundreds of thousands of kilometres to the Moon.

  Theo watched stunned as the moon’s surface drifted slowly into view. There were literally thousands of craters littering the surface everywhere he looked, cut into with lines of mountains. Some of the larger craters had long, bright rays fanning out in every direction, while others had what appeared to be tiny mountain peaks right in the middle of them. There were also several flatter, smoother, grey areas in between, which were only lightly cratered and looked for all the world like grey oceans. And Theo knew that hundreds of years ago, that had been exactly what astronomers had thought, prompting them to name them Mare or Maria: Latin for Seas. And once, billions of years ago, they had actually been seas. But not seas of water like the old astronomers had once imagined. Enormous seas of molten lava.

  Then the pod changed direction again, and the moon swung upwards until it was directly ahead of the pod. He looked at the moon’s surface to see that it was racing up to meet him at frightening speed. He barely had time to take in the amazing spectacle before a huge crater opened up in front of him, expanding to fill his entire field of view. Suddenly, he felt sick. There was no way that the pod was going to slow down enough to avoid crashing. So this was it. He had come all this way up to the moon, only to be smashed into a million pieces on its airless surface. And soon, astronomers from Earth would look up and see that a new crater had formed, never guessing that it had been made by a malfunctioning spacecraft from Earth, carrying a human passenger. This was it. The end. He was going to…

  He took a deep breath and began to close his eyes. But just for a split second, before he’d squeezed them tightly shut, he thought he saw a solid black rectangle in the centre of the crater.

  *

  Theo’s eyes were still closed and he was holding his breath, waiting for the end. But nothing happened. There was no loud bang or crash, no flash of heat and pain, indeed nothing except silence. He breathed out and then listened. Nothing. What had happened? Was he dead? Then he remembered how there had been no sense of acceleration when he had taken off. Was the opposite was now true? Had he decelerated rapidly and landed in the crater? Carefully, he opened one eye and peered out. But all he could see was blackness. He opened both eyes and looked around. But there was still nothing. Was the pod still moving? There was no way to tell.

  Theo craned his head upwards and stared ahead of the pod, but for a moment there was just blackness. Then he noticed something right at the top corner of his vision: a pale bluish light of some sort. As the pod raced forward, the light grew steadily brighter and suddenly it was everywhere, illuminating the rock walls of an enormous tunnel. The pod hadn’t crashed or even landed on the moon. It had dropped beneath its surface. Then the tunnel began to flash electric blue, followed seconds later by a single, brilliant flash. Instinctively, Theo closed his eyes again.

  *

  It took a minute or so for the bright specks caused by the blinding flash to fade from in front of Theo’s eyes, but once they had, he opened them fully again, relieved to discover that the blackness of space had returned. What had happened? Had he shot through the moon and come out the other side? That didn’t make sense. But then after the journey he had just taken, nothing really did.

  As his eyes became accustomed to the darkness once more, the stars began to pop back into view. But as he stared at the unfolding scene, he suddenly had the strangest feeling. Even though it made no sense, somehow he knew that space looked wrong. But how? He scanned the star field trying to pick out the familiar constellations he knew so well, but try as he might he couldn’t find a single one. Then he looked back towards the moon. He could see its curved horizon, with the distant sun just above it, slowly receding into the distance. But even the moon didn’t look quite right. Was it perhaps a slightly different shade or colour? Theo wasn’t really sure.

  Then, as he stared at the moon hanging in space, something else happened – the sight of which, almost stopped Theo’s heart. A second sun was now rising over the moon’s horizon just behind the first. Theo squeezed his eyes shut, wondering if it was some sort of optical illusion – perhaps a reflection of some sort in the transparent pod walls. Then he opened them again. But the second sun was still there and it looked as solid and real as the first. That could only mean one thing. He wasn’t in the solar system anymore. At least not his solar system!

  Theo could scarcely believe what had happened. In a matter of seconds, he had travelled, who knows how far, to another solar system. How far was he from Earth? He had no idea. Maybe he had just taken a short hop to a nearby star system, perhaps even one visible from Earth. But then maybe he had jumped to the other side of the universe.

  Still reeling from the shock of his seemingly impossible journey, Theo looked ahead to see where the pod might be heading. And there, hanging in the inky blackness of space, was a dazzlingly bright blue/white planet. Squinting a little to shield his eyes from the glare, Theo watched the amazing world growing slowly as he raced towards it. The top half of the planet was almost totally white as if covered with a huge sheet of ice, while the bottom half was a patchwork quilt of green and brown landmasses, surrounded by dozens of smaller lakes and seas. Despite the fact that it was clearly an alien world, its colours reminded Theo a lot of Earth.

  Once the planet had grown to occupy almost his entire field of view, the pod seemed to change direction, orientating itself towards the planet’s horizon. Then it rotated slowly around its axis until the bulk of the planet was out of sight and all he could see ahead, at the top edge of his vision, was its curved horizon. As Theo stared at the horizon, he noticed a single bright pinpoint of light suspended above the arc of the planet. And as he watched, it seemed to be getting steadily brighter.

  In less than a minute, the bright object had grown large enough for Theo to see that it wasn’t a moon or planet. From this distance at least, it had a distinctly angular appearance not unlike that of a stretched diamond, but as it grew it soon became clear that it had a great deal more structure than that of a simple geometric shape. From top to bottom, there seemed to be a very definite central core, with w
hat looked like horizontal arms fanning out from it – arms which were shorter at the top and bottom and longer towards the middle. But more striking than its shape and structure was the strange glimmering light that seemed to be emanating from it. The amazing structure was actually glowing from within, like an enormous diamond lantern. As Theo stared at the object, he knew instinctively that he wasn’t looking at a natural formation. Whatever it was, had to be artificial.

  As he continued to stare at the object, transfixed, a shadow began to pass over the pod, and looking up he saw that a huge dark shape had drifted into view. Refocusing, he looked back and was amazed to see that an enormous hammer shaped space vessel was slowly passing over him. Around its wide rectangular front end he could see what looked for all the world like row upon row of gun turrets jutting out menacingly in every direction, some of which even seemed to be moving as if tracking targets. The main body of the vessel was long and cylindrical, with four long shafts jutting out at right angles from the centre, each with a sphere mounted at the end housing more turrets. Then a framework of narrow tubes joined the main body of the craft to a longer, fatter cylinder at the rear, which appeared to be glowing red around its back edge.

  It took a minute or so for the massive vessel to fully overtake, but finally as it passed in front of the pod, Theo could see four huge, pulsing rectangles of red light on its swollen rear. Were they its engines? Then the huge vessel – which looked like it might be some sort of warship – suddenly banked to his right and began to race away into the distant star field. Despite its huge size, the ship was incredibly fast, and within a few seconds it had shot away out of sight and was gone.