Strange Resorts: The Multiversal Chronicles, #3

By Richard Huggett

The Multiversal Chronicles: Book Three

Strange Resorts

The multiversal mix-up just got even worse. Shortly after their Aquaterran and Terraquan adventures, Kitty, Sam, Toby, Lizzie, Luke, Jemima, and Jessica get baffling news: copies of their parents are living somewhere on yet another parallel Earth called Gaea, so they set off on a parent-copy rescue mission.

Arriving on Gaea, there's no sign of their parent copies but a puzzling number of Aquaterran and Terraquan copies. And what's more, Cordelia and Corbin Crow, who own a vast galactic tourism empire, know who Kitty and the others are and start setting them challenges. But why? Are the Crows trying to find out what humans are capable of? Do they want to take over Earth and turn it into another of their tourist planets? Who knows? All Kitty and the others can do is follow up clues, which lead them to an amazing virtual-cum-real experience in Zealandia World where the safety systems fail, so they are instantly in great danger, and things go from bad to worse.

A fast-paced and thrilling space-age sci-fi adventure for middle-grade readers.

260 pages

• Language: English
• Publisher: Strange Books
• Release date: Sep 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393568360

Richard Huggett

Richard Huggett is a retired university lecturer and huge fan of science fact, fantasy, and fiction. He lives in Cheshire and spends most of his time writing. And directing amateur musicals and concerts. And drinking coffee. He has written about twenty academic books. The Multiversal Chronicles is his first venture into fiction, going boldly where he has never gone before.

Book preview

Prologue

I just don’t believe it! said Merlin Ambrosia, who was trying to calm down after hearing the news that the ripple effects of the Delphinium–Fleabane disaster had spread to the planet Gaea in yet another parallel universe.

Yes, but the indications strongly suggest that that’s as far as they go, Daisy Turtledove pointed out. We should be able to round up all the human, Aquaterran, and Terraquan copies and reintegrate them with their originals.

Hm. And how many copies is that?

Daisy waited a moment before saying, Lots.

Merlin shook his head, an angry expression on his face. Why did that idiot Ravenel Raven have to use those preposterously strong energy shields? Look at all the trouble it’s caused.

I suppose we’ll have to call on the young humans again, Periwinkle Bandicoot sighed, knowing they had no other option.

Merlin smiled sadly. They’ll do just fine.

It’s going to be a big shock when they find out where they’ll be going, Daisy frowned. She was concerned that, although the young humans had done incredibly well so far, they would be exposing them to huge risks.

Merlin nodded slowly, deep in thought.

Lily Moose was sitting by a 3D holographic console, monitoring developments. Got an update, she said. The Crows have jumped a Gaean male to England with their crude jumping machine. It took them twenty-seven minutes to bring him back. The poor man has no memory of anything. Luckily for us, the Crows have deferred further attempts until they’ve worked out how to jump safely.

Merlin pondered that news for a moment. Good. Yes, very good. Where’s the poor man now?

He’s in a special room at Gipplewich hospital, Lily said.

Unshielded?

Lily nodded.

Mmm ... Merlin began pacing and speaking at the same time: "Then perhaps the best way to play it is to let the Crows think that someone on Earth detected the man they jumped from Gaea; and then that someone jumped seven Gaean children to Earth, studied them, and sent them back to Gaea to spy on the Crows. That would get their attention. They’d assume the someone was really smart, possibly even smarter than they are, and they’d want to find out more – a lot more – before they’d risk going to Earth."

Daisy and Periwinkle frowned at one another.

Is that wise, Merlin? Daisy asked him. They’d be sure to test them.

Merlin took a big breath, held it, then let it out slowly. I have every confidence in the young humans. I’m sure they’ll cope with any challenge thrown at them and keep the Crows interested for long enough without giving anything away.

Daisy was still worried about involving the young humans again: But what happens when the Crows run out of patience? I’m sure they’d resort to increasingly drastic methods to get the information they want.

Merlin thought about that for a moment. It may not come to that. And can you think of an alternative, Daisy?

Daisy looked at Lily and Periwinkle, who both gave little shrugs. After a few moments, she said, No.

That’s what I thought. You’d better arrange for that poor man to be jumped here. Repair his memory enough to make him sound convincing. Add the stuff about the seven children from Gaea. Make out he overheard the ‘someone from Earth’ talking about his plans with a colleague. The Crows will take it seriously, I’m sure of that. And we’d better upgrade the young human’s SSPs to help them cope with the new conditions in that universe ... Oh, and some image shields would come in handy.

