The Hollywood Mission

by Deborah Abela

  Her explanation short-circuited Max’s brain again.

  ‘Did you see? … But how do you? … Can you …?’

  ‘Let me help you out,’ Linden offered. ‘Can you touch things?’

  ‘Not exactly. It’s like walking around in a virtual movie,’ Eleanor clarified. ‘Objects do have a dimension but we only experienced some of their mass, so that our hands slightly passed through the surface of them.’

  Linden’s eyebrows arched. ‘So if you can pick things up, does that mean you can change the past?’

  Francis’s face took on a serious look. ‘We think so, but we’re working on a program to stop humans being able to do just that. That is the one factor that makes the Time and Space Machine so brilliant and so dangerous. Even with the best intentions we’re not sure of the ramifications.’

  ‘And in the wrong hands, that function could prove disastrous,’ Ben warned. He’d changed from tour guide to Hollywood actor.

  ‘Were you scared? Did anyone see you?’ Linden imagined wielding a sword against knights twice his size.

  ‘We’ve incorporated a protective coating into the machine that makes you invisible,’ Eleanor explained. ‘It’ll be safer for you that way.’

  ‘And less freaky for the people you run into. You won’t have to explain when you’re from and how you got there,’ added Ben.

  Linden moaned. ‘So the people of history won’t get to see how good-looking I am. Doesn’t seem fair to go all that way and not give them a thrill.’

  ‘They’ll get over it.’ Ben ruffled Linden’s wild hair.

  ‘How does it work?’ Max was keen to get to the part where she could use it.

  Francis took the Transporter Mark II out of the cabinet as if it was a rare gem.

  ‘Much the same as when you transport through space. You write the destination on the LCD screen using the rod at the side, but add the extra dimension of time. Say or write transport and, provided the address exists, you will be transported directly.’

  It sounded too simple. ‘Is that it?’ Max’s face creased into a frown.

  ‘Yep. Now that it has the power of the Aurora Stone.’ Ben hitched up his trousers. ‘And when you want to return to the place you transported from, simply write return in the screen.’

  ‘Can we try it now?’ Max asked.

  ‘Do you feel up to it?’ Ben looked at her sternly.

  Max straightened up, her chin tucked in, her eyes firm, her mind buzzing with the fact that she was facing one of the most important moments of her life. One to be taken seriously. One to be faced with bravery, dignity and courage.

  ‘What, are you crazy?’ she blustered as her hands flew to her hips. ‘I’ve waited for this moment ever since I heard about the Time and Space Machine. I’ve lived for this moment for a whole year. It’s amazing I stayed even half sane just thinking about it!’

  ‘I’d take that as a yes,’ Linden translated.

  ‘Where would you like to go?’ Ben asked her as if he was driving a tour bus.

  Max went to open her mouth but Linden cut her off. ‘Prehistory,’ he blurted. ‘With dinosaurs. Maybe Late Jurassic.’

  ‘Prehistory it is.’ The air tingled with night-before-Christmas jitters.

  Francis gently handed Max the Transporter Mark II and a leather belt with a pouch and gold clasp in the middle. ‘We’ve had this special belt made that’s lined with titanium. It will keep the machine safe. Time travel can be a rough ride.’

  Max put on the belt and nestled the transporter snugly inside.

  Ben started to get this funny look on his face, kind of scrunched up like he was about to cry. ‘You may feel a bit funny when you land. Make sure you give yourselves a few minutes to adjust.’

  ‘Right.’ Max entered the destination on the LCD screen.

  ‘It’s like you’re bending time, making it different from how we know it.’

  ‘Excellent.’ Linden imagined it before him.

  ‘And make sure your visit lasts no longer than five minutes,’ he sniffed.

  ‘Okay.’ Max took Linden’s hand before Ben could say any more.

  ‘And be careful …’

  Max said, ‘Transport’ and left her uncle’s sentence floating in midair as she and Linden were flung through space and time back to somewhere in prehistory.

  Max and Linden appeared in a flash of fluorescent light with tiny sparks of colour falling around them like fireworks. They hung suspended in the air for a few seconds before floating gently onto the thick grass of a vast escarpment.

