Martin King and the Space Angels
James McGovern
Copyright 2014 James McGovern
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Dedicated to Raheela.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Angels and Storms
Chapter 2: The Brass Monocle
Chapter 3: The Immaterial Voice
Chapter 4: The Incredible Levanté
Chapter 5: Valiant Star
Chapter 6: The Effects of Axis Dust
Chapter 7: The Telescope
Chapter 8: Kara
Chapter 9: The Meteor Attack
Chapter 10: The City of Serenity
Chapter 11: The Planet Simulator
Chapter 12: The Moon Base
Chapter 13: A Letter From The Enemy
Chapter 14: The Wheelmaster
Chapter 15: The Space Buccaneers
Chapter 16: The Wicked Physician
Chapter 17: The Final Auction
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Angels and Storms
It is said that at least once in every person’s life, they will dream of angels…
The sky flared white. Rain slammed down on the bus shelter and Martin’s shoulders tensed. The rainstorm had washed away the glue and colour of an old poster and it hung, blank, from the plexiglass.
Darcy pointed into the distance.
‘Did you see that?’
‘See what?’
‘Look! No, not there. Over there.’
Darcy pointed towards the trees near the side of the school. Martin squinted. It was hard to see through the wall of rain. All over the world, it had been raining continuously for three weeks.
The planet had been taken, quite literally, by storm. Even expert meteorologists were unsure of what to make of the freak weather. Martin King had heard several proposed explanations.
‘…the Royal Meteorological Society has suggested that these prolonged storms may be due to a shifting of the Moon’s gravitational pull…’
‘…the worldwide storms could be natural phenomena that occur once every ten thousand years…’
But Martin wasn’t convinced. There was something else—a dark feeling in the air, a sense of evil on the wind.
‘I thought I saw someone behind that tree,’ said Darcy. ‘Must have been my imagination. I’ll lay off the coffee… and the vodka.’
She grinned. Martin glanced at her; her fair hair was dripping with rain and her eyes glinted in the mist. Darcy was exactly Martin’s age, but she already had the body of a woman.
‘It’s June!’ she shouted, over the rain. ‘The middle of June! We should be sunbathing, not drowning.’
She laughed and Martin stopped thinking about the storm. He was with Darcy, and that was the only thing that mattered. Because he loved her. He caught the smell of her flowery perfume on the rain.
I love you, Darcy. I love you so, so much.
Martin and Darcy had been friends for as long as either of them could remember. Although they were different in many ways, they also had much in common, including their love of books. Another thing they shared was their absolute trust in one other.
Martin felt he could tell Darcy anything. But not quite everything. There was one secret he kept from her—the one secret he wished he could share—the secret of his love for her.
But his greatest fear was that Darcy would never love him back. That was love—the most magnificent, breath-taking feeling. Yet, somehow, also the most painful.
Martin opened his mouth… and closed it again. He stared at Darcy, trying to somehow draw courage from her.
‘Darcy…’
‘Yes?’
She fixed her blue eyes on him.
Will you go out with me? Will you be my girlfriend?
‘Never mind,’ he muttered.
Martin silently cursed himself for his lack of nerve. The longer he waited, the harder it became to tell Darcy how he felt.
A boy came running towards them from the direction of the school, his black hair soaked.
‘Hi, guys,’ said the boy.
‘Hi, Tommy,’ said Martin.
Tommy was quite short and his hair was unruly. No matter what clothes he wore, he always looked somehow ragged. His school tie hung loosely from his neck and the rain made his shirt cling to his skin.
‘I thought you were at band practice,’ said Darcy.
‘Nah,’ said Tommy. ‘Me and the lads were gonna jam for a while but Rob’s got detention.’
‘Right,’ said Darcy. ‘Oh, Martin’s coming over for dinner. Do you want to come too? Mum always makes far too much.’
‘Yeah, all right, thanks,’ said Tommy.
Tommy was very different to Martin and Darcy. He hated poetry and he would zone out whenever his best friends started talking about books. But he was still their best friend, and he was completely devoted to both of them—especially to Martin, his cousin.
The bus arrived. The windows were foggy and the lights were dim. It was crammed with people, tired people, their clothes battered by the endless storm.
‘There’s no room on here,’ shouted the bus driver. ‘You’ll have to wait for the next one.’
‘When’s the next bus?’ asked Tommy.
‘About twenty minutes,’ the driver replied.
‘Shall we walk?’ said Martin.
Darcy nodded. Their umbrellas opened up like black flowers, and they set off. Martin felt strangely like a mourner at some weird funeral procession. As he walked, struggling to stop the wind tearing away his umbrella, Martin glanced up at the storm clouds, and shivered—but not because of the cold.
*
The three teenagers hurried through the gloomy park, their hair and clothes saturated. The rain seemed to come from all angles. Glancing up, Martin noticed a small patch of sky that wasn’t grey. It was orange, with streaks of brilliant blue.
‘This is all wrong,’ shouted Darcy, over the rain.
