The Traveller

Written by Alex Bamforth

artwork by @babygurl.design

artwork by @nialldraws

Part One: The Old Oak Tree

From under an old oak tree, Sara and Wayne stared out at the dipping valley that stretched before them. The day’s summer heat still lingered but dulled by the evening chill. As the sky took on darker shades, tiny lights passed overhead and far in the distance, blinking in and out of sight. A gathering of insects hovered nearby. 

‘You know, they say almost one percent of our planet's insects are alien? They came here with the Maethogens and Sarisians on their ships.’ Sara spoke without taking her eyes from the huddle of insects.

‘Who says that? I never heard anyone say that.’ Wayne retorted.

‘Mr Harrison told us in integration studies last week.’ Said Sara

‘No he never.’ 

‘He did and you’d have known if you listened.’ Sara was pulling at the grass around her, lifting clumps in her hands and letting them fall back to the ground. Wayne stood waving a fallen twig around like he was conducting a nonsensical symphony. He grew bored of the stick and hurled it, paying no attention to where it landed. 

‘Anyway you can’t call ‘em aliens anymore.’ Wayne said. ‘It’s derogatory.’ 

‘That’s a big word for you.’ Sara teased. ‘Do people really care what we call them?’

‘Nah. I doubt the aliens care.’ They shared an amused smile. 

Sara liked being in the fields. To her it seemed a peaceful and quiet remnant left behind by an ancient world. The air was fresh and unfiltered unlike in the city. She always longed for the smell of the fields, it was the cleanest smell she knew and at night you could even see a star or two, often faint but they still lingered there from time to time. With the light pollution from the city that glowed behind the distant valley and the thousands of ships that roamed the sky, stars were a rare sight. Sara often imagined peering up at a starry backdrop, like in the pictures she’d seen online. A black canvas splattered with silver dots. 

Wayne was trying to climb the tree. It stood alone in the field, one of the last in England. It may have been the oldest but nobody really cared to check just like nobody cared that a grass stained adolescent was trying to climb it. Something that old and rare should be preserved, Sara thought. It was hard to understand, Sara thought, in a world where everything was man-made and engineered to perform a task, that something could exist without the interference of a person or machine. 

‘Don’t you wish we could see the stars?’ Sara asked.

‘No.’ Wayne replied. ‘They’re just lights in the sky. Look, there’s loads of ‘em. My dad says that the stars only made us wonder what was out there, if anything… but now we know.’

‘I just think it’s sad.' Sara thought aloud. ‘They’re there but we can’t see them.’ She pulled her knees in closer to her body and shivered against the encroaching evening chill.

Part Two: Door Three-three-five

The apartment building was a gigantic and mangled shape that loomed over Sara. Its original structure was nearly two hundred years old, now long lost to something that resembled a jenga tower with the pieces only partially removed. A stark contrast to where Wayne lived. Inside the megastructure doors lined up like clones and stairwells joined different sections together seemingly at random. Sara had found the fastest route to her flat, an old lift that she suspected no one knew about, inside a single light flickered to show walls of scratched and spray painted graffiti. It groaned and rattled as it made its way up thirty-one stories and brought her out into a dimly lit stairwell. She climbed up another four sets of stairs, taking the steps two at a time and pushed her way through an old fire exit leading into a hallway that eventually turned into another row of flats. She sprinted down it, the brown doors and cream walls morphed into a blur. When she finally reached door three-three-five she was out of breath. 

Opening the door, the smell of puska hung heavy in the air. A short hallway that opened up into a square kitchen was dimly lit by the slightly ajar door leading to the living room. She peered in to see the blurred image on the television screen, the words 'Are you still there?’ announced across it. Her father sat slumped in an armchair, his aged face and pot belly soaked in a layer of television light. His arm lay across his stomach, hand loosely clutching a vaporizer from which a light flashed blue to warn of low battery. Taking it carefully, she placed it on the coffee table's charging station and the light turned green. 

He stirred in the armchair mumbling under his breath. Bloodshot eyes appeared between puffy eyelids. For a moment they hung on Sara but she saw no recognition from them. He lifted himself in his chair, trying to rub away the haziness of self induced comatose. 

