The Superhero's Son (Book 6): The Superhero's World Page 16

  But what I saw on the surface below was unlike anything I’d expected: Every square inch of the ground below was covered in spaceships. And they weren’t the small ones, like the one we were flying in; I mean, I saw a few of them flying here and there, maybe delivering soldiers to the larger ones, but by and large the millions and millions of ships below were not small ones.

  They were huge. There were the mother ships, which looked like the one back home, but they were almost tiny in comparison to the other massive warships scattered everywhere. Some of the ships looked to be as tall as New York City skyscrapers; for example, there were tons of ships that looked like flying saucers crossed with octopuses, balanced atop metallic limbs that looked strong enough to smash mountains into pieces.

  Other ships I noticed were mind-bogglingly massive ships of war that had cannons, guns, and a whole bunch of other weapons I couldn’t identify, including more than a few that looked like no weapon that had ever been built on Earth. And when I say ‘mind-bogglingly massive,’ I mean it; one of the ships looked as large as the entire town of Silvers put together.

  In fact, from this point of view, I couldn’t even see any habitable buildings. I did see some huge structures, belching smoke and dumping out what looked like toxic waste chemicals into a river, but they looked more like factories than houses or apartment buildings.

  Huge, mechanical machines stood among the ships, humanoid machines that looked like actual mecha rather than robots. They were mostly still, but I could easily imagine one of those mechas going around New York City, smashing skyscrapers into pieces and destroying sewers with every stomp of its huge feet.

  “Oh my god,” Blizzard whispered, her eyes so wide that they looked like they were about to fall out of her sockets. “What … what are we looking at?”

  “What we are looking at, Blizzard, is but a very small portion of the entire Pokacu interplanetary conquest fleet,” said Nicknacks. Unlike Blizzard, he sounded perfectly calm, as though he saw this massive army every day. “The actual fleet is much larger by a factor of a billion. Every square inch of the Mother World is covered in ships, factories, and weapons.”

  “You mean there aren’t any buildings or dwellings or towns or cities at all?” I said, looking at Nicknacks in surprise.

  “Perhaps long ago there were, but when the Mother World decided to conquer the universe, they were all probably wiped out in order to make room for factories and weapons of war,” said Nicknacks. “And this is just what you see on the surface. Beneath the surface is a complicated series of tunnels, bunkers, and trains used to preserve and move soldiers, weapons, and supplies, among other things.”

  “But …” Blizzard seemed at a loss for words. “But don’t they need to rest? Don’t the Pokacu need to have homes to go back to and families to stay with?”

  “No,” said Nicknacks. “Remember, my people have no real individuality except at a very basic level. The Mother World has decreed that all of Pokacu life must be devoted to supporting the conquest of the universe. There are no days off, no holidays to speak of, nothing like what you humans have on your world. And there are certainly no families, aside from the Pokacu ‘family’ that all Pokacu are born into and that the Mother World has absolute control over.”

  “And you said this is just a small portion of the entire fleet?” I said. Fear was starting to grip me as I realized the seriousness of our mission.

  “Indeed,” said Nicknacks. “As I have said, there is not an inch of earth on this world that has been left unused by the Mother World. And this is just what is on the Mother World itself.”

  “What do you mean?” I said.

  “I mean that we have space stations orbiting the world,” said Nicknacks, gesturing at the ceiling. “Gigantic satellites the likes of which you humans have yet to build. Those satellites help the fleet stay in contact with the Mother World from every corner of the universe and are also where the truly massive spaceships are built due to the lack of space on the Mother World’s surface itself.”

  “How come they didn’t send this massive army to invade us the first time?” said Blizzard. Her grip on my hand tightened. “They could have leveled the whole planet in an hour if they wanted.”

  “Because it is not always necessary to do so,” said Nicknacks. “From the Mother World’s perspective, Earth was nothing more than an insignificant little rock in an obscure corner of the universe. She saw no reason to waste precious resources trying to conquer or destroy it, which is why she left it alone after the first invasion failed.”

