The Quest of the Prodigy (The Alchemist of Time Book 1) Read online

  Once her retinas relaxed, she saw a giant brass pendulum that appeared stuck in mid-swing. She blinked at the oddity of the thing, and gazed below it, where tons of wires crisscrossed in every direction, all coming from two tall, blue sparking batteries. There was a loud ZAP whenever the lights from the wires reached the two tall batteries.

  Mimi pulled her gaze from the strange floor to look at Albert, who pointed out the window. Beyond a wide computer monitor, they saw a familiar scene, but from a very different angle. Outside the window, was a clear nightly view of New York City. Despite the hour growing late, the city was as awake as ever, especially in their anticipation for the New Year’s Eve countdown. Down below, Mimi could see her beloved New York Public Library, which was still not very crowded, as everyone was most likely near Times Square or at a party. She’d never seen the Library from the air before. The view was like they were in a helicopter. But this room was much bigger than a helicopter.

  “That’s New York City!” pointed out Albert excitedly. “How did we get up here?”

  “That’s classified.”

  Albert glared at Bas. “You called my sister the Prodigy. She deserves to know how we got here! We deserve to know how we got here!”

  “Albert, I don’t know I’m the Prodigy! I’m still not even one hundred percent sure what that is!” Mimi scolded him.

  “Never mind that, we don’t have time to explain.” Bas rolled up a sleeve of his red leather coat and frowned when he saw the small arrow under his skin glowing green. “The King said the Time Cars can trace time travelers, and Bellator has her signal locked on me. We have to leave, now! To the only place that’s safe!”

  “Where’s that?” asked Mimi, placing a hand on her brother’s shoulder.

  “I’m not sure it has a name, not yet. But I call it the Time Zone. The space in between all the Bubble Universes. JAB! JAB, are the Plasma Tank levels even?”

  “Bubble Universes?” asked Mimi.

  “Really?” Albert looked shocked she had to ask. “It’s a known theory among sci-fi fans and theoretical physicists that there are millions of universes each existing in their own bubble among millions of other bubbles—”

  Albert’s explanation got cut short as he spotted a real robot. “That is so cool!” cried Albert as JAB floated by them with a boop beep boop sound.

  “Yes Master Bas, they are even and ready for an Infinity Jump. Who are our new guests?”

  “No time!” yelled Bas and pointed out the window.

  Mimi gasped as she saw what he pointed at.

  The view of the New York City Public Library was blocked by a small ship that looked very similar to an SUV with wings. It had jet plane wings and two large blaster guns strapped at the front, aiming right at them. Squinting, she could see Bellator in the passenger seat and her partner Deatherage driving. The sight of the creeps made her shudder with fear and she suddenly liked the idea of leaving in a hurry.

  “Great,” said Bas, “all right everyone! Hang on to something! We’re about to go Infinity!”

  Mimi didn’t have time to ask what that meant as Bas swiftly pushed multiple buttons on the control panel at once. He held down a wide button shaped like a car’s speedometer, and then it happened.

  She and Albert began to scream as they held onto the railing of the maintenance area around the pendulum’s orbit. The ship began to shake as they flew higher and higher into the dark clouds, leaving the stratosphere in a matter of seconds. Before she could rationalize what was happening, they were in outer space, with the Earth below them and the sun in the distance. The blue planet looked more and more like a marble as they traveled away from it.

  “No way, we’re in a space ship!”

  “Well yeah,” said Bas as if it were obvious. “Usually I don’t let the Bas House leave the Bubble Universe, but parking the ship outside the library was supposed to be the quickest way to retrieve my Diary, until I tracked it to your place. But that’s not all the Bas House is.”

  “This is so cool,” Albert declared.

  “I’m not so sure how cool it is, Albert. How are we going to get home?”

  “Who cares?” her brother cried excitedly. “We’re in space!”

  “And,” said Bas, as if he was happy to have an audience to show off to, “that was just Phase One of the Infinity Jump.”

  “What’s Phase Two?” asked Albert.

  “Hopefully it won’t lead us even further from home,” groaned Mimi.

  “This!” yelled Bas and pushed a few more buttons on the monitor.

