Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London (41 page)

It might have been its huge fly-like eyes but the creature looked even more surprised than Johnny. It had a weapon at the end of one of its long bony arms and began to raise it, but Johnny kicked out at its legs and a gray and white ball sprang upward and sank its teeth into the alien's neck. In the low gravity the krun was lifted off the ground by the force of Bentley's jump and the two flew into the air inside the darkened room, struggling with each other in a grotesque slow motion dance. The krun fired its weapon wildly, intense flashes of green light blasting out huge chunks from the rocky floor. Johnny tried to see what was happening, but was helpless to do anything. The reaction from the gun as it fired lifted the pair higher and higher. Finally the krun's head clattered against the ceiling, there was a flurry of action, a sharp crack and then silence. Slowly the two shapes descended to the floor, the krun draped on top of a motionless Bentley.

Johnny rushed forward. “Bents—are you OK?” he shouted. He aimed a kick at the limp figure of the krun, which rose up into the air again and, to Johnny's enormous relief, his friend got unsteadily to his feet, black alien blood dripping from his mouth. As Johnny looked back to the krun he thought he could make out more black fluid oozing out of it, the creature appearing to deflate in mid-air as it floated down toward the floor.

“J-J-Johnny?” asked a frightened girl's voice from one corner of the room. Johnny looked up. “You're a sight for sore eyes,” said the girl, a little more composed this time. As Johnny peered through the darkness, he was able to see a little better. Sitting on the floor, still wearing her green jacket and wellies, and with her knees tucked into her chest, was Louise. And nearby, dressed only in dirty rags that had long ago stopped resembling clothes, stood a man. His bushy gray hair matched his scraggly beard and he was walking round and round in circles on very
spindly legs. Trembling slightly, Johnny went across to him. Out of the corner of his eye he was vaguely aware of Bentley licking Louise's face and calming her down.

Johnny stood in front of the man, who stopped his walk for a second and peered at him, as though struggling to focus. Johnny looked back into his dark green eyes and knew he'd seen them before. Apart from the silver flecks they were just the same as his own. “Dad?” he said quietly.

“You again, is it?” the man replied. “Where's the other one?” He started his circular walk again, as though in a great hurry to go nowhere in particular.

“Dad—it's me, Johnny.”

“Hello, Johnny. Good to see you—as ever. Where's Nicholas today? Where's that big brother of yours then?”

“Dad—what are you talking about? It's me—I'm here with Bentley.”

“Oh, with Bentley today are you? Yes that is clever. Hadn't seen that one coming. Thought I'd seen everything. Very clever that.”

Johnny stood baffled while the man he was sure was his father walked in circles around him until he stopped, knelt down on the floor and reached forward toward an imaginary sight in front of him, saying, “Mary—I miss you, Mary. Why are they doing this to me?”

“Dad—Mum's not here,” said Johnny.

“Of course she's not here. Do you think I don't know that? Do you think I'm mad, do you? None of you's here. I just wish you'd leave me alone.”

“No, Dad. I am here. It's really me,” said Johnny. He walked over to his father, put his arms around his neck and held him.

“That's not fair. That's not fair at all,” said his dad. “Get off!” He pushed Johnny away, stood up and began to walk in hurried circles again. “You can look but you can't touch. It's not fair to
touch. There are rules. You can't touch me ‘cos you're not here.”

Johnny stood watching his father, with no idea what to do.

“You took your time,” said Louise from the floor.

Johnny tore himself away from his dad and looked at the girl beside him. For Louise only a day had passed since she'd met Johnny in a field outside Yarnton Hill, but she looked as though she'd been through a lot. Her face was as pale as Johnny's and her T-shirt was caked with dried blood. “Sorry I left you there,” he said. “I tried to come back.”

“I saw you—in that stupid top. I knew something was up,” she said, wincing with pain as he helped her to her feet.

Johnny smiled at her. “That's one way of putting it. Come on—we should hurry. I know someone who's dying to see you.”

“You haven't … not Rusty?” asked Louise. Johnny nodded and, despite her obvious pain, Louise flung both her arms around him and kissed him on the forehead. Johnny managed to duck out of her grip.

“So that man's your dad?” she asked. “I'm sorry.”

“It's OK,” said Johnny. “He'll get better—it'll just take time.” He took her arm and placed it over his shoulder to support her. Then he turned to Bentley and said, “Bring Dad … go on, boy … bring Dad.”

Bentley went gingerly over to Johnny's dad, looking up into his face. Michael Mackintosh bent down and wiped the fringe out of Bentley's eyes in exactly the way Johnny often did himself. “Hello, boy,” Johnny's dad said. “Do you want to go for a walk? OK then, I'm coming—lead the way,” and Bentley set off, tail wagging, and trotted out of the room and into the light of the octagonal chamber.

They entered the long corridor and made their way as quickly as possible toward the surface. Louise was struggling to walk, but thankfully the low gravity helped, and whenever Johnny's dad looked as though he might be about to turn back
or stop because he'd seen an interesting imaginary something on the wall, Bentley rounded him up and kept him heading in the right direction. Eventually they reached the hangar and Johnny pressed a button on his wristcom. A bright red double-decker bus appeared in front of them.

“Cool,” said Louise.

“Oh, are we taking the bus?” asked Johnny's dad. “I'm not sure I've got any money.”

“It's OK, Dad,” said Johnny. “You get on—I've already paid.”

