Nate Armstrong and the Death Ray of Sultron

by Mark Lawson

Nate found himself standing on the edge of an enormous room. It was so large that he could barely see the opposite wall. He looked up, but all that he could see was a thick darkness that vanished into the void above his head.

  As Nate stood at the edge of the room a light appeared high above his head. An enormous, golden sphere floated down towards them, its radiant glow illuminating every corner of the vast room.

  “No need to be afraid,” assured Farden, sensing Nate’s trepidation.

  Nate looked up and focused on the massive object as he slowly edged away from the doorway and further into the room. As a bright, golden light flooded the room, Nate noticed all over and within the great sphere the same fibrous structures that had lined the corridors. The fibres seemed to pulse with life as they grew larger and shone brighter within the orb.

  “This is the heart and mind of the ship,” explained Farden.

  Nate inched towards the great sphere, captivated by its size and its beauty. As he looked closely at the edge of the enormous ball of light he realised that it was made of the same metallic material that he had seen throughout the ship. Again, Farden’s voice cut across Nate’s attempt to rationalise what he saw, “The ship is not really made of anything. Some parts, of course, have been built, but the ship, as a whole, is not a thing, but a living organism.”

  “Ship,” exclaimed Nate, missing the real import of Farden’s words. “Am I really on board a real-life space ship?”

  “Hello Nathaniel Armstrong. I’m Big Sister. If you need anything while you are on board, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

  “Thank you, I can’t think of anything I need right now,” Nate replied instinctively, not at all sure of where the voice had come from. He looked about him half expecting to see someone in the far corner of the room as he struggled to contain another gaping yawned.

  “You had better get some sleep very soon,” continued Big Sister. “Your first molecular transport can really take it out of you.”

  Nate spun around looking for the source of the voice.

  Farden grinned. “It’s the ship Nathaniel Armstrong. The ship is Big Sister. You really had better get some sleep. Your body needs to readjust.”

  Nate reluctantly agreed as a yawn that would have done a hippopotamus proud echoed around the room. He had so many questions and there were so many things that he wanted to see, but they would have to wait for another day.

  “How will I be home before dinner if I sleep?” questioned Nate. “You said that I would be home before my family misses me.”.

  “We will have you home before dinner,” interjected Big Sister. “For most of our journey we will be traveling at speeds in excess of the speed of light. That’s 299,792,458 metres per second you know. At speeds greater than the speed of light, time changes. In fact, as we travel faster and faster above the speed of light time begins to travel backwards for us. It doesn’t matter how long you think you are away, we will have you back to your family just moments after you left.”

  “Cool,” thought Nate. “Can I get back before I leave?” he queried, his head swimming with thoughts of the limitless number of practical jokes that he could play upon his sisters if there were two Nathaniel Armstrongs in the house at the same time.

  “Yes, in theory, but we don’t want to do that. If you arrive home before you left, then you will probably meet up with yourself,” responded Big Sister. “Nobody has ever done that before and I am not able to predict what will happen if someone does. Maybe, the two identical bodies will pull towards each other in a kind of gravitational attraction, causing two separate times to come together in a single place. There could be an explosion that will destroy a portion of time forever. Conversely, the two bodies may repel each other like two identical poles of a magnet – pushing each other out of their time or space. No one knows what the consequences will be if that ever happens.”

  Nate struggled to contain another yawn. “I guess I don’t want to be the first to find out either,” he conceded just before another gigantic yawn broke through his tightly clenched jaws.

  Nate followed Farden out of the room.

  Once safely behind the door Nate pumped his fist in the air and stamped his feet like he was running on the spot. “Whooo, that is just so super cool. How is that even possible for a space ship to be alive?”

