The Particle Beast

by Ian C Douglas

  Zeke pulled a face.

  “Zeke!” she snapped.

  A key grated in the lock.

  Phew! Zeke thought. He’d never seen her angry before.

  Isla the Incisor stood in the doorway, holding a tray. A security guard loomed behind her. She looked miserable.

  “Hungry?”

  “As a black hole!” Zeke answered.

  She placed the tray on the ground. There were two bowls of steamy tomato soup, red apples and a bar of Martian chocolate.

  “How long are you going to keep us in here?” Zeke asked.

  “Dunno, kinda busy right now. The Craton’s escaped.”

  “Oh great,” Zeke remarked. “I suppose that’s my fault too.”

  “It killed all four guards. Ptolemy wants me to hunt it down and destroy it.”

  “Good luck with that,” Zeke said.

  He picked up a bowl of soup.

  “Oh?”

  There was a small plastic stick underneath the soup, no bigger than a crayon.

  “What’s that?” Pin-mei asked.

  “And if I have any trouble I’m going to bust your heads together. Do I make myself clear?” Isla shouted fiercely, stunning them into silence.

  Isla’s left eye flickered, ever so slightly, before she clanged the door shut.

  “Did she just wink at us?” Pin-mei asked.

  “No, I think she just had something in her eye,” Zeke said. “So what’s this?” he added, picking up the stick.

  Pin-mei grabbed it. “It must be a digital key!”

  “So what does it unlock?”

  “It can’t be!”

  She rolled up her trouser leg and rubbed the key against Enki’s magnetic bracelet. The key lit up. The bracelet hissed as a seam appeared. Then it clicked open and fell off. Zeke quickly copied her actions. He kicked both bracelets into the corner.

  “As far away from their magnetic fields as possible in this mouse hole,” he remarked.

  A sudden surge of energy took his breath away. His scalp began tingling.

  “My brain’s waking up!” Pin-mei cried.

  “Mine too!”

  The rush of psychic power was closely followed by one of joy. He laughed out loud. “Here we go,” he said.

  He lifted off the floor, up to the ceiling and gently down again, onto his feet. Pain ricocheted through his broken calf bone, but he didn’t care.

  Pin-mei’s eyes were shining as she stood up.

  “What are you doing?” he asked. The glow from her eye sockets meant she was using a lot of psychic force.

  “Sending Scuff a T-mail.”

  “Why don’t you tell him in person?” Zeke said, grinning.

  He was about to translocate when a cry came from outside. Then sounds of scuffling followed by a loud thud. Zeke and Pin-mei exchanged anxious glances. The door flew open. Enki and Ricasso were standing outside. The guard lay behind them on the floor.

  “About time we resumed our little road trip, don’t you think?” Enki said, his face flushed. Ricasso leered at them and punched the air with his fist.

  “Sorry, this is where we get off,” Zeke replied, as he took Pin-mei’s hand.

  He imagined slipping, sliding, letting go of the world around them. The cell ebbed away. They were floating in that sea of treacle. Surfing an emptiness bigger than the universe. They were nowhere and everywhere. And the nothingness echoed with a crystalline ringing. Like a finger on the rim of a wine glass, multiplied to infinity.

  And they were back, only sadly not where Zeke intended. Not safely back at the Ophir Chasma School for Psychic Endeavour. No, they were just a few yards down the corridor. Zeke’s translocation skills were still waking up from the magnetic mind-numbing.

  Ricasso saw them and nudged his boss.

  “Get them!” Enki squealed.

  Ricasso lumbered towards them.

  “Zeke!” Pin-mei cried.

  He conjured up an image of the school. A breath of air tickled his cheek. They were back in the void, the endless night, the space within atoms. Pin-mei’s hand slipped from his.

  But the dark gave way to the blue. His skin prickled with biting cold. The air whistled. He was being dragged by a terrific force. Wait! Not being dragged at all. Falling!

  Everything spun in a chaotic blur. Sky, cliffs, the school turrets. He’d materialised high above Mariners Valley and was plummeting to his doom. Freefall without a parachute. His heart turned inside out.