‘What do you mean?’ Martin shouted back.
Darcy stood still, and a flash of lightning lit up her pale features.
‘The storm.’ she said. She folded away her umbrella and looked up, letting the rain gush over her face. ‘Do you realise that this storm has lasted for three weeks? And there’s that smell in the air, all the time, on the rain… like the smell of rusty metal. And that feeling—the feeling that something horrible is about to happen. Do you feel it too?’
Darcy started to walk again, and they followed. Martin felt an urge to put his arm around Darcy and tell her that she could trust him to protect her. But he couldn’t do it. The more he thought about it the more stupid it seemed.
She was right, though. Something strange was happening. And it wasn’t just the storms. Martin had had the same dream every night for three weeks. Each night, Martin had seen the same vision—an angel with golden wings, falling down from the stars like a twirling comet. Falling. Or perhaps flying…
‘Stop! Stop!’ shouted a voice.
They turned. A hooded figure was running towards them through the rain, his long grey cloak flapping behind him.
‘Martin King! Darcy Williams! Tommy Walker!’ he shouted.
Before any of them could speak, the man held up a hand to silence them.<
br />
‘I must speak with you. All three of you. My name is Falcon.’
Chapter 2: The Brass Monocle
Falcon pulled back his grey hood, revealing a thin face beneath a mass of white hair. He wore a velvet waistcoat under his cloak, which was adorned with a golden watch chain and emerald fob. He had a crooked nose, and his eyes were an intense shade of purple.
‘We must hurry,’ said the man. ‘They are coming for me. It has taken me longer than I expected to find you.’
‘Who’s coming for you?’ said Darcy. ‘The police?’
‘No, not the police. Never mind that. I have urgent information for you.’ Falcon clasped his hands together. ‘I am going to say something that will sound unbelievable, but I need you to believe me. There is simply no time for you to do otherwise.’
‘Come on,’ whispered Tommy. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
Martin was torn. Obviously, the sensible thing to do would be to walk away. And yet, for some reason, Martin felt that he could trust the man.
‘Please, you must listen to me,’ said Falcon.
Martin shrugged. ‘OK, we’re listening.’
‘I am not from this world. I come from a planet called Hope.’
‘You’re an alien?’ said Darcy, raising her eyebrows.
‘I am,’ said Falcon.
‘Prove it.’
‘Very well.’
Falcon pointed at the bleak sky with a bony finger. The rain stopped. For the first time in three weeks, it had stopped raining.
‘I have only stopped the rain within a three mile radius,’ said Falcon. ‘Anyway, pay close attention. The universe needs your help.’
‘The universe needs our help?’ said Martin.
‘Walk with me. We will be safer that way. It will be harder for them to get a fix on my location.’
Tommy frowned. ‘Them?’
Falcon didn’t reply. The teenagers struggled to keep up with him as he marched through the park. Martin noticed a large bulge underneath his travelling cloak.
‘Now—as I said before—your help is urgently required.’
‘Help with what?’ said Darcy.
‘Something is ravaging the universe, Darcy. Swallowing up whole planets. Entire galaxies have been consumed by this force.’
Martin couldn’t help but feel intrigued. ‘What kind of force?’
‘Little is known of it. My people used to refer to it by the name XO5, although recently that name has been forbidden. My people are very superstitious.’
‘He’s mental,’ murmured Tommy, ‘let’s get out of here.’
‘I want to listen,’ whispered Martin.
‘How do you know our names?’ Tommy demanded.
‘All will become clear, in time,’ said Falcon. ‘Anyway, as I said before, a whole sequence of planets have been destroyed by XO5. All of these attacks have had several common characteristics.
‘When XO5 begins an attack, freak weather conditions are experienced on the target planet, which seem to indicate the build-up of destructive energy—’
‘But… that’s happening here!’ said Darcy. ‘So… you’re saying that this XO5 is going to destroy our planet?’
‘Indeed,’ said Falcon, ‘but even that is not the most worrying revelation.’ He stopped walking. ‘It is my belief that XO5 is searching for something special on your planet. You see, all of the previous planets that XO5 destroyed were wiped out only a few hours after the freak storms began. Yet—’
Martin saw his point. ‘—we’ve been having freak storms for weeks now.’
‘Exactly. I believe that XO5 is postponing the destruction of Earth, at least until he—it—finds this special object.’
‘An object? Like… a treasure?’ ventured Tommy.
‘A treasure, perhaps.’ Falcon nodded. ‘Or a weapon.’
Martin stared at the purple-eyed alien. ‘So we’re supposed to find this… this treasure, or weapon, before XO5?’
Falcon nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘Do you really expect us to believe all of this?’ said Tommy.
‘He made the rain stop,’ Martin pointed out.
Tommy snorted. ‘Just a magic trick.’
Falcon’s smiled. ‘Well, let me show you an even better magic trick.’
He reached into the pocket of his cloak and took out a small golden lens attached to a leather strap.
