Wormbender's Circus

Sebastian’s determined mien was duly galacticast onto billions of receiver screens. The handsome young heir to the Harry Benedict media empire - so his own stations had it: the stations owned by Lichinsky did not dare to present so flattering an image - had flown to the rescue of a couple in distress. When the Helium Cowboy was picked up by a salvage vessel and brought to a safe orbit over Jansky, ahead of those ships still in the race, Susan Quirk was also interviewed, having been thoroughly groomed and prettified and told, almost in so many words, to play the role of the damsel in distress, a role she was happy to fill, such was her gratitude to the crew of the Semiramis for their timely arrival on the scene. Last, but by no means least, Ralph Quirk was interviewed in his clinic bed, and although he had been scarcely aware of what was going on, he too added his fulsome praise.

Karel Lichinsky watched the entire story from his capacious bath, chewing on a large cigar and scratching his genitals from time to time. When the tone of the newsreader became particularly sickly sweet, both the chewing and the scratching became more feverish.

“Cliff?” he called.

Lichinsky’s pilot and personal assistant, the embodiment of Cassius’ “lean and hungry look”, appeared on a screen suspended over the bath.

“Sir?”

“Jansky. Have you got it charted?”

Cliff’s face twitched nervously. It didn’t take a fusion-drive scientist to figure out that Lichinsky would be keen to get on the Wormbender kid’s trail. “Of course.”

“Well, let’s get going, shall we? Otherwise by the time we get there they’ll be off who knows where.”

“That’s been taken care of. Our woman on Jansky has been briefed to find out where they’re going. Follow them if need be.”

Lichinsky tapped his cigar ash into an ashtray floating in the water beside him. “Good.”

The citizens of Jansky sought to persuade the crew of the Semiramis to stay for the festivities which would herald the arrival of the winning solar sailor in a few days time. The mayor of Jansky pointed to where a newly-landed supply ship was disgorging containers of beer, by way of encouragement. Zoe recognised the ship as being of the same fleet as her own, and suspected that if she was in turn recognised by the pilot she would certainly be required to attend an inquiry into the fate of her ship, which would be held back on Earth.

Sebastian needed little encouragement to return to the job of putting his circus together. Even the blandishments of the Quirks could not sway him.

Casey’s eyes had lit up when he saw the beer being unloaded, and was keen to stay around. But he saw he was outvoted, and gave in entirely when Sebastian arranged with the mayor to have a quantity of beer transferred directly to the Semiramis.

So it was that amid cheers and waving, the Semiramis roared into space once more. Amid all the preparations for the coming festival, it certainly went unnoticed that a small fast ship took off shortly afterwards and set off in hot pursuit.

Karel Lichinsky was a man who did not know the meaning of the word `discreet’. He was flamboyant and ostentatious in all things, not least in his choice of interstellar transport. His ship was the Primum Mobile, the Prime Mover, and it was a vast mansion in space, armed with light cannons and enormously fast. Its sole human occupants, however, were Lichinsky and Cliff.

The ship moved across space with phenomenal speed, and appeared in the vicinity of Jansky - but at a sufficient remove to remain unnoticed - a mere 24 hours after the departure of the Semiramis. Contact with their agent, newswoman Gamma Hesperides, who was tailing the Semiramis just beyond their effective scanning range, gave Lichinsky the information that they were headed towards the Orion spur in general, and probably the Omega System in particular.

“Thank you very much, Hesperides,” said Lichinsky. “I will see to it that your efforts are suitably rewarded. You may now return to your regular duties.”

The Primum Mobile turned its tail towards Jansky and fired up its immense powerhouse. In very short order it had the Semiramis in its sights.

Sebastian was eating when Casey approached him wearing an anxious frown.

“What’s up?” said Sebastian between mouthfuls.

“Do you want the bad news now, or when you’ve finished eating?”

Sebastian scowled. “What bad news?”

“There is a certain ship following us.”

“A certain ship?” He looked at Casey for a moment, and realisation dawned. “The Primum Mobile, right?” Casey nodded. “That damn galacticast told everyone where we were. Well, I suppose it was inevitable Lichinsky would show up again. In deep space, where there are no witnesses.”

“‘Where no one can hear you scream’,” Zoe added. She couldn’t remember where she had heard the phrase before, but it seemed particularly apposite.

