Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London (14 page)

“They say some foolish things at times, don't they?” said the Dauphin. “I sometimes think tales of the Emperor's abilities are so far-fetched it's no wonder he daren't show himself.”

“You would speak ill of the Emperor?” said Valdour angrily.

It looked to Johnny as though Valdour might actually strike the Dauphin, which he was sure wouldn't be a good idea. For its part the Dauphin, its robes a deep scarlet, was leaning down toward the captain, thrusting its elongated face forward, almost inviting a blow. Perhaps Cheybora thought so too, for the ship interrupted with a subtle, “Ahem.”

“What?” snapped Valdour and the Dauphin together.

“It appears,” said the ship, “that quite a welcoming party is being assembled on the surface in both your honor. We dock at Talamine Spaceport in five minutes. May I suggest you prepare yourselves?”

“Five minutes!” the Dauphin exclaimed. “That's nowhere near enough time.” It turned to its servant and shouted, “Take us to our quarters now. We must make ready.”

“Of course, Your Highness,” whimpered the servant, “although, if I may say, Your Highness already looks magnificent.” The odd-looking pair left the bridge, the Dauphin stooping through the doorway.

Johnny looked up at Captain Valdour, expecting him to go and get ready too. Valdour caught sight of him and said, “What you see is what you get with me, Johnny.”

Johnny smiled. He was still holding onto Clara who didn't seem able to lift her head from his chest, but at least she was now moving a little. “Your planet's awesome,” he said, followed a moment later by, “but what's going to happen when we land?”

“If you're lucky,” said Captain Valdour, “you will see the twin suns of Arros and Deynar setting behind the Great Tower of the Imperial Palace from the Senate Platform. It will be beautiful and Cheybora tells me that it's due in a couple of hours.”

“Really?” said Johnny, excited. He'd always wanted to see a double sunset, ever since there'd been one in
Star Wars
. In real life it was bound to be even better. “But after that? Where will we go? Will we ever get home?”

“Home?” Valdour asked. “But you've only just left Terra. There's a whole galaxy out there for you to see. A galaxy that's under threat, Johnny. Join our crew. Cheybora and I would be honored if you stayed with us.”

“What's Terra?” Johnny asked. “You called me a Terran before.”

“You don't know?” Valdour asked, sounding surprised. “But I thought Terra was your homeworld. I researched your kind while we were folding. Don't you call your planet that anymore?”

“It's called Earth,” Johnny replied. “I've never heard of Terra.”

“Well then,” said Valdour. “I had better call you an Earthen, I suppose.”

Johnny laughed. “We say ‘human,'” he told Valdour, “but I like Terran. I'd like you to call me that.”

“Then Terran it is,” replied Valdour.

“And I'd love it if we could stay on your ship,” said Johnny. “We would be honored.”

“Then it is agreed,” said the captain.

“Landing at Talamine Spaceport in two minutes,” Cheybora broadcast across the bridge. “Gravity normalization commencing.”

“Come,” said Captain Valdour. “Doubtless the Dauphin is waiting to disembark before the crowds. We can't let it have all the glory.” With that he led them from the bridge and through the ship, back into the chaos of the cargo bay and past the discarded transit tube before reaching an airlock at the far end. As they went Johnny felt himself becoming heavier and heavier.

“Docking complete,” Cheybora broadcast from above the airlock. The Dauphin and its little servant were already waiting.

As the ship's doors opened Johnny couldn't believe his eyes. The crowd disappeared into the distance as far as he could see, made up of the strangest creatures imaginable: there were some like those crewing Cheybora, with their white triangular faces; others had prominent crests on their heads, perhaps made of bone; towering over these and dominating the crowd were furry brown beasts, maybe ten meters tall, and when Johnny stared he could make out little yellow things running up and down inside their mass of hair, as though living in them. In fact, the more he stared, the more he began to see: what had looked like black boxes scattered throughout the crowd proved, on closer inspection, to be living, near-perfect cubes that moved using little jets on each of their faces, and when he looked really closely he could see the outline of more aliens, who were so pale they were almost see-through. Occasionally, drifting above them, he spotted a gas bag hundra. Johnny was glad to see all these deflated footballs were unchained. And above the crowd were flying aliens, some with wings, but many with no obvious sign of support. Music was playing but everything looked so strange
that he couldn't tell where it was coming from. There was no way he'd be able to spot the difference between a musical instrument and any other piece of equipment here.

The mass of aliens surged forward and somehow the Dauphin levitated above it. Captain Valdour was mobbed and lifted above the arms of the crowd and onto a plinth atop a crystal column so that he, too, stood above them. He gestured quickly to a flying creature, with four transparent wings, who buzzed down and lifted Johnny, still holding onto Clara, keeping them above the crowd that would have swamped them otherwise. Clara still wasn't speaking, but at least she now moved her bruised head to take a look around.

What she and Johnny saw, coming floating toward them but standing upright, was a carbon copy of the Dauphin only twice the size, with antennae that stuck proudly upward. Around its feet were swarming a dozen or so of the four-legged servants, each struggling to hold out a portion of the larger creature's crimson robes in a perfect circle, while flying all around were at least a hundred very stocky two-legged creatures in navy blue armor, that looked unmistakably like soldiers. “The Regent,” Valdour shouted above the noise of the crowd, pointing at it. “Come to welcome baby home.”