  Suddenly the monitor became like a 3D hologram and an image of a purple bubble appeared. Inside the hologram Mimi could see their sun and all nine planets orbiting around it. Mimi stubbornly still counted Pluto as a planet. She had never thought it was fair that Pluto was too small to be counted as a planet, and she could relate to Pluto regarding being underestimated. She was often overlooked herself.

  Bas pushed down on the outer surface of the bubble, furthest from the sun as the bubble would allow. Mimi screamed again as the ship took off at warp speed.

  Stars streaked past the windows, and Mimi could guess why he called it the Infinity Jump. In an instant, the stars were gone, and space was an ultra-violet purple, with sparks of blue spinning in between the purple. Hundreds of bubbles floated around them, each containing their own universe according to Albert and Bas. For a split-second, she wasn’t sure if she was more impressed at the awesome view in front of her, or that her brother was right...and suddenly was glad he was there to lend his sci-fi knowledge to her, as she was more of a murder mystery and romantic comedy kind of girl.

  “There’s no way this is possible!” Mimi cried as she looked in awe out the window.

  “Yet here we are,” said Bas proudly. He folded his arms and gazed outside. “My father is the genius behind this. It’s my job to keep it secret. That’s why I said it was classified.”

  He looked down at his arm and looked relieved to see the chip in his arm was no longer green, but blinking red. He pulled down his coat sleeve, the worry erased from his face.

  “Welcome to the Bas House. This room here is the Maintenance Bay. I suppose you two really are my guests now. Hmm, that’s rather new to me, having people on board. Before we get too comfortable, in case you’re not the Prodigy, we should Video my father. He will be a better judge in determining if you are or aren’t the Prodigy.”

  “But what is—”

  Bas cut her question off before she could finish asking. “He can give a go at properly explaining what a Prodigy is. How does that sound?”

  Mimi stared at the infinite amount of Bubble Universes before her. “If your father built this entire ship, he must be a genius. He must be logical. And I’d very much enjoy some sensible logic at the moment.”

  Bas smiled at her and nodded. “Very well, logic it is.”

  “But logic is so boring!” complained Albert, quieting when Mimi glared at him. Albert groaned and rubbed his stomach, switching topics. “Does this ship have any food at least? I never did get that pizza.”

  “Does this ship have food?” repeated Bas with a laugh. “Of course! And only the best food does JAB prepare. To the kitchen!”

  The kitchen was just around the bend from the Maintenance Bay. Bas led the way in silence, humming a catchy jazz tune as he did so. Mimi followed them, her eyes still straying back to the Bubble Universes, mesmerized by the cluster.

  The kitchen was massive, almost as wide as the room they just came from. Flanked side by side on the walls were red cabinets and quartz white countertops. One wall had nothing but clear windows, and Mimi felt sick as she watched the Bubble Universes bumping into each other as they floated past. She wondered how the ship managed to not get sucked into one of them, how it was able to float around them without any trouble.

  If time travel was real like Bas was claiming, it might mess up their own personal timeline like in the movies. Was it going to be like her father’s favorite movie ever, Back to the
Future, and they would be almost erased from time like Marty McFly? Or worse, would it put her family in danger, or her future children? What was going to happen to her and Albert after being exposed to time travel? Was it radioactive? Would they get cancer? Her stomach felt nauseated with all the possibilities of what could go wrong. Albert always said she jumped to the worst conclusions first. It was hard not to at the moment.

  They were stuck with this Bas person, a guy she didn’t know if they could trust or not. What kind of silly nickname was the Incredible Bas? He looked like an adult. But he acted like her brother, who was only thirteen.

  SEATED AT the giant granite island, Mimi stared as Bas placed his hand flat on the counter. There was a glowing blue light around his hand and then a CPU-like machine popped up from the center of the island. A holographic computer sprung into sight before him. Bas pushed a few buttons, and soon a screen with his profile appeared. Mimi hastily read:

  Name: Sebastian Benjamin Barkley

  Age: 26

  Birthday: June 7th, 4192

  Allergies: Blue Cheese, Bees, Dust

  Occupation: Unknown

  Favorite Food: Italian

  Meal Recommendation: Five-Cheese Lasagna with Bacon

  “It got all of that from just scanning your hands?” asked Mimi, impressed. The impressive technology distracted her of her current predicament.

