Skylar Holmes: The Last Hope – Opening Chapters

1

TIME FOR CRIME

SKYLAR HOLMES AND her bonded shapeshifter scampered through the darkened dimly lit starship Faraway’s Main Cargo Bay, taking care to keep to one side out of sight of the Main Cargo Bay door window. They were heading for the eight huge alien property trunks lined neatly along a slightly raised rectangular platform in the dark recesses of the bay. Framed photos of former starship Faraway captains hung high in the gloom along the walls, giving the impression they were watching the duo’s intrusion with foreboding eyes.

“Quietly does it, Piron!” warned a nonchalantly scampering Skylar in a cautious undertone down over her shoulder. “We’ll soon be getting a close view of the alien trunks.”

“Speak for yourself!” complained Skylar’s bonded shapeshifter sarcastically. Piron, a futuristic counterpart of her father’s Dr Watson, was currently in the form of a black panther that allowed the darkness to disguise him adequately even if Skylar herself seemed to throw caution with a sail on it to the wind. In Skylar’s defence, she at least had dark-brown skin—though, unfortunately, her snow-white Afro was a bit of a giveaway. “There aren’t many creatures that can pad along on all fours as stealthily as a black panther can. And I’ve shapeshifted into the stealthiest black panther imaginable.”

Skylar simply responded with a quiet chuckle.

After snaking through some scattered titanium crates and scurrying along a short corridor formed between some packed storage racks, Skylar and Piron at last got their first good look at the alien property trunks resting silently on their low rectangular platform. A few protruding metal and shiny hard plastic property boxes stacked high inside the open trunks reflected what little light there was in the bay, and short trunk ladders hung down invitingly awaiting the property collection crew—or a couple of thieving intruders.

“Great,” said a relieved Skylar, drawing herself and Piron to a halt still out of sight of the Main Cargo Bay door window, “as we saw with my Main Cargo Bay security camera hack, the trunks are still open.”

“It’s definitely great,” said Piron, “especially as your appended security camera loop hack showing an empty Main Cargo Bay will keep us safe, unless we’re spied through the Main Cargo Bay door window or some unscheduled crew decide to flood into the Main Cargo Bay.”

“Keep calm, why don’t you, sir?” said Skylar reassuringly, slipping out her pocket watch from the inside pocket of her standard pale-blue starship Faraway uniform jacket. She deftly flicked open the silver pocket watch’s covering flap with her thumb, and eyed keenly the ornate watch face. “We’re a few minutes early for the optimal theft time. No one will be viewing the Main Cargo Bay through its door window. In fact, no one will be in the corridor outside to even look through the window.”

“I don’t know why you insist on keeping such an ancient timepiece on your person. It can’t even display today’s date, let alone the menus of the Faraway’s canteens.”

“But that’s precisely the point. This pocket watch is completely mechanical, with absolutely no electronics or anything approaching technology. Which means it is invisible to technological surveillance. And I don’t think that it’s correct to call it ancient when it’s only three years old. I got it for my thirteenth birthday.”

“Yes, but your thirteenth birthday was January 6th, 1907. And that’s over 2,000 years ago. So from that point of view, not only is your pocket watch ancient, but so are you. Anachronistic you, and your anachronistic timepiece: a double act sent forwards in time to challenge us all.”

“You can talk—you’re not even in the same universe, let alone the same timeline. Anyway, you know what they say, Piron. Time is relative.”

“True. And time can never be stationary. It waits for no living creature. So maybe we should just get on with this theft. We’ve waited two years to commit it. And we don’t even know if we’re really supposed to be doing it.”

“That is not quite correct, big black kitty. We are supposed to be doing it, of that I am certain. We just don’t know exactly why we have to do it, and how we should use the items we steal. Remember, this is only a minor crime in a culture where crime is non-existent that we need to commit in order to solve a major crime, or at least solve some sort of mystery.”

“Yes, I stand on all fours, fully corrected. I’ve never doubted your deductive reasoning. After all, you are the daughter of the father of such reasoning. I just want it to be over.”

“You’ve waited two years. What’s another two minutes? Honestly, Piron, for nature’s ultimate master of disguise, the shapeshifter doth worry too much, methinks.” Skylar gave Piron an assuring wink.

“Talking like your ancient father again?”

“No. Even more ancient than that. I’m making a dog’s dinner out of a line from Hamlet by Shakespeare.”