Good idea, Periwinkle agreed.

What about the Aquaterran and Terraquan copies? Lily wondered.

Merlin frowned. You say there are lots of them?

Lily nodded.

Merlin grunted and began pacing again ... Do we know who they are?

Lily turned to Daisy.

Yes, Daisy said. We put tracers on all people from our Earth-parallels database, as you suggested Merlin, and we received signals when they were copied.

Good, good. That’s a help. Better get that ‘someone from Earth’ to mention accidental jumpers to the Crows and let him ‘steal’ a list of names. The Crows are bound to keep their eyes on them.

But won’t they lock them up somewhere? Periwinkle wondered.

I doubt it, Merlin said. They’ll be integrated into Gaean society doing jobs similar to those they were doing before they were copied. The Crows will probably have them watched, but nothing more.

That’s true, Daisy agreed. But they’ll certainly keep them inside energy shields.

Which works to our advantage, Lily pointed out. We’ll know where to look for them.

All four of them said nothing for a few moments.

Merlin broke the silence: Well, if the young humans succeed again this time, they’ll have earned their places at the Multiversal Multiversity ten times over.

That’s definitely true, Daisy grinned. I’ll go and break the good news to the Stranges and Charms.

1 What Happened Next?

Day 0. Home: Take 2

They’d been safely back at home for two weeks now. Before that they’d spent what seemed like ages on a parallel Earth called Terraqua and, with a week off in between, a week on another parallel Earth called Aquaterra.

They couldn’t really believe it but they were sure they hadn’t dreamt it all; well, they were ninety-nine per cent sure they hadn’t, anyway. The really incredible thing was that, on each occasion, Merlin and his friends had jumped them back to more or less the time they’d left. More incredible still, despite being on Terraqua for nearly nine months, they hadn’t actually got any older. At least that saved them from a lot of explanations.

By them, I mean Kitty Strange, her twin brother Toby, her younger sister Sam, and their best friends Lizzie and Luke Charm. Oh, yes, and Jemima and Jessica Updown, Lizzie and Luke’s cousins, who lived in Cambridge; they’d been with them on Terraqua. They were identical twins and thirteen, same as Kitty and Toby, and great friends now as well. They had dark shoulder-length hair and big brown eyes.

Why were they on Aquaterra and then Terraqua? Very long story. They doubted they’d ever understand it fully. It started when Sam and Luke vanished. They were there one second and not there the next. Gone. Kitty, Toby, and Lizzie found out later that Jemima and Jessica had gone as well. Anyway, after Sam and Luke vanished, some friendly aliens jumped Kitty, Toby, and Lizzie to Aquaterra on a rescue mission. And what an adventure that turned out to be. They found out at the end of it that the aliens were partly to blame for the disappearances: two of them, who were trainees, had been involved in a freak training accident that had triggered the subsequent events.

A bombshell dropped a week after they’d got home from Aquaterra. The aliens told them that the training accident had spread to the next parallel Earth down the line – Terraqua. This time they had to save five of their schoolfriends from being stuck there forever. But the jump to Terraqua had altered them: they didn’t know they were from Earth and they didn’t know Kitty and the others. In fact, they were really nasty to them. It was a scary and close-run thing, but Kitty and her team did sort them out eventually.

***

Now they were slowly recovering from their ordeal and beginning to enjoy their ordinary lives back home.

Lizzie and Luke were going to stay for tea again, as they often did. Their mum was already there – Mrs Strange was her best friend. All five of them came in, threw their stuff down in the hall, had a quick wash, and wandered into the lounge. They sat chatting, eating a Victoria sponge that Mrs Strange had made, and having a drink. After Mrs Strange and Mrs Charm had said hallo, they went into the kitchen so Mrs Strange could start cooking the tea and they could carry on chatting.  

That was when it happened again. They all got the familiar feeling of something being a bit different but in an epic way. It was like someone had switched off the sound and they were in a dream.

Woof, their young brown-and-white beagle, woofed. The rest of them gasped. Although you’d think they’d have been used to that sort of thing by now, they still went into panic mode whenever something out of the ordinary happened. It brought back scary memories of Sam and Luke being whisked away while they watched.