  ‘Now that’s what I call a ride.’ Linden’s unruly hair had become even more unruly and his shirt and pants were twisted round his body.

  ‘Yeah.’ Max’s dazed brain nestled beneath her hair which was standing on end, swaying from side to side in the breeze.

  In the past, when they’d transported through space, it had felt like being picked up by a giant hand and placed somewhere else. Travelling through time felt more like being flung into a long twisting tunnel at a million kilometres an hour by a giant as big as Jupiter.

  Until they stopped.

  Small bubbles of images floated in front of them, re-forming bit by bit, until a picture of where they were formed around them. A lush rainforest spread out below them with a clear blue sky above. There were vivid green trees, huge ferns and large pools of clear rippling water. And there was something else.

  ‘Can you smell something?’ Linden was having trouble getting his clothes to cooperate with his body.

  ‘Maybe this is how prehistory smelt,’ Max winced. ‘Which would be just my luck.’

  Linden was trying to focus on the object forming next to him. ‘Or maybe we landed right next to a … a … huge pile of dinosaur poo.’ His hand flew to his nose as the breeze smacked a soured whiff into his face.

  ‘Dinosaur poo?’ Max said nasally as she held her nose too. ‘We’re in the middle of prehistory, I’ve got the whole world to land in and I’m sitting next to a pile of poo the size of a house.’

  Linden looked around in awe as the last of their surroundings pieced itself into place. He was standing in one of his favourite parts of history with a giant pterodactyl swooping over his head. ‘Wow!’ he breathed.

  Max watched as its huge wings whomped through the air and flew away. Then her eyes widened. ‘What’s that?’

  Linden looked behind them and saw a greenish stony wall. ‘It looks like … like …’ Then he realised. ‘It’s the rear end of a dinosaur and I think he’s about to let another one go!’

  An enormous bulge of brown disgusting mush appeared and fell towards them.

  ‘Aaaaaahhh!’ They rolled quickly down the embankment only just escaping the deathly poo splat but not its squelchy spray.

  ‘Oooph!’ Max’s roll was stopped by the trunk of a giant tree fern. ‘Errr! Even at the dawn of time I can’t last five minutes without bashing into something.’

  She pushed herself away from the trunk and saw her hand partially soak into the outside layer.

  ‘It’s just like Eleanor said!’

  Her amazement was cut short by the whiff of poo splattered on her.

  She untangled herself from the fronds, took out a hanky and wiped down her clothes. ‘Why couldn’t we go somewhere less smelly for our first journey through time?’

  Linden looked up from the grassy mound that stopped his roll.

  ‘Max?’

  ‘Or somewhere where I wasn’t welcomed by giant lumps of yesterday’s lunch.’

  ‘Max?’

  ‘We had the whole of history to choose from, but you wanted to go to the land of the dinosaurs. What’s so fascinating about a bunch of old stegosauruses anyway?’

  ‘Apatosauruses, actually. Previously known as brontosauruses. One of the largest land animals ever to have existed. We’re in the Late Jurassic Period.’

  Max was trying to wipe a stubborn piece of muck from her jacket. ‘I don’t care what period we’re in as long as it doesn’t slime me again.’ She fr
owned. ‘Great. Now there’s a really hot breeze.’

  ‘It’s not a breeze.’ Linden had this strange look in his eye. Max followed his gaze. Rising out of the tree ferns, the apatosauruses had stretched out its long neck and was hovering over Max as if she was an ant under a microscope. Its teeth were as long as she was tall and its nostrils were like two openings into very warm, very smelly caves.

  Max did the only thing she could.

  She turned and ran.

  ‘Max!’ Linden cried, but she didn’t hear him. The beast lumbered after her with great leaden thumps. Max leapt over thick roots, skirted around ponds and scrambled across fallen moss-covered tree trunks.

  ‘Please, don’t let my life end in the jaws of an animal that doesn’t exist.’

  ‘Max!’ Linden called again, but it was no good. She couldn’t hear him. The pasta-whatever-a-saurus was bearing down on her, thumping its way towards her inevitable and premature demise. Very premature. Like sixty-five million years before she was even born.

  Then she saw her escape. She ran towards a small cave and with the prehistoric giant toe seconds away from delivering certain death, she scrambled through its narrow entrance.

