Phoenix

by S. F. Said

  ‘We’re not gonna persuade him to make peace, are we?’ said Bixa.

  ‘Did you hear that stuff about killing the whole Human race? I don’t care if he’s my father – I think he’s crazy!’

  She giggled. ‘You’ve got a crazy dad! I should’ve guessed – it runs in the family!’

  ‘Hey!’ he protested. ‘That’s not fair!’

  ‘Awww,’ she mocked. ‘Anyway – I don’t believe he’s all that crazy. I just think he’s so desperate to win the War, it’s blinded him to everything else.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Lucky nodded. In the sudden clarity, he was remembering his encounter at the Spacewall. ‘You know, I think President Thorntree’s the same. They both believe they’re doing the right thing – but between them, they’re destroying the galaxy.’ He shook his head in confusion. ‘So who are the good guys?’

  ‘Maybe there aren’t any good guys,’ said Bixa. ‘Maybe there aren’t even any bad guys. Maybe . . . they’re just people. All of them, just people. Good and bad at the same time.’

  They looked up. It was deepest night over Charon, but the sky was whiter than ever. The supernova of Aquarius looked brighter, and even more unstable. It could not be long before it collapsed in on itself forever.

  ‘We’ve got to save the stars,’ said Lucky. ‘That’s the important thing. But how?’

  Frollix came out of the cabin, and joined them on the ice. The three of them stood there in silence, looking up at the sky. They turned away from the dying supernova, and saw an awesome sight in the other direction, one that prickled the hairs on Lucky’s neck.

  It was open space, infinite and unboundaried. The endless black highway to all the other galaxies and undiscovered countries out there ahead.

  I could look at that view forever and never get bored, he thought to himself.

  ‘Ain’t it beautiful, brother?’ said Frollix, gazing up at it. ‘When I look at the stars now, I see how they were, billions of years ago, when all that light started out. Right back to the beginning of everything . . . And I can’t believe it’s all got to end, just ’cos of this stupid war.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Lucky. ‘I know.’ He felt overwhelmed with sadness. But what could he do about it, even with all his power, if the two sides wouldn’t stop fighting?

  ‘Lucky?’ said Frollix softly. ‘Remember when Gala said you didn’t need a parent to tell you what to do? She said you’d find your answers for yourself, in yourself. Well, maybe that’s true.’ He put his great arms around them both. ‘Look at us. Look how far we’ve come. Think about all the things we’ve done together. We did them on our own, without anyone telling us what to do.’ His eyes glowed with deep blue fire. ‘So it’s your decision what happens now. No one else’s. Whatever you wanna do: you just say the word, and we’ll back you up.’

  Lucky looked at his friends, and his heart welled up. ‘Thank you,’ he said quietly. ‘Thank you so much, both of you. I just wish I knew what to do—’

  ssssshh

  A soft hissing sound. Behind him, above him. It set his teeth on edge.

  His mouth went dry.

  He peered up into the sky – hoping against hope that he was wrong – but there –

  – oh

  no

  not them –

  not here –

  not now –

  – there was a V-shaped shadow in the sky.

  A shadowship, swooping out of the radiation storm, silhouetted against the supernova.

  And now at last Lucky understood that strange darkness in space he’d glimpsed in the astrolabe: the darkness that seemed to be following him.

  They must have been tracking him, shielded in stealth armour, all this time, all this way. Ever since that meeting with the President, they must’ve been behind him as he made his way to Charon, to his father, to the Axxa army’s secret base.

  He turned to his friends, and saw them staring at the shadow in the sky.

  He couldn’t bear to lose their friendship now – not after all the things they’d just said – but he couldn’t lie to them any more.

  ‘There’s something I have to tell you,’ he said. ‘I met President Thorntree at the Spacewall. She made me promise to keep it secret. I didn’t want to, but we’d still be stuck there if I hadn’t.’ He was painfully aware of how weak it sounded. ‘She tricked me. I think she sent that ship to follow me—’

  ‘It’s all right, Lucky,’ said Frollix, looking down. ‘We knew.’

