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“This is the tale of the little boy that lived in a suitcase.”

“Not as strange as you may think actually, although if you are not 'Tom Explorer of Worlds Old and New', then you will think Tom to be at odds with the typical boys from his school.

Tom did not just live in his suitcase, he took it everywhere with him. As he says: "I like to just up and go at the last minute if needs be", and in his opinion his suitcase was the safest and fastest way to travel. 

At six years old, Tom travelled to more places than all the pupils in his class, even more places than Arthur the school bully, who mocked him every time he came back from his world tours with new trinkets to show to his classmates.

Arthur would just yell at him, "I bet you got your mum to buy it from Ebay on the internet!", although one time even Mrs Pompew, Tom's teacher who has a passion for archaeology, could have sworn that the Egyptian amulet she was holding was the real deal, but how could this be possible?

What Mrs Pompew did not know, was that Tom had unlocked the magic to his travelling suitcase, and of course, no Grown-up could know about it, but children could. However, even if Arthur opened and closed the suitcase a hundred times or tried to lock himself in, which he had done many times to try and visit the Blue Mountain in Australia, unless Tom shared the secret to the magic with another deserving child, suitcase travel would be impossible.

From an outsider's eye, suitcase travelling could seem a crazy idea and a little uncomfortable, but Tom could travel better than 1st class to all his destinations. No need to pack clothes, as some new ones were always available in the countries he visited when he checked in the Suitcase Travel Club. Pretty handy when you time travel actually! 

No need to bring food.

Tom preferred local food anyway, and how many times a week can you have spagbol really?! 

And he could eat as many sweeties and biscuits as he liked during the journey and drink litres of his favourite strawberry flavoured "Long Island Smoothie."

But what Tom enjoyed the most was the entire week he could spend away in the space of one night because of magical time zones. There was always time for visiting monuments, shopping and meeting dignitaries during each trip and he was always back in time for school the next day. You see, jet lag is no issue with suitcase travel, A win win situation really!”

'The boys were silent in their contemplative appreciation. A real live bomb. In their garden.

Well…it looked real at least. 

Korr quickly caught Zephs’s arm interrupting its ascension towards the red glowing light at its centre.

“Are you insane Zephs’?, you should know better than touching a throbbing, glowing device which is clearly not from this world. Have you not learned anything from your classes?”

“This is a 30th century Earth relic by the looks of it, and don’t question my knowledge please, you know I’d beat you at any Earth Primitive History tests”. 

Happy with his retort, Zephs withdrew his arm and looked at his brother asking more to himself than to Korr,

“The real question is how did it get here and a live one at that?” 

They knew that the presence of this live weapon was impossible. The campaign to annex all planets in the Earth’s galaxy had taken care of that long ago. Earth had disappeared when it was time for the universe realignment to be finalised.

A mistake, according to Korr. Avid student of History of The Covenant Wars, he could see that the decision was short-sighted, but the leaders of the Council had considered that Earth rendered a dead planet was a literal waste of space and did not qualify for terraforming.

Earth people had expanded their knowledge of the universe and were known to be undisputed experts in the space mapping and time travel fields, and for that knowledge they had been spared but scattered in all corners of the universe for fear that one day they would rise against the Council.

Their sentence had been harsh. Some think it had been tampered with to benefit the Lunar colony.

As they had watched helplessly the blue and green of their planet disappear into nothingness, Lothar leader and wisest amongst all Earth men spoke his last words before one of the guard’s spear sent him to his death, but not before he promised revenge on the Council. He spoke: “Through space and time, you will run! As our fury, will be your end! Words still present in today’s younglings’ history books and have been for centuries."

Zephs snapped back to reality showing a fear in his eyes that froze Korr on the spot, a sight he’d never expected to see in his brother. And when the “click” resounded in the air silencing every other sound around them, they knew for certain that Earth people had returned.

“Zephs…run!” were the only words Korr had time for before the bomb went off.

A coughing fit dragged Korr back into consciousness. His eyes stung, he was sure they were opened, but he could only see darkness. His head was throbbing and the sound of a heavy chain cut short the involuntary move of his right leg. As he made sense of his surroundings he quickly became aware of the walls of his cell and although he did not know who made him prisoner one thing he was certain of, the blast should have killed them both.

“Zephs! Where is Zephs?” he shouted in the dark. “Where is my brother? Whoever you are, you will never get away with this!”, he screamed at the top of his lungs, “Do you hear me?!” 

With those last words left suspended in the air, Korr let out a harrowing scream. The anger and the pain contained within it, were unmistakable, but so was the sound of the key unlocking his cell. 

“Korr! First son of Kesh, you will stand, or I will make you!”

As his vision captured the light entering his cell, Korr reluctantly stood up, and the approaching shadow took the shape of a familiar man that he could not quite place. And it hit him! 

“You are Lothar. But how?!. You should have died long ago.”

“I did,' said Lothar as he approached Korr to face him”. “Guilty of no crime, but executed without trial at the hands of your people.” 

Looking straight into Lothar’s eyes, it was as if Korr could reach in the past and see it all. The day that should never have been: Lothar’s last words before the spear took him.

Breaking eye contact with his jailor, Korr asked again about his brother and why they had been brought here. 

“You are braver than most, standing up to your captor, I’ll give you that.” “But it’s our knowledge and not our home that The Council should have taken.” 

“Earth will be made whole again, Son of Kesh.”

And as he walked away to exit the cell, Lothar looked at Korr once more and said: “There is more than one way to realign a universe.”

The light in the cell left with Lothar the same way it came and the sound of the locking key followed. 

Alone in the dark again, a sense of dread filled Korr.