  Max heaved and panted and sank into the muddy floor of the cave as the dinosaur thumped by. She wiped a muddied hand across her forehead and smiled. Ben and Eleanor had made time travel sound safe, but luckily Max had used her wit and intelligence to outsmart the giant lizard.

  ‘Hi.’ Linden appeared at the mouth of the cave.

  ‘Did you manage to give the dinosaur the slip too?’ Max gasped as mud started seeping through her pants.

  ‘No, he kept running towards the large fern he was heading for,’ Linden said. ‘Apatosauruses are herbivores. Don’t take it personally, but he wouldn’t have eaten you if you’d been roasted and served with gravy.’

  ‘I knew that.’ Max’s feeling of victory slipped away.

  ‘And they can’t see us,’ Linden reminded her. ‘We’re invisible, remember?’

  Now she felt really silly. She squeezed through the cave mouth and stood her poo- and mud-stained self next to a clean-looking Linden. ‘How can you be sure? Ben and Eleanor don’t know everything about time travel yet.’

  Linden walked towards the dinosaur. ‘Hey, big fella, look at me.’ He danced between the dinosaur’s toes as bits of fern it was munching fell around him. ‘Hey, lizard-breath! Why don’t you take that big toe of yours and get rid of me?’

  ‘Alright, you’ve made your point.’ Max sulked, but when Linden offered her a huge grin, she softened. ‘That’s all my stomach can handle of your dance moves, anyway.’

  Max looked at her watch. ‘It’s time to go back.’

  ‘I’m not sure I’ve had a good look around yet.’ Linden gazed at the nearby lagoon and waterfall and the thick jungle with crocodiles, turtles and all kinds of flying pterosaurs he’d never even read about.

  Then he saw Max. She gave him a look that said she was done. ‘Actually, maybe I am ready,’ he reconsidered.

  Max opened the clasp of the belt with the Transporter Mark II and wrote return on the screen. As she grabbed Linden’s hand, they saw the apatosaurus drop another huge poo before walking off into the sunset.

  ‘He must have had a curry for dinner,’ Linden chuckled. Max said, ‘Transport’ and they were gone.

  Ben, Eleanor and Francis watched anxiously as the time travellers appeared from a flash of sparks and fluorescent light and floated before them.

  ‘They’re back!’ Ben cried.

  Max and Linden hovered in the air before safely coming in to land. Ben ran at them, his face a flood of smiles and tears. His arms flung open like a singer from an old musical welcoming home a long lost son.

  Until he smelt something.

  ‘What’s that smell?’ He stopped dead.

  ‘We had some problems with a dinosaur and a deadly case of diarrhoea,’ Linden whispered as Ben sniffed at Max’s muddied look.

  ‘Oh.’ Ben sighed guiltily. ‘I was sure we’d fixed the landings.’

  ‘The landing was the cleanest part, it was everything after that got messy.’ Linden smirked until he caught Max’s expression, which made him feel like a cat that had just lost one of its nine lives.

  ‘Congratulations!’ Eleanor clasped her hands. ‘You did it!’

  ‘How was it?’ quizzed Francis.

  ‘It was incredible. When can we go again?’ Linden could hardly ask fast enough.

  ‘Max?’ Ben sensed her bad mood.

  ‘It was great,’ she said unenthusiastically. ‘I just don’t get why even in the middle of prehistory I have this habit of attracting filth.’

  Ben smiled. ‘Let’s get you upstairs so you can clean up. Then I want to hear all about it.’

  Linden began talking rapidly as Francis put the Transporter Mark II safely away and they all made their way upstairs. Max followed slowly behind and as she reached the top of the stairs, she turned towards the glowing cabinet. A smile curved into her lips. She’d done it. She’d travelled through time, and apart from a little dinosaur poo and some prehistoric mud, she couldn’t wait to do it again.

  Max Remy and Alex Crane stood on the command deck of the starship Intrepid Voyager and carefully scrutinised the scanner. A small green dot bleeped innocently on the darkened screen before them, but what it indicated was anything but innocent. It was an asteroid, travelling at the speed of light and it was headed straight for them.

  ‘What do you think?’ Max leant over the shoulder of the ship’s navigator.