  “But she won’t leave us alone now,” I said. “Right?”

  “Most likely,” said Nicknacks in agreement. “I imagine that this time, now that she knows how much of a threat it is, the Mother World will not hesitate to annihilate the planet. Unless we stop her, that is.”

  “But how?” said Blizzard in despair. “Just look at that army. There’s no way we could beat it, not even if we attacked with everything that we’ve got.”

  “We don’t need to beat it,” said Nicknacks. “What we really need to do is confront the Mother World herself. And I know exactly how to do that.”

  “Oh, so now we just need to destroy a whole planet,” said Blizzard sardonically. “That makes this mission so much easier.”

  “I understand your worries, but there’s no need to be sarcastic,” said Nicknacks. “Because the fact is that they don’t even know we’re here.”

  “What do you mean?” I said.

  “I mean the Mother World and the rest of the Pokacu army,” said Nicknacks. “No doubt they saw our ship emerge from the worm hole, but I’ve disabled all of our ship’s interior scanners and sensors. Therefore, they have no idea that there are no Pokacu soldiers currently aboard this ship. They likely believe that we are a ship returning from the Earth invasion to get more soldiers or supplies.”

  “They don’t?” I said. “Won’t they try to communicate with us to make sure that we’re not spies or something?”

  “That is not how the Pokacu identify friendly ships,” said Nicknacks. “You see, each Pokacu ship has a serial number assigned to it. When a ship returns from a conquest or a mission, the planet’s security systems scan the ship itself. The systems compare the serial number with the one in the systems, and if they’re a match, the ship is allowed to enter the planet without further question. Also, Pokacu ships are never hijacked and certainly never taken back to the Mother World, so the arrogance of my people keeps them from using better security systems.”

  “So they aren’t going to stop us and see if there are any real Pokacu on board the ship?” I said.

  “Yes,” said Nicknacks. “But they will notice something out of the ordinary eventually, because if we don’t land, they will eventually demand to know what we are looking for, which will require revealing our real identity to them.”

  “But if we do land, then that will also reveal our identity to them, won’t it?” said Blizzard. “If we leave the ship, they’ll immediately realize who we are and will try to destroy us.”

  “Quite true,” said Nicknacks. “But luckily, we will probably not have to land and reveal our true identities, at least not soon. All we need to do is find and destroy the Mother World’s Core, which we can do if we are quick about it.”

  “The Mother World’s Core?” I said. “What’s that?”

  Nicknacks tapped a touchscreen—probably to activate autopilot or something—and then turned around to face us, putting the tips of his fingers together. “The Core is the consciousness of the Mother World. Or, to put it in a more blunt way, the Core is the Mother World’s brain.”

  “Ah,” I said. “So where is it?”

  “It is in the very center of the Mother World,” said Nicknacks. “It is defended not only by the massive Pokacu army and the underground tunnels and layers built to house soldiers in the event of a surface attack from an enemy force, but by the planet’s natural molten layers. It is the most well-defended part of the entire planet.”
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  “How far down would you say it is?” I said.

  “Several miles,” said Nicknacks. “The Mother World is similar in size to Earth, though that is about the only similarity between the two worlds.”

  “How are we supposed to get to the center of the Mother World?” said Blizzard. “If the Mother World is as big as Earth, it will take us forever to get down to the Core, and that’s assuming the Pokacu don’t catch us before then. And we really don’t have a whole lot of time to waste.”

  “That isn’t exactly true,” said Nicknacks. “In order to destroy the Core, we don’t actually need to go down to the center of the planet ourselves.”

  “Then what are we supposed to do?” I said. “Are we going to drop a nuke on the planet or something?”

  “Of course not,” said Nicknacks. “We don’t have a nuke with us, so that is out of the question.”

  “Then tell us your plan,” I said. “We’re listening.”

  “All right,” said Nicknacks. He turned around and tapped several buttons, causing the monitor displaying the outside to change. “Look at this graph.”

