Sky Wars

  First published 2011 in Pan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited 1 market Street, Sydney

  Text copyright © Charlie Carter 2011

  Illustration copyright © Russell Jeffery 2011

  The moral rights of the creators have been asserted.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity [including Google, Amazon or similar organisations], in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, Including photocopying, recording, scanning or by any Information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

  National Library of Australia

  Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

  Carter, Charlie.

  Sky wars / Charlie Carter.

  9780330404006 [pbk.]

  Carter, Charlie. Battle boy; 12.

  For primary school age.

  A823.4

  Designed by Russell Jeffery, Emigraph

  Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

  Papers used by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

  These electronic editions published in 2011 by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd 1 Market Street, Sydney 2000

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.

  Battle Boy 12: Sky Wars

  Charlie Carter

  Adobe eReader format

  978-1-74262-673-4

  EPub format

  978-1-74262-675-8

  Online format

  978-1-74262-672-7

  Macmillan Digital Australia

  www.macmillandigital.com.au

  Visit www.panmacmillan.com.au to read more about all our books and to buy both print and ebooks online. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events.

  CONTENTS

  Title

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  ‘You can still pull out, Battle Boy. No-one will think less of you for it.’

  Napoleon rolled his eyes. What was the professor talking about? Of course he wouldn’t pull out. He might be scared stiff, his heart thumping like crazy and his throat as dry as the Sahara Desert. But he wouldn’t miss this mission for anything.

  A MetaBook! Professor Perdu’s brand new Battle Book! It’s not everyday I get to enter one of those, he thought.

  ‘They’re not like normal Battle Books,’ the professor continued. Napoleon had already seen MetaBook 3 lifted from its shelf by a small robotic forklift and carried carefully to the launch site.

  ‘It’s at least four times the size of a Battle Book,’ he said.

  ‘Yes, but its what’s inside that really matters. There’s not just one battle in that book, there are many.’

  ‘But they’re all from the same campaign, aren’t they?’

  ‘That’s true. MetaBook 3 contains the zeppelin war that Germany fought against Britain – battles that went on for years.’

  ‘Between 1915 and 1918 to be precise,’ Napoleon’s SimulSkin added. ‘Fifty-two air battles. Two hundred tons of bombs dropped.’

  ‘And it’s all in that MetaBook,’ said the professor. ‘Not as full battles but as random chunks of energy. They’re floating around in the Time Ether – Battle Bubbles bumping into each, bouncing off in all directions, even bursting. It can be total chaos in there, with War Storms, Time Twisters, and even No When Waves – rogue Time Tsunamis that can dump you to eternity.’

  Are you trying to scare me, Prof?’

  ‘I am, because I want you to realise how dangerous these books are. Normal Battle Book rules don’t apply. Everything is different when it comes to MetaBooks. Anything can happen.’

  She looked at him. ‘I have great faith in you, BB005, but it is uncharted territory inside a MetaBook. And I won’t have any contact with you for the entire mission, which means I can’t guarantee you safe passage.’

  Professor Perdu cracked her knuckles loudly.

  ‘Please be assured,’ Skin added after a pause. ‘I have apprised BB005 of the facts.’

  ‘That’s right.’ Napoleon nodded. 1 know what I’m letting myself in for, Prof. I really do.’

  ‘Very well, then,’ Professor Perdu sighed. ‘In that case it’s time to get moving. MetaBook 3 should be locked into position and ready to enter. To the Tome Tunnel, Battle Boy.’

  ‘You mean Tome Tower, don’t you, Prof?’

  ‘No, I don’t. As I said, BB005, when it comes to MetaBooks everything is different.’

  Napoleon followed Professor Perdu into an elevator. She punched a code into the wall screen.

  ‘The Tome Tunnel has taken years to perfect,’ she explained as the lift descended. ‘It’s a ceramic tube 100 metres in length, with the MetaBook at one end and you at the other. The tube becomes one long super-conductor by ultra-freezing it to minus 400 degrees Celsius.’

  ‘Does that mean I turn into an ice cube?’

  ‘You’ll be going far too fast for that. We accelerate the atoms inside the Tome Tunnel to astronomical speeds. And you’ll be in a temperature-controlled TimePod.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘A kind of space capsule,’ the professor said as the lift came to a stop and the doors slid open. ‘See for yourself.’

  They entered a small chamber. On the floor, set on silver rails, was a bullet-shaped cylinder that appeared to be made out of glass.

  ‘Nano-carbon crystals,’ the professor explained. ‘Clearer than glass, stronger than diamonds’ She tapped the cylinder and it flipped open into two halves. ‘You lie in there, head at the pointy end, arms in dive position. We close the lid and line you up for launching. Simple.’

  Napoleon gulped. ‘It looks like a coffin.’

  ‘Let me assure you, BB005, that without the TimePod you would be in a coffin. The speed you must reach to enter the MetaBook would cook you in less than a second.’

  ‘But what happens once I’m in the MetaBook? I can’t do much stuck inside that thing.’

