Read Circus Galacticus for Free Online

are we?" I ask.
    "The bridge." Nola pulls me to one side. "Better buckle up. Quick getaways aren't usually the smoothest." She runs a hand across the wall. An instant later, the surface folds open, revealing two seats. Nola prods me into one of them.
    The moment I sit, a belt snakes out across my waist, followed by two more crisscrossing my chest. "Hey!"
    "Stay there, where it's safe!" Nola races off to one of the panels and begins tapping at it. "I've got the drives coming up, Ringmaster. We'll be ready in ten."
    The Ringmaster is talking into his baton again, sounding as relaxed and cheerful as ever, all while jumping around like a madman at the consoles. "Ladies and gentlemen, in thanks for your splendid patronage, the Circus Galacticus is pleased to offer you free refreshments outside! So hurry up and exit the main tent to claim your popcorn, cotton candy, and slushies. Thank you, and we hope you enjoyed the show!"
    "That did it," Nola says after a minute. "Everyone's out. Closing the main doors now."
    I tug against the straps holding me in the chair.
Safe
is apparently the alien word for
stuck.
And I can't shake the feeling that somehow this is all my fault. "Can't I do anything? I feel stupid just sitting here."
    "First day and she's already raring to go," says the Ringmaster. "I like it." He waves the baton in my direction. "Mind your head." A screen drops down, barely missing my nose. "There. If you could locate our Mandate visitor, I would be most obliged."
    It looks a lot like a video game console, complete with joystick, but the screen is dark and the buttons are covered in more alien script. Gingerly, I tap the edge of the display. The gibberish blurs, then reforms. One button now reads POWER . I push it, and the screen crackles to life. I'm looking out at the street, at a line of buses.
    Tweaking the joystick shifts the image. Now I'm goggling down at the people in front of the Big Top as they crowd around the refreshment booth. The redheaded clown is handing out striped bags of popcorn and billowing cones of cotton candy.
    "Jom, time to fly," says the Ringmaster. On my screen, the boy nods, tossing the last few bags at a pack of little kids, who cheer. He sprints off the screen into the Big Top.
    I spin the joystick and curse myself for not saying something sooner. This is my fault. The Ringmaster handed me a ticket to the universe, and I returned the favor by leading his biggest enemy right to him. Nyl could have called up a whole army of other nasties by now. I clench the joystick tightly. No. I
refuse
to lose all this, not after I've just found it.
    I'm passing over the chain-link fence along the rear of the circus grounds when I catch a flash that doesn't belong. A sleek black shape sits nearly hidden between a couple of trash bins. "Whoa. Now
that's
a spaceship."
    The Ringmaster looks up, frowning. A tap on his baton, and suddenly one whole wall vanishes, replaced by the image on my screen. "The Mandate have such mundane concepts of spacecraft design."
    "It's only one guy." I breathe a sigh of relief. Jiggling the joystick, I zoom in on the dark figure standing near the arrow-sharp nose of the craft. Nyl.
    "One is enough."
    "You're a million times bigger than he is. And you've all got superpowers. Can't we just ... fight him? Or something?"
    I'd swear the Ringmaster looks afraid for a moment. "We've done what we came here to do. Time to be off. The universe awaits!" He gives the baton a last twirl, ending with a triumphant jab at the console.
    The walls shudder. The overhead lights blink from orange to purple. Nola throws herself at the seat beside me. The small screen slides up into the ceiling. On the wall, Nyl's rocket starts giving off sparks from its tail end.
    "He's going to follow," calls Nola.
    "Let him try." The Ringmaster holds his ground, even as the entire room shifts. "Off we go!"
    A huge weight presses down, stealing away my breath. I grip the arms of my seat.
    "It's okay," Nola says through