  Keep calm!

  Shielding his eyes from the sun’s glare he scanned for Pin-Mei. She was a few metres below him, flapping like a rag doll. He had to save her! Zeke twisted till he was the right way up. Next, he flattened his arms against his sides and brought his legs together. This made him more streamline. He dropped faster.

  The school was rocketing upwards. A horrible image of being skewered on a spire taunted him.

  No! Concentrate!

  He was gaining on Pin-mei. They were only a few centimetres apart.

  Reach out, Pin, he thought.

  But she was too terrified.

  Reach out to me.

  No response.

  Nearer. He had to get nearer. A little psychokinesis was needed. Focussing mental energy wasn’t easy while hurtling through the sky. But it was that or death. The danger now was overshooting and missing her completely.

  Another metre. Lower me another metre.

  Sparks danced from his eyes. It worked! They were closer. Zeke lunged at his friend and caught her in both arms.

  Translocate!

  With a huge sigh, Zeke realised they were floating through the never-space again. In a dimension without gravity, with no up and no down, coasting harmlessly. Now to get home and without any further peril! The first image that popped into Zeke’s mind was the school’s indoor swimming pool. On a planet where water was in short supply, the pool was Lutz’s pride and joy.

  They began falling once more. There was just enough time to catch a whiff of chlorine before—splash! Water filled Zeke’s nose as he struggled towards the light. He broke the surface, and for a few seconds paddled water, gasping in a huge lung-full of air. Principal Lutz was standing on the poolside. Drenched. Rivulets poured down from her ceremonial hat.

  “Detention!” she roared.

  Zeke beamed. It was the most beautiful word he’d ever heard.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Lutz’s Office

  “That was the worst school check ever!” Lutz grumbled. She was at her huge, iron desk, with Mariner Knimble and Mariner Chinook on either side. Zeke sat opposite while Barnside was in the corner typing up their conversation.

  “At least it wasn’t a surprise inspection from Offsted, the Off World School Education Department,” Alistair Knimble remarked dryly.

  Lutz fixed Zeke with a baleful stare.

  “Do you deliberately go out seeking trouble?”

  “Pardon, Ma’am?”

  “No other student in the history of the school has caused me so many headaches.”

  Zeke rubbed his knee. Doctor Chandrasar’s nanomacs were crawling through his leg. The bone fracture was almost sealed, but the macs itched like hell.

  “It’s not my fault. I was kidnapped!” he protested.

  “Fair point,” Knimble said. “That Enki seems a right mongrel—”

  Lutz raised a hand to silence him. “I have personally spoken to the Governor of Mars. He has troops combing every crater from here to Tithonium. The criminal will be brought to justice.”

  “I’ve programmed the security macs,” Chinook said. “If he sneaks onto school territory, the alarms will squeal louder than a bobcat in a trap.”

  “The soldiers ought to be searching the mining station,” Zeke muttered.

  “That’s another issue,�
� Knimble began. “If Enki’s right and the mining will cause this so-called pocket universe to crumble, the operation must be stopped.”

  “Quite the opposite, mon chere,” Lutz replied.

  “And lose all that priceless information about the Hesperians?”

  Lutz banged the table. “Yes! Their devices cause nothing but mayhem.”

  “I disagree,” Knimble went on. “Think of the treasures we could find.”

  “What do you think, Hailey,” Chinook asked, stroking his chin.

  Zeke looked into Chinook’s fathomless dark eyes. “Principal Lutz is right. Close this dimensional loophole forever. No good can come from it.”

  The sound of typing filled the silence while the three adults stared at Zeke, all deep in thought.

  “So, yet another of Hailey’s little larks has come to an end,” Knimble said at last.

  “Sir?” Zeke asked, scratching his blue hair.

  “You and Miss Liang were kidnapped but rescued yourselves. All’s well that ends well.”

  “And Trixie Cutter?”

  “Yes, what an ordeal for the poor girl,” Lutz said sadly.

  “Ordeal?”

  “Enki hypnotised her. Why else would she obey his nefarious commands?”

  Zeke’s mouth dropped.