“Well, we can’t outrun him. Do you have any other plan?” said Casey.

“Not right at this moment, no,” Sebastian admitted sheepishly.

“Well,” said Zoe, “you’d better come up with something fast. He’s closing on us.”

The enormous shape of Lichinsky’s ship soon filled their screens, and then the Semiramis began to slow down.

“Tractor beam,” said Casey. “Better cut your engines.”

A hangar door in the belly of the Primum Mobile slid open, and the Semiramis was swallowed, a tasty morsel slipping down the gullet of a leviathan. The hangar door slid closed again.

When the ship came to rest, Sebastian, Casey and Zoe looked around. They shared the hangar with a couple of small shuttle craft, adorned with the logo of Lichinsky’s Magnamedia Corporation and his personal monogramme. Otherwise it was empty.

They descended from the ship. Sebastian gave an involuntary shudder.

Casey glanced at him. “You’re really that scared of him?”

“Yes,” said Sebastian. “I’m really that scared of him.”

“Have you ever met him?” said Zoe.

“Once,” said Sebastian. “When we were getting the ship ready. Believe me, once was enough.”

“I suggest we keep it cool,” said Casey in a low voice. “A guy like that will probably have listeners all over the place.”

Lichinsky rose from his bath. He spent a good deal of time in his bath, for, just as the whale derived from a land mammal which grew too bulky for its own legs to support, so too did Lichinsky feel more comfortable when his gross frame was buoyed by water.

He wrapped a towel around his girth. “Cliff, be sure the guest rooms are in order, and that an appropriate change of clothes is made ready for our guests. And put the water on for tea.”

With that he padded away across the tiles to his own sleeping quarters.

Sebastian, Zoe and Casey entered the elevator and were automatically lifted into the heart of the ship. The elevator played Vivaldi.

The music continued as they stepped from the elevator, but at the same time it became lost amid the tidal wave of aural and visual impressions which crashed over them. All they could do was stare, open-mouthed, at the incredible scene before them.

They were in a vast hall, but it was scarcely recognisable as a hall until they lifted their eyes to the ceiling. The entire place had been turned into a tropical rain forest. Close beside them, a spring bubbled from a rock and became a stream chattering away down the middle of the hall. Closer inspection showed dozens of small fish swimming among its weed fronds. Trees rose up densely on either side, their branches brushing the ceiling in a gentle breeze, and walkways like spider webs passing through some of their branches, almost the only sign of human intervention. Lianas trailed from tree to tree, while dense foliage grew between the trunks, with even the occasional Amazonian orchid to be seen at ground level. Harsh squawking had the three friends cricking their necks again as brilliantly coloured macaws flashed overhead. Closer at hand, overhanging branches rustled softly as shy squirrel monkeys hesitantly approached to observe the newcomers.

Slowly Sebastian, Casey and Zoe stepped forward over soft, springy grass, their eyes constantly turning this way and that, drinking in the wealth of nature that surrounded them. After months in space with almost no respite, their senses revelled in what was presented to them.

They wandered dreamily on. Zoe suddenly seized Sebastian’s arm. An anaconda slid soundlessly through the grass almost at their feet and immersed itself in the stream.

Suddenly the bottom end of a moving ramp appeared on the grass ahead of them. It carried them slowly up through the trees to a gallery at the end of the hall, where an immense bronze Buddha sat contemplating the jungle. Next to the ramp stood an incense burner which filled the air with the sweet scent of sandalwood.

Beyond the gallery was a room which appeared to be a library, with bookpads stationed next to luxurious couches, and a few choice pieces of statuary on plinths which rotated at a touch. Sebastian thought for a moment of Bill van den Bosch, the student he had met on the shuttle flight to the Moon. He would be in Seventh Heaven here, Sebastian reflected, trailing his fingers over the spines of the book discs.

The next room was circular, with huge windows all around offering an unbroken view of the stars beyond. The room was furnished for unashamed sybaritic luxury. Every couch, every chair, would mould itself deliciously to the exact contours of its occupant, such that that person became oblivious to the fact that they were resting on anything but air. Robots stood at attention, ready to satisfy the least whim. The entire environment was geared to the desires of a man who was accustomed to getting whatever he wished, and at a moment’s notice.

That man, Karel Lichinsky, was in the middle of the room, pouring tea.