[Sarah Jane Adventures 01] - Invasion of Bane Read online

  BBC CHILDREN’S BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Australia) Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell,Victoria, 3124, Australia

  (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa

  Published by BBC Children’s Books, 2007

  Text and design © Children’s Character Books, 2007

  10 987654321

  Sarah Jane Adventures © BBC 2007

  BBC logo ™ & BBC 1996. Licensed by BBC Worldwide Limited All rights reserved.

  ISBN 978-1-40590-397-4

  Invasion ofthe Bane

  Written by Terrance Dicks

  Based on the script by Russell T Daviesand Gareth Roberts

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Title Page

  Epigraph

  Chapter One Changes

  Chapter Two A visit from Kelsey

  Chapter Three The Bane tour

  Chapter Four Hunted

  Chapter Five Escape

  Chapter Six Interrogation

  Chapter Seven Attack of the Bane

  Chapter Eight The weapon

  Chapter Nine Takeover

  Chapter Ten Counter-attack

  Chapter Eleven Victory

  Chapter Twelve Aftermath

  ‘I saw amazing things, out therein space. But there’s strangenessto be found wherever you turn.Life on Earth can be anadventure, too.

  You just have to knowwhere to look.’

  SARAH JANE SMITH

  Chapter One

  Changes

  A cartoon Earth, spinning in a cartoon sky. It exploded in a swirl of light, and bright orange letters exploded from the screen. ‘BUBBLE SHOCK!’

  Three beautiful blonde teenagers, perfect hair, flawless complexions, impossibly white teeth, appeared. They wore bright orange T-shirts, with ‘Bubble Shock’ written on the front in white lettering, and were surrounded by swirling orange balloons. They clutched white-capped bottles filled with orange liquid.

  ‘Bubble Shock!’ they shrieked, grinning madly.

  A row of orange bottles appeared and the camera zoomed into a giant close-up...

  Maria, smallish, dark, thirteen years old, shrugged indifferently. ‘Bubble Shock’ - she’d tried it once when it first came out. It just made her feel sick.

  ‘Oh, she’s got the telly working,’ said a voice behind her. ‘That’s the first priority.’

  Rolling her eyes at the parental sarcasm, Maria turned. It was moving day, they were in the new house, and her dad, Alan, had just staggered in with yet another cardboard box. He put it down with a sigh of relief, glancing round the big empty room. ‘Plenty more boxes,’ he said resignedly. ‘Do us a favour and End the kettle. I’m parched.’

  On the telly ecstatically happy teenagers swigged orange fluid and marched towards the camera brandishing bottles...

  ‘Maria!’ shrieked a voice from outside the house.

  ‘Coming!’ yelled Maria. She switched off the telly and went outside where two muscular young men in jeans and T-shirts were unloading more boxes from a removal van. They were being supervised, and watched closely, by Maria’s mum, Chrissie.

  She turned as Maria came out of the house. ‘Maria, the cutlery’s in the boot, go and fetch it, will you?’

  A removal man passed by with yet another box. ‘Living room, love?’

  ‘No, the label says “kitchen”, can’t you read? Don’t go through the front door, go round the side. I did say...’

  Chrissie hated it when people didn’t do as they were told.

  Her voice tailed off as her eyes fell on his retreating rear.

  ‘Mind you, not bad...’ she said, smirking.

  Maria loved her mother very much, but at times she was definitely an embarrassment. ‘Mum! Stop fancying the removal men!’

  Chrissie grinned. ‘Oh, they love it! Besides, they’re getting paid. Cutlery, go on!’

  Maria groaned and shook her head. She turned and made for the family’s old blue banger which was parked on the other side of the road.

  A smart green convertible was just pulling into the driveway of the house opposite - a big, grand house set back from the road. The house looked older than Maria’s and was much bigger, tall and thin, with turrets and gables. There was something a little spooky about it, thought Maria. A touch of Dracula’s castle.