  “Once the brainwashing wore off she was beside herself with worry. All for you, that is.”

  Zeke tried to shut his mouth but it fell open all over again.

  “In fact,” Lutz continued. “I think you ought to apologise for all the heartache you’ve caused her.”

  Zeke glanced up at the lofty ceiling, tight lipped.

  “So am I free to go?” he asked.

  “Erstaunlich! Why ask me? You’ve resigned,” Lutz growled.

  Zeke gulped.

  Don’t be fooled, she’s really very fond of you.

  It was Knimble, speaking telepathically. He winked at Zeke.

  “Yes, Principal. I’d like to go in three days.”

  “Uanset, min kære,” she replied, avoiding eye contact.

  Danish for ‘whatever my dear’, Knimble translated in Zeke’s head.

  Chinook leaned forward. “We need to know your plans for your own safety.”

  Zeke cleared his throat. “In three days time, I’m travelling to the Space Catapult. I’ll launch up to my friend’s Far-Ship and depart for Alpha Cephei.”

  “What friend, exactly?” Lutz asked, also leaning forward.

  Zeke gulped. Dayo was taking him on an unauthorised leap across fifty light years. If Dayo’s superiors knew he could get in trouble. Although the teachers were more than able to read Zeke’s mind and discover the Mariner’s identity, telepathic intrusion was considered a violation. He knew none of them would dare to try.

  “That’s my business,” he said hotly, crossing his arms.

  Lutz crossed hers in a mirror image.

  “Then go. And good riddance!”

  Zeke pressed the bell on Scuff’s door. It swished open to reveal Scuff himself, picking his nose.

  “How did it go?” he asked, ushering Zeke in.

  The room was its usual maelstrom of stinky socks, computer innards and comic books.

  “Could’ve been worse,” Zeke replied. He cleared a space on the bed, amidst unwashed underpants and week-old pizza trays.

  Scuff sat down at his study desk. “So, it’s rocket thrusters to full blast,” he said.

  Zeke opened his mouth to reply but the words jammed in his throat. He nodded weakly. Why did he feel as if he were betraying his friends?

  Scuff picked up a comic and flicked through the pages. Yet he wasn’t really looking.

  “Am I being selfish?” Zeke asked at last.

  Scuff paused for a moment before answering. “What? For getting the hell off the Little Pumpkin and chasing your destiny? Nope.”

  The expression on Scuff’s face said otherwise.

  “You know I’m coming back,” Zeke said.

  Scuff stared at him. “Are you, bro? How can you be so certain when nobody else ever did.”

  Another long silence.

  “There might be all kinds of reasons for that,” Zeke replied. “But that’s why my dad went into deep space. To solve that riddle.”

  “And became a victim to it.”

  “NO!”

  Zeke realised he was shouting and lowered his voice. “For all we know, Dad has got to the bottom of it. But his ship could be broken. I’ll rescue him, bring him back and fix everything.”

  Scuff rolled his eyes. “Where’s the logic in that, bro? You’re going out the airlock with nothing but wishful thinking for a spacesuit.”

  Zeke felt the thunder rising in his chest again. But he didn’t want to fall out with his best friend, not now. He counted to ten. “Okay, maybe I’m crazy—”

  “As a fruit loop.”

  “Still, I have to find my father. Whatever the risk.”

  Scuff ran a hand through his greasy curls. “Yup, I get that. Sure. I’m right behind you.”

  Zeke beamed.

  “That’s what buddies are for,” Scuff went on. He forced a smile.

  A frantic banging came from outside. Scuff cussed and aimed his remote at the door. It slid open and Pin-mei fell inside. She was breathless and wide-eyed.

  “Oh, Zeke, there you are!”

  “What?”

  She collapsed on the bed beside him. “I was on Mars Chat Com, talking to Justice. He’s at the mining site and it’s terrible.”

  “Watcha talking about?” Scuff asked.

  Pin-mei took a few deep breaths. “The workers are spooked and refusing to work. They’ve seen a ghost.”

  “A ghost?” Zeke and Scuff cried together.

  “Yes, a monster, made of fire.”