Kitty rushed into the hall with Sam and Lizzie. Poking their heads round the kitchen door, they could see Mrs Strange standing freeze-framed in the process of sneaking an extra slice of Victoria sponge before she started slicing the mushrooms.

Oo, Mum, you said you were on a diet! Kitty thought.

Lizzie’s mum was also freeze-framed in the process of fetching something from the fridge.

Well, at least they’re still here, said Lizzie.

Looks like we’ll be getting a visit again, Kitty said, as they made their way back to the lounge. I wonder what’s happened now?

Are they okay? asked Luke anxiously, as Kitty, Sam, and Lizzie came back through from the kitchen. He and Toby had gone to the window to check if time was at a standstill outside the house.

Well, at the moment, Lizzie replied, concerned about what might happen next.

Yup, time’s stopped again, said Toby, peering out.

Before anyone could say anything else, there was a tiny popping noise, a pink shaft of light appeared in the middle of the lounge, and Daisy materialized.

Daisy had amazing pink hair and was dressed as she had been the last time they’d seen her: pale purple jeans, a lemon-yellow T-shirt, a really cool bright blue jacket, and a pair of pink and blue trainers. She was one of the friendly aliens who’d sent them on their adventures to parallel Earths. Friendly: yes. Odd: very. They were sort of computer-generated characters and nothing like real humans, even though they could look like humans when they wanted to. They kept watch over the Multiverse; that was like everything that existed, so all universes put together. The alien in charge was Merlin Ambrosia. He was a very unusual person with light violet hair. He seemed scatter-brained and had an annoying knack of answering questions before you’d asked them. But he was also funny. And useful – he mended Toby’s damaged memory during their last adventure.

Good whatever time of day it is, Daisy greeted them.

Nearly teatime, Sam said with a cheeky grin. Like last time.

Daisy smiled. Good nearly teatime in that case, she said. Once again, I offer my profuse apologies for materializing in your home without warning.

Problem? Kitty asked, knowing something must be up.

Yes, Daisy said, then smiled again and waited.

So ...? Kitty prompted her.

Um, you’ll remember there were copies of your parents on Terraqua?

Kitty nodded, tightening her lips and frowning: she didn’t like the way this conversation was going.

And that was because the Delphinium–Fleabane total disaster was so powerful that it had a knock-on effect on Terraqua. She was referring to the messed-up training mission involving two of her alien friends: Delphinium Okapi and Fleabane Tamandua, who like all their kind, had strange names.

And ...? Kitty replied, wishing Daisy would get to the point.

Well, the knock-on effects have spread farther through the Multiverse than we realized they would. They’ve reached Gaea, Daisy explained in her matter-of-fact way.

And there are copies of our parents there now. Or some friends of ours have been jumped there. Or ... Oh, what is it this time, Daisy? Lizzie said in exasperation.

Copies of your parents, I’m afraid, Daisy said.

Oh, great, Kitty said huffily, running her hand through her long dark-brown hair.

Gaea? said Luke. Let me think, that’d be a parallel Earth a few steps down the line from Terraqua. Right? He sounded grumpy.

Yes, it is. But it’s a very long way down the line, so it’s not very much like the Earth you know. 

Yeah, yeah, that’s all very well, Toby said in a bit of a strop, but isn’t there a parallel Earth beyond Gaea, and one beyond that, and so on, and so on – to infinity and beyond. I mean, how do you know there aren’t copies of our parents even farther down the line?

That was a very good question.

Daisy could sense and understand their frustration but she remained patient. "We’ve checked carefully. Everything suggests that Gaea is the end of the line. The next parallel Earth is a long way beyond Gaea, so it’s most unlikely the effects will reach that far. In any case, you and your parent copies wouldn’t fit easily on that planet unless your appearance were altered: the dominant species isn’t like you. Of course, we’ll monitor the situation, but the signs so far are extremely promising and we’re as confident as we can be that the last of your parent copies are living on Gaea."

Fair enough, Toby said with a shrug.

Kitty could see that it did seem to be ‘fair enough’, but she wasn’t too happy about it: they’d made promises like that before. She wasn’t saying Daisy would lie to them, but she and her alien friends didn’t always get everything right. They gave them the facts they had at the time, but the trouble was the facts tended to change. Still, it looked like Gaea was the place to go. They couldn’t leave copies of their parents here, there, and everywhere. She just hoped it was the right place and they’d not need to be turned into goodness knows what – an image of large and slimy toads came into her head – and go to that other planet.