  A woman got out of the car and headed for the house. A bit older than Maria’s mum, she looked attractive and sophisticated in a stylish purple coat.

  ‘Hiya!’ called Maria.

  The woman gave her a quick ‘Can’t-stop-I’m-in- a-rush’ smile and hurried on into the house. Maria shrugged, pulled the cutlery box from the car boot, and carried it back to the new house.

  Maria watched as the removal men carried the last item, her bed, into her new bedroom at the back of the house. It was a large attic room with a long window and a skylight set in the slanting roof.

  ‘Put it by the window, thanks.’

  They plonked down the bed, gave her a friendly nod and trooped downstairs. Maria followed.

  Soon she was standing on the front steps with her parents, waving goodbye as the van drove away. Thank you, boys!’ called her father as the van disappeared.

  Her mind a jumble of emotions, Maria looked up at her mother and smiled. The beginning of a new life. She wasn’t sure she was going to like it.

  Chrissie put her arm round Maria’s shoulders and gave her a consoling hug.

  ‘Come on then,’ said Alan, and they went inside. They all went into the kitchen and her dad made tea.

  Surrounded by boxes, they stood sipping the tea. Just like a normal happy family, thought Maria. If only...

  There was a moment of awkward silence. Alan looked round the cluttered kitchen and gave one of his optimistic grins. ‘All done,’ he said, with determined cheerfulness. ‘Congratulations. Our new home!’

  Marias mother returned the smile, very briefly, and then looked at her watch.

  ‘Ooh, look at me, its nearly six. I’d better be off.’

  A knot formed in the pit of Maria’s stomach. Another parting. The latest of many with many more to come. But she was getting used to it by now, and managed to put a fairly brave face on things.

  ‘Can’t you stay for tea, Mum?’

  Chrissie, as usual, was totally focussed on her own affairs.

  ‘I’d love to, but Ivan’s making me dinner back home.’

  This is where the happy family picture falls apart, thought Maria.

  Her parents had recently split up. She still wasn’t used to it, didn’t think she ever would be. The divorce had been what they call ‘amicable’ - largely because her dad was so easy-going. It didn’t make it any less painful for Maria. Like many children of divorce, she had a vague feeling it was all her fault.

  She looked at her dad. An average-looking man in jeans and stripy T-shirt. A nice ordinary man. Too ordinary for Chrissie, who wanted glamour and excitement - now being provided by Ivan, some sort of City banker.

  Chrissie looked at her daughters sad face. She produced an encouraging smile. ‘You’re gonna love it here, sweetheart, I promise.’

  ‘I liked the old house,’ muttered Maria.

  ‘Your mother wanted the money,’ said Alan quietly.

  Chrissie shot him one of her looks. ‘Now, don’t start.’ She turned to Maria. ‘It’s a much better catchment area, you’ll be at a better school. They were holding you back
in that old place. The local kids you were mixing with...’

  ‘They were my friends.’

  ‘Well, you’ll get a better catchment of friends,’ said Chrissie brightly, and gave her a quick kiss. ‘You’ll settle in, don’t worry.’ She gave Alan a token peck on the cheek. ‘And you. Good luck. You still can’t make a decent cup of tea,’ she added, putting him down as usual.

  She bustled out. Alan gave Maria a resigned look. He jerked his head towards the door and they followed her outside.

  Chrissie paused for a moment on the doorstep. ‘Oh, and Alan, I nearly forgot, can you give me that cheque?’

  ‘Dunno where my chequebook is. Buried in a box somewhere.’

  ‘That’s all right, post it,’ said Chrissie. Her voice became a little sharper. ‘First thing tomorrow if you could.’

  ‘Sure,’ said Alan.

  Chrissie gave Maria a final wave. ‘Angel, bye bye. Big kiss!’

  She got in her car, a smart new red saloon, and drove away. Maria watched her go.

  Alan turned to Maria and gave her a hug. He kissed the top of her head.

  ‘You and me, eh?’

