Free Loop by Brian Caswell Page B

natural thing in the world to watch a spaceship appear out of thin air.
    Then the hatch slid open and Xzaltar stepped out.
    He was pretty impressive. Two hundred centimetres tall and dressed in a shimmering silver cloud.
    He gave Chad a wave. Chad waved back.
    â€˜Ã“ffleing œ›ëlhgl. Blick!’ said Xzaltar.
    And Chad replied, ‘Óffleing œ›ëlhgl. Schleck!’
    And I fell in through the window and banged my head on the floor.
    â€˜It’s not as crazy as you think,’ Chad explained, as he helped me to my feet. I was a bit dazed, but I’m not entirely sure it was from the fall.
    â€˜This is Xzaltar,’ he went on. ‘We saved him when his spaceship crashed on the oval while we were training. Mr Greenberg had left early, and there was no one there but us.’
    â€˜Anyway, we hid him in Pete and Danny’s garden shed,’ Sam added, ‘until he could phone home and get a lift back to Hraltixtz.’
    â€˜Which is where he’s from,’ Sunil put in, a little redundantly.
    â€˜He was very grateful,’ Pete added.
    It was surreal. I was getting the whole story in small bite-sized pieces – and it still didn’t make any sense. I was too busy reprogramming my hard-drive so that I could process the idea of my brother and his team-mates starring in a Steven Spielberg re-make.
    â€˜He promised to come back and reward us,’ Danny finished, as if he was recalling how they’d returned some old woman’s missing purse.
    â€˜Sssnot ssrewardsss,’ Xzaltar cut in, sounding like a cross between a leaking kettle and the snake in the Disney version of Robin Hood. ‘Ssjustsss a sssthank yousss.’ Then he shook his head and fiddled with a knob on the side of it. ‘Stupid translator. It got shaken up in the crash and I haven’t had it fixed yet.’
    â€˜The scientists on Hraltixtz are the most brilliant in this part of the universe,’ Chad went on. ‘Xzaltar told them about our problem, and they say they have the solution.’
    â€˜What problem?’ I asked, still confused. Then I noticed that Sam was looking at me and frowning.
    â€˜What are we going to do with her?’ he asked. ‘It was supposed to be a secret.’ He looked towards Xzaltar. ‘Don’t you have something you can zap her with, to make her forget the whole thing?’
    But Xzaltar shook his head.
    â€˜We do, but I don’t think you’d want us to use it. It has some rather … unfortunate side-effects on carbon-based life-forms. I think we should take her with us.’ He paused and looked at me. His gaze was piercing, and I had the feeling that he was reading more than just my facial expression. ‘Perhaps she will learn enough to keep your secret.’
    I looked up at the spaceship.
    â€˜Like you could keep me off!’ I said, stepping inside.
    The others followed.
    The thing about inter-dimensional travel is that it doesn’t take any time at all. One second Xzaltar was saying ‘sssHeresss sswe gosss’ and the very same second he was saying ‘sssHeresss sswe aresss’. Then the hatch was sliding open and we were stepping out onto the soil of Hraltixtz, which looked exactly like the soil on Earth, except that it was purple and the worms crawled along the surface. Two suns shone down from a beautiful violet sky.
    It was a little scary.
    But the boys weren’t scared. They were excited.
    â€˜Why are they so excited?’ I asked, watching as Hraltixtzian scientists, dressed in white clouds, led them away.
    Xzaltar fiddled with the knob on his head again. ‘The scientists of Hraltixtz invented the auto-trainer especially for creatures with poor motor skills. In twenty-four Earth hours, it can turn a … how do you say it? a wimp, into … well, someone who can hold their head up with pride – in any company.’
    â€˜Does it work for girls too?’ I