  ‘The TimePod disintegrates soon after it enters the MetaBook.’

  ‘Which means I must slow down a lot once I’m in the MetaBook.’

  ‘You most certainly do – thanks to the Time Ether.’

  ‘Yeah, Skin tried to explain this Time Ether to me, but it went right over my head.’

  ‘Think of time as a liquid, a sort of soup’

  ‘But isn’t that impossible? Time is just time. It ticks by. How can it be a liquid?’

  ‘You’ve already travelled through the mists of time in normal Battle Books. What do you think they are? They’re fine droplets of the past – past particles, if you like. Time just happens to be a lot thicker when it’s in MetaBooks.’

  ‘I sort of see …’

  The professor laughed. ‘Luckily you don’t have to understand the theory. Just accept it and the rest will fall into place. Whatever you do, don’t fight the ether when you’re in it; you’ll only exhaust yourself. The tides of time are far stronger than you. Go with the flow, and before you know i
t you will burst into one of the many Battle Bubbles that are floating about in there as well. That’s when your mission really starts’

  ‘Okay, I guess’ Napoleon climbed into the TimePod. He knew there was something important he wanted to ask, but his head was spinning with all the new information.

  ‘This is it, then.’ Professor Perdu was leaning down, holding out her hand. ‘Good luck, Battle Boy 005.’

  It sounded a bit too much like goodbye to Napoleon. He smiled weakly and shook the professor’s hand. She stood back and the TimePod folded shut. It tightened around him, uncomfortably so.

  ‘TimePod sealing itself,’ Skin said.

  A moment later it began moving along the rails, through a hole barely wider than the TimePod itself.

  ‘Entering the breech,’ said Skin.

  Napoleon felt like a bullet being loaded into a gun. And soon he was staring down the barrel.

  ‘Lining up with the Tome Tunnel. Co-ordinates processed and verified.’

  He could see the MetaBook at the far end, like a target. It even had a kind of bullseye on it.

  ‘Crosshairs locked in. Prepare to fire in 5…’

  Napoleons heart was pounding, his mind racing, the professors words churning in his head:

  Remember that this is only a reconnaissance mission, Battle Boy. No heroics, no undue risk-taking. Just go in, familiarise yourself with the territory, and get out again.

  ‘4…’

  That was it – the something important he wanted to ask about. Getting out!

  ‘3…’

  He banged on the wall of the TimePod. ‘I forgot to ask, Prof,’ he shouted, his breath fogging up the crystal bullet. ‘How do I exit the MetaBook? You didn’t tell me.’

  ‘2…’

  The professor was yelling too, but her voice was lost in the roar of the launch build-up.

  ‘No wait!’ shouted Napoleon. ‘Professor! How do I—?’

  ‘1…

  Fire!’

  Napoleon rocketed forward so hard and so fast that the words were thrust down his throat and his eyeballs forced back into his head.

  One moment he was staring down the Tome Tunnel at the MetaBook.

  A millisecond later he was about to collide with it.

  Napoleon closed his eyes and screamed. ‘We’re going to crash!’

  But he was moving so fast that the words didn’t even reach his lips. Quicker than a thought, he was wrapped in brilliant white light – so bright that his eyes ached.

  ‘What happened, Skin?’ he said. ‘We were going to slam into the MetaBook!’

  ‘We did. We are inside it now’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Pure velocity, BB005. We have reached Hyperspeed 10, at which point nothing is solid any more.’

  ‘Nothing? But I…’ Napoleon stopped and looked ahead to where his hands and arms should have been. He gasped. There was nothing. ‘Where am I? There’s no me!’

  ‘Correction. You still exist, BB005. You have simply become non-matter.’

  ‘I don’t want to be non-matter. I want to be me!’

  ‘Release your anxiety, BB. You will rematerialise as soon as we slow down. Which by my calculation will be …’ Skin paused for a few seconds. ‘Now’

  Napoleon was hurled forward.

  ‘Massive deceleration in process,’ said Skin.

  Napoleon could feel his hands pushing against the nose of the TimePod, though he still couldn’t see them.

  ‘Hyperspeed minus 7, and slowing.’

  And then in the next instant he could see his hands and arms. They materialised out of nowhere.

  ‘Wicked, Skin! That’s magic’

  ‘Correction. Quantum theory it may be, but it is definitely not magic’

  The crystal casing of the TimePod also materialised, and through it Napoleon could see a soft blue liquid. It was like the sea of a tropical island.

  ‘Is that blue stuff Time Ether?’

  Affirmative.’

  As Napoleon gazed in wonder at the strange liquid, cracks began to appear in the TimePod and soon the liquid was seeping through.

  ‘What’s happening?’ he cried.

  ‘The TimePod is now disintegrating,’

  The cracks widened quickly and a moment later whole chunks of the capsule broke away.

  Napoleon kicked and thrashed about as the Time Ether surged into the capsule. ‘I’m drowning!’

