Strange Invasion: The Multiversal Chronicles, #4

By Richard Huggett

What are Aquaterrans and Terraquans doing in England? Why can't Kitty, Sam, Toby, Lizzie, Luke, Jemima, and Jessica contact the Multiversal Research Centre? Why are coffee shops and toy shops being taken over by a mysterious new company? Investigating the company, Kitty's team find out who the joint owners are: two women who shouldn't be there on Earth at all. They'll have to stop them before even more harm is done. How can they do that? Drop the huge energy shield. But that means being in three places at once. To succeed in time, they'll have to overcome sentinels, virtual adventure and educational worlds even weirder than those they've come across before, and outsmart the joint owners of the company.

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

260 pages

• Language: English
• Publisher: Strange Books
• Release date: Oct 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393824077

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

Lost contact! What do you mean you’ve lost contact? Merlin Ambrosia asked.

Just that, Lily Moose said, sitting at her console. We can no longer monitor what’s happening on Earth.

Merlin walked around the room, thinking. Let me have a look, he said, coming up behind Lily. Wow! That’s some energy shield, Lily.

Biggest one I’ve seen.

Merlin moved along to Periwinkle Bandicoot, who was sitting at another console. Anything unusual on the close parallels?

Not really. The local energy shields that appeared a while ago on Aquaterra and Terraqua are still there. They restored them a month after we’d sorted the problems. Nothing on the scale of the new one.

Nothing on Gaea?

Periwinkle shook his head. No.

Daisy Turtledove was at a desk, studying a 3D holographic display. Do you think it might be to do with the children?

Merlin tossed his head from side to side. Don’t see why. Unless ... Are you certain everyone on Aquaterra, Terraqua, and Gaea had their memories of the young humans and Earth blocked?

Well ... yes.

Hmmmmm. Merlin wasn’t happy. It looks highly suspicious to me. We’d better try breaking through.

That could take quite some time, Periwinkle pointed out.

All the more reason for starting now, then.

1 Here We Go Again

Day 1. Back to school

Kitty Strange, her twin brother Toby, and younger sister Sam lived in Oakham, near their best friends Lizzie and Luke Charm. Jemima and Jessica Updown, who were Lizzie and Luke’s cousins, lived in Cambridge. Six months ago, all seven of them had visited three parallel Earths: Aquaterra, Terraqua, and Gaea.

Why did they go to those parallel planets? Well, it began as a rescue mission to Aquaterra. Dr Ravenel Raven, a computing and virtual worlds genius on that planet, jumped Sam, Luke, and the Updown twins there in a desperate attempt to find a cure for his sister’s mystery illness (he thought antibodies in alien blood might provide the answer). Some friendly aliens led by Merlin Ambrosia then jumped Kitty, Toby, and Lizzie to Aquaterra to find Sam, Luke, and the twins. Kitty and the others didn’t know they were friendly till later, so it was big-time scary and they still have occasional nightmares about it.

The problem was, Dr Raven’s jumping experiments had knock-on effects on the other two parallel Earths, which is why all seven young humans then had to go on further rescue missions to Terraqua and then Gaea. On Terraqua, they’d rescued five friends from school who’d been jumped there accidentally by the Sable twins, Sacharissa and Sabrina, multibillionaire business women eager to expand their empire to parallel planets. On Gaea, they’d found and nanochipped copies of their parents. The six parent copies had materialized on Gaea as an accidental side-effect of the jumping experiments carried out by the Crow twins, Corbin and Cordelia, owners of a space science academy and vast galactic tourism corporation. The nanochips had allowed the parent copies to be reintegrated with the originals back on Earth.

Merlin had promised the young humans that Gaea was the last planet affected, so they’d not have to sort out problems on any other parallel Earths. As it had all happened six months ago and they hadn’t heard from him, they’d no reason to disbelieve him.

***

They’d had a great Easter break and were looking forward to the summer term. Kitty left their house with Sam on the first day back, waving bye to her mum, who had their beagle Woof at her feet, as they started down the road towards school.