  Farden laughed at Nate’s display of enthusiasm. “Big Sister is like a living computer. She controls the whole ship. In fact, she is the ship. When the ship was initially built, it was constructed like any other vessel. So, in a sense, a part of the ship was made. Then we uploaded Big Sister into the ship’s computer: that was the computer program that was designed to operate and fly the craft. But after the program was installed it developed a consciousness that no other computer or machine has ever developed before. We don’t know how or why it happened, all that we know is that Big Sister is a living organism and that she has now taken over every component on the ship. She can see you and speak with you whenever you are on board. You probably realise by now that she can read your thoughts just like I can. If you need anything, or if you are in any danger, Big Sister will be able to help.”

  “Can you hear me now Big Sister?” asked Nate, testing the accuracy of Farden’s explanation.

  “Of course I can Nathaniel Armstrong,” she replied.

  “Just so I have this straight,” asked Nate with a smile, “you’ll look after me while I’m on board, but you won’t boss me around of tell me not to touch your stuff?”

  “I’m not like your real big sister,” she confirmed, much to Nate’s relief.

  The corridor stretched out ahead of the two odd companions as they continued through the ship.

  “Pity there are no windows so that I can see out into space,” thought Nate as he continued after Farden.

  “Of course,” replied Big Sister. “That’s a very good idea Nathaniel Armstrong.”

  Immediately, the walls along the corridor thinned until they became, at first, translucent, and then completely transparent. The walls were now as clear as a pane of glass. Only the floor upon which Nate had been walking retained its original appearance. The same fibres that lined everything within the ship were still visible as Nate looked intently through the giant window that had now formed before him.

  “Wow,” Nate whispered, as he stood at the window looking out into the vastness of space. It was so astonishing and vast that he could hardly take it all in. He gasped with surprise as the ship drifted past the red spot of Jupiter and then several of its moons. Nate’s attention was arrested by a huge object that appeared in the corner of his eye. He immediately recognised the silver and grey surface of Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, from the DVD that he had seen in Mrs Molloy’s class earlier that day. He had no idea that it was so massive. The moon’s surface shimmered in the low light that it received from the very distant Sun. Even in the dim light, Nate could clearly see the silicon sheets and the ice that created the silver and grey shadows on its surface. As he stood mesmerised by the beauty of what he was now witnessing, he thought that he could also see the tides of the subterranean oceans that raged below the surface of Ganymede.

  Nate followed Farden along the corridor aghast as the ship glided over Saturn’s rings.

  As they neared the end of the corridor a door appeared in the far wall. Nate and Farden stepped through into another enormous room.

  “How big is this space ship?” asked Nate. To him it seemed to go on forever.

  “Don’t know,” replied Farden. “It’s as big or as small as Big Sister wants it to be really. If she thought that it was necessary to become larger, then she would do so. If she wanted to become smaller, then she could do that too. I imagine that there is a limit to how small she can become, though.”

  Nate followed Farden’s lead as he stepped onto another bright blue platform, similar to the one upon which Nate first stood when he had come on board. A dark void stretched out above Nate’s head. When he and Farden were safely on the platform it rose
into the air and shot into the darkness at a dramatic rate. Nate looked around anxiously for something to hold onto. As he rose higher and higher the thought of falling from the platform became more and more terrifying. The air rippled along his cheeks, his whole body began to vibrate. Nate wanted to throw himself, prostrate, onto the platform and grasp on to whatever he could find for dear life, such was the rate at which he and Farden were rocketing up into the air.

  “Perfectly safe,” explained Farden. “Big Sister won’t let you fall.”

  After hearing Farden’s words of reassurance, however, he wasn’t the least concerned for his safety. In fact, Nate thought that he felt the platform gripping the soles of his shoes so as to ensure that he remained stable as the platform shot into darkness overhead.

  At last the platform approached the edge of a distant wall.

  “Sorry, lights,” whispered Big Sister as a doorway opened on the edge of the platform. Nate stepped through with Farden into a brightly lit, octagonal corridor that snaked into the distance.

  “These will be your sleeping quarters for tonight,” declared Farden. A door opened to Nate’s left. An exact replica of Nate’s bedroom at home greeted the pair as they stepped through the doorway.

