D. MacHale - The Never War

“Right,” said Mark, thinking fast. “Summer school.”

“Courtney doesn’t go to summer school.”

“I know,” Mark said, mentally kicking himself for being such a lousy, uncreative liar. “I do.”

Mr. Chetwynde looked at Mark. Mark smiled innocently.

Mr. Chetwynde shrugged and yawned. “Whatever, c’mon in.” He stepped aside and Mark rushed in.

Mark knew exactly where to go. He and Courtney had used Mr. Chetwynde’s basement workshop as a private place to read Bobby’s journals many times before. Mr. Chetwynde had set up an entire workshop down there and never used it. He was a lousy do-it-yourself type guy. Mark and Courtney could be there all day, even on a Sunday, and never worry about anybody coming down.

Mark settled into the big, dusty couch as Courtney ran down the stairs. “Sandwiches are in the fridge,” she announced. “Ready when we need ‘em.”

She sat next to Mark on the couch as he pulled the four red-leather journals from his backpack. He put them down reverently on the low table in front of them. The two sat there, staring at the precious stack. Neither made a move to pick one up.

“This is kind of weird,” Mark finally said.

“Really,” agreed Courtney. “I’m excited and afraid at the same time. I’m dying to know what happened to Bobby, but what if it’s bad?”

The two fell silent, staring at the books.

“There’s something else,” added Mark thoughtfully. “This wholeFirstEarth thing makes me nervous.”

“Why?” Courtney asked.

“It’s like Saint Dane is coming closer. To us.”

“You don’t know that,” Courtney said quickly. ”No, but Second Earth is a territory like all the others. One day Saint Dane is going to come here, too. And when he does, we’re going to be doing more than just reading about it.”

“Unless Bobby and the Travelers stop him first, right?” Courtney asked hopefully.

Mark didn’t answer. He looked at the journals thoughtfully, then reached for the top one. “Let’s just read, okay?”

Courtney took a breath to calm down, then said, “Let’s try something different this time. We’ll read out loud to each other.”

Mark was secretly relieved. He was a faster reader than Courtney and always had to wait for her to catch up. This was the perfect solution.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” he said, and handed her the journal. “You first.”

Courtney took the journal and cracked open the cover. “We left off where Bobby and Spader flumed to Veelox, right?” she asked.

“Right,” answered Mark. He sank back into the couch, put a hand behind his head, got comfortable and said, “Go for it.”

Courtney turned to the page where they had left off the day before, and began to read out loud.

“A second later we were swept up by the light and sound and pulled into the flume. Next stop… Veelox.”

Flying through an interstellar tunnel across time and space was never a normal experience, but making the trip with somebody along for the ride kicked it a couple of notches higher on the strange meter.

“I could get used to this!” declared Spader as he did somersaults and flips, looking like an astronaut pulling zero g’s.

I had to hand it to the guy-he knew how to have fun. Me? I was more interested in kicking back and looking out at the stars beyond the crystal walls. Whatever. To each his own.

We had only been sailing for a few minutes when the flume dumped us off again. Spader had been flying headfirst and barely had time to spin around and land on his feet. Once the light from the flume was sucked back into the tunnel and the musical notes left us, we found ourselves standing in…

Nothing. Seriously. It was pitch-black. I couldn’t see an inch in front of my face.

“Whoa, Veelox is dark,” Spader declared.

“Yeah, no kidding. Let’s wait a second for our eyes to adjust.”

They didn’t. We stood there for two minutes, but the place stayed just as inky black as when we landed.

“Get behind me/’ Spader ordered protectively. “I’ll walk with my hand out until I hit-“

“Stop right there!” a voice boomed at us.

Uh-oh. We weren’t alone. This had never happened before. Was it Saint Dane? Could the quigs on Veelox talk? Was unseen danger hurtling toward us at this very second?

“Back up,” I said softly to Spader.

I took hold of his arm and was about to pull him back into the flume and get the hell out of there, when a light suddenly appeared, hovering in the air over our heads.

“You seeing this, mate?” Spader asked, his voice sounding shaky.

“Yeah,” I answered, just as shaky.

The light grew larger. It was all soft and watery at first, but then suddenly snapped into sharp focus to reveal…

A girl. Actually, not a full girl. A girl’shead. No kidding. Just a head. It was big, too. It floated over us like a huge Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon.

“Who are you?” the head demanded.

Her voice was loud, as though amplified. The girl-head looked normal enough. She had long blond hair tied back in a ponytail. Her eyes were blue, and she wore small, wire-rimmed glasses with yellow-tinted lenses. I’d even say she was cute, for a monster head, that is. She didn’t look dangerous, but then again, a giant floating head didn’t exactly look normal, either.

“I’m Bobby Pendragon,” I said to the head, trying to sound head-friendly.

“And my name’s Vo Spader,” Spader added. “Who are you?”

“I’ll ask the questions!” boomed the head.

I felt like I was standing before the great and powerful Wizard of Oz. With any luck, there’d be some befuddled old man hiding behind a curtain pulling on levers to control the big thing.

“Where do you come from?” demanded the head.

“I’m from Cloral,” answered Spader. “My mate here is from Second Earth. Do you have a body to go with that head?”

The head suddenly dipped down toward us. We both hit the floor. For a second I thought she was going to take a bite.

“I said I’ll ask the questions!” she roared.

“Sorry, mate,” yelled Spader. “No worries. I’m with you now.”

The head floated back higher without taking a chomp. Spader and I exchanged worried looks.

“Why did you come here?” asked the giant blonde girl-head thing.

“Spader and I are Travelers,” I said. “We followed someone here. His name is-“

“Saint Dane isn’t here now,” the head announced.

Whoa. The head was a couple of steps ahead of us… no pun intended.

“Uhh, sorry to disagree,” Spader said. “But he definitely came here from Cloral.”

The big head rolled her eyes like we were annoying her, and said, “I didn’t say he wasneverhere. I said he’s not herenow. Weren’t you listening?”

Spader and I shot each other looks. This was getting even stranger. We were talking to a big, floating, obnoxioushead.

“Watch,” the head said impatiently, as if she were talking to a couple of naughty children. “This happened a few minutes ago.”

The head then disappeared. Just like that. It faded out like a movie. I began to wonder if it had really been there or if it were some kind of projection. We were in the dark again, in more ways than one. But not for long.

Another light began to grow. At first I thought the head was coming back, but what appeared right in front of us was another image entirely. It looked like the mouth of the flume! It was like a 3-D movie projected in space. Very cool. That started to explain the giant head. My guess was these guys on Veelox had some hot technology going on.

Spader backed off. “What is this, Pendragon?” he asked nervously.

“It’s okay,” I assured him. “I think it’s like a movie.”