  His heart jolted. ‘You did?’

  ‘You can’t keep secrets from Startalkers, kid!’ Frollix’s eyes flashed.

  ‘I’m so sorry – I should’ve told you, I know,’ said Lucky. ‘But she threatened us, she said we’d never see each other again—’

  ‘It’s OK, you moonbrain!’ said Bixa. ‘I understand why you did it. What I don’t understand is this. What kind of adult uses a kid like that? What kind of leader rules with secrets and lies?’

  Oh, those words meant so much to him at that moment. He clung onto them, as if to life itself. He looked up at the sky again – and his heart stopped dead in his chest.

  Because it wasn’t just one V-shaped shadow.

  It was hundreds of them. Thousands. And more were coming through the radiation storm every moment, swooping down on Charon.

  The whole Human fleet, it seemed, was descending from the dying sky.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Sirens began to wail around the Axxa base.

  Lucky saw Skyhawks taking off, shields going up, artillery locking onto the black ships in the sky. He saw troopers scramble into action. And now the first bombs began to fall, as the shadowships sent down their deadly rain.

  BLAMMM!!!

  The Axxa gunners sent great streams of cannon fire back at their enemies. They hit a shadowship full on, crippling its shields, making it glow brighter and brighter – until the black ship exploded, and the Axxa roar of triumph went up into the sky.

  But Lucky just stared in horror at the destruction erupting all around him. He could hear the screams of dying people on the wind; he could smell burning flesh and metal. It was like that Skyhawk pilot he’d sensed in the astrolabe: he felt nothing but sorrow as life after life was snuffed out.

  His father strode out of the cabin. If he was surprised by the appearance of the Human fleet, or afraid of them, he did not show it. He was proud and straight-backed: a leader utterly certain of his purpose, even now. ‘My son,’ he said. ‘Tell me you will destroy them.’

  Helpless, hopeless, Lucky shook his head.

  His father’s eyes burned. ‘How many of us must die before you do your duty?’ he said. And with that, he stormed away to command his forces. ‘People of the Stars!’ he cried. ‘Stand and fight! This is our chance to finish the Humans forever!’

  Lucky stood there by the cabin, Frollix and Bixa by his side. A blast of ice whipped into their faces. The blizzard was rising again. It was blowing like the end of the world.

  Frollix’s words cut through the wind. ‘Lucky,’ he said. ‘We’re still with you. We’ll back you up, we’ll follow you to the end of the world – but this is it. You need to decide. What are you gonna do with your power? How are we gonna save the stars?’

  Lucky’s scalp tingled. The stars. Surely they knew what he was meant to do?

  He concentrated, trying to reach for the stars in his mind – but he couldn’t hear them over the explosions. He couldn’t feel them through the blaze of battle.

  He needed to go up: above and beyond the battle. He needed to get away from all this destruction, to see them clearly once again.

  He looked at the ice mountain. He couldn’t even see its summit from here – but he felt drawn to it.

  ‘What is it?’ said Frollix, as Mystica and Nox joined them outside the cabin.

  ‘I have to go up,’ Lucky said, staring at the slopes. ‘I have to see the stars.’

  ‘Of course he does,’ breathed Mystica hoarsely. ‘And we have to get him there!’

&n
bsp; She still looked pale and weak, but there was a little life in her yet. Lucky clung onto hope. Maybe she’s going to make it, after all? If I can just get close enough to the stars – maybe I’ll find a way to save us all . . .

  ‘Let’s go, then,’ he said. ‘One last climb.’

  His boots crunched in the snow as he took his first steps up the mountain. Bazooka lit the way, perched on his shoulder. Bixa climbed beside him. Frollix was on the other side, carrying Mystica. Captain Nox refused to be carried; he was strong enough now to climb on his own.

  It wasn’t too steep at first. But it grew steadily steeper, and more slippery. The wind whipped and ripped and lashed his skin, but he kept moving up through snow and rock.

