The Voyage of the Vigilance

by Garry Kilworth

Genres: Horror; Science Fiction; Sci-fi Action & Adventure

Synopsis

Woodworld is a lodestone world, a planet with a magnetic field so strong that it can pluck spaceships out of the sky. Which is exactly what happened to Maxy, the youngest cadet in the space fleet. Stuck on Woodworld, with little hope of ever being rescued, Maxy must rely on his friends to have any chance of escape. When one of them is taken captive by Maxy's one-time companion, Baker, he has no choice but to set off in pursuit across the Electric Ocean.

Release date: December 8, 1988

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Print pages: 320

Sample

Maxy Maxwell, a Space Cadet from the planet Earth, had been marooned on an alien world for over one Earth year. When his space shuttle had crashed uncontrollably on to this strange planet, Maxy had been unable to explain it, but since then he had learned that this was a ‘lodestone’ world; a planet with such a strong magnetic core that metals such as iron, cobalt and nickel were unusable. Only soft metals like copper could be smelted, and so most things were fashioned from wood. Maxy’s shuttle had literally been pulled out of space by a giant magnet.

Now Maxy was living in a city called Wudu, a softwood city where, before Maxy’s arrival, people had lived in fear of their neighbours, the Credans. Maxy’s quick-thinking and Earth knowledge had saved the Wudans from being made slaves by the people of Creda, a powerful race who had the advantage of hard-wood weapons, and Maxy had brought peace and friendship between the two cities.

Maxy had made plenty of friends himself in his time on Woodworld. There was Nalini, a Wudan girl who had welcomed him from the start, and Tatty, a Tatterdemalion dancer-warrior who had become a loyal companion. And then there was Thatch, the cheerful goat-boy from the city of Masgar.

Maxy had another, stranger companion – a wolf called Ragan. Ragan protected his master from his enemies, but he had never allowed Maxy to pet him and still growled if the Space Cadet tried to stroke him.

Despite his friends, Maxy still longed to be rescued and yearned to be back with the Space Fleet. Life on Woodworld was too slow for a youth who was used to action.

One sunny afternoon Maxy was practising crak-crak, the Woodworld art of duelling with staves, with Nalini. She had already put the Space Cadet on his back twice, when Ragan gave a little growl and rose on his four paws to pad across the hard-earth square.

‘What’s up, boy?’ said Maxy, looking round. Then he saw Tatty, the Tatterdemalion dancer-warrior, striding towards him. She patted Ragan as he went up to lick her hand. It had always peeved Maxy that the wolf seemed to have a better understanding with Tatty than it did with him. If Maxy had tried to pat him, Ragan would have growled and snapped.

Still, Maxy was glad to see his old friend.

‘Hey, Tatty! How are you?’

Tatty removed her wooden mask, which normally hid the scars of a childhood accident, and gave Maxy a brief hug. Then she did the same to Nalini, though the two women did not look each other directly in the eyes, since that was considered the height of bad manners on Woodworld.

‘Well, I hope this is a social visit,’ said Maxy. ‘Let’s all go up to my room and get something to drink. I expect you’re parched, Tatty. It’s a dusty walk from the mountain passes.’

Tatty said, ‘Social – and something else. Perhaps we’d better go inside first …’

There were other people about, on the wooden walkways and crossing the large earth square, and it seemed that Tatty did not want to talk in front of them. Maxy felt a sense of foreboding. Tatty looked unusually grim.

‘Is this about Masgar?’ asked Nalini, as they went up the stairs to the second walkway on which Maxy’s apartment was situated.

‘’Fraid so,’ said Tatty.

Maxy’s heart sank. He had had problems with Masgar before. Shortly after Maxy’s arrival on Woodworld he had learnt of another marooned Space Cadet on the planet – a Cadet named Baker, who was an old adversary of Maxy’s from Earth. Baker was living in Masgar, a city built of hard-wood in the middle of a swamp, and which was protected by flesh-eating lizards. Baker had broken the rules of the Space Fleet by making the first bladed weapons the planet had ever seen, and together with the Masgarian leader Prince Hafface (the half-faced one) he had attacked the cities of Wudu and Creda. Only by the use of cunning was Maxy able to help these two cities defeat the invaders. He had taught them to ride horses, and from their superior positions on the backs of these beasts, they had managed to put the Masgarians to flight. But recently there had been rumours that the Masgarians were again arming for war.

