Star of Fantasy

by Jacky Qian

  Mandis asked, "How can we get there through the forest of giant trees?"

  "They left some tanks in the garage!" Runt said. "With a tank, it won't take us long to get to the shore!"

  Boom! As the lift stopped, the underground lava also rushed through the earth crust, spurting hot steam.

  "Hurry up! Get into the tank!" commanded Darwin, "The Nazi base has already shaken violently. A tremendous eruption is imminent!"

  Rumbling, the huge tank jerked forward across the passage. Nina held fast to the steering wheel, and Silverstar hoped for a safe return to the twenty-first century.

  The tank sprang out of a cave and across the super-acid swamp. Then they pounded through the forest. When they were fifty or sixty meters from the foot of Mount Blade, the volcano eruption led to a huge explosion at its crest, resulting in an onslaught of lava and debris. The shock wave from the explosion upended their stomachs, and they were momentarily deafened by the thunderous sound of the earth shaking. Nina, however, remained steady at the controls, and the tank moved on to relative safety.

  Tangled Monster

  As the volcanic eruption continued in the distance, the tank moved forward along a bumpy track through the forest. Silverstar grew more excited about the prospect of returning home.

  "To which era will be return?" Darwin pondered.

  Nina was able to explain it all very neatly. "Once you enter hyperspace, you'll flow back to the era from which you embarked. When you return there, you'll find a difference of only a couple of days or hours from the time you left it." She went on to shake hands with Darwin, saying, "It's been a distinct privilege for me to have fought side by side with a great man like you!"

  "The privilege is mine," Darwin replied with a smile. Then he raised his hands high and said to the other time travelers, "Dear all, I've had a lot of fun working with you over the past seventy years!"

  "So have we, boss!"

  "Don't forget Darren! He's a real hero!" Rhode said cheerfully.

  "Nina, when they all bid farewell in tears," said Jack, "I'll say it has been great privilege... a pleasure... to meet you, and I..."

  Silverstar, given his youthful innocence, was keen to observe any such encounter. Nevertheless, he blushed every time.

  Something bumped into the tank with considerably violent impact. If the tank weren't heavy, it would've been knocked over.

  "What is that?" asked Darwin. Nina made a few clicks on the holographic image to show what was happening outside. A huge red scorpion was running alongside the tank.

  "It's that mutant monster!" cried Nicholas, immediately recognizing it. "Didn't it fall into the volcano?"

  "Did you see it before?" asked Nina, "It was called Blood Scorpion, one of the biological weapons manipulated by Ossien. Look at the pupil of his eyes. The pupils of his blood-red eye balls resemble a sharp prickle. It shows that it's acting as instructed."

  "What instruction?" asked Darwin as the vehicle shook and rattled over the path.

  "The instruction to attack any human. Clearly the instruction hasn't been canceled. So, it's still chasing us."

  With a bang, the tank was hit again by the blood scorpion.

  "Let it fee; the power of our missiles!" shouted Nina. She made a few clicks on the system interface, and two missiles were launched. They hit the blood scorpion. It was enraged and jumped directly at the tank. It clenched its jaws around the gun tube and held fast.

  "Damn it! Release the missile of hellfire!" cried Nina. She went on to explain, "When we were hit by the missile of hellfire at the travelers' base, I turned on the electromagnetic shield to protect you. Otherwise, you would've died in the explosion."

  "No wonder we didn't get killed!" said Jack with gratitude. "Oh, my goddess! You saved us!"

  "Come on. We don't have time for romance now!" said Nina. The plasma missile of hellfire flew out from the split gun tube. It took a curve before hitting the blood scorpion and then carried the beast for ten meters before exploding. The shock wave from the explosion was so powerful that it almost uprooted a nearby tree. Nicholas was relieved, believing the beast had been killed.

  "Here we are at the seaside! Come on! Let's find the submarine!" reminded Nina.

  The blue sea looked extraordinarily beautiful under the bright morning sun. Silverstar, though, had little time to appreciate it.

  They looked around. "But... where is the submarine?" asked Simons.

  Nicholas jumped onto a wave-battered rock just below. He was greeted by a keenly salt-scented ocean spray. Straining his eyes across the dazzling sea surface under the bright sunlight, he saw rusty metal vaguely.