‘I didn’t expect you to be home so soon.’ His words were barely audible, riddled with drowsiness. 

‘It’s nearly nine.’ She replied softly.

‘What? You’ve been out all this time?’ She could see the anger swell. ‘And where is my damn vape? Have you hidden it again?’ He tossed in the armchair, seemingly bound to it by his bulging stomach. 

‘It’s on charge…’ She answered timidly. Her father erupted from the chair and over to the charging port. 

‘What have I told you about touching it? It’s not for children. You don’t go near it! Do you hear me?’ Anger filled his voice, each word like the blow of a hammer trying to pierce an impenetrable surface with a rusted nail. 

Swells of emotion bubbled in Sara but were quelled by her hurt, she ran to her bedroom. It was little more than a U shape that ran around a single bed. She buried her face into her pillow, directing cries into it until eventually they ceased to sparse sobs. Closing her eyes to sleep, all that came to her was an image of the old oak tree standing tall in the field. With it came a serenity that unwrapped itself from her hurt. Feeling its pull she dragged herself from the sanctuary of her bed. She waited, listening for the heavy snores of her father’s drug addled rest, heard them and grabbed the coat that hung from the back of her door. She left the flat unconcerned about waking her father and made her way back through the belly of the megastructure she called home. 

Part Three: A New Friend 

A cold breeze tore at Sara as she made her way down Old Spencer Lane. Pulling on her coat she felt a prodding in her side. The weather in the last few months had been boiling, not a day had it gone below twenty degrees and she couldn’t remember the last time she had worn the coat, or what it could be in its pocket. As soon as she felt its shape she knew it to be the rubix cube that had belonged to her mother. She had found it whilst looking through old boxes, careful not to let her father see it. Anything to do with her mother he discouraged, they were memories that he refused but ones she treasured. 

The dipping valley was nothing but a shadowy abyss of which the opposing side rose from, a silhouette illuminated by the bright city beyond. Sitting at the foot of the tree she pulled out the rubix cube and fiddled with its sections, aimlessly turning. Lifeless, bloodshot eyes staring back at her, pupils small and piercing. Rage rising like a wave and crashing back down.

A twig snapped behind her. Turning in panic she saw a large figure, tall and stick thin, like nothing she had seen before. She screamed and it screamed back but the noise that came from it was strange, like a cat stuck between a pur and a scream with a strange rhythm, like it carried a note from an old song. Large, black eyes appeared to dart from her to the rubix cube. Pupiless eyes belonging to an alien species Sara had never seen before. It was neither short nor bulky enough to be Maethogen and whilst it was tall like the Sarisians, this creature's head must have been three times the size of one. It had two arms where the Sarisians had four and it stood on two feet unlike the Maethogen’s, who crawled around on all six. 

The figure stepped towards her curiously, a large balloon shaped head tilted at her. At first the alien flinched as she held out the rubix cube but tentatively took it from her with abnormally long and slender fingers. She saw no thumb and no little finger but four of equal length that, instead of being tipped at the end, were indward dents reminding Sara of suction pads. It mulled over the rubix cube, fascinated by the colours even now in the shadowy, summer night. 

‘It’s a rubix cube.’ Once again the alien seemed to flinch, startled by her ability to speak. Sara ignored it.  ‘Each side needs to be one colour, so you twist it until you get them to match.’ 

The alien looked from Sara to the rubix cube studying both. Then it reached for something and this time Sara flinched as long fingers disappeared into the depths of a coat that draped around the alien’s slender frame. Catching a glimpse, she noticed a belt that held a number of strange looking devices. Some were tool-like, others like tiny calculators along with a dozen or so pockets, but it was a small grey cube that the alien picked out and offered to her. It wasn’t much bigger than the rubix cube but with raised corners a darker grey than the rest. In the middle of each surface were small, narrow screens illuminated by a dull orange light. On each screen four symbols changed seemingly at random, none of which Sara recognised.

‘Is it some sort of game?’ She asked, but the alien seemed intent on solving her mother’s rubix cube, already twisting and turning its sections.

