George and the Ship of Time

by Lucy Hawking

  “Because,” replied Matushka, “I was the one child who escaped.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Even Atticus looked stunned by this.

  “You never said,” he cried. “Mom! Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I didn’t want to cast a cloud over your life with my sorrow,” replied his mom. “I wanted you to grow up free and strong and full of imagination—and you have. My childhood was all about fear. I was captured by a Child Hunter, my brain tested, my DNA and blood analyzed, then taken to Wonder. I never wanted you to know how much I had suffered.”

  “Matushka,” George said shyly. “If no one ever gets out, how did you?”

  He could see that it was painful for her and he almost wished he hadn’t asked.

  But she was determined to answer. “There was a raid on Wonder Academy,” she said. “A rescue attempt by the Resistance. But it went horribly wrong. I was the only child they managed to seize.”

  “Who were they?” asked Atticus. “Were they warriors?”

  “Oh yes,” said his mother. “I was saved by a very great warrior, their leader. Working with the last of the free supercomputers. They were so brave. But many of them perished or fled after that night.”

  “What about the supercomputer?” asked George.

  “Disappeared,” said Matushka. “The regime have sought it forever, but since that night none have seen or heard from it. Some say it is hidden at the heart of Eden, waiting for the right time to reveal itself.”

  George thought fast. A hidden supercomputer lurking somewhere at the heart of Eden. Was it possible that Matushka was talking about Empyrean?

  “Who was the warrior?” asked Atticus eagerly. “Did he tell you his name?”

  “No,” said Matushka. “And it was a she. I said I wanted to repay her courage one day, and she asked me to do the same for a child in trouble as she had done for me.”

  George desperately wanted to ask more questions. Was the great warrior the same person as “her”? Or could the warrior be Nimu? But Nimu was probably about the same age as Matushka. So that didn’t make sense. But, before he could say anything, a young man was whispering in Matushka’s ear, gesturing toward the group with a look of alarm on his face.

  “Time to go,” she said urgently.

  “What?” said Atticus. “But it’s the Gathering tonight! It’s my chance to go up a level as a warrior. And George is going to tell his story so I can find out how he got here. He promised me!”

  “No,” said his mom. “It’s too dangerous for you now, for all of you.”

  “No!” said Atticus. “Mom! I’m a warrior—I can protect myself. And you. And all of us!”

  His mother smiled fondly but sadly. “You are a warrior,” she said, ruffling his hair. “But you’re still only a young one and you are no match for the whole colony, if they decide against you.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “I won’t always be here,” said Atticus’s mom as George watched her green eyes glint like dark leaves in the moonlight. “Soon I’ll be gone, and the colony won’t want you to follow me as their leader. They’re turning against us, Atticus, against the way of life we designed. They want other things now: power, riches, status—all the things we tried to outlaw.”

  “Is this my fault?” asked George slowly. “That you have to go now? Because I came here—”

  “No,” said Matushka, shaking her head. “It would have happened anyway—maybe it’s come a bit sooner because of your arrival. You’ve scared people here because you are different.”

  “They are angry about you coming—they say that you drew the tiger toward us, and then the Child Hunter, and that from now on none of us is safe,” explained the young man.

  “I see,” said George. Except he didn’t.

  From several levels below, they heard the sound of chanting and smelled woodsmoke drifting up from underneath.

  “They are ready, Matushka, for the Gathering,” said the young man urgently. “They won’t wait.”

  “This is Lele,” said Matushka. “He is the last one in the colony I can trust.”

  Lele smiled. “They want you to appear. Do you have a story to tell?”

  “It’s our tradition,” said Matushka to George. “We tell long stories at the Gathering. We remind ourselves of our history, of what we know, of who we are through storytelling. And yes, I have a long tale to tell tonight! Perhaps tonight will be my last night as leader of the colony! I will use it well—and give you time to escape.”

  Atticus blinked. “But what about us?” he said. “How is George going to get to na-h Alba?”

  Matushka turned to George. “During the storytelling, you must slip away and take Atticus with you. He will show you the way to Edenopolis.”

  “I’m going too?” said Atticus, who was torn between excitement at the prospect of adventure and sadness at leaving his mother.

  “Only you from the colony can help them,” said Matushka. “I am bitterly ashamed that we are rejecting children who need help. But you, Atticus, my brave boy—you will go with them and keep the promise to the warrior who saved me. But wait!” Matushka looked around. “Where is Hero?”

  Where Hero had sat there was now just a pile of fur blankets.

  George’s heart felt as though it had stopped. The horrible truth dawned on him. “She’s gone to Wonder Academy!”

  “She can’t!” said Atticus, sounding horrified at the idea of Hero wandering alone through his forest. “It’s so dangerous out there! Even for me! What about the tiger?”

  “And she knows nothing about the real world,” said George.

  “How does she even know where Wonder Academy is?” asked Atticus, bewildered.

  George felt in his pocket. “She’s taken the Digitizer!” he said. “Our navigational device. She’ll be using it to guide her.”

  “After her!” cried Matushka. “As fast as you can! Go, now! Atticus, you can track her across the forest. George, stay with Atticus and do as he bids you.”