  On the monitor that used to display the outside was a complicated-looking graph with Pokacu words and numbers written all over it. I couldn’t understand the language, but I could grasp the overall shape of the image, which displayed a large planet. It looked kind of like a map and had about a dozen red dots at various points across the planet’s surface that appeared to indicate important areas, but I still didn’t understand any of it.

  “This is a graph of the Mother World,” said Nicknacks. He pointed at one of the red dots. “Those red dots represent energy centers, where energy is drawn directly from the Core.”

  “What is the energy used for?” I said.

  “Everything,” said Nicknacks. “Weapons, ships, satellites, factories … nearly everything on the Mother World is powered by that energy.”

  “Really?” said Blizzard. “What kind of energy are we talking about here? Oil? Gas? Solar?”

  “Not a form of energy that exists on Earth,” said Nicknacks. “As a result, there’s no Earth word for the energy. The closest translation I can think of is ‘Core energy,’ because it comes from the Core.”

  “Core energy,” I repeated. “So those points are where it is mined?”

  “Yes,” said Nicknacks. “And refined and packaged and sent out to the whole planet for use in the fleet’s vehicles and ships. I only visited the centers once myself, but I remember that they had an incredibly efficient system, removing the impurities and turning out battery after battery of the energy, at least a thousand batteries an hour, sometimes more when the Mother World demanded it.”

  “Okay, how will knowing all of this help us?” I said.

  “Because the centers draw the energy from the Core itself,” said Nicknacks. “That means that they are connected directly to the Mother World’s very brain, because it is the Mother World herself who generates this energy for the Pokacu to use. These are the only spots on the planet’s surface that connect directly to the Core. As you might have guessed, they are very well-protected.”

  “So what do we need to do?” I said. “Shoot a laser into an exhaust port or something?”

  “It won’t be quite that simple,” said Nicknacks, shaking his head. “Instead, we will place bombs into the centers that will cause them to blow up. This will set off a chain reaction that will finally climax in the Core itself, which will blow up the entire planet in the process.”

  “Really?” I said. “How?”

  “The Core energy is extremely volatile, which is part of the reason it needs to be refined before it can be put to use,” said Nicknacks. “When exposed to too much heat and flame, the raw Core energy will explode. And it isn’t just a small explosion, either; even just a cup of raw Core energy, if it explodes, will take out an entire city block and anyone on it.”

  “So if we blow up a planet’s worth of that stuff, then will it take out half the universe?” I said.

  “Probably not, but it should be enough to destroy the Mother World and any surrounding planets,” said Nicknacks. “It will also cripple the Pokacu on Earth and any other planets they are attacking, which will make it easier for humans to defeat them.”

  “That sounds cool,” I said. “But where are we going to get the explosives necessary to do that?”

  “We already have them,” said Nicknacks. “In fact, you and Blizzard have been carrying them ever since we left the Facility.”

  Blizzard and I exchanged puzzled looks before I looked at Nicknacks again and said, “What do you mean? You didn’t put bombs in our environs, did you?”

  “No, of course not,” said Nicknacks. “I’m talking about your bomb staffs.”

  I had forgotten about those. I looked at my bomb staff, which lay on the floor nearby, next to Blizzard’s. Both were currently deactivated.

  “We’re going to use our bomb staffs to blow up this planet?” I said.

  “Exactly,” said Nicknacks. “You heard what Mr. Apollo said, about how powerful their tips are. All we need to do is put them in the right spots in one of the centers and we will let physics do the rest.”

  “Will we be able to escape before it blows up?” I said. “Because I don’t want to get blown up with the Pokacu.”

  Nicknacks suddenly looked away from me, like I had said something he didn’t have a good answer for. “About that …”

  “What?” I said. I leaned forward, putting pressure on Nick by staring at him hard. “What about it?”

  Nicknacks looked at us again, his expression grim. “There is a good chance that we will die in the explosion, too.”