She studied the cube in her hands, it felt solidly built all over but as light as the rubix cube. Suddenly the pace at which the symbols changed quickened. Each symbol took on different colours. Red, blue, green and yellow lit up Sara’s face. The screens showed the symbols morphing into new ones, too many for Sara to keep track of. A bright light began to radiate from it. Looking at the alien, confusion took over Sara’s features. The alien looked at her and seemed almost to mirror her expression. All of a sudden it lunged at her reaching for the grey cube as the lights became overwhelming. A bright flash of white light engulfed them and blinked out. The old oak tree stood alone in the field. 

Part Four: Unfamiliar Surroundings

On a dusty, orange surface a bright ball of light appeared and from it a young girl and a freakishly tall creature of which few in the galaxy could name appeared. It looked like they were playing a game of tug of war with a rubix cube.   

Sara fell to her knees clutching her throat, grasping for something that wasn’t there. The alien looked at her, tilting its head as if in contemplation. It had the cube safely between its long fingers. Reaching inside its coat it swapped the cube for a small hemispherical device and pressed the flat surface, causing a large bubble to encircle them. 

Air came rushing to Sara’s lungs. She noticed a hard, cracked surface coarse against her hands. The alien looked down at her with what Sara thought to be worry on its face but what surrounded them caught her eye. An iridescent sheen encircled them and she noticed  a strange metallic taste to the air she gasped at. A sudden thought seemed to come to the alien and before she could say anything it was swapping the hemispherical device for the grey cube and the lights overwhelmed her again. 

As the bright light faded away Sara’s vision came back but red dots lingered and nausea unsettled her stomach. Looking around she noticed that the iridescent bubble had gone along with the dusty and hard surface. Now she was in a field bigger than the one with the old oak tree in. Trees stood all around her, not too dissimilar to the old oak. Instead of their branches growing outward they grew upright pointing to a night sky that was littered with silver dots. To her amazement a beige planet with a ring around it sat amongst them. 

Looking to the grassy surface beneath, which appeared to be a pale shade of blue, she noticed it was slowly falling away from her and in mid air she floated, her feet level with her head, her body weightless. Attempting to regain control she began to flail, twisting her body in vain as she drifted. Turning from the stars to the surface, unable to tell what was above or below, she noticed the alien unsharing of her predicament, two feet firmly on the ground. Reaching, it grabbed her by the ankle and held her there momentarily. Once again a bright light dragged them in. 

She hadn't noticed it the first two times but now she was aware of the tunnel. Once the bright light faded she saw it. A myriad of colours and shapes passed all around as every inch of her was pulled through the multicoloured tunnel. Her body wasn't there, only her mind seemed present. 

Part Five: Zarg

Sara lost count of how many worlds she had seen. Half a dozen, maybe more. It had taken her a while to realise they were different worlds. On some she couldn’t breath, others she couldn’t stand and sometimes both. Many looked like the one she had left behind, fields and trees untouched by man made structures and landscapes that seemed to fold and unfold in front of her. Landscapes of colours that she had never imagined them to be. She’d seen a golden sun sink into a lilac sea as another rose in the sky behind her. There were things she saw that made no sense. Like a field of tall yellow grass in the middle of which a line of people stood as still as trees in strange outfits that looked like old fashioned space suits. She thought she had glimpsed what looked like a flamingo with a toilet plunger instead of a beak running through pink shrubbery on another. It was like flicking through television channels, each a window into a new and strange world. 

Now Sara found herself on the edge of a rocky surface looking out over a sea swaying uncontrollably. The sky was grey with clouds and a drizzle of rain touched her cheeks. The alien stood awkwardly studying her, as though it was trying to decide whether to move them on. It began to reach inside its draping coat for the cube, the function of which she couldn’t comprehend but the outcome she knew well enough by now. 

‘No! Please, no more.’ Sara begged. She felt like she might throw up. All she wanted to do was rest. The alien hesitated and withdrew its long fingers from its coat.

‘This one seems fine.’ She said with a hint of indignation but she didn’t feel scared, she just felt tired from all of… she couldn’t think of a way to put it. Teleporting almost seemed too convenient. But, essentially, that’s exactly what it was. Jumping from one world to another is how she decided to think of it. World Jumping she mumbled to herself. 