Maxy went into the room first and put his crak-crak staff in the corner of the room, before pulling up some reed mats so that they could sit in the orange sunlight that came through the glassless window. Beyond the city was a rolling countryside of agricultural land and pastures. He liked this peaceful view and sat facing it now as he waited for what was obviously bad news.

Tatty and Nalini sat cross-legged on the mats.

Maxy cried, ‘Oh, the drinks! I’ll get them.’

He jumped up again and found the jug of fruit juice, pouring three beakers full of the refreshing liquid, before offering them to the other two. Then he joined them again.

Tatty took some gulps of her drink and then Ragan laid his head on her lap, his eyes on Maxy’s face. You’re supposed to be my wolf, thought Maxy, but he didn’t say anything. They had a little staring match, before Ragan looked away, seemingly unconcerned.

‘Well,’ said Tatty at last, ‘it’s true. Queen Nu and Prince Hafface are arming for war again. They’ve got Baker making bronze weapons for them. Baker has managed to find more copper and tin in the hills. It’s a limited supply, but they seem to think it’s enough.’

‘How do you know this?’ asked Nalini.

‘Thatch. You know he’s a Masgarian by birth? Well, he got back into the city and has been spying for the last few days …’

‘Is he all right?’ asked Maxy, aware that the former goatherd was probably running a great risk. ‘They haven’t caught him?’

‘He was the last time we met, which was two evenings ago, but he insisted on going back in again. I tried to stop him, but it wasn’t any use. You know what a hot-headed little fool he is.’

Tatty tossed her blonde hair, as if trying to shake off any responsibility for the boy. Despite the fact that she and the goatherd argued a lot, Maxy knew she was as fond of Thatch as he was himself, and she was worried for his safety.

He said, ‘Thatch isn’t stupid though. He’ll get out quickly enough if he’s in any danger.’

Although he said this to calm any fears that Tatty might have for Thatch’s safety, he was very concerned. Thatch was too reckless for his own good. And Baker and Hafface were vicious men. They would not think twice about throwing the boy to the ferocious, needle-toothed swamp lizards, the basilisks, if they suspected him of being Maxy’s agent.

Tatty stroked Ragan’s head.

‘I hope you’re right,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to have to go in there after him. That old witch Queen Nu wants my liver for breakfast and I’m rather attached to my liver.’

Maxy said, ‘If anyone goes in, it will be me. I’ve done it once and I can do it again.’

He recalled the last time he had entered Masgar in disguise and had ended up fighting basilisks in the swamps, after jumping from the city on stilts into the marshes below. A unicorn had come to his rescue that time. You could not count on such help twice in a row. He still had his metal staff though, the cooling rod from the crashed ship. Even bronze swords were no match for that cold, smoking weapon with its core of solid crystal.

‘Let’s hope no one will have to go in,’ said Nalini. ‘In the meantime, we have to make plans to meet the Masgarians on the field of battle. We still have the horses, and we’re better riders than we were during the last battle. But the element of surprise has gone. They may be thinking up ways to combat our horse soldiers.’

Maxy said, ‘Almost certainly. I have horrible visions of pits and stakes. I don’t like the idea that they have Baker’s expertise behind them. He knows a lot of tricks. He has the whole of Earth’s history at his fingertips and so far as wars go, that’s a lot of information. I think we have to go for the old standby, ladies.’

‘The old standby?’ they chorused.

‘Yep. Attack is the best defence. We have to make sure they don’t get outside the city. What about the hostages we took after the last battle – the high-born Masgarian families? Can’t we use them to threaten Hafface.’

Tatty snorted. ‘He’s not worried about them. He’s probably taken their wealth by now, for his own use. And Queen Nu supports anything her son cares to take on his shoulders. No, I think we can forget the hostages. They may be useful to us, though. They know the layout of the four-towered city better than we do. If we’re going to besiege Masgar, they can be very helpful.’

‘Good,’ said Maxy. ‘At least we’ve got some sort of base to work from. Now all we’ve got to do is find a way to surround a city w. . .