“‘Dog’s dinner’? That’s a new one on me.”

“Shush now, I’ve got it all under control. This isn’t some spur-of-the-moment burglary. Granted the preparation time was minutes; but, well, you’re well-disguised, and I’m … somewhat intellectual for my years.” Skylar gave Piron a knowing cheeky grin.

“Mocking your father’s intellectual arrogance as usual, I see.”

“Definitely. It makes me feel at home—or should I say, at Holmes. My father couldn’t help being arrogance personified. I’m afraid that’s the way men were back in England’s Victorian and Edwardian eras. The leaders were all men that were alpha wolves. Their male followers were timid sheep. The women were simply the mechanism for birthing the tragic wolves and sheep. And there were rarely any shepherds to steer this misdirected misogyny through the carnage.”

“But how would someone of your abilities get to blossom in such a male-dominated primitive culture? I can’t believe a creature like you with such great abilities and confidence in oneself could fail to blossom.”

“Other than being in line for the throne, by taking a leaf out of your genetic book, Piron.”

“Huh?”

“I would have to shapeshift, in a manner of speaking, into a male. Great women used that trick frequently. Ask the triumphant triumvirate literary Bronte sisters Anne, Charlotte and Emily. They had to do with being the triumphant triumvirate literary Bell brothers Acton, Currer and Ellis. The initial letters of their pseudonyms shows they hoped one day history would give them the recognition they deserved if they couldn’t receive it in their lifetimes, which basically they never did.”

“You humans were a funny lot in your past. Two genders of a single species regarding each other as two different species, each alien to the other.”

“Yes, and to emphasise your point, my self-education informs me that by 1992 humanity through the work of John Gray’s Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus at least began to realise it—if subtly doing nothing about it except exploiting the bizarre situation further. An exacerbation of exasperation, so to speak.”

“Humanity’s early stupid sexism slowed down their development significantly,” said Piron, shaking his panther shapeshifted head disparagingly.

“Yes, it did,” agreed Skylar. “Silly olden day men. You know, my father was born when the last of the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, was still alive, though she only had a year and three months left to live.”

“It must be time by now,” said Piron, impatiently pawing at one of Skylar’s boots.

Skylar took one last look at her pocket watch before flipping shut the covering flap and slipping it back into the inside pocket of her starship jacket. “It is.” She took one last glance back at the Main Cargo Bay door window …

Seeing no one, she said with a dash of dramatic conspiratorial air, “Follow me, Piron old chap. Time for crime!”

 

2

SKYLAR’S HEIST OF THE MILLENNIA

SKYLAR STEPPED OUT from the cover of the packed storage racks into the open space of the Main Cargo Bay. She quickly approached and skipped onto the alien trunks’ platform with all the audaciousness of the independent minded sixteen-year-old she was. She found herself beside the first property trunk. The trunk that she believed contained among its alien possessions, the twelve teleportation bracelets, the first teleportation devices ever to find their way on anything of human ownership.

Piron couldn’t decide whether to keep Skylar in his line of sight or the Main Cargo Bay door window.

“You wait there on the floor while I borrow a few of the teleportation bracelets,” she said quietly to Piron.

“Hurry up, or we’ll get caught,” he replied in an urgent undertone. “And at least admit you’re stealing the bracelets and not borrowing them.”

“Don’t get your tail in a knot. Anyway, I thought you hated shapeshifting into a cat.”

“Domestic cats, not Big Cats. You know how much I love shapeshifting into a white tiger. In any case, needs outweigh wants. Now, for the sake of both of us, HURRY UP!”

With a broad smile on her face and the burning fire of adventure in her striking pea-green eyes, Skylar shimmied quickly up the trunk ladder and clambered into the trunk, carefully stepping onto the metal boxes that she was sure were the sturdiest of all the different types. She rummaged through some of the hard plastic boxes and was fortunate enough to quickly identify the small blue box that she believed contained the twelve teleportation bracelets. She lifted the unlocked lid of the small blue box …

Skylar’s eyes opened wide in delight at the sight of the bracelets. “So small in size, yet so huge in function,” she whispered to herself. “There again, I suppose it is true that the smallest of things are the most complex and bewildering. Consider the actual smallest things themselves, where the elementary is paradoxically far from elementary.”