‘Can you take me home?’ she asked out of curiosity more than anything else. The alien only stared at her.

She’d dreamt of other worlds like the ones she had seen and felt far from Earth in those dreams, always with a sense of comfort at being so far from home, from her father. He wasn’t a bad man, she knew, but she did fear him, more than she feared being lost in a strange world with a strange alien. But this wasn’t a dream, she knew it to be real. The faint wetness from the light rain and chilly breeze made her shiver. 

There were many questions that she wanted to ask. Where were they? How does the cube work? She walked up to the alien and saw for the first time its complexion. Its skin was like worn leather, a purple colour of which she saw multiple shades. Its mouth was lipless and narrow, its nose a flat and wide ridge, instead of nostrils there were three narrow slits in the centre, the middle one raised slightly.

‘I think I’ll call you Zarg’ She said from under the alien's towering figure. ‘That sounds like something from an old sci-fi film my dad showed me.’ 

Zarg just tilted their head at her with black, unassuming eyes. She thought eyes like that should be lifeless but these weren't. They were deep and dotted by tiny white specks like the sky on a starry night. They were like space itself, deeply captivating and full of life. 

‘You can’t understand me, can you?’ She placed her hands on her hips expectantly. ‘Well that’s just great. Stuck on a strange world with a strange bloody alien.’ She laid down and hugged herself, trying to pull the warmth of her coat in deeper. She felt tiredness that had been creeping for a while. Letting sleep consume her she left the alien behind and dreamt of home. 

Sara awoke to Zarg peering over her. The alien pulled the cube from its coat and held it out, eager for her to take it. She did so hesitantly, unsure of where it would take them next but excitement stirred also. She wanted to see more of what was out there, uncaring of where she might end up. She took the cube and saw the symbols change and felt the bright lights consume her.

Part Six: The Sea of Fog

Thick fog hung heavy all around denying any visibility. Sara felt unease at it and sensed that Zarg did too. The alien peered in all directions, but there was only fog. Shifting on her feet she felt the softness of soggy grass. Water crept into her trainers, now marked with the terrain of a dozen worlds, making her socks cling to the soles of her feet. The feeling reminded her of the first time her mother had taken her to the fields outside of the city. They had reached the top of the valley, looking out over the city when rain had started to pour down. By the time they made it back to the old oak tree they were both soaking. Her mother had sat her on one of its roots, holding her to keep warm, and they watched the rain fall over the valleyside. Even in the wet and cold she had liked being there among the natural lands and smells but here the sweet smell of wet grass seemed tainted by the fog. 

Zarg froze, tilting its head as though to hear better. Sara heard it too, a distant squelch followed by another and another. A silhouette formed and the shape grew bigger and the squelching noise louder. Zarg pulled something from its back that Sara hadn’t noticed before. With a flick of the wrist the contraption extended out to form what she thought looked like a rifle.

Hunched over the gun, peering down a scope, Zarg seemed to steady itself. Sara could just make out the bulky form coming right at them. Right at her. It reminded her of a wild animal like the ones that were now so rare on Earth. 

It’s taking too long, Sara thought. Then the fog seemed to part on its own accord, as if desperately trying to get out of the creature's way. She felt the urge to do the same but before she could react it was leaping at her. All she could do was stare helplessly into a large jaw in which teeth and saliva gaped. A flash of light illuminated the fog, accompanied by a noise that was like a dampened thud reverberating in her ears. She stood from her half crouch to see the creature laying only a few steps away with a billow of smoke rising from its head.

Zarg let out a guttural ‘awoo’ as it folded away the weapon. Sara looked on in shock at the smoking mass in front of her. A large, hippo-like jaw with protruding teeth lolled against the grassy surface. The creature's body was large and muscly, with a thick lion-like mane around its neck made up of shades of green. The four legs that it had galloped on were each two jointed and outwards facing. She wouldn't have stood a chance if not for Zarg.  

The fog refused to give way to anything but the sun which sat directly above them and even then, little of it could be seen or felt. Sara’s feet were now soaked and she was beginning to feel fed up. A tentative thought of returning home mulled in the back of her mind.  