  “But which way?” said George. “Where is Wonder Academy?”

  “Atticus will help you,” said Matushka confidently. “All trails lead to Edenopolis—Wonder Academy is near the Great Tower of Dump. Be quick! Do not let her get there.”

  A chant rose up from below. “Empress! Ruler! Queen of the skies!”

  “Oh, those idiots,” muttered Matushka. “If their forebears could see them now, rejecting all rational thought, everything we learned about science and how the world works, and instead embracing fairy stories. Very well, if it’s nonsense they want, that’s what they will get.”

  “Where are we going?” said George, once Matushka had climbed down from the upper platform to the massed people of the colony below. They heard a huge shout go up as she appeared through the smoky air.

  “Queen of the realm!” they yelled. “Outsiders have come in! The colony is in danger! Lock them up! Lock them up!”

  “Quiet!” They heard Matushka raise her voice from its usual quiet purr to a roar. “Quiet, my people! I have a story to tell . . .” There was the sound of shuffling as everyone settled down to listen. A silence fell over the night. Matushka began in a bewitching voice: “Once upon a time . . .”

  George turned to ask Atticus a question, but Atticus held up one hand. In the dim light George could just see the concentration on Atticus’s face and he realized that the other boy was trying to sense which way Hero had gone. Suddenly he wheeled around and pointed at a dark corner of the elevated platform, where there seemed to be a curtain covering a secret entrance. The curtain had been pulled to one side.

  “Hero found the escape route!” said Atticus, with grudging admiration. “That’s so crafty!”

  “You must go,” said Lele. “Follow the girl. I’ll cut the rope once you reach the other side. Leave us now.”

  “I can’t leave my mom!” said Atticus, suddenly panicking.

  “Atticus,” said Lele. “You’ve always wanted to be a warrior and ma
ke her proud of you. Now is your chance. You must take it! There is no more time.”

  A roar came up from below as the audience reacted to Matushka’s story.

  “Go!” said Lele. “Now!”

  Atticus went first and George followed, stepping onto the suspended bridge and running carefully along it. As George stepped off into the skeleton of another building, he heard the noise of something tearing as Lele cut the ropes that held it in place at the other end. The bridge collapsed. It swung like a pendulum for a moment until it lost momentum and dangled, broken and useless. Looking back, the two of them could see the silhouette of Matushka on the lower level outlined against the fire, her arms outstretched and her head thrown back. The crowd around her were shouting, but the tone was changing from joyous to angry. Atticus looked torn—George understood that he really wanted to go back but knew that he had to go forward.

  “We’ll come back,” George said to him. “We’ll come home. I promise!”

  “You mean it?” said Atticus nervously.

  “Yes,” said George in a decided voice. He had lost his family and he knew how that felt. He was going to make sure the same thing didn’t happen to his new friend.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “So you actually went into space!” Atticus whispered, pointing at the stars above, just visible through the treetops. “You were up there! Mom says her mother told her about space travel and how spaceships used to fly to space stations in the sky. But then everyone was told that space travel was a big lie and that, from now on, no one would leave the Earth. Mom said they told those lies to stop people thinking they could go to another planet and start again if they didn’t like Eden.”

  They’d been walking through the forest for what felt like hours, the darkness settling around them, broken only by occasional shafts of moonlight as the clouds shifted overhead. At first, George hadn’t been able to see anything, but now his eyes had adjusted to night in the forest. Even the sounds, at first deeply creepy and alarming, had become less scary. The chirps, whirrs, and rustles of the fig forest no longer made him jump out of his skin as they had when they first descended to the forest floor after reaching the end of the suspended walkways.

  They were out of colony territory by now, Atticus had told him, farther than he had ever been before. Even Atticus didn’t know the way and was having to spot, in the darkness, minute signs that showed a human being had recently traveled in this direction. It wasn’t easy and they had a few false leads, finding themselves in dead ends or face-to-face with old concrete walls.

  At the start of their journey, Atticus had solemnly asked George to follow him in absolute silence. But he’d been unable to stick to that himself. They hadn’t gone far before he started asking George all kinds of questions. Where was he from? How did he get to the Swamp? This led George to try to explain the history of space travel to Atticus. It wasn’t easy to explain the mechanics of a spaceship to someone who had so little experience of technology!

  But Atticus caught on surprisingly quickly.

  “I’d like to go into space one day,” he had said quietly.

  “I think there’s something up there already,” said George. “Something made by humans.”

  “When Eden is over,” said Atticus cheerily, “I’ll go and find out!”

  “Will that ever happen?” said George.

  “It has to!” said Atticus.

  “And then what?” said George. “Who will be in charge once you get rid of Trellis Dump?”

  “My mom?” said Atticus. “She’s a great leader. Or,” he added excitedly, “you! That would be awesome! I could be your head warrior! Do you promise?”

  “Sure!” said George as they crept forward toward what looked like a clearing ahead. If, by some unlikely twist of fate, he did become leader of Eden, then having Atticus by his side sounded pretty cool to him.