Skylar plucked two of the bracelets out of the box and stuffed them in her jacket pockets. The boxes she had moved, she placed back in their original positions as best as she could. She snatched the bracelets back out of her jacket pockets, and over the rim of the huge trunk, she displayed them victoriously to Piron.

“Got ’em!” she said, in a jubilant, straining undertone.

Piron, still in his black panther form, shifted nervously from paw to paw on the Main Cargo Bay’s hard plasticised floor as if he were the living embodiment of the proverbial cat on a hot tin roof. “Just hurry up and get down here. This isn’t the time and place to celebrate your outrageous attempt at the heist of the millennia. If only I had a choice over the matter, I’d be off back to my universe.”

“Yes, well, you don’t. And neither do I. You’re lucky you were bonded with me and not some boring human incapable of living life to the full.” Skylar was already climbing back down the trunk ladder.

“If we get caught,” said an anxious Piron, “it’ll be nice living life to the full in a brig for the rest of our lives. Can’t you at least be a little less bold and a little more circumspect?”

“Listen, Piron, those advanced Equalisers, know what they’re doing and they selected and bonded us out of all the people they could have selected from at least two distinct universes from any time and space,” said Skylar, stepping off the last rungs of the trunk ladder and turning to face the huge scaredy-cat. “A real brain teaser, I know. So I hope you can see that we can’t change the way we behave, or we’d be making a mockery out of their selection. We’ll just have to put up with ourselves.”

Skylar jumped off the property trunks’ platform onto the floor to join Piron.

“To the victor go the spoils,” she said, handing out a teleportation bracelet to Piron who immediately shapeshifted in a blurry split second into the form of a pink-skinned sixteen-year-old boy, his usual shapeshifted form when with Skylar. His hair was jet-black and his eyes were an innocent steel-blue. He and Skylar preferred him to have pink skin, because as a duo, one dark-skinned and one light-skinned, they felt more socially comfortable in their brave new world. Although each looked the antithesis of the other, somehow as a duo they fitted together. It helped that they were both athletically built in a slender kind of way and were both five foot eight inches tall—though Skylar looked a good six inches taller when her snow-white Afro was in full bloom.

“To the thief goes the spoils, more like,” said Piron, gratefully grabbing the bracelet, his innocent steel-blue eyes briefly filling with greed.

“That doesn’t sound as good. Anyway, Piron, I’m not a thief. We know sod all about these aliens. Trust, but verify, I always say.”

“You’re full of warlike proverbs today, I see.”

“I’ve always been full of something,” jested Skylar. “Although, in my opinion, my proverbs today have been more political than warlike.”

“Is there such a difference?” Piron’s eyebrows knotted and the corner of his mouth was fighting a smile. Piron could not help asking questions of Skylar as he found her answers both intellectually brilliant and entertaining, and sometimes simply amusing.

Skylar gave Piron a slow nod, but made no effort to hide her smile. She knew Piron well enough to know he was fishing for a glorious answer to his question. “I would just say that war brings the volume 11 setting to politics.”

“I don’t get it …” said a befuddled Piron.

“When one goes fishing, one must not always expect to catch a fish.” Skylar giggled.

“You’ve definitely lost me. I best let this go.”

“The one that got away.” Skylar giggled again. “Don’t worry, there’s a media file I possess that will explain everything. It’s titled Spinal Tap.”

“Sounds interesting.”

“‘Sound’ being the operative word.”

“Well, anyway, Skylar, now what? Don’t we need to find the location-finder-pads? They could be anywhere. They might not even be in any of these eight alien property trunks.”

“The only piece of information the Equalisers gave us was the portion of the alien property manifest that told us where the bracelets were. But clearly we must use the bracelets in some way to find the location-finder-pads. Maybe we could see if there’s anything else worth nicking.”

“Are you crazy?” Piron took an anxious look around the subtly lit Main Cargo Bay, paying particular attention to the Main Cargo Bay door window.

“Stop fretting. I’m obviously joking. Anyway, what’s the hurry now? We’ve got the bracelets.”

“But, Skylar, how do we know they will work? Maybe they’re tied in function only to particular alien life signs. Perhaps alien bodily cells. Something like your DNA.”

“Well, there are three different types of aliens owning these bracelets, and they’re not just from different planets, but different galaxies. I think the bracelets will work just fine on us—if they work at all.”

“I suppose so.” Piron seemed consumed in a fog of uncertainty.