Luke and Lizzie were waiting for them outside their house, both neatly turned out, Lizzie with her pale auburn hair tied back and Luke with his straw-coloured hair neatly combed. Toby came charging along the road to catch them up – he was often a bit late. And as usual, his shirt was hanging out, his tie wasn’t tied properly, and his curly mop of dark hair was in a right mess.

At school, Sam went off to find her friends and the rest of them stood talking. The bell rang, and they walked to their classrooms. Kitty was chatting to Lizzie, but looked up frowning when she heard a familiar voice coming from the other side of the room.

She froze. No way!

Lizzie realized what she was staring at because she stuttered, How the ... I mean ... it’s not ... And Lizzie wasn’t often lost for words.

Standing there in a group and chatting were Rebecca Bright and someone who looked very much like her, in fact Rachel Bright, her twin, plus Jacqueline, Jodie, and Japhet Mewsley. They were all from Aquaterra, the first parallel Earth they’d jumped to. At least, Rebecca was definitely from Aquaterra (Merlin had told them that), and they thought the Mewsley triplets were, too. They knew Rebecca had a twin called Rachel on Terraqua (Rachel hadn’t been at the Academy there because she’d fractured her spine in an accident and couldn’t walk), but they didn’t remember Rebecca mentioning her on Aquaterra, or Gaea for that matter. Perhaps she’d had a parallel accident on those planets as well.

What’s up? Toby asked, who was behind the girls with Luke.

Then he and Luke both noticed Rebecca and the others at the same time. They gasped together and then both said, WHAT!

Do you think they’re just new students who happen to look exactly like them? Kitty asked, knowing it was a silly suggestion as soon as she’d said it.

No chance, Lizzie frowned, shaking her head a bit.

At that point, Sam spoke to Kitty through her SSP (short for supersmartphone, the name the young humans gave the amazing tablet computers given to each of them by Merlin and his friends, which could read your mind, talk to you, and change shape to fit into their surroundings): Hey, Kitty, you’ll never believe this, but Minnie Bright’s here in my classroom, and so is Baldric Asp.

Yeah, well, we’ve got the Bright twins and Mewsleys in here, Kitty answered.

No way!

Lizzie stepped over to red-headed Tilly Top, who was talking to her twin brother Rufus. Hi, Tilly. Do you know who the new students are? she asked.

That was a good idea: see if anyone knew anything about them. But how could they?

Tilly looked round the room. What new students? she replied with a really puzzled frown.

Well, those five over there, Lizzie said, pointing to them, looking even more puzzled than Tilly.

Tilly studied the group and was totally thrown. You mean Rebecca, Rachel, and the Mewsleys?

Um ... oh, yes, it’s Rebecca, isn’t it? I think I’d better get my eyes checked.

Tilly and Rufus looked at Lizzie as if she’d gone bananas, shrugged, and walked off.

What’s going on? Luke said, sounding really worried. Have they been jumped here? he added in a whisper.

I suppose so, Kitty replied. But I thought Merlin and his team had sorted it all out.

Humph! Apparently not, Lizzie said huffily.

Um, just talked to Jemima, Toby said, raising his right hand. They’ve got the same problem: Magna, Cassandra, and Bellona Grey have turned up in their class and everyone else seems to know who they are. Kitty and the others had first met the dark-haired Grey triplets on Terraqua; Cassie and Bellona were identical twins.

This is stupid, Kitty said, starting to feel panicky. "How come we realize they weren’t here before today but no one else does?"

Good morning, class, said Miss Phoenix, the form teacher, as she came in. Please sit down.

That put an end to talking about what was happening; at least talking aloud. Of course, they could still carry on talking through their SSPs, if they wanted to. Thinking about that gave Kitty a great idea.

Hi, she said to her SSP in seven-way mode, so everyone including Jemima and Jessica could join in. Do you know what’s going on?

Completely puzzled.

Well, that was bad news. If her SSP didn’t know then who did? Oh, hang on, there was someone: Can’t you ask Merlin or one of the others?