The Regent gestured to what looked like a flying funnel above it, which dropped down until it was hovering just above the long face with its antennae beginning to twitch with anticipation. “My people,” it began. The sound reverberated across the crowd. Johnny could see the different hundras glow with shimmering electric patterns as the wave of noise spread out from the Regent, and realized it must have summoned some kind of living microphone to address the crowds. “My people,” the Regent said again. “This is a day for rejoicing.” The crowd cheered. Johnny couldn't help thinking that, if they hadn't, the Regent's soldier aliens watching them might not have been best
pleased. “As you will know from official Regency newscasts, in an act of great bravery, my offspring and heir sought peace with the Andromedans.” A hush spread across the crowd. “Sadly, its overtures were refused,” continued the Regent. “My glorious offspring, and your future ruler,” at this the Dauphin bowed low, “was to be killed in cold blood by the Andromedan Nymac.” A hubbub began, spreading out over the crowd of aliens, until the Regent gestured with its arms and the noise subsided. “Until …,” continued the Regent, “… until the intervention of this brave captain you see before you.” A hush descended once more as the eyes of the crowd turned toward Valdour, who the Regent was now pointing at, saying, “Captain Valdour of the Imperial Navy—we salute you.” The crowd cheered. Johnny joined in. “We award you the Regency Medal for Bravery.” Everyone cheered even louder.

Valdour gestured for the flying microphone to come toward him. “Thank you, Your Highness,” he said. Then he turned to the vast crowd. “Citizens of Melania,” he began. “I am a soldier—not a man of words. I do not have a speech for you, except to say that we live in dark times, so when the light shines, it is all the brighter.” The crowd seemed transfixed and Johnny thought both the Regent and Dauphin looked uncomfortable. “The Dauphin has been rescued—we should rejoice at that news,” said Valdour. “We should raise a cheer that will ring in the ears of the Emperor himself,” the captain carried on, and the crowd followed his lead and roared. Johnny thought that for a soldier Captain Valdour was a very good speaker. And when he'd mentioned the Emperor, the Regent looked decidedly awkward. “It would be wrong, though, for me to take credit where it is not due,” said Valdour. “Yes I came to the aid of the Dauphin, but the rescue was futile.” Johnny watched as a wave of silence spread outward from the plinth on which Valdour was standing. “The hymn of death was ready on my lips.” There was
near total silence and stillness now, except for a ripple in the crowd moving toward them from the horizon. Close at hand, the Dauphin was hopping from one foot to the next with violently bright red robes. “Until the intervention—and the ingenuity—of another who saved us both.” The crowd took a collective intake of breath and Valdour turned toward Johnny, saying, “People of Melania, I thank—we must all thank—the Terran Johnny Mackintosh.”

The crowd cheered again—Johnny felt his face burning and turning beetroot red and hoped no one could see the change in this unearthly light. He wished the creature holding him and Clara would either drop them into the crowd and out of sight, or fly away so everything would stop staring at him. He looked across at the Dauphin, who could clearly stand it no more and exploded. “This, Captain Valdour,” it shrieked, “is an outrage. The savage insulted me. He prevented my mission. He must …”

But no one heard what was coming next because the noise from the crowd that had begun some distance away had reached them, building to a crescendo and drowning the Dauphin out. It was clear something unexpected was happening. Johnny could see that the center of attention had shifted from those around him to something that was passing over the heads of the crowd, coming from the direction of a single glistening tower and making a beeline straight for them. He looked at Valdour who seemed as taken aback as anyone. “What is it?” Johnny asked the captain. “What's going on?”

Captain Valdour, more to himself than to Johnny, said, “It can't be … it's the Imperial Guard.”

“Is that bad?” Johnny asked nervously. As they came closer it became clear that the Imperial Guard were definitely heading straight toward him and Clara, rather than any of the others.

“I don't know,” Valdour replied. “No one's seen them for nearly a hundred years.”

Johnny gulped, and squeezed Clara very tightly. He didn't think he could keep hold of her for much longer—in the extra strong gravity of Melania she was really heavy. The Imperial Guard reached them. Floating in front of him were a dozen extremely scary-looking aliens in cream uniforms with four gold stars emblazoned in a diamond across their chests. Each soldier was around three meters in height, but also so stocky they seemed half as wide as they were tall, and every centimeter of it looked like muscle. Hovering in mid-air they made a circle around Johnny and Clara, with Captain Valdour just outside it. Johnny thought the four-winged creature holding up him and Clara was as frightened as he was, as it was beating its wings furiously while letting out a high-pitched whine. One of the soldiers broke the circle and moved forward. His eyes were so close together they almost crossed. They flickered from Johnny over to Captain Valdour. The soldier turned to the captain and saluted. Valdour recovered from his open-mouthed shock—he stood to attention and saluted back. The soldier unrolled a small scroll and began to read, his voice booming out across the crowd without need of amplification.

“By order of His Divine Imperial Majesty Bram Khari, Guardian of the Galaxy, Bringer of Life, Descendent of Lysentia, Keeper of the Diaquant, Liberator of the Silus Cluster, Founder of the Freedom Alliance of Zepheron Prime, …”

It was quite a long list, thought Johnny. And the scroll had seemed such a small piece of paper.

“ … Governor of the Satellite Clouds, Ruler of the Seven Spheres, Ngog of the …”