“Look, Piron, the Equalisers must believe they work, I would have thought. Such advanced beings would surely not waste their time on such an elaborate hoax. But if we only look at the facts, which is all any good detective should ever do, we only have the aliens’ statement of fact that they work. In any case, what have we got to lose?”

“Erm, our liberty. Maybe even our lives.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, sir, but freedom is an illusion. And as for life, the moment you have it, you are destined to lose it. So, my shapeshifting friend, we’ll try the bracelets out now. See over across the Main Cargo Bay?” Skylar pointed to a distant door.

“The Main Cargo Bay Office?”

“Yes. We’ve been in there before, so let’s attempt to teleport inside the office now. We know it’s locked and empty due to the wishes of the soon-to-be arriving aliens. And we would have been caught by now if it wasn’t.”

“How do we teleport if we don’t have the accompanying bracelet’s location-finder-pad?”

“Using the bracelet teleportation-by-thought function, Piron. Remember, according to the aliens’ statements of fact, we simply think of a place we have previously visited. Then a press of the square button on the teleportation bracelet should teleport us there instantaneously. The location-finder-pads additionally allow us to visit places we have never visited before. And in both cases, it is claimed there is no speed of light limitation; teleportation is truly instantaneous.”

“Yes, that’s right. Sorry, Skylar, I’ve never committed a crime before and it’s obviously affected even the most rudimentary of my thoughts and memories.”

“I hear you. Me? I’m London born and bred. Crime is part of my DNA. Though it’s fair to say, I was born to a family that fights it before it commits it. So getting things back on track, once in the locked Main Cargo Bay office, we might be able to find out where the location-finder-pads for the bracelets are. There are bound to be twelve of them. If we can steal two of them, the aliens might think they simply forgot to pack twelve bracelets and twelve location-finder-pads. And that’s all assuming the teleportation-by-thought works in the first place.”

“That’s quite a big assumption, Skylar.”

“Big assumptions come with big assertions. So I would expect them to be validated as much as any others.”

“You really think instantaneous teleportation-by-thought or even by any method is possible?” Piron’s eyebrows knotted.

“Agreed, it seems improbable, but who are we with our limited knowledge of the nature of things to know if it’s impossible? Thus, its possible truth remains. And here we are in a position to eliminate or vindicate truth. Ready to seek the impossible, Piron old chap?”

“I admit I’m scared. However, as you say, the Equalisers put us here for a reason, a reason of which we currently have little understanding. So let’s just get on with it.”

They both slipped on their bracelets around their wrists. As they expected, the bracelet strapping was loose at first but quickly tightened to a comfortable, secure fit.

“In for a penny, in for a pound,” said Skylar to Piron. “I’ll go first, you follow.”

Skylar closed her eyes, thought of the inside of the Main Cargo Bay Office, and imagined herself there. Keeping her eyes closed, she pushed down on the bracelet’s square button until it made a subtle clunky click …

 

3

OUTRAGEOUS, YES: RECKLESS, NO

WHEN SKYLAR OPENED her bright pea-green eyes, she was in a darkened room with just enough light to sense it was indeed the Main Cargo Bay Office.

“Gosh … that’s impressive. I didn’t feel a thing.”

Piron appeared beside her without a sound, almost as if she had developed an instant shadow.

“That is you, isn’t it, Piron?”

“It is. I kept my eyes open throughout the teleportation. The instant I felt the square button click, I found myself here. No other sensation did I feel.”

“I felt nothing too. Amazing. I wasn’t totally sure the bracelets would work. I actually thought their owners, the soon to be visiting aliens, might have made the whole thing up to con us into thinking they were superior to us. I thought the aim of the intervening Equalisers might have been to put us in possession of that knowledge. Instantaneous teleportation-by-thought. Jolly spiffing or what?”

“It’s flabbergastingly incredible, Skylar. Given the power the imminently visiting aliens will obviously have over us, I agree now that you were right in stealing the bracelets. Just like that, I’m all in. Especially now I can see this is no wild goose chase. Quickly now, Skylar, let’s see if we can locate the location-finder-pads, then we will be able to teleport to places we’ve never been. And with my shapeshifting ability, I can surreptitiously survey any visiting place first.”

“Yes, and with your molecular structure, there won’t be many environments harmful to you. You could even teleport to the centre of a star. Could you teleport inside a black hole, do you think?”