Peering up for the first time in a while she noticed shapes in the fog ahead. Unsure as to what they were, she peered up at Zarg to ask but thought better of it. As they walked on the shapes became clearer. They appeared jagged, like rocks that hung in the air several feet from the ground. As the fog cleared it revealed them to be exactly that. Mounds of dirt, roots and rock that floated weightlessly, suspended there by an unseeable force. 

Astonished, Sara tried to see what was at the top but the fog hung too heavy, cutting the top of the rocks off. How far did they go up? Sara wondered. She stopped to examine the bottom of the nearest one to her, perplexed that something this huge could hang in mid air unattended. She ran her fingers along a thick root that snaked around dirt and rock. It must be held up from above, she reasoned. 

Ahead Zarg had stopped and stood next to a ladder attached to the side of one of the rocks. From where Sara stood she could see what looked like a man sized toad stood on two legs, hunched over due to a wooden crate on its back and wearing grey rags, next to Zarg. She noticed another one of the creatures climbing the ladder and as she jogged over, the creature passed her and made its way up the ladder. Large green eyes that sat atop either side of their heads seemed to pay Sara little attention. 

Zarg looked down at her and then up the ladder. Sara got the feeling that it wanted her to follow. She hesitated a moment and then obliged willingly. The rough wooden ladder was damp at first but dried and she climbed through the fog that was obstructing the view above and below. Pulling herself up onto a flat, grassy surface, she froze with worry for a moment realising she hadn’t thought to look back to see if the strange alien that brought her here had followed. A moment later Zarg’s large head appeared out of the fog and the alien hauled itself up onto the grassy surface beside her. Together they looked out at a sea of fog dotted with flat platforms topped with grass and shrubbery, sitting like islands on the ocean, stretching as far as she could see. Sara looked up at her new companion and smiled. 

Part Seven: Atop the Floating Rocks

The toad-like creatures made their way to a wooden stall in which another of the creatures stood. All three wore the same grey sleeveless tunics and pants over their browny-green skin. Their feet, bare and human-like, were a disproportionate size to their bodies. Their hands were the same but Sara could only see three long fingers tapering to pointed nails. 

Beyond the wooden stall other stalls were scattered around a field that dipped in the middle like a shallow bowl, rising slightly at the far end. More toad-creatures strolled amongst the stalls, some carried sacks in hand others with crates on their backs. As they approached the hub of activity Sara realised it was a market. Some stalls had meat dangling on lines from one side to the other as well as fruit and vegetables on show at the front. They passed several displaying bracelets, trinkets and other jewelry laid out on wooden tables. Others overflowed with piles of books so high they towered well above Sara and she found it all fascinating.The only books she had ever seen were kept in libraries or museums, usually stored within enclosed shelves and each preserved in an adhesive to keep them from falling apart. The only jewelry she owned belonged to her mother but she hadn't found the courage to wear it yet.

She followed as Zarg led on through the bustling market and out of the opposite end, up the slight incline and to the edge of the floating rock. Ahead Sara saw another field with more structures rising from its grassy surface across a wooden bridge held up by frayed rope with wooden slats as foot holds. The bridge dipped in the middle, its footholds disappearing into the fog below. Holding tightly to the reins on either side, Sara noticed other bridges in the distance connecting more of the floating islands together with tiny figures crossing them. 

Across the bridge Sara came across a line of wooden huts, some rose to two or three floors with more built up behind them, seemingly reliant on one another for support. She thought it wouldn't be so difficult to knock one down and with it the rest would follow but when Zarg led her up a set of stairs she was surprised by their sturdiness. 

Through a wooden door that shrieked when pushed open, two creatures sat inside. Technology that looked well used but more advanced than Sara had ever seen, occupied the far corner of a small room. A skinny creature knelt beside a stack of devices on which lights flashed and dozens of buttons offered no clue as to what their function was. The other creature sat at a wooden table watching as they entered. 

