Time Trek 2

Eric Scott

Description

'It was a rare malfunction in the Cryolab that led to the return of the deranged mutant Darkon. A blink in the electricity system turned the humidity meter off. It took no longer than a minute for the maintenance engineers to spot the malfunction and fix it, but the time was enough for a bead of moisture to form and drop into the softly humming motor that controlled the temperature of the open-lidded deep freeze capsule that housed the gross shape of Darkon.

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 11 juin 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783333677
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title Page
TIME TREK 2
Return of the Mutant
Eric Scott



Publisher Information
This edition published in 2013 by
Acorn Books
www.acornbooks.co.uk
Converted and distributed by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
Copyright © 2013 by Eric Scott
The right of by Eric Scott to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.



Chapter One
The Z Batch, a trio of identical 16-year-olds, were sitting silent and absorbed as the three-dimensional images of the holovision square whirled around the imaginary landscapes of the outer planets of the universe.
They were relaxing at last, for their True Naming ceremony had been long and exhausting. At 16 all inmates of the University of Advanced Genetics received their True or second name, which was something long thought about and chosen with Care.
‘The Z Batch, Zara, Zac and Zoltan and chosen the True Name of Kane, in honour of their creator and creator of the Time Trekker; the man who had been murdered by the evil mutant Darkon.
The True Name only came after a series of gruelling exams. Even in the year 3020, teenagers still had to cope with exams.
Zara, couldn’t help but smile as the weird, misshapen monsters snarled and attacked the intrepid humanoid explorers of these worlds. She sat in her body-mould chair, legs, sheathed in blue silk tights, crossed. Her head was tilted to one side, leaning on her hand and her short fair hair glinted in the reflected light of the holovision square.
“I’d like to see the genetic map of those things,” she said. “They make no sense at all. They couldn’t have evolved in our universe. They are impossible creations.”
“Just shut up and watch the show,” said an exasperated Zac. “It’s not supposed to be real. It’s Theatre of the Imagination.” Like Zara he was fair-haired and wearing the day dress code, a gold flecked, short smock made from university grown natural fibres over the blue tights. A bright red cotton belt gave him a touch of individuality.
Zara snorted in amusement. “It’s hard to believe you came from the same batch as me and Zoltan,” she said. “You’re so immature at times.”
Zac snapped his head up. “I’m as mature as you,” he said, “Anyone would think you’d had a name for years instead of just one day.”
Colour rushed to Zara’s face, both from anger and embarrassment, for she knew his statement to have some truth in it, especially when it came to the opposite sex.
“Cut it out you two,” said the third member of the Batch, Zoltan. “This is our last leisure hour credit for the week, so either watch the show or go and take a walk.”
“It’s this week’s rainday,” said Zara, “hardly walking weather.”
The trio gave a mutual sigh and settled down again in their seats.
Then they all sat up straight in their chairs. The holomovie had ended and in the square came an evil looking face they all remembered so well.
“Oh no,” groaned Zoltan, ‘they’re replaying the Darkon story.”
“Great,” said Zac. “I love it. It’s been ages since they played it.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of watching yourself in the square?” asked Zoltan.
“Never,” declared Zac. “I love watching me be a hero. So if you don’t like it, go for that walk you were talking about.”
Zoltan looked at the rain pouring down outside.
“I suppose we can still learn something from it, even after all this time,” he said. “You never know when the knowledge will be useful.”
So the Z Batch settled down to watch the replay of their now legendary battle against the evil of the mutant Darkon a year in the past.
The Z Batch were the creation of Anton Kane, a brilliant geneticist and time engineer. They had been created as a team. Zara was a telepathic, with amazing telekinetic powers. She also had access to race memory, which she could recall at any time.
Zoltan described himself as “a simple chemist”. But was in fact a being of immense strength and a mind that had stored away every conceivable method of engineering creation. He also had a store of knowledge about ancient modes of transport and machinery.
Zac was a walking encyclopaedia and a computer-like mind that could solve the most difficult equations in seconds. They often wondered why they had been created in one batch. It was obvious they were a team, but the purpose was only discovered when the mutant Darkon killed his master, Dr Anton Kane.
