Jack Strong and the Red Giant

Chapter 13: Space Hospital

Like a herd of cattle, they stampeded into the control room.

The space goo was everywhere, oozing across the floor, onto the viewing screen and dribbling across several panels. Several fingers rose-up immediately, clawing and probing at the air.

Then it started to wriggle towards them like a den of snakes, slowly at first, but then quicker and quicker.

A small ball of goo suddenly flew through the air, hitting the wall behind them.

And then another and another.

One hit Padget on the arm.

"I'm on fire! I'm on fire!" he yelled, jumping up and down like a jack-in-the box. "Get it off me."

Jack ran over to try and help him, only for a black blob to fling off Padget and hit his hand.

Now it was his turn to howl and shriek in pain.

Jack looked down at his hand. There was a round hole where his palm had been and the oil-like substance was now climbing up his arm, stripping away bits of his skin.

The pain was unbearable. He could smell his own skin as it burnt away like a pork chop on a barbecue.

He was going to die. For a brief moment he thought of his mum and dad. He would never get to see them again.

Then he collapsed and blacked-out, his head hitting one of the hover-seats as he crumpled to the floor, blobs of black goo slithering all over his body.

"Jack, are you okay?"

Jack slowly opened his eyes. Vyleria was crouched over him, her eyes as bright as comets.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes," he said, not sure if he was or not.

"What happened?"

"You passed-out."

It took a few seconds for his head to clear, but then it all came back to him.

The black goo. His burning skin. The searing pain.

He looked at his hand to see how bad it was.

He couldn't believe it. It was healing before his eyes.

Flaps of skin were forming over his raw flesh, pieces of bone and fingernails too.

He couldn't feel any pain either.

"H-how?"

"It was Padget actually," said Vyleria. "After the attack he stumbled into this room. He must have thought about going to a hospital or something for suddenly the whole room transformed into one. Which was lucky because if he hadn't..."

"I'd be dead."

"We all would."

Jack looked around the bright, sparkling room. Ros, Padget and Grunt were lying on beds that hovered in mid-air. Padget's lower jaw was being slowly re-assembled and five of Grunt's toes were being re-attached. Ros glared at him with his one remaining eye, whilst his other was slowly being reconstructed cell by cell. Next to each of them was a transparent glass container, overflowing with sweets and chocolates.

Jack dived in straight away.

"I don't understand. How does all this work?" asked Jack after his umpteenth wine gum and fruit pastille.

"The computer seems to do it all Jack, that's why there are no doctors or nurses. You bring a patient in. The computer examines them. Then it starts to treat them straight away. It's really efficient, perfect in fact."