“Who knows? I would never take such a risk. After instantaneous teleportation, if I were to miss the exact centre, I wouldn’t like to suffer instantaneous spaghettification—even if such a process might be harmless to me.”

“I see. Anyway, Piron, can you please make a dull light? Something that won’t indicate someone might be in this office if a security guard looks through the Main Cargo Bay door window. And use a creature form that also has good hearing so you can listen out for the sounds of anyone who might decide to approach the Main Cargo Bay.”

“I can comply ably with that request. Witness a shapeshift into a firebat. It’s like a cross between an Earth firefly and Earth bat, hence the Earth-given name. However, it is a form I will not be able to talk in. The vocal chords are just too dissimilar to an Earth mammal’s.”

A blurry split second later, Piron, in the form of a firebat, landed on Skylar’s right shoulder. He looked like a leathery-skinned bat, but each of his eyes radiated out a soft beam of blue light as if they were a pair of flashlights, providing enough light for Skylar to quickly locate the main office computer-pad and set about some of her highly advanced hacking.

In a matter of seconds, Skylar’s fingers were dancing their magic over the office’s main computer-pad, which gave enough light off its screen to allow her to work even without the aid of Piron’s firebat eyes.

“As suspected, this computer device is completely insulated from the Faraway’s computer network system,” reported Skylar. “That explains categorically why I have always failed to remotely hack it. But nothing can stop me now. What’s more, my ongoing hacking cannot be detected. Three cheers for Main Cargo Bay privacy laws!”

Minutes later, Skylar’s fingers halted in their flurry of activity …

“Ah, I’ve found them, Piron! See? Trunk H?” Skylar pointed out the relevant line of text to Piron, still in his firebat form. “The farthest trunk from where we swiped the bracelets. That’s good news.”

Firebat Piron intentionally toppled backwards off Skylar’s shoulder. And after a single firebat back somersault and twist, skilfully landed on his feet back into his familiar sixteen-year-old boy form to stand inches to the side of Skylar. “Why is it good news?”

“Because I think if we can steal two of the location-finder-pads, given they are distant from the bracelets, I reckon there’s a greater chance the aliens will believe they had mislaid two bracelets and two location-finder-pads.”

“But why?”

“Because they will suspect only the ranked crew. And as the ranked crew did not steal or know of any potential theft, the aliens, who will definitely have a way of scanning the crew’s minds, will deduce them to be innocent. So, whatcha know, Joe, they’ll have to conclude some sort of mistake in transport may have been made, or something like that. We need to be ready to act on their reaction. Perhaps we can in some way help to convince them the pair of missing bracelets and their accompanying location-finder-pads were not stolen.”

“Can’t see how we could do that,” mumbled a perplexed Piron.

“Neither do I at present. But some sort of opportunity is bound to present itself. It’ll be thinking on our feet time.”

“The only opportunity I can see arising is one where we get to scarper off the Faraway with our teleportation bracelets and their accompanying location-finder-pads.”

In the dim light given off by the computer-pad screen, Skylar looked Piron directly in the eye and shook her head in jovial pity. “You need to get out more, my dear Piron. Expand your horizons. Improbable opportunities can only be found if you develop the ability to seek them.”

“I find it difficult to get out more—as I live on a starship.”

“Honestly, Piron, you are often too literal for your own good. Search for the metaphor in my words. There’s usually one or two lurking about—if you catch my drift.”

“Hmm, anyway, Skylar, let’s just get the location-finder-pads before we push our luck too far.”

“They’re in an identical-looking small hard plastic blue box to the box the bracelets were in. You’ve seen an image of that box when we discovered the manifest list?”

“Yes. I was paying attention. I have to, in order to keep an eye on your often reckless antics.”

“My antics … outrageous, yes: reckless, no.”

“What’s the difference?”

Skylar raised her eyebrows. “The former is likely to result in an exciting, interesting, successful escapade.” Skylar lowered her eyebrows. “The latter is likely to result in an exciting, interesting, but short-lived, unsuccessful escapade.”

“If you say so.” Piron rolled his eyes dismissively.

“Off you jolly well go, Piron. Teleport to just in front of Trunk H and search for the blue box. It’ll be the only blue box in the trunk. Meanwhile, I’ll shut down this computer and remove any evidence I’ve been on it, then I’ll come and join you on the property trunks’ platform. There’s enough light from the computer-pad’s screen for me to see what I’m doing. And when the screen is off … well, I don’t need any light to teleport.”