They were the team created to work in experiments with Kane’s greatest invention - the Time Treker.
The trio grew engrossed as they watched the movie and saw the excitable Darkon commit his terrible deeds. Violence and greed had long been bred from the earth’s population, and yet they were Darkon’s qualities, plus immense strength and the ability to change his shape at will.
He was the result of an experiment gone wrong, an experiment to create a model of the perfect mid-20 th century businessman. Darkon had acute business sense, but no scruples or morality. During his tests his mind saw nothing wrong with selling arms to all sides of a conflict or biological or nuclear weapons to anyone with the money. He could not understand the outrage of people who saw millions die from hunger because someone had cornered the world market in food. Business, to Darkon, was business.
It did not take long for the experiment to be judged dangerous and be closed down. Darkon was placed in Sanctuary, a place where such genetic mistakes were placed and medicated into serenity.
But Darkon’s finely honed brain had planned an escape, an escape that would help him fulfil his self proclaimed destiny: To go back in time to create a world which would evolve into one where, when he returned, he would be the supreme ruler. He had stopped taking his medication and gained in strength until he was able break out of Sanctuary, murder Kane and steal the Time Trekker.
Zara wriggled in her chair as she watched the image of herself sense the violence that was happening, saw how they had run to the source, and found Dr Kane dying. With is last breath he had explained their role in the future of time travel and had given them the information to create a second Time Trekker, so they could follow Darkon and foil his plans.
And, despite their youth and inexperience they had done that, finally tracking Darkon to the 19 th century to thwart his plan to buy Alaska from the Russians before American did and therefore own all the gold in the country.
When they found him Zoltan had used his knowledge of electronics to snap freeze him in a river as he attempted to change into a fish.
The holomovie ended with a close-up shot of the mutant man lying in the cryolab still frozen and still half fish and half man.
Zara shuddered at the memories the scene evoked.
The holoplay ended and Zac pressed the button on his chair arm. The vision faded, and slowly so as to help their eyes adjust, the room filled with gentle light.
Zara pushed the adjust button and her chair slowly moulded itself into an upright position. She walked away and the chair moulded back into sitting position. The window blinds melted away as she stared at the dreary, rain-filled sky that greeted her.
She knew that one rainday each week was a necessity, as was the week of frost, ceremoniously ushered in at the end of each year before the Rebirth of the World celebrations on the first day of the New Year, but the knowledge didn’t help remove the gloom which had been added to by the replay of the Darkon holomovie.
But despite the horrors of the time, there had also been adrenaline pumping excitement. That was something that all three of them had missed over the past year.
“I wouldn’t mind doing it all over again,” Zara muttered, half to herself.
“Not me,” said Zoltan firmly, “But I wouldn’t mind a trip to another time zone just to relieve the monotony/”
Zac laughed. “You don’t think they’d give us the Time Trekker back do you? It’s still on the top secret list. No-one quite understands how they work even now.”
“I wish they hadn’t taken it away from us,” said Zoltan. “We could have had a lot of fun.”
“There are too many risks to ‘have fun’ with time,” cut in Zac. “Besides we didn’t exactly have fun the last time we used it.
“Professor Kane meant time travel it to be used for the benefit and protection of the world.”
“We don’t know what he wanted it used for,” said Zara. “So don’t start making noble pronouncements like some Nirvana prophet. All we truly know is what he told us before he... died... about us being a special project, to work as a team, to develop our powers...”
“We’ve done well too,” cut in Zoltan. “You can bring back images from your genetic memory almost instantly, your psychokinesis have improved out of sight, I can almost make a rock fly on fresh air, and Zac here can compute quicker than any bio chip on the planet.”
“But we still don’t know our real purpose,” complained Zara. “Maybe we should use the Trekker to go back and listen in on the Professor when he was formulating his plan.”
This philosophical discussion was cut suddenly short by a cry of pain from Zara. She held her hands to her head and sank to her knees.
Zoltan rushe