Bentley jumped on board, followed by Michael Mackintosh and Louise, helped by Johnny. Up in the roof of the hangar the airlock opened, even though Johnny hadn't had a chance to enter the access code. To his horror, in flew the spherical krun shuttle craft—for whatever reason it had returned to Nereid. He thought of shields and doors at the same time. As the bus, and everything inside it, began to disappear, a beam of green light shot toward them from the black ship. There was a huge bang. For a moment, the ceiling above Johnny became very solid again, before fading away. Johnny was stung by the pain of the impact. A second explosion followed. Johnny winced and this time the whole of the Piccadilly reappeared around him. The shields had absorbed the blast but must have failed in the process. Then the hanger filled with more light and there was another, even louder blast, yet somehow he was still alive. Amazingly the Piccadilly was completely intact—it was the krun vessel that had vanished. Johnny saw small pieces of debris plastered across the blue-gray walls of the chamber, where they'd instantly stuck fast. The explosives he'd planted had detonated—not a moment too soon. Letting out a long, slow breath he lifted the shuttle off the ground and thought it into the Nereid airlock. Soon they were flying above the blue globe of Neptune with its cloudy white streaks.

Louise, sitting nearby, went silent as she stared outside into
space. From the snippets that Johnny could hear it sounded as if his dad thought they were traveling along the King's Road in London. Ten minutes into the journey back and Johnny couldn't wait any longer. They were unshielded and an obvious target whatever he did. Radio silence didn't seem to matter any more. He had to know what had happened on Triton.

As he wove his way through one of Neptune's thin rocky rings he silently asked the Piccadilly if he could see what was happening on the Spirit of London—if he could speak to Sol. The commscreen above him came to life and he saw the view of a deserted bridge.

“Sol—what happened? What's going on?” Johnny asked.

“The mission is proceeding nearly as planned. Is everything all right, Johnny? If possible I recommend communication blackout until you are within range of my weapons.”

“I'm fine—got my dad and Louise. Shields are down though. What do you mean ‘nearly'?”

“Johnny, I strongly recommend you cease transmission. I am detecting unusual activity within Proteus.”

Johnny looked outside. The Piccadilly was passing above the moon he'd seen earlier. So this was Proteus. There were several flashes of light on the surface. He reached out with the Piccadilly's sensors and felt five sleek dark krun fighters arrowing toward him on an intercept course.

“Sol—I've got company,” said Johnny. “Can you get over here?”

“Johnny—I am unable to reach you. Clara's fold is still open. I am attempting to recall her from Triton—suggest you take evasive action.”

“No kidding.”

“And Johnny …”

“What?”

“Good luck.”

Johnny thought that really didn't help. Sol had never
sounded
worried before, not even when they were leaving Atlantis. He scanned again and could sense the fighters were moving to head him off—and were succeeding. The Piccadilly didn't have its own weapons. And though it was the fastest of their shuttles, he was sure it couldn't outstrip a krun fighter. His only hope was to keep out of trouble long enough for Sol to be able to rescue them.

“Hold on,” he shouted to his assembled passengers and swung the shuttle upward and away from their pursuers. The fighters would be on him in 38 seconds. The Piccadilly
's
engines screamed as Johnny urged the red double-decker bus forward toward the blackness of empty space. “Come on,” he pleaded, concentrating his thoughts on keeping track of all five krun ships. They were closing in, spread out in an attack pattern converging on his position. They were almost on top of him.

Johnny thought “full reverse engines” and the krun fighters overshot, while Bentley slid forward along the length of the shuttle, unable to hold onto anything. “Just can't get the drivers nowadays,” said Johnny's dad, tutting as he clung on to his seat. Johnny knew he'd only bought himself a few extra seconds. As he steered the ship away with his mind, the very fabric of space right in the middle of the krun fighters rippled and unfolded. At last—Sol must have made it.

“What's that?” Louise asked from behind him.

Johnny turned around to see a stubby white spaceship unleash a barrage of fire that disintegrated two of the krun ships. The other three scattered. Only one was heading for the Piccadilly. “Sorry guys,” Johnny shouted as he deliberately started the shuttle spinning in a downward spiral toward Neptune, through the rings, just trusting to luck. A blast of green light passed them very close on one side and Johnny
pulled upward, narrowly missing a rock twice the Piccadilly's size as the shuttle's engines whined horribly. Again the fighter overshot. Scanning the surrounding space told Johnny that only two krun ships now survived: one emerging from the rings, still right behind; the other heading away from the planet and out into space. The white spaceship was speeding toward the Piccadilly head-on while the krun fighter was right on Johnny's tail. A familiar voice sounded inside Johnny's head and he swung the Piccadilly away to the left, just as a beam of white light came from the larger craft. The fighter disappeared in a blinding cloud of light and gas and Johnny breathed another sigh of relief.

He heard the voice again, this time coming out of the Piccadilly's speakers. “This is Imperial Frigate Cheybora—do you require assistance?”

“I think you've just given it,” said Johnny. “Thanks guys.”

Back on the Spirit of London, Johnny left Bentley and Rusty with his dad and Louise in sickbay and sprinted straight down the corridor to the lifts. He ran out onto the dinodeck, only to find it deserted except for the figure of Alf, supporting Clara on top of the rock near the center. It made no sense at all, but Sol's drones were already stripping away the vegetation and carrying it off, restoring the deck to a five-a-side football pitch. They couldn't
all
be dead … could they? It had looked to be going so well from that brief flash he'd seen back on Nereid. A moment earlier Johnny had been so happy, but now … He walked slowly over to where the other two were sitting.

“What happened?” Johnny asked. “What went wrong?”

Clara looked up, saw Johnny's face and started to cry.

“Ptery? Donna?” Johnny asked again. He knew it was too dangerous and he should never have asked them to go.

“They're … they're fine,” Clara replied, between sobs.

“Then why are you crying?” Johnny asked.

“'Cos I'm so happy, stupid.”

Girls certainly behaved oddly at times. “Then where are they all?” Johnny asked.