  Below him, above him, the War raged on. Even here on the mountain slopes, the wind was thick with smoke, and the ground shook with explosions as the two great forces threw everything they had at each other. The whole world seemed to be on fire.

  It doesn’t have to be like this, thought Lucky. There could be peace. But instead, they’ll fight and fight until there’s nothing left.

  Nothing left at all.

  He kept climbing. The mountain got steeper the higher he climbed. It became hard to get a grip on the frozen snow. His feet kept slipping, sliding beneath him. Even with his hooves powering him up, his legs kept giving way. Each time he slipped, he put out his hands to catch himself – and ripped his palms on sharp-edged ice.

  His friends weren’t faring much better. It was a struggle for them all. But higher and higher they climbed, though they kept falling back a step for every two they took.

  The first shadowships were now landing at the foot of the mountain. Human forces swarmed out from them, and engaged the Axxa in combat. President Thorntree herself was commanding them, clad in battle armour.

  King Theobroma met them head on with his Axxa troopers, but there were more Shadow Guards landing all the time. They began to force the Axxa back, gaining ground through sheer brute force. The King started to retreat up the mountain slope – in the same direction Lucky was going, towards the top.

  Lucky kept climbing.

  Breathing was getting harder. His lungs felt small and shrivelled. His breath came out in crystal clouds. The moisture in his eyes was freezing; solid chunks of ice were forming on his eyelashes, big as coins. His hands were numb with cold and aflame with pain, all at the same time.

  All he wanted to do was lie down in the snow, lie down and rest, but—

  FLASSSHHH!!!

  ‘Keep going!’ cried Bixa, as the supernova blazed in the sky, and Mystica writhed in pain. ‘Keep climbing – Aquarius could die any time.’

  Lucky hauled himself up another step. It was a huge effort, straining up that icy slope into white fog. Even with Bazooka lighting the way, he still couldn’t see the mountaintop. There was no way of knowing how far away it was, or if they’d ever make it. Yet he felt certain that was where he had to be.

  Below him on the mountainside, more and more people were climbing upwards, their figures reduced to ghostly shadows by the blizzard and the fog of war. Shots rang out, but his friends were guarding the rear now, shielding him again, just to give him a chance to make it to the top and see the stars once more.

  He was bent double, pulling himself towards the summit, one back-breaking step at a time. And then he had to go down on his hands and knees, just to haul himself a little bit closer to the top –

  – and closer –

  – until finally, with hands torn and bloody from the ice, his fingers touched flat ground –

  – and he hauled himself up onto a plateau.

  They’d reached the summit of the mountain. The highest point on Charon. Shards of ice and frozen stone lay all around. It was utterly barren and lifeless.

  Bixa and Frollix stood beside him on the summit. Despite the freezing cold, Frollix took off his coat and laid Mystica gently down on it. The Captain lay by her side. Below them, not far from the mountaintop, King Theobroma and President Thorntree were commanding their forces, locked in deadly battle, climbing higher all the time.

  Lucky looked up. The stars were visible at last – but only as points of darkness, black against the bone-white sky, like eyeholes in a skull.

  ‘So what is it?’ he called up at them, pleading. ‘What am I here for? What am I supposed to do?’

  And from the stars –

  – there was no reply.

  Aquarius hung like a cracked jewel in space. The connections that held it together had been ripped apart by the Starburner. It was a pitiful and terrifying sight.

  FLASSSHHH!!!

  The dying star convulsed once again, and Mystica doubled up in agony on the ground.

  Bixa reached down to her grandmother. ‘Mystica – are you OK?’

  The old lady shook her head, exhausted. Her eyes were losing their golden colour. They were fading, like a sun going out. ‘The power will pass to you now, Bixa,’ she whispered. ‘Use it wisely . . . I’ve always been proud of you, my dearest – you know that, don’t you?’

  Bixa’s eyes were wet. She took her grandmother’s hand. ‘Mystica, please, hang on. You can’t leave us . . .’

  Mystica tried to hold onto her. She gripped Bixa with pale fingers, gripped her tight –

  – and then her fingers trembled, and her grip slipped, and her fingers curled away –

  – and she was gone.