One thing, Daisy, will Seb and the others be joining us? Lizzie asked.

Seb, Bess, and Ben Bottom, along with Tilly and Rufus Top, were their schoolfriends who were so awful to them on Terraqua. They didn’t remember going to Terraqua, but Merlin and his team had been considering asking them to join their Multiversal Multiversity, so they might want them to join Kitty and the others now.

No, said Daisy. They’ve recovered well, but we need to monitor them closely to ensure that they don’t have any memory lapses and deal with any they do have. It could be disastrous if they had one while on Gaea.

They all nodded slowly, relieved they weren’t coming. They’d seen them at school over the last couple of weeks and that’d been very awkward. The trouble was their friends didn’t know they’d been horrid to them and so they’d carried on as if nothing had happened. But while on Terraqua, Tilly had said very spiteful things to Toby; Seb had attacked Sam and he’d also hit Toby hard in the face. Then he’d gone for Toby with a knife. That had been terrifying and was impossible to forget.

So what is it this time? Luke wondered. No, let me guess. Genius, who owns an Academy split into three campuses, has gone over to the dark side and is close to working out how to make safe jumps to other universes, so we need to stop him before he’s able to do it because he’ll cause havoc if he arrives on low-tech Earth.

Daisy looked at Luke with a slightly amused face. I understand why you might think that, given the recent events on Aquaterra and Terraqua. However, I’m afraid it’s not one genius but twins again: Cordelia and Corbin Crow.

Hmm, doubly difficult to do whatever it is we need to do, then, Lizzie frowned.

Yes, replied Daisy, but they’re almost inseparable, so they’ll always be in the same place. However, this time it’s an Academy with only one campus: the Crow Academy of Space Science and Galactic Tourism.

Lizzie gulped and opened her eyes wider than she’d ever opened them before. WHAT? she said, not believing what she’d just heard. Nor did the other four.

Yes, Gaean society is in some ways far more advanced than yours, or than the societies on Aquaterra and Terraqua for that matter. They travel within their home galaxy and have colonized many planets.

Cool, said Toby with a grin.

Kitty wasn’t sure if it was cool or not, but it was certainly something she wasn’t expecting, not one bit.

"Do you mean we’ll be going into ... into space, Daisy?" Sam asked. She wasn’t sure if she really wanted to do that. The others felt the same way. The odd thing was, they’d jumped to two parallel Earths and had been in all sorts of weird situations while there, but the thought of going into space was far more worrying. It sounded daft, but Aquaterra and Terraqua were parallel Earths, so they still kind of felt like home. Going on a sightseeing trip to a parallel Saturn, or whatever it was they’d have to do, that was totally different somehow.

Daisy explained: Well, you’ll certainly be space cadets. Your training will be mainly in virtual environments, but it is possible you’ll need to go on a space mission.

Excuse me, Daisy, Lizzie said, with one of her puzzled little frowns, but does that mean we’ll be based in the parallel USA?

Not at all. The Academy is next to the Europan Space Centre at Gipplewich, which is the approximate parallel to your Ipswich.

"Don’t you mean European Space Centre, Daisy?" Luke asked. 

"No, the continent is Europa, so it’s Europan. As I said, Gaea is not a very close parallel to Earth. You’ll probably be surprised to learn that England is connected to France and other western Europan countries by dry land. A large part of your North Sea is an area called Doggerland."

Cool. Kitty got that in before Toby could say it.

Lizzie then asked, So we just need to find and zeptobot the copies of our parents, or is there anything else we have to do as well? (Zeptobots were tiny pieces of programming code that enabled people to be jumped around the Multiverse without experiencing any permanent memory problems.)

Daisy paused for thought: The situation is complicated.

Nothing new there, then, Kitty muttered.

Yes, your parent copies are the prime concern, Lizzie. But as on the other parallel Earths, we can’t let misguided people keep the information that might eventually let them jump safely to other universes. I think you probably expected me to say that.

But we do need to zeptobot our parent copies? Luke asked. Worth making sure.

Daisy smiled. No, we’d already placed zeptobots in your original parents so they could be reintegrated with the Terraquan parent copies. They’ll work for the Gaean copies as well.

That was a relief.

However, there is one thing, Daisy added.

There’s always a catch, Kitty thought.

It’s very important you place a homing beacon in your parent copies.

I knew it! Kitty thought. How do we do that? she asked.

"It’s very easy. We’ve fitted tiny