You’d think, wouldn’t you, but we’ve lost contact with the Multiversal Research Centre.

That was even worse news. Kitty wasn’t sure what it meant, but it must mean something was very seriously wrong. Any suggestions?

Um ... no.

Great. Thanks.

Sorry. We’ll work on it.

Okay. So will we.

Kitty could feel exasperation and worry in all the others’ minds. This was even worse than before. They were totally in the dark and there was no one they could turn to for help. This one was down to them.

***

Kitty thought it through, working out what they could do. They’d had plenty of experience of this kind of problem on parallel planets, so ... first, they could use their SSPs to search databases for the Brights, Mewsleys, and Greys: see where they lived, who their parents were, that sort of thing. What else could they do? ... What else? ... Nothing came to mind. Amazingly, this was actually more difficult to do in their own universe. Ah, well, Kitty told herself, one step at a time: do a database search at the first chance we get.

They moved off to their first lesson, which was English. Moving down the corridor, Rebecca caught up with Kitty. Hi, Kitty, had a good holiday?

Er, yes thanks, Rebecca. Did you?

Fantastic. It was a really great place.

Um ... where was?

Rebecca looked at Kitty oddly. Paris, of course. We were talking about it for weeks before we went. You said how you’d love to come, too.

Oh, yes, I remember. Bats! This was going to be impossible if they couldn’t remember things that’d happened. You’ll have to tell me all about it.

Yes, we’re looking forward to coming round.

Kitty thought about that for a moment. To my house?

Rebecca frowned at her big time. Are you okay, Kitty? You can’t have forgotten we’re coming for tea with you tonight as our mum and dad are getting back late.

Must’ve slipped my mind. That’ll be really nice.

Rebecca gave her a puzzled smile. Great. See you later then. She turned to Luke. And don’t forget our date at lunchtime, she said to him with a grin, then bounded off to catch up with Rachel and the Mewsleys.

This is stupid, Lizzie said crossly. It’s like we’ve come into a world we know nothing about.

Tell me, said Luke. I mean, what date? It’s like we’re the aliens.

Yes, but we’re not, Toby said. Just done a scan. They don’t show up as human whereas everyone else does.

Thank goodness for that! Lizzie said, then let out a big breath. I know it doesn’t help much, but at least we know we’re still on Earth – I think.

Jemima says Magna, Cassie, and Bellona show up as non-human, too, Toby said. So that kind of confirms it.

I’ve told Sam to meet us by the gym entrance at break, Kitty told them. We need to talk this through as a group.

Good idea, Lizzie agreed.

***

Standing by the gym entrance, they were beginning to wonder where Sam had got to. Then she came dashing round the corner. Sorry, she said, running her hand through her mousy-brown hair. Had to make an excuse for not bringing Minnie with me.

Oh, she’s a friend here as well, is she Sam? Lizzie asked. They got on very well on the parallel planets, but that didn’t mean they’d get on now.

Yeah, we’re besties by the sound of it, Sam shrugged. I’ve made a complete fool of myself twice, as I don’t know what we’ve done together. She crossed her arms and let out a big huffy sigh.

Don’t worry, Sam, Toby chuckled, Kitty’s made an ass of herself, too.

Kitty made a face at Toby. Anyway, she said, the biggest problem we’ve got at the moment is not knowing what we’ve said to Rebecca and the other aliens. I don’t see how we can get round that; well, apart from not speaking to them.

No, I’m totally out of ideas, Lizzie admitted, shaking her head. There’s no possible way of finding out what we need to know.

"Hey, I’ve just had an idea, Sam said excitedly. They all turned to her. You remember the time-jump icon on our SSPs?"

Yes, Kitty nodded. How could they forget that?

Well, when we jumped forwards in time, it was really weird because it was like we’d not actually missed anything at all; we could remember what’d happened during the time we’d skipped and everyone else didn’t realize we’d not been there.

Y–es, Kitty frowned, wondering where this was leading. So?

Perhaps it’d work if we time-jumped backwards, you know, to just before the Easter holidays, and then jumped forwards again to now.