  Maria gave him a rueful smile and waved at her mother’s departing car as it vanished around the corner.

  Maria was in her new bedroom unpacking with the TV on low in the background.

  ‘Bubble Shock, for maximum performance,’ the teenagers on the TV chanted. ‘No sugar, no additives, no concentrates! Bubble Shock! Contains Bane! Bubble Shock!’ flashed in giant letters across the screen.

  Maria was taking framed photographs from a box and arranging them on a shelf. The last photo showed the three of them, Alan, Chrissie and Maria, on holiday, only last year. They were all smiling. Those were the days, she thought.

  Maria switched off the TV and climbed into bed. She took a battered teddy from her pillow and cuddled it as she slid under the covers. A bit childish for thirteen, maybe, but she didn’t care.

  She reached out and switched off the bedside lamp and lay staring into the darkness. Her mind was a mad jumble of confused thoughts and feelings and she thought she’d never get to sleep. But it had been a long and tiring day. Eventually sheer exhaustion overcame her and she drifted off...

  She had no way of knowing that these few moments marked the end of her ordinary, everyday life.

  Maria didn’t really register the multi-coloured lights that flashed across the sky, and shone through her windows. It was the music that woke her. Weird ethereal music, like nothing she’d ever heard before.

  Maria looked at her bedside clock. It said 2.37.

  She got out of bed, took her big blue dressing gown from the hook behind the door and put it on, shoved her feet into slippers and hurried downstairs. The house was dark and spooky and silent - except for the music. It grew louder as she neared the glass- fronted front door and she could see soft coloured lights through the glass.

  She opened the door and looked out. More multicoloured lights played across the front of the spooky old house opposite, moving along the branches of the trees. The seductive song rose and fell and seemed to be calling to her. It was irresistible... Maria dashed across the road.

  The sound seemed to be coming from the side of the house. Maria followed it, opened a gate and crept down a tree-shadowed path. The music and the lights seemed to be coming from an enclosed side-garden. Maria crept closer, and peered through the bushes. Her eyes widened in sheer disbelief.

  The woman she’d seen going into the house earlier was standing in the garden with a glowing heart-shaped device in her hand. In front of her hovered a shape - an apparition. An impossible, unbelievably beautiful shape.

  It was a woman made of clouds and light, incredibly tall, with wild streaming hair. Transparent and somehow solid at the same time, she was dressed in flowing robes and surrounded by an aura of multi-coloured lights. And she was singing, singing the ethereally beautiful song. As she sang she seemed to dance in the air, revolving around the woman looking up at her.

  The woman, the one Maria had seen before, was turning too, so that they seemed to be performing a kind of ritual dance...

  So strange and beautiful was the spectacle that Maria found herself smiling.

  The woman stopped turning and stood gazing up at the strange alien being. Like Maria, she was not frightened but delighted and fascinated. She was smiling, too. She held up the glowing heart-shaped device and although she didn’t speak, Maria knew that in some strange way the two were communicating.

  The song rose and fell and faded away.

  The woman held up the glowing disc in what seemed like a gesture of farewell. The alien quickly rose into the sky and soared into the night, leaving a fiery trail like a rocket as she streaked away and disappeared amongst the stars.

  The woman watched it for a moment, her face filled with delight. She turned and went back into the house.

  All at once, Maria realised the strangeness, the sheer impossibility of what she’d seen and awe changed to panic. She turned and ran quickly from the garden, shot across the road and vanished into her new house, slamming the door behind her.

  Chapter Two

  A visit from Kelsey

  Maria sat absent-mindedly drinking tea and eating toast in the new kitchen. Her head was still full of the events of last night. Had she really seen a beautiful alien woman, hovering in the air, and disappearing back into space? And how did the woman who lived in the house come into it? Was she an alien, too?

  Her father was precariously balanced on the back of the sofa, adjusting curtain rings on the rail above the window. On the screen of the kitchen telly, teenagers once again danced and skateboarded and chanted in praise of ‘Bubble Shock!’

