Chapter 5

Why exactly was he going along with this? Leo wondered as he helped Ranzel to load the trolley up into the back of the van. His mother was on life support systems, the gentle blip of the machines going on even as Leo pressed a quick kiss to her hand, and jumped out of the back of the ambulance.

Climbing into the front seat beside the crazy man, Leo could only chide himself over his decisions. This was stupid. Space travel didn't exist – and if it did, he would have known about it.

Ranzel looked utterly calm, and a slight curve of a smile hovered at the edge of his lips. Leo remembered that it was dangerous to catch a ride with strangers. He laughed inwardly at the memory. He certainly shouldn't blindly trust this man – but he was – even though Ranzel's story was so far exaggerated, it made Leo's mind whirl.

He certainly didn't look as though he knew how to drive, if that was any defence to his ridiculous story.

Right now, he was fumbling with the gear-stick. And no sooner had he started the ambulance, but it stalled.

Leo shook his head and looked up at Ranzel steadily. "Do you even know how to drive this thing?"

"Well…it can't be too different from a Speeder, can it?"

Leo shook his head and glared at him. "I don't suppose you have a licence, either."

"Of course I haven't!" Ranzel looked appalled. "I'm from another planet!"

Leo sighed. "It really isn't that hard. Look…I'll drive. Cause let's face it…who's going to pull over an ambulance?" He pushed open the door and jumped down, circling to the other side. "I don't feel good about it mind, so you'd better not be lying." He gave Ranzel a stern look, and then leapt up into the seat that the Jedi had recently abandoned.

"Okay. Seatbelt..." He pulled it across. "Check mirrors."

Eventually – after bickering with Ranzel for several moments over exactly how to put on his 'restraining device' – Leo pulled the ambulance smoothly out of the bay. It was just like driving a car, Leo realised to his own amusement – except that you were much higher, and there was a button that turned the lights on. He was tempted to push it – but the last thing he wanted to do was draw attention to their ambulance.

Trundling down the road, Leo had to pay a great deal of attention. Most traffic was hardly courteous, and tended to try and squeeze in front rather than be stuck behind the old ambulance. To make matters worse, Ranzel kept pointing out where they should be, with seemingly no ability to understand the one way system.

"We should be over there," he would say, and when Leo explained it again, he would mutter to himself about uninitiated worlds, and their inability to fly their vehicles over buildings, instead of wandering around them.

Finally they managed to get off the busy ring road and struggle through the commercial zone within to the docks beyond.

The docks were still in minor use. Occasionally a container ship would sweep through, and every small company that wanted something shifted a long way cheaply would be queued up for it. Their containers were all stacked up in massive warehouses, waiting to be dragged by crane onboard ship.

It was a perfect place to hide a shuttle…if it existed.

They drove the ambulance straight in, unquestioned by the sleepy guard at the gate. They stopped only when they had driven inside one of the massive warehouses, pulling up beside a decrepit old case that was marked JEDI on the outside in bold red lettering.

Would he go to so much effort if it wasn't real? Leo felt a terrible thrill rush through him at the possibilities. If the shuttle was real then everything that he had been told was real too; Aliens, spaceships, Empires intent on the complete control of the entire Universe! How long had it been happening?

Most importantly, Leo insisted, solemnly, through the thrill of endless possibilities, would Ranzel really be able to cure his mother, like he said he could?

Ranzel had leapt down as soon as they stopped, looking relieved, and he crossed over to the container and pressed his hand against it. He ran his fingers back to the letters, firmly pressing his palm against the J in JEDI.

There was a hissing noise, and the container opened smoothly, and Ranzel stepped out of the way. It was opening further, the sides of the massive container moving down in a steady arc, although there were no visible mechanics controlling it. Leo stared in awe as the contents of the container began to become visible.

A shuttle – its grey sides pot marked with what looked like burns and paint scraped off in places – appeared little by little. Its window was a sharp black that contrasted bleakly with the dull colour that the rest of the ship was covered with.

"It's true…" Leo breathed, looking at the shuttle.

"Of course it's true." Ranzel looked at him sharply. "What did you expect?"

Moving forwards, Leo touched the outside of the shuttle. Whatever it was made of, the metal felt warm, instead of the chill he'd expected. Ranzel was standing back, tapping at his wristwatch, and suddenly the shuttle let out a hiss much like the container had, and a door mere inches from where Leo was standing began to swing open in response.

"I'll get the shuttle ready for take off. Bring her inside." Ranzel dashed into the open hole, leaving a stunned Leo behind. This was an adventure of a lifetime – and Leo suspected that it had only just begun.

"Activating engines," Ranzel said, pushing the thrusters up to slowly build up the power. He stopped it a quarter of the way up and brought his left hand up to one of the many manoeuvring sticks built into the control board.

The shuttle swung around slowly, moving forwards steadily as it did so, and Leo, stunned at how smooth the motion was, held tightly to the arms of his chair. Ranzel was much better at this than he'd been at trying to start the ambulance.