  ‘I’ve studied all the available data and I estimate we have a 97 per cent chance of a direct collision course.’

  ‘And the size of the asteroid?’ Agent Crane asked.

  The navigator gasped as if he wasn’t getting enough air. ‘About the size of Mars.’

  Max saw the edge of Alex’s face flicker. She’d never once seen Alex afraid but that flicker gave away a moment Max would never forget.

  ‘How long have we got?’

  The navigator wiped his brow with an already soggy hanky. ‘About twelve minutes.’

  Alex turned to Max. ‘How are the repairs on the Astro-Thruster going?’

  The Astro-Thruster was a device that used high-frequency signals to destroy objects in the starship’s path. It had been damaged in battle with a rebel ship two days ago.

  ‘Slow. The technicians are working by remote and the solar activity outside the ship is interfering with the speed at which they can work.’

  The Astro-Thruster was the only device capable of obliterating an asteroid of this size. There was no alternative. ‘We’ll do it manually.’

  Within sixty seconds the two agents were standing in the sealed exit chamber in preparation for their entry into space. Their suits had been checked and the oxygen cable fastened. If all went well, they should be able to reach the Astro-Thruster, repair the damage and be back on the command deck in time to see one of the most spectacular explosions of their careers. Alex looked across at Max and gave her a wink before turning to the Chamber Master and giving the nod.

  The doors of the chamber opened and they were flung into space. Max loved this part. It was like floating in a giant ocean of stars and even though they faced possible death, it somehow made her feel calm.

  Alex reached the Thruster first and immediately began repairing the damage. She worked fast and without fear. She’d almost finished when, with only ninety seconds left before impact, a violent force slammed her into the side of the ship. Max avoided the same treatment by grabbing hold of the Astro-Thruster. She radioed her friend who hung limply in her suit.

  ‘Alex? Can you hear me?’

  No response. Max took the tools from Alex’s hands and began working, unsure when another blast of solar wind would come her way. She had to work fast and then get her friend inside. She had to save the Intrepid Voyager from being pulverised into a million pieces of space junk. From

  ‘Aaaaah!’ A blast of wind slammed into Max’s face
. She looked up from her bench on the verandah and saw the spinning blades of an upright fan whirring like a swarm of angry wasps.

  ‘Thought you might like a little breeze.’ Ben failed to notice Max’s pale expression as he sat next to her. ‘Yeah, that’s better.’ He smiled as Max tried to calm her heart rate.

  At Ben and Eleanor’s house, the verandah was Max’s special place to sit and write or to talk about things. She didn’t know if it was the hectares of land stretching off towards the faraway horizon or the birds flitting in and out of the trees, or the smell of paddocks and Ben and Eleanor’s cooking that made it so perfect. No matter how crazy the world was, sitting on the verandah made everything seem calm and tranquil.

  Most of the time.

  ‘Larry’s been at some clay making today,’ Ben announced.

  When conversations started with Larry the pig, Max usually regretted asking questions. She loved her aunt and uncle, but predicting the weather from the behaviour of their pig was too close to crazy. Don’t ask anything, Max’s brain warned her mouth.

  ‘Clay making?’ Max winced. Why didn’t she listen to her brain?

  ‘Yeah. On really hot days he digs up clay and nudges small models out of them. The sun bakes them rock hard. Gotta be a hot day, though.’

  This was too much. ‘Models?’

  ‘Yeah. Once he made a model that was the spitting image of the prime minister.’

  They sat in silence for a few minutes before he stood up. ‘Think I might go and see what’s for supper.’

  Max smiled as she watched him leave. She picked up her book but before she could start writing again, Eleanor stuck her head around the door. ‘Knock, knock. Can I join you?’

  ‘Sure.’ Max closed her book. She’d finish her Alex Crane adventure later.

  ‘Thanks for visiting.’ Eleanor brushed Max’s hair from her eyes. ‘It’s lovely to have you back. Always feels like you belong here.’

  Max’s skin rippled with goose bumps. Her aunt could do that with just a few words. Max tried to think of something to say in return, to tell her she felt the same. She scrabbled through her brain but came up with nothing. After a few moments, she asked, ‘Eleanor, did you enjoy your time as a spy?’