  Nate’s unmade bed sat in the middle of the room. His dresser was there, his wardrobe and even the toys that he had left scattered over his bedroom floor from the previous day’s play. To Nate’s embarrassment, even the dirty socks that he had tossed to the edge of his bedroom floor three or four days ago remained in their place for anyone who entered the room to see.

  “Um, am I back home again?” quizzed Nate as walked into the room and kicked his dirty socks under the bed, his confusion evident in the quiver of his voice.

  Farden laughed: “No, not at all,” he explained. “Big Sister just reconstructed your quarters from the picture of your bedroom that you had in your mind. She thought you would be more comfortable if you slept in your own room tonight. If you want it changed, just ask and Big Sister will recreate your room in any way that you wish.”

  “No thanks, this will be fine.” Nate was very happy with his sleeping quarters just the way they were.

  As he lay on his bed Nate thought that he would be lucky to sleep at all that night. As he drifted off, the ship unfolded a giant metallic sail as if catching some cosmic trade wind that blew through the galaxy. The engines hummed and in a flash of green light the ship disappeared from its position near the dwarf planet Pluto, accelerating to, and beyond, the speed of light. Stars and galaxies blurred into a colourful haze as the ship traveled light years in a matter of minutes, towards its destination in a far off galaxy.

  Nate’s last thought echoed around in his head as he drifted off into a deep sleep: “My first mission. I can’t wait to get in there and save the Universe.”

  “It will not be that easy Nathaniel Armstrong,” Big Sister’s gentle voice broke into his thoughts. “You will face dangers that you cannot possibly imagine. But for now, sleep.”

  “Sleep,” muttered Nate as he fought to keep his eyes open. “How can I sleep?”

  Chapter 4: Nathaniel’s strange family tree

  Nate awoke the next morning with a start. He looked around his familiar bedroom wondering whether or not it was a school day. He scratched his head as the events of yesterday came flooding back to his mind. “Hey, I’m in space,” he shouted, “I’m in space, I’m really in space.” He threw back the covers and danced around his room kicking his toys and dirty clothes to every corner. Thoughts of alien civilisations and hideous space monsters filled his mind. If yesterday was so exciting, and that was just the beginning of the journey, what would today bring?

  After brushing his teeth Nate went to his closet in the hope of finding a change of clothes. He was still in the same shirt and pants that he had worn home from school the previous day. “I don’t particularly want to save the Universe in my school uniform,” he thought. “How uncool would that be?” Nate opened the door to his closet and was amazed to discover a single, silver suit, similar to the one that Farden had worn when they had first met, hanging up inside. Nate guessed that the garment was meant for him.

  Nate stared at the suit in an effort to discover buttons, a zipper or anything that would allow him to put it on. He lifted it out of the closet and was just about to turn it around to continue his search for a way into the garment when the suit began to melt in his hands. It quickly ran up Nate’s arms, over his shoulders and around his torso. A kind of liquid metal now engulfed Nate’s body as the suit flowed around his arms, his legs and his trunk, adjusting itself to his size and shape. Boots formed over Nate’s feet that joined, imperceptibly, to the legs of the suit just above Nate’s calves. Only Nate’s hands and head remained uncovered. The suit settled onto Nate’s body, apparently satisfied with its efforts to tailor itself to his shape.

  The suit was pulled in at the waist to form a kind of belt, the shoulders were broad and square, creating something like an rectangular shape as they fell down the front of the suit to the belt below. Over his wrists Nate now wore silver cuffs that ran along the outside of his arms to form a point just below the elbows. The trousers looked quite like cargo pants, with numerous pockets and clasps, only tighter.

  Nate looked at himself in his bedroom mirror and admired his new clothes.

  “Now I look like the type of person who might save the Universe,” he thought to himself, as he spun around to see what the back of his suit looked like.