  "It's over there, in the water!" shouted Nicholas. Before he could finish, the scorched blood scorpion hurled the tank toward him. The tank exploded, sending shrapnel in all directions. Silverstar saw what the beast meant to do. He dragged Catherine along and they jumped into the water together, followed by the rest of the group.

  Outside the water, the blood scorpion made a thunderous roar. In the water, Nicholas was descending, leaving a trail of delicious human blood. Silverstar suffered a terrible earache at four or five meters below the surface, and he knew that death could follow if he went any deeper. Suddenly a light shone upon him. Instantly his earache disappeared and he could breathe freely.

  "Wow! This is awesome!" shouted Silverstar. To his amazement, he found that he could even speak underwater.

  "Unbelievable!" Runt said. "Nina, how'd you do it?"

  "Hey, it's a secret," Nina replied as she put away the torch she had shone on them.

  Runt tried to act accommodating. "Well, if it's really a secret, you may keep it if you like."

  Silverstar shouted. "Nina! Nicholas was still descending!"

  No sooner had Nina sprayed some rapid-recovery medicine onto Nicholas than he woke up.

  "The submarine is in the water!" said Nicholas as the fog cleared from his eyes. "Where am I?"

  "Oh, my God!" exclaimed Silverstar. "That is so cool!"

  The submarine, roughly twenty meters long, was of a different design than the modern nuclear submarine, and it had a wing on each side for use in launching torpedoes. It was of a fundamentally cylindrical shape, but it had a head of tempered glass like the space ship and a periscope at the top.

  As a roar was heard from the water, a monstrous fish swam toward them. "That's a Rey Los Tiburones... a king shark!" Nina said. "It's also one of the early biological weapons!"

  "Look at its eyes!" shouted Ark, "It has pointed pupils!"

  "Is it possible that Ossien ordered all his controlled creatures to attack any human that fell into the volcano?" thought Silverstar. He immediately realized that it wasn't a good time for deep thinking. He shouted, "Everybody! Run... or swim!"

  The so-called Rey Los Tiburones (king shark) was actually a bronze fish of the kind they had previously encountered. It swam toward them in a frenzied rush. Nina took out her laser gun and repeatedly fired at the beast. Despite being wounded several times, it simply paused for a few seconds and continued its attack.

  The submarine was free of any seaweed or shellfish, indicating that it hadn't been used in a long time. Mandis, Sears, Ark and Ronnie were the first to attempt a collective turn of the hatch door, which displayed a holographic message in German.

  "It needs a password!" cried Nina. "That could be the riddle we just solved! Open it, as fast as you can!" She kept shooting at the rey los tiburones. "One needs to stay calm under pressure to become a scientist!" thought Darwin. He took a long inhalation and briefly considered wiping the sweat off his forehead. Then, however, he realized that he was in water.

  The password must be the motto of our great leader Albert Ossien.

  "That's easy!" Darwin said, almost joking, as he entered the code. "I'll lead the human being to complete the perfect plan of evolution to the next stage."

  "Huh!" laughed the old man. "When designing such a code, they didn't expect that their own leader would betray them!"

  The kin
g shark rushed forward and bumped into the hatch door just a second after, thus closing it behind them.

  After discharging the water, they walked inside the submarine and rushed to its operation room. Simons dropped onto the captain's seat and said, "As a captain, I'll command the ship!"

  Just as he fired up the engine, the king sharp attacked the submarine again and knocked off a chunk of iron. Nina shouted, "We have just ten minutes left. Full speed ahead to hyperspace!"

  "Let's fry that damned shark out there!" said Darwin as he pressed a button to launch two plasma torpedoes. The king shark swallowed both and was immediately obliterated.

  The submarine Nautilus forged ahead at top speed. Seeing the ship, the blood scorpion roared at the sky and leaped into the water.

  Reentry into Hyperspace

  "We still have six minutes left!" said Nina after checking her compass. According to Hicks' device, the time and space pulse was 1709, approaching the level of radiation.