  It was that simple. That stark.

  It was as if something left her body, and was gone. Whatever it was that made her Mystica – whatever the source of her power and her life – it was gone.

  There was nothing left in its place. Nothing but a cold, dead, lifeless body, curled up on the ground.

  ‘No!’ begged Bixa, tears streaming down her face. ‘Come back! Mystica, please don’t die!’

  Beside her, Lucky felt his own face crumple. Because they couldn’t save her. For all his power, for all Bixa’s, for all that they loved the old lady and would’ve done anything for her – they couldn’t save her at the end. Bixa was wailing – ‘No, no, no!’ – but she knew it too.

  Mystica was dead.

  FLASSSHHH!!!

  And in the sky above, with one last scream of supernova light, her star died with her.

  Its massive body began to implode. It was folding in on itself. Collapsing.

  As it collapsed, its final blast of light seemed to curve round, and bend back into the broken heart of the star.

  Aquarius was sucking its own light back in –

  – and becoming a black hole.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Aquarius began to shrink. Very soon now, this massive star would be gone from the universe. And where it once was, there would be nothing left but a black hole so vast and powerful, it would consume the entire galaxy.

  ‘Father!’ pleaded Lucky. ‘President Thorntree. Look at the sky. It’s happening – the black hole is coming! Please listen to me: you have to stop fighting!’

  He screamed with all the force in his lungs, but his voice was drowned out by the destruction all around. No one was listening. Not his father. Not the President. Not the Axxa troopers or the Shadow Guards.

  Those people in power, who were meant to know what they were doing: they were so fixed on destroying each other, they didn’t even see the death that was falling on them all from above. They were just blasting away at each other, trying to kill as many people as they could – neither side willing to stop, not even for a moment.

  There was another huge explosion. It knocked Lucky off his feet. The mountain shuddered with the force of it, like it might break to dust beneath him.

  He looked up at the sky again – and felt cold to the centre of his marrow. Aquarius was gone. It was no longer in the universe; it had been annihilated. And the planets around it, one by one, were being sucked into the titanic black hole that was growing in its place.

  And now, at the heart of the black hole, he could see . . . Nothing.

  He stared and stared
at it, but his eyes would not accept it. They kept sliding away, recoiling, unable to gain any grip on its surface.

  For there was no surface. No depth. No up, no down. No light or dark; no sound or silence.

  Just . . . Nothing. The same Absolute Nothing he’d seen at the heart of the Rainbow Temple Wheel. The ancient and terrible void behind the sky. The negation and destruction and the end of all things.

  His mind buckled before it.

  An overpowering wave of despair hit him. All meaning was sucked out of the world. All hope and purpose and connection were destroyed.

  His field of vision narrowed. His eyes lost focus.

  All he could see now was himself. He was alone in the universe.

  And nothing matters.

  Nothing matters any more.

  He was going down into darkness when he felt a hand grab his own.

  A hand he knew. Warmer, smaller, softer . . .

  Bixa.

  Bixa Quicksilver was holding onto him, the connection flowing through them –

  – and the wave of despair receded, just a little.

  She matters. Of course she matters.

  His focus widened. The blur cleared.

  He looked at her. She looked at him. There was surprise in her eyes: exactly the same surprise he felt.

  They looked down at each other’s hands – and saw their fingers intertwined. They were holding hands again, just as they had at Gala’s concert.

  ‘It’s connection!’ cried Lucky, feeling a sudden dizzy spark of hope. ‘Connection is the thing that protects against the Living Death!’

  ‘Yes!’ said Bixa. ‘Remember the captain? I held onto his hand, and he came back. And on Scorpio – you and me and Frollix – we were dancing together, weren’t we? We were holding hands. Just like we are now.’ She looked at their fingers, and smiled. ‘When you destroy Dark Matter connections, the Nothing gets through. But if we hold onto each other, if we stay connected . . .’

  ‘. . . then we can survive this!’ said Lucky. Still holding Bixa’s hand, he looked up again –