  Nate moved his arms and legs in the most dramatic ways that he could imagine, all the while the suit shifted to adjust itself to his new positions. “It’s like wearing nothing at all,” thought Nate, as he waved his arms above his head and rotated his right leg in a small circle just above the floor. He wasn’t even constricted by his school uniform that remained under his new suit.

  As Nate continued to gyrate his legs and throw his arms around over his head, Big Sister’s voice gently broke the silence:

  “It’s interwoven with the clothes that you were wearing before you put the suit on. They have become part of the suit. You will find that you can move in any direction and the suit will move with you. In fact, you can do things in the suit that you couldn’t do before. The suit has infused itself into your muscles and will feed them with the energy that you need to run faster than you have ever run before and jump higher than you have ever jumped.”

  Nate tested Big Sister’s claims by lifting his dresser above his head with his right hand, then gently placing it back on the floor. “Again, very cool,” he thought to himself. Nate’s little experiment left him in no doubt that he could now do things that he had never before dreamt he would be able to do.

  “The suit can form a covering over your head and your hands if you need it to, all you have to do is ask it.” Nate again put the suit through its paces, gloves formed over his hands and a helmet slid from the collar, up and over the front of his head, sliding down over his face where it joined the broad, square shoulders just above his chest. Large, triangular slats formed in the front of the helmet allowing Nate to see. The helmet and the gloves disappeared back into the body of the suit as Nate turned his attention back to Big Sister as she continued her explanation of the suit’s capabilities.

  “It will never get hot or cold. It reflects the heat away from your body when it is hot outside the suit and it will keep you warm when it is cold. However, there are limits to what the suit can tolerate. Like all materials, it will melt away if it gets too hot, and it will freeze if it is exposed to temperatures that are too low. Most of the time, however, you won’t have to worry about the suit’s limitations. It can tolerate temperatures as cold as minus 273 degrees Celsius and as hot as 400.

  Big Sister paused as if to emphasise what she was about to say next.

  “This is very important Nate so please pay close attention. The suit is just like me. In fact, it’s really a part of me. The suit can communicate with you telepathically, and you with it. It’s a living organ
ism and now that you have put it on it belongs to you and you to it, for as long as you remain with the Confederation. From now on you’re a team.”

  “Hey suit,” Nate joked. “How’s it going?”

  “It’s going very well thank you Nathaniel Armstrong,” relied the suit, much to Nate’s amazement.

  Nate jumped and danced around his room performing impossible acrobatic maneuvers as he tried to find its limitations. “Wow, this is amazing,” he thought. After experimenting further with the suit, he began to think about exploring the ship beyond the confines of his own bedroom.

  Nate stepped out of his room and into an octagonal corridor. Now it all made sense: the white fibres that ran throughout the ship were like blood vessels, feeding every part of Big Sister with the life. He reached out his hand to touch the wall. Nate could feel the life pulsing through the tiny fibres that lined the ship. Somehow, he felt comforted and safe. A smile of delight broke across his face.

  “I can understand if it is all a bit new. I find you just as fascinating Nathaniel Armstrong. This way,” beckoned Big Sister as a corridor to Nate’s right lit up guiding him where he was to go.

  As he strode along the walkway Nate saw Farden walking towards him.

  “Ready to meet the crew?” asked Farden.

  “Sure,” Nate replied.

  Nate and Farden walked for what seemed like ten or fifteen minutes before entering another large room. A large control panel wrapped around the entire perimeter of the room as bright red, blue and green computerised graphics danced over the surface of the panel. Lights blinked and images appeared and disappeared as Big Sister checked and reported to the crew upon every one of the ship’s components, nearby galaxies and stars and all of the crews’ vital signs. It was clear to Nate that the panels and displays were simply monitoring the ship’s onboard systems, as well as reporting what was happening outside in space. No one was actually controlling the ship.

  “Meet the crew,” Farden said proudly as he prepared to introduce Nate to his companions on the bridge of the ship, “Commander Arl, First Officer Keta, the Engineer, Sar and the Navigator, Vult.”