‘Welcome.’ came a croaking voice from the one sat at the table.‘I speak your language, child. Several of them in fact. Some were harder for my tongue to grasp. Yours though, was fairly easy. I have even picked out an earthly name for you to call me by. Lydia caught my attention. Easy on the tongue.’ The voice was hesitant and some words seemed to catch in the alien’s throat, but the English was good enough, even spoken in a casual manner. Unsure of what to reply, Sara peered up at Zarg who only had eyes for the devices in the corner.

‘Come, child. Tell me your name.’ Sara walked up to the alien at the table and thought it must have been a female, though she was unsure as to how she could tell. A face that was mostly mouth and a bowl-like jaw seemed to add eyes and nostrils as an afterthought. Hairless heads made these creatures hard to tell apart.

‘S... Sara.’ She answered timidly. 

‘I have prepared some food for you that I think will be fine for your anatomy. Though, you Earthlings do have such strange genetic makeup compared to many in the galaxy.’ She offered a bowl of liquid to Sara, a few chunks of red and purple floated in a murky brown. It looked sickly but the smell caused her stomach to grumble, eager for food, she took it and sipped. The taste was new but far from offensive. A pungent and perfumey taste that had a suggestion of being smoked. She fished out one of the chunks with her fingers and bit down, almost repelled by its squishy texture. Undeterred, she chewed on greedily. 

‘Such expressive faces.’ The alien gleefully mused. ‘I have no real understanding of what brought you and your friend together.’ The alien motioned to Zarg who was kneeling beside the device in the corner next to the other creature. ‘But as to what brought you here... I’m sure you know what I speak of?’ 

‘You mean Zarg’s box?’ Wiping her mouth, Sara placed the bowl, half empty now with only some of the chewy bits left that she had decided she wasn’t sure she liked, on the table next to the alien. ‘I don’t know how it works.’

‘Well, there are few who do. Your friend is one of them but unfortunately their species have all but ceased to exist. I am yet to find someone who understands those silly noises that come out of its mouth. But you child, you are the only other living being who has been given a chance to activate it. As soon as we were informed of this we asked for you to be brought here.’

‘All I did was touch it. Then it just lights up and takes us somewhere new.’

‘Yes, that is little more than we know of it. Zarg… has tried to explain it but our communication is limited and mostly doesn’t translate. I have known of Zarg nearly as long as your race have stood on two legs and still haven’t been able to properly decipher the language. It is said their kind are as old as the universe, known to most as Travellers. Not many know of their existence, most of whom think it a myth. Those who do, though, would like to have them for their own gain. Those I speak of you know well. The Maethogens and Sarisians seek only gain from our universe and little care for those they take from. What they are doing to your world they have done to many others.‘

Sara wasn’t sure she understood. She had been taught in school that the Sarisians and Maethogens had given Earth advanced technologies without which there wouldn't be airships or things like the Molonial Structure orbiting Earth, as well as knowledge of other planets and other life in the universe. She had been taught that they had excelled Earth's development by hundreds of years.

‘But I was taught..’ Sara began but the alien interrupted her.

‘I know what you were taught. It is the same as it was on Xerayos, as on Alvrabor and those worlds are gone. As are many more. It baffles me that these worlds, including your own, are so eager to accept technology considered primitive by those who hand it down to them, without ever thinking how it was used to travel through time and space in the first place.’ Lydia seemed mad and Sara could only blink back at the alien feeling like the alien expected her to understand. 

‘I do not mean to scare you and I can see that my words make you uncertain. But the Sarisians will take what your planet gives them and offer little in return in the guise of more. But when Earth has given all it can they will find more and take it, and the Maethogens will see it done with little resistance. I fear it may already be too late.’

The Maethogens were well advanced in warfare, Sara knew, and military advancements were offered to Earth on the condition that each individual nation must disarm. The last conflict had taken place seven years before Sara was born and all the nations now worked together to defend the planet. Defend against what, though? She thought. 

'I don't get it. What does Earth have that they could want?' 

'From most planets the Sarisians can get a few commodities to sell to the highest buyer. They will strip it clean of its natural resources until there is little left and I fear there is another planet within your solar system they have an interest in.'

‘How do I know you’re not like them?’ Sara asked.

