Star Blaze by Keith Mansfield Page A

placing the match under the pan, but it was a few seconds before the whoosh of blue flame came, shooting out in all directions. Johnny only just avoided being burned. He found a relatively clean wooden spoon in the same drawer and began to stir the watery broth.
    By the time the porridge was ready, a spluttering gray gloop barely denser than water, Johnny was miles behind schedule. He flew out of the kitchen, climbed the stairs and raced along the first floor corridor with his wrist to his mouth, apologizing to Alf for his lateness. He reached the spiral staircase, pulled down the trapdoor and carried on through. Outside the box window, a black car door opened out of nothing, before the remainder of the
Jubilee
reappeared and a flustered android climbed awkwardly through into Johnny’s bedroom.
    â€œMaster Johnny, we are going to be late. The Tolimi will wonder what can possibly have happened.”
    â€œI’m doing my best,” said Johnny, as he rummaged through some old clothes covering the bottom of his wardrobe, before standing up holding a translucent turquoise wheel-like container by two of its four thick spokes. The colored light came from five stones encased in the central hub—the five Cornicular eggs. “Let’s go,” said Johnny as he lifted one leg onto the windowsill, the container held tightly under his arm.
    Alf shouted to stop. Johnny turned around to see the android looking nervously at Johnny’s untidy bedroom floor, spinning his bowler hat between his fingers.
    â€œWhat is it, Alf?” Johnny asked. “I thought we were in a hurry.”
    â€œBut is this not the place you speak with the Emperor?”
    Johnny nodded.
    â€œThen we should maintain it as our communications center,” said the android. “We must hatch an egg in here.”
    Johnny felt stupid for nearly leaving the room without doing the most important thing. He sat down on the bed with the container perched on his lap and looked up at his pinstriped companion for guidance. Alf simply shrugged. Johnny had opened the disc once before, to release the original Melanian Worm. That time he’d willed it to happen and it had.
    Now he concentrated on what he needed, aware that he was getting so much better at controlling the strange power he possessed. Focusing on the little hatchery, he could sense the fluctuations in the energy field around it but he couldn’t stop the flow. It was too fast—a blur of motion that wouldn’t settle. In frustration, he tossed the container on top of his pillow and lay down beside it. He closed his eyes, trying to shut everything out, but bright lights from the five eggs danced across the insides of his eyelids. Johnny watched them, almost lookinginside himself. The lights began to drift, very slowly at first, until they settled into the W-shape of Cassiopeia. As they did so, the turquoise glow filtering through Johnny’s lids became so intense it was as if they weren’t even shut. The case had opened and the little attic room was alive with light from the eggs, glowing like embers in a white-hot fire.
    The scent of vinegar wafted up Johnny’s nostrils, reminding him of the fish and chips he loved so much. Smiling, he reached inside and picked one of the eggs up, hoping it wouldn’t burn. It felt no different from having a soap bubble on the palm of his hand. Very carefully he lowered it into the outer ring of the container, connected to the hub by the spokes. Then he closed the lid. There was a hiss of gas escaping before the whole thing sealed itself shut. The egg began to stretch, growing in both directions. As it became elongated around the outside of the wheel, it changed color, ripples of light passing through all the colors of the rainbow. The two ends grew ever longer and looked just about to meet, when the egg’s outer casing melted away leaving a turquoise blur of light racing around as close to the edge as it could get. It was