  ‘Remember what the professor said,’ Skin insisted. ‘Do not fight the Time Ether, Go with the flow. Slow, deep breathing recommended’

  ‘But I can’t breathe. I —’

  Napoleon stopped, suddenly realising that he could in fact breathe. The ether was all around him, all over him, pressing against his skin, up his nose, in his lungs, and yet he could still breathe. It seemed impossible, but it was happening.

  As soon as Napoleon was breathing normally, he relaxed. Lying back, he viewed his strange ethereal world.

  He noticed that there were bubbles, ( some the size of tennis balls, others as big as footballs. A few floated right past Napoleon, close enough for him to peer into them. They reminded him of the crystal balls of fortune tellers, and he even thought he could see shapes and figures swirling inside them. He reached out to touch one, but it darted off like a startled fish.

  ‘The energy inside those bubbles is raw and super-concentrated,’ said Skin. ‘They’re impossible to enter. The MegaBubbles are the ones we’re interested in. They contain single battles.’

  ‘Where are they?’

  ‘Closer to the surface. There’s one passing over us now.’

  Napoleon rolled onto his back and peered up. Far above him was a huge bubble; it cruised past like a whale, except that it glowed with a pulsing light of many colours, like an aurora, and occasional sparks flickered across its surface.

  ‘We have to get inside that thing?’

  ‘Correct, BB005. There are many such Battle Bubbles in this MetaBook. But we may as well enter this one as any other’ Skin’s nano-computers began buzzing. ‘Locking on target. Grade Four acceleration activated.’

  Almost instantly Napoleon was spearing up through the Time Ether towards the Battle Bubble.

  ‘But how do we enter it?’

  ‘We pierce the bubble’s membrane using the latest gadget on Helping Hand Version 5.6.’

  ‘You mean the Laser Blade? I wondered what that was for.’

  ‘Taking aim now using Automatic Body Control’

  ‘Don’t you trust me to do this, Skin?’

  ‘I apologise, BB005, but expeditious response is essential in this case’

  Before Napoleon could even think, his arms whipped around above his head, and his hands locked together in firing mode, the laser finger pointing straight at the Battle Bubble.

  ‘But won’t the bubble burst?’

  ‘Negative. The membrane is self-healing.’

  Napoleon was speeding towards the Battle Bubble. When he was only metres away, a blade-shaped beam about 30 centimetres long shot from the end of his laser finger. It struck the bubble and, like a surgeon’s scalpel, made a fine incision.

  ‘Nice slice!’ Napoleon shouted. ‘Coming through!’

  I don’t believe it!’

  Napoleon was flying high above a heaving sea, cold night air streaming over his face.

  ‘The English Channel is below,’ said Skin. ‘And the aircraft ahead are zeppelins.’

  In the distance, scattered across the night sky, was a fleet of enormous torpedo-shaped airships.

  ‘They are part of a German bombing raid, heading for England,’ said Skin.

  Napoleon’s HoverVest vibrated slightly and small jets burst from his Boot Boosters, sending him towards the airships. ‘They’re just great big gasbags,’ he said as he drew closer.

  ‘Correct. And those gasbags are made from the intestines of cows. More than two hundred thousand cows are needed for one zeppelin.’

  ‘Holy cow!’ Napoleon had pulled in close to one of the airship
s. ‘That’s a lot of moo.’

  ‘This is a Super Zeppelin, M-class,’ said Skin, making some quick calculations. ‘It means the year is 1916, sometime between July and October.’

  As Skin spoke, Napoleon noticed something very strange about the zeppelin; it was transparent.

  ‘I can see through it! It’s like a big grey ghost.’

  Not only could Napoleon look through the massive balloon section of the airship, but he could see right into the engine room and command gondola that hung below the balloon. He could even see the officers walking around inside the compartment.

  ‘That is because the Battle Bubble is still forming. The zeppelin and all inside it will fully materialise soon. But until that point, we can enter the airship and inspect it more closely.’

  ‘But they’ll make me a prisoner.’

  ‘Not at this stage. The officers are still not fully formed. Only when they totally materialise in the same time frame as us will they become aware of you.’

  Before Napoleon could say any more, Skin activated another burst from the Boot Boosters, sending him straight at the zeppelin. To his amazement he went through the side of the command gondola as though it wasn’t even there.

  ‘I wish you’d stop using Automatic Body Control,’ Napoleon hissed as he landed right in the middle of the officers.

  Apologies, BB005. I use ABC because it is more efficient.’

  ‘Maybe. But I like to control my own actions.’

  Napoleon picked himself up and stared around the command gondola.

  ‘This is so weird.’ He could see right through the German officers. He reached out and put his hand through several as they walked past. ‘When will the officers become solid?’

  ‘Difficult to say, BB005. Possibly at any moment.’

  ‘What happens then?’

  ‘Then they will see you.’

  ‘But what about Epsilon Phase? Don’t we get a pause in the action?’

  ‘There is no Epsilon Phase in a MetaBook. As the professor said, the normal Battle Book rules do not apply in here.’

  ‘So I need somewhere to hide before these guys get real’