Without further ado, Piron paused as if he was thinking of the Trunk H area, then he pressed the square button on his teleportation bracelet …

Skylar, who had been looking keenly at Piron in the light of the computer-pad screen, found herself in an instant looking at a filing cabinet behind where Piron had just been standing. She nodded her head in admiration at the remarkable technology of the teleportation device. “Sweet as a nut.”

A few minutes later, after competently shutting the computer-pad off and returning it to its original undisturbed state, Skylar teleported by thought out of the Main Cargo Bay Office and appeared in an instant in front of the property trunks’ platform …

 

4

CLUES REQUIRING CLUES

… AND THERE WAS Piron standing on the edge of the platform, immediately passing Skylar down a small pad that had a blue plasticised surrounding border.

“I have not tried to operate mine yet,” he said.

“Yes, and please don’t, Piron. I’ll try to work their use out later when we’re in a safe place. Somewhere off the Faraway. I fear use of the location-finder-pads might be noticed as they are probably some sort of computer device that’s networked to who knows what sort of network.”

“Maybe the bracelets are on a network and we’ve already blown our cover.”

“I doubt it. Teleportation-by-thought would surely only be acceptable if it had inbuilt privacy. I should think the bracelets could only be networked with the consent of the user. Probably a setting on the location finder.”

“I think I see what you mean. If I was desperate for the bathroom, I wouldn’t want anyone knowing I had teleported there. That sort of thing.”

“I take it you replaced the box containing the location-finder-pads back to its original position?”

“I have. It was easy to get to, being on top of a stack of metal boxes. And as I shapeshifted away my finger prints …”

“And our footprints do not matter as I’m wearing standard starship Faraway boots that will merge with the many footprints of the ranked crew.”

“And I have my ways of leaving no footprints despite taking many steps as both a panther and a human. And in my firebat form, I never touched a thing except your shoulder.”

“Right, let’s get off this platform and out of the view of the Main Cargo Bay door window. Then we will have executed the perfect heist, all bar the shouting.”

Skylar carefully stepped off the platform together with Piron, and they disappeared behind some cargo racking like a couple of nocturnal animals hiding from a clearing subtly bathed in a sliver of moonlight.

“Where shall we teleport to, Skylar? There’s no need to sneak back out through the data and lighting duct. From now onwards, we can breathe in at a location A and exhale at a location B. I take it we will not be attempting to teleport to anywhere unusual like the Captain’s quarters.”

“You take it correctly. Let’s keep things simple when taking our first steps in this teleportation business. We’ll teleport out of here to our cabin. Then I’ll get myself on the starship Faraway’s disembarkment log for the planet Zetum, from where the aliens will be shuttling up to the Faraway through the normal physical method, as they need to attend a security check before boarding. Hence the reason for their disassociated property trunks. And you don’t need to be on the disembarkment log because you’re bonded to me.”

“So we are getting off in a shuttlecraft ferry? How will we pass the disembarkment security checks? We’ll never be able to risk taking the bracelets and location-finder-pads.”

“We will not risk the disembarkment security checks because we will rather risk teleporting directly down by thought to a place on Zetum that we know well. I just have to hack the disembarkment log to show we are on the list. It’s a complicated hack, but you know I can do it and verify it was successful after the fact.”

“Let’s hope there is no distance range limitation in this teleportation-by-thought method.” A mixture of doubt and fear flashed across Piron’s eyes.

“We’ll soon find out, Piron. And I’m sure such advanced technology must be safe, so don’t fall into a fug of anxiety.”

“And will the teleportation really be instant? I wonder if it is executed at the speed of light. Perhaps it was just because the Main Cargo Bay office was so close that the teleportation we experienced seemed instantaneous.”

“I don’t think you can apply the normal way of thinking of the transportation of matter through space. It would be similar to starship faster than light travel where space is manipulated rather than the speed of matter travelling through it. Maybe we can discover the basics of how it works later. Maybe matter is temporarily transformed into gravity during transport. Gravity definitely has no mass, so who knows what speeds it can travel at—and that’s in ordinary space. My guess is that the teleportation method will be instant whether by thought or not.”