  Maria looked up at her father. ‘How would you know if you were going mad?’

  Her father tightened a screw. ‘Ask your mother, she’s the expert.’

  ‘I’ll tell her you said that!’ threatened Maria, and her father grinned. ‘But seriously,’ she went on. ‘What if you see something that can’t be happening, only it is happening, only it can’t be?’

  Her dad jumped down from the sofa and gave her a puzzled frown. Before he could work out an answer, the front doorbell rang, letting him off the hook.

  He nodded towards the front door. ‘Go and ask them!’

  ‘That’s our first visitors,’ said Maria.

  ‘If it’s Angela Jolie, tell her I’m not interested,’ said Alan. He nodded towards the front door. ‘Go on.’ Maria went out into the hall and opened the front door.

  A girl of about her own age stood on the doorstep. Her hair stuck out in twin plaits, and she wore a bright red puffer jacket and hot pink hoodie. She was drinking from a bottle of Bubble Shock and was studying Maria critically.

  ‘You moved in yesterday, right?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘I saw you.’ Apparently deciding Maria passed muster, the girl gave her a beaming grin that lit up her whole face. ‘I’m Kelsey. Hiya.’

  ‘Hiya. I’m Maria.’

  ‘You got broadband?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Brilliant!’ Brushing Maria aside, Kelsey marched into the house.

  Bemused, Maria followed.

  Kelsey marched into the box-cluttered living room, switched on the telly and studied the set-up menu. You haven’t got the music channels! What’s the point if you haven’t got music channels?’

  For some reason, Maria felt guilty. ‘Dad says it costs.’

  ‘Nag him,’ advised Kelsey. You’ll be dead in school if you haven’t got music channels.’ She held out the bottle of Bubble Shock. ‘Want some of this?’

  ‘No thanks, don’t like it.’

  ‘I love it,’ said Kelsey, taking another swig. ‘Do you want to come into town?’

  ‘Haven’t got any money.’

  ‘That’s all right, we’ll get the Bubble Shock bus. It’s free, every half hour. Come on, get your stuff.’

  ‘There’s a free bus?’

  Kelsey br
andished the Bubble Shock bottle. ‘Yeah, it takes you to the Bubble Shock factory. You go on a tour, get free samples and things, then we all go down the precinct. Come on! I’ll show you Darren, he works in the bike shop, he’s over buff!’ Kelsey marched off and Maria, slightly stunned by the force of her overpowering personality, followed meekly.

  ‘Dad, I’m going out!’ she shouted.

  They had just left the house when her father appeared on the front doorstep.

  ‘Heading off without me?’

  ‘We’re going into town,’ explained Maria.

  ‘Without a proper goodbye?’

  Maria writhed. ‘Oh Daa-aad.

  With a mock-stern expression, Alan pointed to his cheek and leaned forward.

  Maria walked back to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  She looked guiltily at Kelsey, who shook her head. ‘I’m so shamed for you!’

  ‘Who’s your friend?’ asked Alan.

  ‘This is Kelsey.’

  Kelsey gave Alan a challenging stare. ‘Did they tell you? About the people that used to live here?’

  ‘No, what happened?’

  ‘They went mad,’ said Kelsey with relish. ‘Ran away screaming. My mum’s friend, Kath Pontin, she lives down there, said the bloke kept going on about aliens. From outer space!’

  ‘What sort of aliens?’ asked Maria.

  ‘Oh, like it’s real, shut up!’ said Kelsey dismissively. ‘Come on, we’re gonna miss the bus.’ She set off down the road.

  Maria turned to follow her and saw their neighbour, the woman she’d seen entertaining an alien, on the other side of the road. She posted a letter in the letter box and turned back towards her house.

  The memory of last night made Maria nervous, but she felt she had to make contact. She hurried across the road. ‘Hello, we just moved in opposite. I’m Maria Jackson’.