  Nina explained the situation: "When sucked into the turbulent current of the time and space without a space machine, one is going to experience the paralysis of brain nerves leading to a pause of their transmission. In other words, you'll faint. Anyway, don't worry. Since you were exposed to the magic light, you won't be harmed by this."

  Boom! A storm emerged all of sudden in the sky. Its energy wave drove forward the seawater which, in turn, pummeled the submarine. Silverstar said nervously, "Are you sure we'll get back to our era?"

  "I'm completely sure," said Nina to the rest of group with a smile. "You'll be able to do that pretty soon."

  Jack wiped away a few tears and said, "Nina, to be honest, I don't want to leave you."

  Darwin gave Jack a knock on the head and said, "Jack, how could you act like such a child? After all, we're time travelers! We've saved the earth by revealing the worst conspiracy and defeating the worst enemy ever known to the mankind! Now we finally could go home. We've waited for this for years, haven't we?"

  "Boss, to be frank, I've grown used to living here with you. I'm worried that Rhode and I might not be able to fit in the era of hustle and bustle," said Ark.

  "You'll fit in," said Nina, "You guys are sociable human instead of the Robinson in the novel."

  She didn't tell them yet that her team leader had made some minor changes to the turbulent current of time and space to facilitate travel.

  "Anyway" said Darwin, "It's truly a privilege to know you all!"

  "We feel the same way, boss!"

  "And you," said Darwin to Silverstar and his special friends, "You're the best kids – the best young people – I've ever met!"

  "Thanks, Darwin!" said Hicks.

  The tornado emerged with a raging and whining wind. Out of nowhere appeared the blood scorpion. With an earth-shaking roar, it sank its claws into the submarine, causing a splash of sparks. Then came the piercing sound of metal ripping and rivets popping. The scorpion even ripped the head straight off the submarine.

  "Darwin!" screamed Silverstar, and he leaped forward to pull his mentor out of harm's way.

  "Thanks, kid!"

  "Watch out!" Catherine shouted. She pulled Silverstar back a few steps. The blood scorpion pounded with is claws where he had just been. "Whew! That was too close for comfort!" Silverstar said. Immediately, though, he repaid the favor by pulling Catherine back from the clutches of a huge wave.

  "It's my turn to say thank you!" said Catherine with a smile.

  "My biggest dream is to have an adventure with you!" answered Silverstar.

  The submarine lost its control system and stopped where it had been. The blood scorpion continued to savage the submersible. Nina made a few clicks on the control panel to launch nearly a dozen torpedoes at the beast. It was thus annihilated.

  "The tornado is sucking us in!" Nina cried. As the rain poured down, the seawater kept pummeling Silverstar. He grabbed an iron railing and saw Catherine, who was close by. He clawed his way to her and held her hand, saying, "Well, I'm afraid of the worst-case scenario. So, I guess I need to get it off my chest!" She asked, "What is it?"

  "I've liked you ever since I met you at school!"

  Boom! With those words, the storm swept them off. They were sucked into the tornado where electrical current and reddish light could be seen.

  "I hope we'll meet each other in the same era in our next life... if there is one!" shouted Darwin.

  "It's a deal, boss!" shouted the rest time travelers together.

  "Silverstar! Everybody else! Good-bye!" said Darwin. "Meet you in the future!" said Nina. She gave him the thumbs-up sign and smiled.

  They found it difficult to think straight amid the cacophony. The blood scorpion vaulted out of the sea and caught hold of the submarine, and it too was drawn into the turbulence of the time-space vortex.

  Silverstar had to find a way to get rid of the creature. Suddenly, a box of blue gold slid along the floor toward him as the beast wrestled with the submarine. Silverstar realized that he still had an electrical current launcher. He turned it on and jabbed it into the blue gold just as the box slid past. The box emitted a blue light and fell toward the scorpion before the group could be washed into its wide-open mouth. The monster's roar became a miserable, groaning scream. Its head was blasted to bits, and the remnants fell as a gigantic spill of gelatinous green fluid.

  Before he passed out, Silverstar had seen, in his vague consciousness, a mass of green light over the ground and sea, followed by a scorching fire.

  Jack

  As the cool seawater flew past part of his body, Jack gradually regained his senses.

