As John watched the Privateer leave Archivus Major, he heard Lorem shout, “Mordant!”
Shielding his purple eyes from the sun, the headmaster glared at the rapidly disappearing spaceship with a face like thunder.
“I will expel him for this,” he said, through clenched teeth.
“No. It can’t be,” said Ms. Vartexia, getting to her feet. “Surely, Headmaster, even Mordant Talliver wouldn’t —”
“It cannot be anyone else,” said Lorem grimly. “We are the only visitors on Archivus Major at present.”
By now, the Privateer was a small dot in the sky. The class watched together in silent shock as the Privateer disappeared into the upper atmosphere.
“Why aren’t the Omego-bots doing something to stop him?” asked John.
The headmaster glanced at him. “Their job is to protect the exhibits,” he said. “Archivus Major’s security systems are designed to stop people from getting in, not from leaving.”
“Did you not see the possibility of this happening, Headmaster?” Ms. Vartexia asked, sounding confused.
“My visions of the future are not always clear,” he replied, suddenly looking weary. “I sensed that a dangerous situation might develop on Archivus Major — that’s why I came — but I must have been mistaken about the threat. I did not suspect for a second that Mordant Talliver would be the cause.”
“What are we going to do now?” Ms. Vartexia asked. The Elvian teacher was still staring up at the sky. She began wringing her hands with worry.
With a deep sigh, Lorem turned to her. “This is very troublesome,” he said. “But we have no choice. I must go after Mordant. Now he has gone, fragments of at least one possible future have fallen into place. I can see quite clearly that if I do not go after him, he will be in life-threatening danger.”
“How will you know where to find him? He could be headed anywhere.”
“I don’t need to look into the future to know he will go straight to planet Plarz, where the Vaporball Championship is being held,” the headmaster replied.
“But what will we do?” Ms. Vartexia asked nervously.
The headmaster responded with a stern look. “Why, carry on with the visit, of course, Ms. Vartexia. The students are in your care. Now, if you will excuse me, the faster I follow, the faster I will find our stray.”
“Yes, but . . . oh, I just don’t know . . . but, but . . . ”
“You will be fine!” Lorem shouted over his shoulder, as he strode away toward the dock. “Just follow the visitor guidelines and stay together. Remember: it is better to be safe than sorry.”
As the headmaster’s Privateer rose into the sky, the students looked at each other. Everyone was shocked.
“I can’t believe Mordant just did that,” said John.
Lishtig shook his head. “He’s been acting weird since yesterday,” he said. “The Vaporball Championship is all he’s talked about. It’s like he’s totally obsessed.”
“Hijacking a ship during a school trip is crazy, even for him,” Bareon said, his enormous, black eyes blinking. “I mean, he’s always breaking rules but he’s really sneaky about it usually. He almost never actually gets caught doing anything wrong.”
“Look, we all know that Mordant Talliver can be an idiot,” said Emmie. “If he wants to get himself expelled, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. The important thing is that he doesn’t ruin the trip for the rest of us.”
“That’s true,” said Kaal, peering at his ThinScreen. “Forget Mordant. It says here that we’re not far from the Weapons Desert and there’s a Shuttletube that will take us straight there. Sounds good to me.”
“How about visiting the Goran-Subo battleground,” Emmie suggested.
Kaal frowned at her. “Why are you so excited to go see the Goran-Subo battleground, Emmie?” he asked. “It’s not like you to be interested in war.”
Emmie shrugged, looking confused for a moment. “I . . . um . . . just want to take the photos. Get some extra credit. Besides, it is supposed to be spectacular.”
At that moment, Queelin Temerate snatched the ThinScreen from Kaal’s hands and looked through the pages.
“Wow, there are wild Feershcats and Flurbs in the jungle over there,” she said, looking up with shining eyes. “Let’s go on safari.”
“Isn’t there a spaceship exhibit?” John chipped in. “I’d love to see that.”
Ms. Vartexia clapped. “Attention please, class,” she said, sounding nervous.
The students turned to face her.
“Can we go to the spaceship exhibit, please?” John asked quickly.
“No, the jungle,” someone else said.
“I want to see the Floating Pleasure Gardens of Vox Charm,” said another student.
“The Star Dragon skeleton,” put in another person.
“We’ve got to go to the Goran-Subo battlefield,” Emmie said urgently.
“We could split up,” Kaal suggested. “That way everyone would get to see what they wanted to see.”
“Absolutely not,” said the teacher firmly. “The headmaster instructed us to stay together, and that is exactly what we shall do. That means none of you is leaving my sight.”
“But, Ms. Vartexia, why do we have to suffer because Mordant’s being a total idiot?”
Ms. Vartexia chose not to hear Queelin Temerate’s question. Opening her own guidebook, she said, “Ahh, here’s just the thing: the Rock Gallery.”
“Rock music?” asked John hopefully.
“Rocks and minerals from every corner of the galaxy,” answered the teacher. “It will be excellent for your understanding of galactic geology. Doctor Graal will be pleased.”
Her announcement was met by a chorus of groans. “Who cares what Doctor Slobber thinks,” muttered Lishtig.
Only Gobi-san-Art was happy. “I love rocks,” he said, a grin stretching across his face. “Rocks are awesome.”
“That’s settled, then,” said Ms. Vartexia, closing the book with a snap. “Follow me to the Shuttletube. Keep together and do not touch anything.”