‘You may have seen something like this before,’ said Falcon. ‘I believe that monocles were common on your world back in the 19th century. But this is no ordinary monocle. This lens is a masterpiece of my people’s engineering.’
‘It doesn’t look very advanced,’ said Tommy.
Falcon smiled. ‘The technology of my world bears a strong resemblance to the kind of mechanical apparatus created during the Victorian age of your planet. Our society runs on steam and clockwork.’
‘So what does that thing do?’ asked Darcy, pointing at the monocle.
Falcon lifted the monocle up to his eye. ‘This, my friend, is a Truthful Eye. It allows a person to see past any visual trickery to reveal—’
Falcon stopped. He had been staring at the night sky through the monocle. And he had seen something.
‘They’re coming! They have a fix on our location! Quickly, hide the monocle!’
He passed it to Darcy and she stuffed it into her handbag.
‘Who is it?’ shouted Darcy. ‘Who’s coming?’
‘My people. The Axis Lords.’
Five tiny shapes appeared in the sky. They became slowly larger as they approached the planet.
Martin could make out five men, dressed in robes, being carried down to Earth by beating golden mechanical wings.
When the aliens landed, the sky darkened and silence fell across the park. It was as if a thick stage curtain had fallen all around them.
‘The park is sealed,’ said one of the Axis Lords.
‘What do they want?’ whispered Martin.
‘Justice, if you can call it that.’
‘Justice?’
Falcon nodded. ‘I broke the rules.’
He walked slowly towards the aliens, his head bowed. Martin, Darcy and Tommy followed quietly.
‘I surrender to you,’ said Falcon. ‘Take me. Take me back to Hope. But leave these three humans alone.’
‘The humans must bear witness to your crimes,’ said the tallest Axis Lord. He was older than the others, and he was wearing an official red robe. Martin guessed that he was their leader.
‘They are no part of this—’
‘You will comply.’
‘I will not let you take them. These three humans are vital to the survival of this planet—to the survival of the whole universe.’
‘Have you forgotten our function?’ asked the leader. ‘Have you strayed that far from what is right?’
‘Maybe you think it is right to allow the eradication of an entire planet. But I do not. And if caring for others means straying from your idea of the straight and narrow, so be it.’
‘But to help is not our purpose,’ said one of the Axis Lords, speaking as if to a small child. ‘Our function is to observe, to study. Nothing more.’
Falcon stared at the Axis Lords. ‘Hope. That is the name of our planet. Hope! But what hope do we give to anyone, when we watch passively as countless civilisations are swallowed up by XO5?’
‘Never say that name!’ spat the leader. ‘It is forbidden to even think it.’
‘XO5!’ shouted Falcon, ‘XO5! XO5! XO5!’
One of the Axis Lords pointed a weapon at Falcon’s chest.
‘Silence!’ he commanded.
Another alien stretched his arm out towards Martin and the others.
‘Falcon’s treachery apparently has no limit,’ he said. ‘I sense that the female human is carrying a Truthful Eye from our planet.’
‘Why did you do this, Falcon?’ said the leader. ‘Why did you leave? Elene has been crying every night since you abandoned her.’
‘I had to do s
omething.’
The leader sighed. ‘You never were a good citizen of Hope. Not even when you were a child.’
‘I am sorry,’ said Falcon. ‘I have always been a disappointment to you, have I not, father?’
Falcon’s father turned away. ‘I assume that you know the charges against you?’
‘That I did disobey Article 12 of the Great Charter of the Axis Lords, leaving the planet without an official sanction. Also that I did disobey Article 16 by wilfully and unlawfully deserting my post as 2nd Lieutenant of the Royal Guard.’
‘You know the law so well, Falcon. Why can you not obey it?’ His father’s face softened. ‘Please, Falcon, I beg of you, make a full apology—I might at least be able to reduce your sentence to something less severe.’
‘I will not apologise for my actions, father. I did what I believe to be right. If you wish to execute me—well, that is your decision.’
‘Then you leave me with no alternative. You will be taken to the Supreme Courtroom of the Axis Lords where you will be placed on trial for your actions.’
Falcon smiled. ‘That is well. But by order of Article 39 of the Great Charter of the Axis Lords, I have a last request to make.’
‘And what is that?’
‘My request is for these humans to retain the Truthful Eye—as well as another gift I wish to give to them—and for them to be allowed to stay on the planet in order to prevent its destruction.’
‘Such a request is unacceptable.’
‘Have you forgotten Article 39? By holy writ, my request must be respected.’
Falcon’s father hesitated. ‘Very well. The humans can stay. Now take him.’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Martin. ‘What are we supposed to do, Falcon? I mean… why? Why us? How are we going to save the planet?’
‘There is one more thing I must give you,’ said Falcon, and he pulled another small pouch from his cloak. ‘Inside this bag is something that will be of material assistance to you.’
He opened the bag and poured a handful of golden dust into his left hand. The bright substance glistened in his palm; it was like a handful of sunlight.
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