  Crouching, Atticus motioned to George to do the same. George obeyed and crept forward until he was right next to Atticus. If they peered ahead, they could just see into the clearing, where a strange, cold blue light indicated to them that they were no longer alone.

  George’s heart was banging so loudly in his chest that he was sure whoever was in front of them must be able to hear it. Above the sounds of the night, they could hear footsteps—but this time not those of the large padding cat. More like the noise of a human being pacing around the forest floor.

  Edging forward on his stomach like a snake, George followed Atticus. They stopped, just as they reached the edge of the clearing. They could see, illuminated in a spooky glow, the figure of a human being dressed in a long coat and topped with a dome-shaped white hat.

  Atticus put his mouth right next to George’s ear. “Child Hunter,” he breathed almost silently.

  “What is he doing?” George said in the same voiceless breath. But Atticus just shook his head very slightly.

  The Child Hunter was standing by a stake in the ground, staring up at the skies. “C’mon, c’mon . . .” he said. “C’mon! Where are you?”

  Looking up, George again saw the fast-moving pinpricks of bright light in the dark sky above. And so did the Child Hunter.

  “Catch!” he muttered again. “Catch! Where is the signal? Blast this wretched Eden—why does nothing work anymore?”

  George gave a start, making the dry leaves underneath rustle. Atticus, whose eyes were very bright, put a warning hand on George’s arm.

  “He’s trying to contact someone, pick up a signal,” George whispered.

  “From what?” Atticus mouthed back.

  “Some kind of projection?” guessed George. “Laser? I don’t know.”

  The Child Hunter in his strange hat finally got his connection, but instead of receiving a message or instructions, as George expected, something quite different happened. Under the astonished gaze of Atticus and George, another person started to materialize in the middle of the forest clearing. It looked as if the newcomer was made of orange light. He was much taller than the man in the hat, looming over him, leering.

  The Child Hunter seemed quite overcome. He took off his hat and bowed so low his nose almost touched the ground.

  “Master,” he rasped in a gritty yet oily voice.

  “Why have you summoned me?” demanded the figure, still shining with an eerie tangerine glow.

  “Master,” said the figure, who was now prostrate on the ground, bowing his head to the muddy floor. “I have news!”

  “News of what, imbecile?” barked the figure. “Why could you not send this news through the usual channels?”

  “Master,” said the figure, a note of great cunning sneaking into his voice, “I do not think your communications are secure. I believe you have a spy, a traitor, in your midst.”

  George went cold. Nimu, he thought, with her mysterious plan for the machines and her plot to smuggle Hero and George out of Eden, while working as a government minister. And Empyrean was certainly not working for the regime. Had they both been busted already? George had told Atticus and his mom about them! Was it his fault? He held his breath.

  “Who is this traitor?” said the figure.

  “O Excellency, your most high Dump, may you live forever,” said the man.

  Dump! thought George to himself. Was this Trellis Dump himself?

  “Get on with it!” replied the figure. “What do you know about it?”

  “There are children,” said the Child Hunter mysteriously. “On the run. But they keep disappearing!”

  “What,” said Dump crossly, “are you talking about, man?”

  “Slimicus,” said the man with as much dignity as a person who is prostrate on the ground while talking to a laser projection can muster. “My name is Slimicus Slimovich, Premier Child Hunter to the Kingdom-Corporation of Eden.”

  “Get on with it,” repeated Dump. “What are you trying to tell me?”

  “Children!” said Slimicus triumphantly. “Two of them. Traveling across Eden—by themselves! But no one can find them! Wh
at does that mean?”

  “What are children doing by themselves?” said Dump with distaste. “Do they think they are free?”

  “No, Master, of course not,” said Slimicus. “Freedom is only for the few enlightened adults who can be trusted with it. Not for children, certainly not. And not for most of the population of Eden! People were free once upon a time and look what a mess they made of everything . . .”

  “Well, quite,” said Dump, sounding pleased. “Until my clone father, Trellis Dump, and I came along.”

  “And made the world great again,” said Slimicus.

  “Okay, I’m bored with you now,” said Dump abruptly. “It’s your job to catch children, so why don’t you just get on with it? Stop bothering me with trivial problems!”

  “It isn’t trivial,” said Slimicus hurriedly.

  “You have thirty Dumplets to explain,” said Trellis. “Starting now.”

  “We can’t catch the children—because they are invisible!” said Slimicus.

  “Invisible?” snorted Dump. “What are you talking about, you loser?”

  “Someone or something is removing data about these children, but they’re working very fast and they’re not managing to erase everything. The two children are showing up as shadows or reflections.”

  George’s heart sank. He realized that Empy-rean, in removing the images of him and Hero, must have forgotten to clean up the area around them!

  “What does this mean?” said Dump. Slimicus finally seemed to have caught his attention.

  “It means there are two children on the run across Eden—and someone inside the regime is helping them.”

  “Who are these kids?”

  “We’re checking across Eden to see if any child is out of place,” said Slimicus. “We will soon know who is missing.”

  Which meant, thought George grimly, that Slimicus was bound to find out that Hero hadn’t arrived at Wonder Academy. What the Child Hunter said next was even worse.