Carefully they flew across the warehouse, drawing up towards the light of the warehouse door and gliding through the entrance with room to spare.

Now they were in sunlight, where anyone might be able to see them.

Ranzel swung the shuttle's nose up roughly, pushing the power the rest of the way up, and engaging an extra thrust of power to send them up as fast as possible. The feeling wasn't much of anything, to Leo's disappointment. It was more like the feeling of a mini in first gear than of a roller coaster.

"Dampeners," Ranzel said, flicking his eyes over his shoulder. "They simulate the effects of being at one speed, even when the ship is nearer to being torn apart."

"How did you…?"

"The Force," Ranzel replied bluntly. "Relax, and enjoy the ride."

Leo couldn't enjoy the ride much more than he already was. They were sweeping up at an incredible speed. He couldn't see the Earth below, but he knew that the houses must be pretty small by now.

They began to sweep through the cloud layer. For a second there was only whiteness, and as soon as they had plunged into it they were free again. The sky looked paler the further up they went.

The view was beginning to disappear though. The black screen turned dark on the inside, making it quite impossible to see outside. Leo opened his mouth to complain, but then understood as they became shrouded in a fireball. The glow made it quite light inside despite the darkening of the shield. It was like sunlight. If he'd looked straight into that he'd have been blinded.

As suddenly as it had begun the brightness ended, and everything was dark again outside. The lights inside the shuttle blinked on and off, and slowly the darkness of the screen dissipated, revealing pinpricks of light in every direction. The stars, Leo realised, with another dive of excitement. This wasn't a dream, this was reality. He was in space, with an alien, in a spacecraft orbiting the Earth!

"Can I…?"

He didn't have to finish his question. Ranzel touched another button and the view automatically changed. The Earth was there, filling half of the image; a beautiful marble ball that glimmered blue and green in the viewer; ever moving.

Leo bit his tongue, as though all this was about to disappear. It was incredible. Beyond anything he might possibly have been able to imagine. He wore a bright grin, even as the shuttle sped onwards, and Ranzel couldn't help but laugh when he looked up at him.

Even as he stared out the window they swept onwards through familiar space, the sun at their backs. The moon came into view around the horizon, climbing up into the black depths of space in a way that was alien even to Leo. This was such a surreal thing; far beyond anything he had ever imagined.

The ship swept through space in a smooth curve, as though to collide with the moon, at unbelievable speed, and Leo realised he didn't know where they were going from here. He glanced up at Ranzel.

"Where are we going?"

"We're going to rejoin my ship - the Renzucon. The shuttle is fast, but it's not capable of anything greater than sub-light speeds." Ranzel glanced up at Leo, who looked both stunned and amazed at once. It was a relieving difference from the narrow minded irritation that had plagued him on the planet's surface.

Another wave of excitement rose up where the first one was still moving. Another ship; a bigger, faster ship…there was only one word to describe the elation which he now felt; Cool.

As they approached the moon, Leo remembered some of the things he'd learnt about it. Most importantly, that you never saw the dark side of the moon from Earth; the same side always being presented in the night sky.

So was this where the ship was? It must be. The little shuttle plunged forwards, coming into the thick shadow of the moon. He certainly couldn't see anything, but Ranzel directed him to a little monitor that showed in green. He touched it with his fingertips twice, and it zoomed in far enough to show the moon as a large green blob, and the two blips that represented ships, with their names next to them.

They were very close now, and the blips were closing swiftly. "Why don't you decelerate, while I activate the bay doors?" Ranzel said, before moving away from the console. "Hurry up now."

Leo stared at him and then moved over to the console in question. He'd seen how Ranzel had accelerated…so surely decelerating was similar. He curled his fingers around the thrust driver and slowly levered it back down, feeling despite the dampeners the steady slowing of the vessel.

Suddenly there was a burst of brilliant light ahead of him. It was enough to light the dim outline of the ship itself. It seemed odd in shape, but Leo would ask about it later.

Right now he had to get back out the way, because Ranzel had returned to the control board, and was beginning to ease the shuttle into the brilliant light.

Just as soon as they were in, the bay doors snapped down behind them, and Ranzel looked over his shoulder at Leo. "Just wait a moment till the shuttle bay recompresses, and then you can get out and explore."

Leo didn't think there could be anything more exciting than exploring a space ship. And considering what Ranzel had told him – there was a lot more to explore than just this ship. There were whole planets, whole galaxies beyond the hull of this ship. Alien races and an evil group who wanted to have complete control of the universe. If he had ever thought of the Earth as complicated, and too big to explore, he was now stunned by the enormity of everything – how much knowledge there was that he would no doubt ever come across.

But what did he have to do with it? Why was he here? He wished he hadn't yelled at Ranzel that first time, and let him explain himself. He wanted to know more. He wanted to know about why he was important to this effort. But he had no chance to ask him right now. Perhaps in time…perhaps after he'd explored what he had to explore so far. Maybe the older man would teach him to fly, too?