* * *
“Wow: a rock,” said Emmie, standing on a gravel path with her hands on her hips. “It’s just so . . . so exactly the same as the last rock we looked at.”
“Not really,” said Gobi in a very serious tone. “The last rock we looked at was a perfect example of sedimentary histracite. This specimen is taurite, but it contains a vein of mallux.”
Emmie rolled her eyes.
“Rock,” she said, pointing at it. Turning, she pointed at the rock next to it. “Rock,” she repeated. She shook her head and added, “And that, Gobi, is all I know, or ever want to know, about rocks.”
“You’re missing out on some really, really interesting —”
“Please stop,” Emmie grumbled. “I am so bored of this. A whole planet stacked with the most amazing stuff in the universe, and we’re staring at some lumps of old rock. What’s wrong with Ms. Vartexia?”
“Maybe we should give her a break,” suggested John. “It can’t be easy for her, being in charge on her own, and you know what she’s like.”
Kaal nodded. “You mean like bringing Earthlings back to Hyperspace High instead of Martian princes?” he asked. “That sort of thing?”
“Exactly. Accident prone. She’s probably scared that something awful will happen and she’ll lose her job.”
“Hey, you guys,” Lishtig interrupted, running across the gravel and whooping. “I’ve just had a word with Ms. Vartexia. She’s got a whole heap of fun lined up for later.”
“Really?” said Emmie, eagerly. “Are we going to the battlefield next?”
“No, but . . . wait for it . . . we’re going to the Rare Moss Garden.”
Closing her eyes, Emmie groaned again. “I am going to kill Mordant Talliver,” she whispered.
As the afternoon passed, the class visited one dull exhibit after another.
The only interesting part is the Shuttletube ride in between, John thought, leaning back in his seat. Something like an ultra-modern train, the Shuttletube rocketed at high speed through the clear tubes that snaked across the landscape of Archivus Major.
It was an exhilarating ride. The only downside was that the Shuttletube gave the students a clear view of everything they were missing.
John had been especially disappointed when the Shuttletube swept past a vast hangar that seemed to cover hundreds of square miles. Kaal had leaned over and told him it was the spaceship exhibit.
John was feeling restless and grouchy. He wasn’t alone. In the Rare Moss Garden, the only excitement had been an Omega-bot’s alarm siren going off in Kaal’s ear.
The Derrilian had been about to touch a thousand-year-old Pestra Moss while the huge robot guard was right behind him. Its alarm had been so loud that green ooze had leaked from Kaal’s ear, which had meant another uninteresting visit, this time to the medical center.
The Rare Moss Garden seemed like a rollercoaster of thrills compared to the Chong Gallery, though. The ancient Vyranian artist Javvid Chong had spent his entire career painting pictures of the same small brown moon.
At first, John thought the hundreds of paintings, each only slightly different from the next, must be some kind of joke. Ms. Vartexia, however, had patiently explained that Chong’s paintings made important statements about art and reality.
By the time he had looked at the thirtieth moon painting, John had become certain he was losing his own grip on reality and wondered if this was what the teacher had meant. Fortunately, even Ms. Vartexia was quickly bored by the gallery and hustled the class along to the next dreary exhibit.
By the time the sun began to set, John had stopped even looking up when someone pointed out yet another wonder the Shuttletube was passing by.
The whole class had long since discovered that there was no point in asking Ms. Vartexia to stop; she was obstinately refusing to take them anywhere that might be even the slightest bit dangerous.
“Where next?” John asked. He sighed.
“Huh? Excuse me?” Kaal leaned in toward him, his ear stuffed with spacecloud wadding. “What did you say?”
“I said, where next?” John yelled. It occurred to him that now, talking to Kaal had suddenly become almost exactly like talking to his grandfather.
The Derrilian shrugged. “Gave up caring at the moss place,” he answered.
“I’m hungry,” said John.
“What?”
“I’M HUNGRY!”
Farther down the Shuttletube, Ms. Vartexia broke off a conversation she had been having with Werril, and looked over at them. “There’s no need to shout, John Riley,” she said primly. “As it happens,” she continued, “we are now on our way to Optical Orbit, the restaurant where we will be eating tonight. I am told it is quite a treat.”
“Thank goodness,” said Emmie. “Food, then bed, and then only one more day of this nightmare to get through.”
John grunted in agreement. Sitting back, he watched as the scenery turned to ice and snow and the sun slowly went down.
“This is more like it,” he said ten minutes later. The Shuttletube had stopped at the front gates of a crystal sphere the size of a palace. It twinkled with the reflected light of Archivus Major’s twin moons.
“Optical Orbit,” announced the Shuttletube’s automatic voice.
Ms. Vartexia led the way up a wide staircase to the perfectly circular door. “It’s one of the most famous restaurants in the universe,” she said.
Inside, John gazed around in wonder.
“Sheesh,” whispered Emmie next to him. “My dad has taken me to some really fancy restaurants, but I’ve never seen anything like this.”
At the far end of the entrance hall, a fire of pure blue flame roared in a magnificent fireplace.
On either side, sweeping staircases climbed to a gallery that circled the great room. A mind-twisting light show moved across the spherical walls, while glowing orbs rose and fell to the beat.
It’s like being in a giant lava lamp, John thought.