  As the saying goes, "no pain, no gain." It was appropriate to describe Jack's experience.

  As the salty scent of the sea rushed up his nostrils along with the night cool wind, Jack awoke to see a bright moon hanging in the sky. Several crows were fighting nosily with seagulls for food.

  Jack yawned and said, "Well, I had a good sleep! Hi, Dad!"

  "Jack, where did ye go to?" asked the old pirate. "Come on, now, and have a bottle of rum! Today you'll inherit my ship, the Black Pearl."

  "She's charming, this Ship!" said Jack as he walked along the craft, surveying it like a proud captain.

  "It seems I had a dream, or perhaps a vision. But, where did the wounds on my hands come from? Well. I certainly don't know or recall." Jack tilted his head back and poured in a good chug of the syrupy liquor.

  "Come on, Jack!" said the old pirate as he tossed something to him. "Catch it! It's my magical compass! It will lead ye towards your destination, wherever ye may want to go. Tomorrow morn' we'll head out to destroy the royal navy vessel and plunder gold and treasures from the Spanish, and our story will go down in history."

  "Right ye be! We're great pirates! Yo-ho! Have a bottle of rum! Ha-ha!" said Jack as he laughed merrily.

  After a great party, Jack walked up a wooden flight of steps slowly to the cabin while touching the exquisite carved railing. He opened his compass, which pointed toward the sun rising from the horizon. "Come on, bro's!" shouted Jack to his men below. "Set sail! I'm the great Captain Jack!"

  The Twenty-First Century

  The slight pungency of the sea told Silverstar that he was back in his own era. He opened his eyes to see clouds float past as they drifted toward the greenish-gray horizon. He slowly sat up only to find himself on the debris of the battered submarine. He wondered, "Well, where are the others? Are they okay?"

  Silverstar looked around and found all the survivors of the Titanic II, including Catherine, Nicholas, Runt, Simons, Mandis, Nemo and Hicks. Nina and the other time travelers were nowhere to be found. Then he saw that they were all floating on the sea.

  "Hey! Wake up, people!" said Silverstar as he ran and shook each of them. "Look! We're back!"

  "Yes, we are!" exclaimed Runt happily.

  A helicopter flew past, and Silverstar shouted excitedly, "Awesome! We're finally home!"

  He gave Nicholas a high-five.

  "That's great!
" said Simons with a smile. "Listen, everyone. I have some very good news."

  "What is it?" asked Runt.

  "Mandis is no longer my first mate. He has just been promoted to the post of staff captain due to his extraordinary performance in this adventure! Nemo, you've become my first mate due to your outstanding courage! Let's all celebrate our safe return to the twenty-first century!"

  The crowd cheered.

  A rescue vessel approached from the distance, blaring its siren to announce that help was on the way. The party began to celebrate their imminent rescue.

  "How are you?" shouted a doctor in white wearing a wireless headphone, "We're sent by the New York division of the Coast Guard to search for survivors! And you must be Captain Simons! It's great to see you!" He reached out his hand to help the man sit upright. "We rushed over upon the receipt of your mayday signal!"

  "How about our passengers? Are they all right?" asked Simons.

  "You're a qualified captain." said Mandis nearby, "always putting the safety of your passengers first."

  "They've all been saved!" the doctor replied. Looking at Silverstar and others, he said, "Ah, they must be the surviving passengers. And you must be Nicholas. Your father has been looking for you, and we have contacted him."

  "Excuse me, but what time is it now?" asked Silverstar.

  "What? You don't know yet?" replied another rescuer. "Five hours have passed since the accident on your cruise. What happened to the ship?"

  "It seems there is some difference in time," Silverstar continued. "Anyway, I'll tell you our story later. That'll be fun!"

  Nicholas smiled understandingly.

  "Well" the doctor said, "let's get some hot chocolate for our young friends. It's time to call their families."

  It was a truly great adventure. Standing on the deck, Silverstar savored the beauty of the Atlantic. He asked Hicks, "There have been reports of the turbulent current of time and space over the Bermuda Triangle. Is it possible that such phenomena were caused by the collision of the evil star? I saw the collision spot on Ossien's map of the ancient continent."