  “Yup!” confirmed Bas. “Just watch. JAB!”

  JAB came floating in. Mimi wondered how she could move so fast. JAB scanned Bas’s profile and walked up to the oven. She inserted a chip, and the oven instantly began cooking, without the need to prepare the food first. Within moments the room smelled like heavenly lasagna. As it cooked, Bas began to explain.

  “Meet JAB. That’s ‘Just About Bas.’” He saw Mimi rolling her eyes, and said defensively, “Shuddup, I named her when I was seven. She’s the only crew, comrade, caretaker, mechanic and mate I have on the ship. Not to mention she is a clothes designer, tailor and top chef. I haven’t a bloody clue where I’d be without her.”

  “That’s very kind of you to say, Master Bas,” said JAB.

  The robot was equipped with a human persona. Aside from a copper hoop skirt, the rest of her body was made of metallic silver. The robot’s face had a wide smile and her metallic cheeks seemed to be blushing a lighter shade of silver at her master’s compliments. She was on the shorter side of four feet tall, though that was hard to judge since she hovered a foot above ground. But when the robot spoke, she sounded one hundred percent human.

  Mimi watched JAB push a few buttons on the stove and seconds later, Bas’s dinner was ready.

  “Whoa, that was fast!” Albert stated the obvious, although Mimi was stunned too.

  “You’re next,” Bas encouraged her with a winning smile.

  Mimi was unsure. She still didn’t know if she could trust him, but food couldn’t hurt her. She pressed both of her palms on the kitchen counter as he had done. It was a relief to discover the blue light which glowed around her hands didn’t hurt at all. Instantly her own profile appeared on the frameless monitor:

  Name: Mimi Marie Mockel

  Age: 18

  Birthday: January 18th, 1997

  Allergies: Dust, Penicillin

  Occupation: Former Student

  Favorite Food: Chinese

  Meal Recommendation: Sweet and Sour Chicken

  “Bas, why did it say I’m a former student? I still go to school!”

  “Right, because what period were you able to squeeze time traveling in?” he asked sarcastically.

  Mimi’s mood lifted when JAB presented her with a plate of sweet and sour chicken seconds later. Albert leaned over her shoulder, peering skeptically at the food. Mimi took a bite, and seeing she did not immediately die, her brother pressed both palms to the counter.

  Name: Albert James Mockel

  Age: 13

  Birthday: February 10th, 2002

  Allergies: Soy

  Occupation: Former Student, Video Game Master & YouTube Partner

  Favorite Food: Mexican

  Meal Recommendation: Soy-Free Three-Cheese Ultimate Nachos

  Albert was presented with a plate of nachos larger than his face with the stringiest cheese she had ever seen. Despite the earlier queasiness from teleportation, the heavenly smell made Mimi’s stomach growl with hunger. She and Albert dug greedily into their food.

  Once their stomachs were stuffed full of wonderful food, JAB cleared the dishes, then set up another monitor that hovered over the entire kitchen counter. JAB used a button on her hand and remotely dialed. Static appeared on the screen and a long pause of silence. At last there was a crackling noise.

  “Dad?” asked Bas hopefully. Waves appeared on the monitor, as if it was trying to connect. Bas pounded a fist on the counter impatiently.

  “You get Wi-Fi in the Time Zone?” Mimi asked skeptically.

  “No way, Wi-Fi is way too primitive!” answered Bas. “This is Video, it connects through JAB. She has a transmitter inside her antenna, and my mother and father have one of their own that connects. It’s a secure frequency, so only they can reach me. My mother is harder to reach, she stays far, far away. She doesn’t even like to go to this galaxy,” he admitted with a sad sigh. “But my dad works for the Queen. Well, I say work, but he’s more her prisoner.”

  Mimi and Albert stared at each other. He talked about galaxies the way they were used to talking about time zones.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Mimi offered, even though she didn’t understand the science behind his troubles.

  There was a crackle of noise and the picture became clear.