“It will be interesting to see if it’s instant at great distances. However, I cannot see how it works. I mean to say, suggesting mass can be transformed into gravity? That’s a new one on me. You’re just shooting in the dark with your suppositions.”

“Better than not shooting at all. And here’s another shot in the dark that’s pretty interesting—maybe the teleportation can travel through time. Backwards under certain conditions and forwards under any conditions. If the teleportation is instantaneous, then time would stop momentarily for the user. So when you said time waits for no living creature, perhaps you were wrong, Piron.”

“True. And when I said we can breathe in at a location A and exhale at a location B, we can probably do so at vast distances in time as well as in space!”

“Yes. To put it artistically, my dear Piron, perhaps, you could take a breath in London’s Westminster Abbey during Queen Victoria’s coronation on June 28th, 1838 and exhale it in The Golden Halls of the Mystic Mountain Nebula during humanity’s inauguration into the Intergalactic Alliance on December 25th, 3751.”

“Your shots seem more inclined to entertain than to kill, but I see where one such shot has been directed.”

“Really?”

“You’re thinking you might be able to return to your era and see once again your father, the famous long dead private detective Sherlock Holmes? You know, I still find it hard to believe you are the daughter of such a famous historical figure. Intellectually, I can. But the thought of such a circumstance …”

“More a truth than a circumstance. But you’ve got it, Piron. I am thinking I’ll see my father again through this teleportation technology. You see, we don’t know exactly why the Equalisers collected me from my time Monday, January 6th, 1908 on my fourteenth birthday and put me here in a time just over two thousand Earth years later. I sometimes find it hard to believe I’m now a sixteen-year-old 20th century girl alive here on Monday, July 28th, 3919.”

“Yes, Skylar. And that the Equalisers also took me from my universe at a time hundreds of thousands of standard years in my relative future, and bonded us together. We cannot be a hundred yards apart for more than a day without suffering debilitating pain. We’ve been stuck together for just over two Earth years. Hopefully we will be free of each other one day. Not that I dislike your company. It’s an honour to be bonded to such a genius, despite what I may think of your dangerous outrageousness. What makes you different from other geniuses is your lightning speed of thought and the actions you take so quickly and boldly as a result of them.”

“As was the case here in the Main Cargo Bay, despite your constant fretting and criticism,” put in Skylar sarcastically.

“Of course. But you need my occasional speed bump interventions to force you to think more responsibly—and more deeply.”

“Anyway, Piron, the point is that the Equalisers made it clear I have to solve a crime without at first having any knowledge of what that crime is. Now what genius can solve a crime they have no knowledge of? All they gave us was a partial manifest list from the Faraway that they claimed was from two years in the future. And we found a way on to the Faraway a year ago as lowly cleaners. Useful though, as it gave me the opportunity to educate myself of modern technology. I obviously have to find out what the crime is I need to be solving. Surely these teleportation bracelets and their location-finder-pads are the second clue?”

“Second clue?”

“Yes, the manifest list given to us by the Equalisers was obviously the first.”

“Oh yes, of course.”

“I’m sure that the teleportation will work back through time. Obviously there would be incredibly sophisticated constraints on travelling backwards in time. At the very least, such a direction would have to have been set up in advance from the target time itself. It’s just dawned on me this very moment. I think my father will have the third clue. The Equalisers would have left it with him for safekeeping. Who else could they trust?”

“Huh? Really, Skylar?”

“Yes. And his clue could only be useful with other clues that we will learn, hopefully, before we meet him. It’s elementary, my dear Piron.”

“To you, perhaps. All I can say is what a deduction. I need say no more.”

“But you can say more if you like. We might be bonded, but you’ve still got a free mind.”

“Well, off we go to our starship cabin. I want to see where your mind takes us next on this impossible mystery tour.”

“Strap your mind in, Piron. The adventure is bound to be outrageously bumpy. As Papa might have said: ‘When you have allowed for the danger, whatever remains, however perilous, must be experienced.’”

“As your father did say: ‘Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.’”

“You believe you are talented?” questioned Skylar instantly, with her quicksilver mind.

“That is my hope.”

“Whereas according to the Equalisers, I am the ‘Last Hope’, whatever that means …”

Skylar and Piron pressed the square button on their bracelets, and vanished instantly.

The outrageous heist of the millennia was successfully completed.

The Main Cargo Bay once more breathed alone in its semi-darkness.