Jemima came in at that point. Good idea, Sam. I think it should work.

Only one way to find out, added Jessica.

Whoa, hang on, Lizzie said. It sounds a bit risky to me. Let’s ask our SSPs first to make sure we’re not going to end up stuck in the past or something awful like that.

Fair enough, Kitty agreed. Over to you, Kitty told her SSP.

Her SSP waited a few seconds before answering in seven-way mode: he was conferring with the other six SSPs; they did that a lot. Sounds good in theory. Not sure it’d work in practice in quite the way you want it to. But we don’t think it’d do any harm if you were to jump back a few weeks from here and now and then come straight back again so the timeline won’t be disrupted. It may not solve the problem of not knowing what you’ve said to Rebecca and the others, but we think it’d be safe enough and it may help a little.

Kitty looked at Lizzie and raised her eyebrows. Lizzie gave her a short nod. Do it, Kitty said.

She was standing in the playground with the others; then she was sitting in a classroom three weeks ago; and then she was back where she started in the playground. So weird. Did it work? Kitty wondered.

I think so ... to some extent, anyway, Luke said. With a smirky smile, he added, Looks like I’ve got a lunchtime swim with Rebecca.

Kitty gasped. Hey! Rebecca, Rachel, and Minnie live next door to us. What’s happened to the Johnsons?

Who knows? Toby shrugged. But I’m pretty sure they won’t come back until we’ve sorted this mess out.

Do you think we know about everything that changed when Rebecca and the others were jumped here? Sam asked.

Not sure, Lizzie frowned. There’s no way of telling, but I don’t think we’ll look stupid again, like Kitty did earlier, while we’re chatting to them.

Kitty thought it was a bit rude of Lizzie to say she looked stupid, especially as she’d looked stupid before her, but she had to admit it was true. Hi, she said again to her SSP in seven-way mode, do we know all we need to know now?

We don’t know what you don’t know, nor if you need to know what you don’t know, because you don’t know it, nor do we know if what you do know is what you need to know.

Eh?

We’ve got no idea really – you’ll find out as you go along.

By putting our foot in it?

Well, by careful trial and error, yes.

Okay, but that’s the same thing actually. She gave a mental sigh.

We do apologize, but we’re as much in the dark as you are.

No problem. Kitty’s SSP wasn’t being grumpy, quite the reverse – that was how bad the situation was. She’d actually grown rather fond of him, but if no one else was listening in, he tended to make smart comments and could even be rude to her. It’d never occurred to her to ask Merlin why. She guessed it was just the way he was programmed (‘he’ because it had a man’s voice).

I’ll tell you something really odd, said Lizzie, squinting hard. "I can remember knowing both what we knew without Rebecca and co here and what we now know with them here. It’s like two parallel sets of memories."

They all thought hard for a few moments ... Yeah, Luke agreed, you’re right, sis’. I just hope we can separate them or it’s going to get really difficult.

I’m pretty sure I can, Sam said.

Kitty thought very hard for a few seconds. She’s right, she nodded. Then the school bell rang. Oh, bats! We’ll have to go to our next lessons now. Better meet up here again at lunchtime.

Talk later, Jemima said. Bye, Toby.

Bye, Toby replied with a smile.

Toby and Jemima had become very close friends during their adventures. Since they’d got back, they were always talking to each other through their SSPs; mainly about computing and computer games. They were designing a computer game together, with some help from Jessica. Toby had twice joined Lizzie and Luke on visits to Jemima and her family in Cambridge, and Jemima and Jessica called in to see Toby, Kitty, and Sam whenever they came over to visit Lizzie and Luke.

You’ll have to get out of your date with Rebecca, Luke, Lizzie said to her twin.

Yeah, I better had.

No, that might not be such a good idea, Kitty disagreed. Let’s try to keep things running as they were apparently meant to. Does that make any sense?

Mmm ... I get what you mean, Lizzie said with a little wrinkle at the top of her nose. You go with Rebecca, Luke. We’ll fill you in later.

Luke shrugged and smiled. Okay, I don’t mind.