  An older man appeared on the screen, with brown hair that had gone almost completely white. He looked tired, with bags and dark circles under his eyes. His beard was scraggly, and he looked as stressed as Mimi felt during finals.

  “Son!” he cried in surprise. “Is this urgent? I never know when the Queen might try to rush in, she’s been pressuring me for her own Time House...” he trailed off as Mimi and Albert leaned into view of the Video frame. “Who are they?”

  Bas smiled proudly. “Dad, I may have found the Prodigy.”

  Mimi waved her hand awkwardly. “Hello, I’m Mimi Mockel.”

  “Otherwise known as the Prodigy!” Albert added with excitement.

  Mr. Barkley regarded Mimi with great curiosity. “Do you think it chose her?” he asked Bas.

  “Well, I don’t think it was an accident, Father. She said that the Diary saved her.”

  “That’s right,” Mimi put in. She was about to explain why, but Bas kicked her foot. She made a face at him.

  “So yes, I think it’s safe to say, she’s the Prodigy,” Bas confirmed.

  “Sir, what exactly is a Prodigy? I still don’t understand,” Mimi said worriedly.

  Mr. Barkley considered her for a moment, then began to speak. “For a couple of years now, my son and I have been searching for a Prodigy. It brings me much joy that you, Mimi Mockel, have this great honor. Simply put, a Prodigy is someone with an innate love of learning and reading, someone who can use this skill of swift learning to master alchemy. Not just anyone can be the Prodigy. It is very important that someone is chosen who has a dedication for reading, as there is much to learn in alchemy. I always thought we’d find such a Prodigy at the Academy of Alchemy, but it makes since why the Diary would choose someone without prior knowledge of alchemy. With a clean mind, we can mold your mind to learn alchemy to fit our needs, instead of re-teaching a master.” He paused to let her process this.

  Mimi was listening carefully, but was having a hard time believing she was special or that alchemy was real. Her brain was still trying to catch up to the fact that time travel and Bubble Universes were real. All she really wanted to do was get Albert home. But she was respectful, and let Mr. Barkley finish.

  “My son knows a master alchemist who can teach you. But we can’t just give the powerful secrets of Alchemy to just anyone. That person would
have to be studious, so they can take their teachings seriously. That person will have to be clever, so they can learn the material quickly. And that person will have to be caring enough, kind enough to want to inspire others. My son and I are hopeful that if just one person, this Prodigy, stands up as a symbol, they will inspire the Queen’s people to rise tall once more. They will spark a flame in the hearts of the Queen’s Court, giving the Queen’s Court enough strength to carry on, and not give up, as I fear is starting to happen. And I hope, Mimi Mockel, that person is you.”

  Mimi suddenly felt she knew how Bruce Wayne felt when he needed to become a symbol for Gotham. She held up a hand to stop Mr. Barkley.

  “Can we put the Batman-esque drama on pause and get back to reality? I don’t want to be a symbol, sir! I just want to get back home safe with my brother. I have no interest in a war. Or time travel. We need to get back home.”

  Mr. Barkley let out a sigh, but still wore a kind smile. “I understand your frustrations, it is a lot to take in. But tell me, how can you go home if the Queen succeeds in obtaining a Time House and unravels all of time? How can you return home if there is no more time to return back to?”

  Mimi gaped at him. So this was a being erased from time thing! Was there no hope? She had to try once more to back out of this. Surely they could find someone else for this job!

  “But I don’t want any of this! I just want to keep my family safe. I want nothing to do with this war. I didn’t sign up for any fighting! I just wanted to check out a library book! Bas, here is your Diary back.” She slid the book across the counter to him.

  Before Bas could think to touch it, the Diary lit up with a golden aurora and bolted right back into her hands. Just like at her house.

  “This is so not happening,” Mimi groaned.

  “You see!” laughed Mr. Barkley. “It is you. You’re the Prodigy. Its programming is so acute, it won’t choose anyone else but you. What do you say, Mimi? The Queen for so long now has been pushing me to build her own Time House. This worries me. Anyone who does not have a full understanding of temporal physics ought not to own a Time House. The effects of abusing time are devastating, such as an eighty percent chance of all of time being unraveled, all of time could be erased. including your own family in the past.