  “You mean we won’t be able to escape before the planet explodes?” said Blizzard in horror. “Are you saying we’re all going to die?”

  “I didn’t say that,” said Nicknacks, holding up a hand to calm us. “We could escape. We’d need to find another worm hole, one that could take us back to Earth, but it is possible for us to return home.”

  “But you don’t sound too sure about that,” I said.

  “That is because I am not,” said Nicknacks. “I do not like to admit it, but our chances of escaping alive are slim. We’d first need to find a mother ship whose worm hole generator is programmed to connect a worm hole to Earth; failing that, we’d need to hijack a mother ship and reprogram its worm hole generator to do the same thing.”

  “Do you think we’ll have time to do either once the explosions start?” said Blizzard.

  “I doubt it,” said Nicknacks. “Once the explosions begin, the chain reaction will be quick; not quite instantaneous, but close enough. Finding a mother ship and reprogramming its worm hole generator would simply take far too much time, even if we worked fast and didn’t delay.”

  “So we’re probably going to die, then,” said Blizzard.

  “Not just us,” I said, causing Blizzard and Nicknacks to look at me. “Back in the mother ship, when I fought Graleex, he said that my Mom had been sent to the Mother World. That means she’s somewhere on this planet, though where, I don’t know.”

  “Did he really say that?” said Nicknacks in a curious voice.

  “He did,” I said. Blizzard put a hand on my back, probably to make me feel better.

  “Odd,” said Nicknacks. “The Pokacu never take prisoners, much less ship them off to the Mother World. Why would they take your own mother? I suppose he could have been lying, but that does not seem likely to me.”

  “He didn’t say why,” I said. “All he said was that the Mother World demanded Mom be sent here, so they did.”

  Nicknacks stroked his chin. He was clearly thinking about what I’d told him, but I didn’t know whether or not he’d be able to figure out what was going on. All I knew was that Mom was here, being held prisoner by the cruelest and most violent alien species I knew of. She might not have been dead, but I figured she would be soon if we didn’t find her quickly.

  “I do not like this news,” said Nick
nacks. “I don’t like it at all. The Mother World is obviously trying to do something, but I don’t know what.”

  “Does it matter?” I said. “Listen, before we blow up the Mother World, we need to find Mom. Once we rescue her, then we can place the bombs and blow the place to pieces and head home.”

  “How would we do that, though?” said Blizzard. “Did Graleex tell you where your mom is?”

  “No, but I’m sure we can find her if we look,” I said. “She’s the only human on the planet aside from us, after all. I doubt she’ll be hard to find.”

  “But if we search for her, we will likely end up revealing ourselves,” said Nicknacks. “If the Pokacu become aware of our presence here, they will not hesitate to kill us. Then our mission will fail and Earth will be destroyed.”

  “We don’t have to announce ourselves to them or anything,” I said. “There’s nothing that says we can’t sneakily search for Mom, right?”

  “The longer we stay here, the more likely it is that the Pokacu will realize who we are, even if we stay discreet,” said Nicknacks. “I had assured President Plutarch and Cadmus that this mission would be quick, especially since the forty-eight hour timer is still in effect, and I don’t want to waste even one second of that timer while we are here.”

  “So we should just abandon Mom?” I said. “Is that what you’re saying?”

  “I’m just pointing out that we have only a very limited amount of time in which we can do what we came here for,” said Nicknacks. “If we waste that resource on a nonessential part of our mission, then we will put not only our own lives, but the lives of every person back on Earth at risk as well.”

  “But if we blow up the Mother World without first looking for Mom, she’ll die with the Pokacu,” I said. “I can’t let that happen, no matter what.”

  “It would be an acceptable sacrifice for the seven billion lives of Earth,” said Nicknacks.

  I immediately stood up from my seat, ignoring Blizzard’s start as I glared at Nicknacks. Nick met my glare without any fear in his eyes, even though he knew I was a hell of a lot stronger than him and could easily beat him up if I wanted.