‘Look around you, child. What could my people offer yours that the Sarisians or Maethogens haven’t already bettered? My people haven’t travelled in space for a long time.’ Sara peered over to the devices that the slight alien and Zarg tinkered with, Lydia followed her gaze. 

‘That is nothing more than a way for us to contact your friend, as long as they’re not too far out in the cosmos.’ Lydia explained. ‘No, we Gundargians, as you may pronounce it, have purposefully limited ourselves so as not to be involved with the greater universe whilst making it our obligation to know as much about it as possible.’ 

Once again more questions rattled Sara’s mind. 

Part Eight: Tunnel Vision

Sara hadn’t noticed the view on the way in but now she faced it. Looking out over a sprawl of wooden huts clustered together, mismatched shapes that seemed to clamber over one another, she could see the whole market where they had come from. Beyond in all directions several grassy expanses on which more huts and stalls sat, islands on the sea of fog. She wanted to explore but she had been given instructions to return home. She almost laughed out loud. How could a fourteen year old go about saving a planet? Lydia had assured her there would be a way. 

‘Take some brushk with you.’ Lydia held out two thin strips of what looked like bark. ‘They will help with the nausea.’ 

Sara took them so as not to appear rude and the alien let out a guterall chuckle that sounded unhealthy. Like her father’s laugh since he started using puska. She felt some comfort from the alien’s hospitality but consternation caused her stomach to turn. 

‘We will see each other soon.’ Lydia croaked at her. Sara replied with a timid ‘thank you’ and followed Zarg down the wooden steps and out onto the middle of a long stretch of grass lined either side with wooden structures. Looking up at Zarg, who she thought offered a look of reassurance, held the cube in its palm. She took it hesitantly and a flash of light blinded her. 

Aware of the weightlessness of her body she peered at colours blurring as they passed by. She hung there for a moment, unable to tell if her body was up or down or sideways - there was no direction here. Expecting and hoping it would soon be over, to her dismay the tunnel continued on. A pang of panic erupted in her as she thought herself stuck but then she realised it was the thought of returning home the cause of her unease. It was like waking up knowing that she would have to see her father or go to school when she didn’t feel like it. The tunnel continued on with no end in sight, nothing lay ahead except more colours that passed quicker than she could realise. Then the tree appeared ahead and for a moment it seemed she would crash into it but instead she stopped before it, held in midair momentarily, and fell hard onto the ground beneath it. 

It was darker than when she had left. Dots of lights from ships passed far in the distance. The light of the city beyond glowed from behind the valleyside and Zarg appeared next to her.

‘No I’m fine.’ She lied, the nausea was worse than before. Allowing a moment to let it pass she thought about her next move. How does a bloody fourteen-year-old save the world? Who would even believe me? Her father certainly wouldn’t. Adults would brush it off as childish imagination and most of her peers would think her crazy or a liar. She should introduce them to Zarg, then they’d believe her. Or would it just be another alien to them? There’s danger if the Sarisians and Maethogens find out Zarg is on earth she realised. The only person she could tell was Wayne. 

‘Okay, Zarg.’ She announced. ‘You stay here.’ she pointed to the tree with her fingers. ‘You stay.’ 

But when she started walking away Zarg followed. ‘No, you stay with the tree.’ She pointed emphatically at the tree and then to the ground but when she turned and walked a few paces the alien still followed.

‘Bloody hell!’ She shouted. ‘Stay he…’ She noticed on the ground by her feet her mother’s rubix cube, hidden by uncut grass. It was further from the tree than when they had left covered in dirt, which Sara found strange. She picked it up and handed it to Zarg and the alien took it eagerly, already twisting and turning the sections searching for some hidden function that its simplicity betrayed. 

‘You understand how that works but not bloody “stay”.’ 