  “That’ll be the Particle Beast,” Zeke said gravely.

  “It’s only seen at night, crashing out of the dark, only to vanish,” Pin-mei went on. “Justice says it’s like a cross between a rabid dog and a gigantic crab.”

  Zeke scratched his ear. “Has anyone been hurt?”

  She shook her head. “It’s a ghost. It passes through rocks, machinery, even people. As if it’s not there.”

  “That’s because it’s not,” Zeke said firmly. “It’s in a parallel dimension.”

  “Come again?” Scuff said.

  “The Hesperian city is trapped in a bubble universe. It’s occupying the same atoms but at a slightly different frequency.”

  “Oh, string theory,” Scuff piped in. “I knew that.”

  “Then how can they see it?” Pin-mei asked.

  Zeke frowned. “The dimensional walls must wear thin in parts.”

  Pin-mei grabbed his wrist. “Then it could come through?”

  “No way,” Zeke replied. “I read Enki’s research. He consulted the best physicists and they clearly stated that any direct contact with our universe would obliterate the Martian ghost town. It would fade like an early morning mist.”

  “So, it might be a good thing, if the walls gave way?” Scuff suggested.

  Zeke nodded.

  “B-b-but,” Pin-mei stammered. “Isn’t Enki looking for a way in?”

  Zeke looked away. “There’s a way in. If you’re fluent in Hesperian and equipped with a key. Enki might be able to speak Hesperian. Just. But he doesn’t have the key. A psychic mind.”

  “Are you sure, Zeke?” Scuff said, his cheeks pale.

  “Trust me. If Enki does try to get in without the psychic power, he’ll destroy it. Imagine forcing open a padlock without a key. You’d break it.”

  “But can’t you go along and close it? The way you closed the Infinity Trap?” Pin-mei asked.

  Zeke’s face took on a stony expression. “And miss the chance of a lifetime to find my
father. Sorry no. It’s not my fight. Not this time.”

  Pin-mei had tears in her eyes. “I’m a pre-cog,” she said

  “That we know,” Scuff replied.

  She swallowed hard. “And there’s danger. I’ve seen it in my mind.”

  “Seen what?” Scuff cried.

  A tear rolled down her cheek. “Justice is going to die.”

  “You can’t know that,” Zeke said.

  She pushed out her bottom lip. “I can. I had a vision.”

  Scuff looked puzzled.

  “But don’t pre-cogs forget their visions, by and large? The way you can forget a dream when you wake up?”

  She nodded. “But one thing was clear. A young man at the mine will die.”

  “But Justice?”

  Pin-mei bit on her knuckle. “I have this feeling. A really strong feeling.”

  “That it’s Justice?” Zeke prompted her.

  “That it’s someone I care about. And Justice is the only one there I know.”

  “Can the prediction be stopped?” Scuff asked.

  “I think so,” Pin-mei replied, wringing her hands. “But only if we stop it. If Zeke stops it.”

  Zeke thrust his hands in his pockets. “My mind’s made up, Pin. And that’s that.”

  She stamped her foot, startling both boys.

  “Sometimes you’re so selfish,” she shouted.

  Zeke was lost for a reply.

  Pin-mei stormed from the room.

  “Sheesh,” Scuff said at last. “She’s a teenager, already!”

  Chapter Eighteen

  The Bowels of the Grand Hall

  Thirty pairs of feet clattered on stone steps. Zeke came last, running his hand along the coarse rock. The stairwell descended into a gloomy cavern. The grottiest student rooms lay to the left, including Zeke’s. The caves on the right were storerooms. Except for one, converted into the translocation classroom. The students often thought this location odd. Lutz was always going on about how translocation was the most important psychic skill, transporting colonists in their thousands to far flung planets. So why teach it in a catacomb?

  Zeke alone knew the answer. Lutz held a grudge against the translocation teacher, Mariner Knimble. During his student days, there was an incident involving a certain pair of knickers and the school flagpole. Knimble got himself expelled. Years later, a reformed character, he returned to teach. But what changed that mischievous teenager into a dedicated teacher? This was the question Zeke couldn’t answer.