The Never War

FIRST EARTH

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.”

“Oh,” Spader said. “What’s a movie?”

The image of the flume then came to life. Bright light shone from the mouth and the musical notes told us that somebody was about to arrive. And then this strange movie took an interesting turn.

Saint Dane stepped out of the flume.

“Hobey!” shouted Spader in surprise.

“It’s okay,” I assured him. “It’s just pictures.”

Saint Dane stood in the mouth of the projected flume. This may have been a hologram movie, but it sure looked real. His long gray hair cascaded over the shoulders of his dark suit, and his piercing blue eyes cut through me as if he were actually standing there. Saint Dane even gave us a wave, as if he knew we were watching him.

Even though I’m still trying to understand where we fit into this whole Traveler picture, there are a few things I know all too well. Mostly they have to do with our mission and with the guy who was standing before us in a hologram-Saint Dane.

Halla is in danger because of him. Halla is everything-every territory, every person, every thing, and everytimethat ever existed. I know, it doesn’t make total sense to me, either, but that’s what I’ve been told. Saint Dane is a Traveler who wants to control Halla. In a word, he is evil. But simply calling him evil is like saying Tiger Woods is a good golfer. Saint Dane is the Tiger Woods of bad. He enjoys causing pain and suffering. I’ve seen what he’s capable of. It isn’t pretty. If he gets his way and somehow takes control of Halla, well, I don’t even want to think about that.

The only thing standing between Saint Dane and his wicked plans are the other Travelers. That’s us. Every territory is reaching a critical turning point. Saint Dane is doing his worst to influence these important events so that each territory will fall into chaos. If he succeeds, then all of Halla will fall to him.

We’ve got to make sure he doesn’t succeed.

So far we are 2 and 0. Denduron and Cloral were wins. But it’s going to be a long war.

As we stood staring at the hologram of Saint Dane, every fear I had about the guy came screaming back. He was one bad dude. I watched as his recorded image turned back toward the flume.

“First Earth,”he commanded.

An instant later the light and music swept him up and carried him into the tunnel. The image then faded out and the flume projection was gone. We were back in the dark.

“Now do you understand?” the girl-head’s voice boomed out of the darkness. “He was here. He left. End of story. Now go away.”

“Who are you?” I called out to the girl-head. “Why should we believe that?”

Another hologram appeared before us. It was the same view of the flume as before. Again, the tunnel activated with light and music. Who was going to arrive this time? A second later Spader and I watched as…

Spader and I stepped out of the flume in the hologram!

“I’ve gone totally off my nut,” Spader said in awe.

“Whoa, Veelox is dark,” the projection of Spader declared.

“Yeah, no kidding,” the projection of me said. “Let’s wait a second for our eyes to adjust.”

It was exactly what had happened a minute before.

“My name is Aja Killian,” boomed the head voice as our holograms disappeared.

Spader and I spun around to see the big head had returned. It hovered over us like a blond cloud.

“I’m the Traveler from Veelox,” she said. “I’ve got the flume monitored and I record everything that happens. That’s why I know Saint Dane isn’t here anymore. Any more questions?”

“Yes,” I said. “Would you please stop with this giant-head thing and show yourself? If you’re a Traveler, then we’re all friends here.”

I was feeling a little more bold now, and getting tired of staring up at this girl.

“I would,” Aja answered. “But I’m nowhere near you.”

Spader said, “So you’re telling us that Saint Dane flumed in here for a second, then flumed right back out again?”

“I’m not telling you,” she said curtly. “I justshowedyou. Don’t you believe what you see?”

Spader looked at me and asked softly, “Why did he leave so fast?”

“Because he’s wasting his time here,” Aja answered quickly. “Veelox is totally under control.”

I laughed and said, “Yeah, that’s what I thought about Cloral, until people started turning up dead.” ”Look,” the Aja-head scolded. “Nobody comes or goes through the flume without my knowing. He’s not here. So go chase him to First Earth where you can be more useful.”

Spader and I shared looks. “I guess she toldyou,”he said with a raised eyebrow.

I looked back up at the Aja-head and said, “If you think he’s dumb enough to be controlled by your little home movies, then you’re not as smart as you think you are.”

That seemed to strike a chord. The big head floated down closer to us and stared me right in the eye. It took all I could do not to back off.

“And what makesyouthe expert on all things Saint Dane?” she asked with disdain.

“I’m not,” I answered. “But I’ve battled him twice and both times been lucky enough to win. How about you?”

Aja-head blinked. I don’t think she liked being challenged. She floated back up higher.

“If you take him on alone, you’ll lose,” added Spader. “He won’t get spooked by a big floating head…like us.”

“I’ll try to remember that,” she said sarcastically.

Aja Killian was the Traveler from Veelox, and she thought she was smarter than Saint Dane. That was dangerous. I knew we’d be back on Veelox sooner or later. I just hoped that when that time came, we wouldn’t have to fight both Saint DaneandAja Killian.

“Go to First Earth,” Aja-head scolded. “Have fun, play your little games. Don’t worry about Veelox.”

With that, the giant head disappeared. Spader and I were once again alone.

“Fun?” Spader said. “I can think of a lot of things to call the tum-tigger we’re headed into. Fun isn’t one of them.”

“Should we believe her?” I asked.

“I’m not sure we have a whole lot of choice,” Spader answered. “Looks like Saint Dane came here to throw us off, and the big-head girl caught him.”

“Then we’re on the wrong territory, again.” I said.

“He went to First Earth,” Spader said. “That anything like Second Earth?”

“I think we’re about to find out.”

The two of us then stepped into the mouth of the flume.

First Earth.

Being from Second Earth I couldn’t help but think I would be going home. At least that was what I hoped. I didn’t know that we were about to flume into the laps of two murderous gangsters who were waiting for us with machine guns.

Yes, the real fun was about to begin.

(CONTINUED)