She headed for Wayne’s house, envying how close he lived to the fields. Turning down a street she saw the neatly lined houses with their fake grass and plastic foliage outside. She stepped lightly as she passed down the side of the house third from the end. A gate too high for her to climb she had to squeeze through the gap at the bottom. Wayne’s room looked out over the back garden. She picked up some small white pebbles surrounding an artificial spider plant that sprang from the ground and launched one at his window. She’d seen it in an old film once as an act of romance and cringed at the thought of her doing anything of the sort for Wayne. She threw a second pebble and a moment later Wayne appeared, clearly startled at the sight of her. She waved for him to come out and put her finger to her lips telling him to be quiet about it. Wearing plaid pajama bottoms with a grey t-shirt, his light brown hair more ruffled than usual, he stepped out of the conservatory doors into the garden and immediately braced himself for the cold, making Sara aware for the first time that she could see her own breath. How could it be this cold in summer? she thought, but the look on Wayne’s face made her laugh.

‘Bloody hell. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’ She joked expecting him to get embarrassed.

‘I might as well have,’ he replied. ‘where the bloody hell have you been?’ 

‘Wayne, you’re never going to beli... What do you mean where have I been?’ She asked, puzzled more by the look of shock on Wayne’s face than his question.

‘Four bloody months and you show up here in the middle of the night?’ 

The thought of four months passing in what had felt like a dream froze her. Not possible, she thought. The time she had spent on each planet was only a few minutes. Even with Lydia it had to have been no longer than an hour. She had slept at one point but it hadn’t been long enough, tiredness still lurked behind her eyes.

‘That’s not funny. It's only been a few hours.’ But Wayne lifted his tablet to show her the date. He was right, it had been four months. Confused, she looked at him, her mouth agape, he offered only the same disbelief. 

‘My dad!’ she suddenly realised. ‘I need to tell him I’m okay.’ 

Wayne’s face changed to a grimace. ‘They took him, Sara. They said that he was a puska addict and gave you away for money.’

Faintness took her and her legs nearly buckled but she just about managed to keep her balance. It didn’t stop her head from whirling. A sea of thought she could not contain. She knew now was not the time to get overwhelmed. Her mother had always said to start with a plan, no matter how small, and go from there. 

‘I can fix this.’ She said breathlessly. ‘I can fix everything. Even the planet.’ Wayne gave her a skeptical look. ‘I can trust you, right? Don’t tell anyone I’m here. I just need to speak to someone. She’ll know what to do. Come with me, I need to show you something… or someone.’ She took Wayne's arm but he pulled away.

‘Where are you going now? I have to tell my parents. They can help.’

‘No! We can’t tell anyone. It’ll put Zarg in danger.’

‘What the hell is a Zarg?’ Wayne sounded almost angry but fear filled his eyes, a reaction to the chaos in Sara’s.

‘It’s a traveller, an alien… at the old oak tree. Come I’ll take…’

‘No! Just… wait, okay? I need a coat and some shoes. Just let me get dressed. I’ll meet you there.’ His eyes seemed to scan Sara from top to bottom. 

‘Okay, don’t be long. We’ve got a lot to do.’ Sara watched as Wayne went inside and then left the way she came in. Running to the tree the cold breeze tore at her. Thoughts passed like rain in the wind but she was too intent on getting back to Zarg, saving her dad and the planet. There was a lot to do.

She found Zarg sitting at the base of the tree. A device from which a small and narrow light illuminated the rubix cube hovered over their right shoulder. The rubix cube looked less solved than it did before. Zarg stood when she came into the view and her words came out in a flurry. If Zarg hadn’t been able to understand her before there was no way the alien could now but she needed to say it all out loud in some sort of order. She noticed the alien’s attention leave her. Something over her head had caught Zarg’s attention and she turned expecting to see Wayne. The awe on his silly face at the sight of the tall alien had a grin already creeping across her face. Instead she was met with flashing lights, blue and red that filled the field. The flutter of drones in the sky above came clearer and with it flashing lights bared down. 

Of all she had learnt recently, the realisation that Wayne wasn’t coming made her feel the worst but a prospect teetered on the peripherals of her thought as an idea introduced itself to her. The universe was a big place and earth was an infinitesimal speck on its spectrum. Let them have it, she thought. I can find a new home. She turned to Zarg, now standing in the middle of a drone’s searchlight, she reached for the grey cube and took it within her palms. 

A bright ball of white light overwhelmed any other in the field. Where a young girl had stood next to a tall humanoid of which few in the universe could name, there now stood only an old oak tree.