Terry Nation - Rebecca’s World

REBECCAS WORLD

Rebecca is mysteriously transported to a distant planet as she looks at it through her fathers astral telescope. There she makes friends with three very bizarre characters: Grisby, who has the most painful feet in the universe; Captain K, a reluctant and bespectacled superman; and Kovak, an unemployed spy known as the man of a thousand facesall of them embarrassingly alike. She meets the sinister and smooth-talking Mister Glister, and his two henchmen, Lurk and Cringer. And she comes face to face with the evil GHOSTS who control the planet. Rebeccas new friends tell her about the legend of the GHOST tree and its strange power over the GHOSTS. They explain that if the tree could be found the GHOSTS could be banished forever. The only trouble is the tree is located somewhere in the heart of the Forbidden Landsa dark and mysterious region filled with weird creatures and hidden perilswhere no one has ever dared to venture. Much against their better judgement Rebecca persuades her three companions to go there with her. Their exciting journey, with its dramatic climax, is the story of Rebeccas World.

Terry Nation, who is one of the most experienced and successful writers of popular television drama, has skilfully transferred his talent from the screen to the printed page. Rebeccas World is a marvellously gripping (and frequently comic) adventure story, with a memorable cast of characters. A story that will be enjoyed by children and adults alike.

Published by G. Whizzard Publications Ltd.
in association with Andr Deutsch Ltd. 1975
Great Russell Street, London WC.

1975 R.M.N. and J.S.N. Trust

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the Publisher.

Printed by Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd,
Aylesbury, Bucks, England

ISBN 0 903387 06 9

G. WHIZZARD ANDRE DEUTSCH

You can see Rebeccas World. Its the first bright star of evening. And if you stare at it long enough, then close your eyes and think about it very hard, you can make it your world too.

R ebecca lived in a big house in the country. At least it seemed like a big house to her, but then she was quite small, so perhaps it wasnt all that large.

It was the eleventh day of the school holidays and she was bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

She had mooned and moped around the house all day, getting under everybodys feet, until finally her mother said in a tense, tight voice: Go upstairs and play in your room.

Rebecca walked mournfully along the landing. She closed her eyes and stretched her arms out in front of her, wondering how far she could go before she ran into something.

There was a muffled crash.

Rebecca opened one eye and saw that she had knocked over a vase of flowers from the window sill. It had broken and the water was soaking into the carpet.

Its not fair, she thought miserably. I bet Ill get blamed for that.

She closed her eyes again and moved on blindly, walking over the flowers. This time she managed to go quite a long way without touching anything. She took a sneaky peep and found she was standing outside the closed door of her fathers study.

She knocked. There was no answer.

She opened the door and went in. There was a huge window at one end of the room. Standing alongside it was her fathers brand new astral telescope. Rebecca had been strictly told that on no account was she to touch it.

So she went across and touched it.

The telescope swung easily under her hand and tilted upwards at the already darkening sky.

Rebecca stared out through the window. There was only one star to be seen. It was a very long way off, blue white and twinkling.

I bet the people who live on that star arent bored, she thought. I bet theyre always doing exciting things and having adventures.

She wondered if she would be able to see what they were doing if she looked through the telescope. She put her eye close to the lens thing that you look into and turned the knob to focus itthe way she had seen her father do.

Suddenly there was the star looking bigger and brighter, although still far away. There was no sign of any people. As she stared, Rebecca wondered more and more about things that happened on the star. She wished that she could go there and find out. Just a little visit. Not for long.

Then a very strange thing occurred. Rebecca had the oddest feeling that somebody on the star was looking at her. She couldnt say why. It was just a feeling. But if they were, and were looking at her through the wide end of her fathers telescope, then she would appear to be very tiny. Rebecca knew that if you look down the wrong end of a telescope everything seems much smaller.

And then another peculiar thing happened. Rebecca began to feel smaller. And as she did, the star appeared to become larger. It became so large that it filled the whole telescope. The glare almost blinded her.

Rebecca shut her eyes, but the brightness was still there. And all the time the star continued to grow, until she felt she need only reach out her hand to touch it.

She put out her hand.

There was a whirling curling swirling furling hurling feeling. Rebecca was spinning. The bright white light of the star seemed to dazzle inside her head. There was a high-pitched buzz that made her ears ring.

And then, as suddenly as it had all started, it was over. The brightness inside her head and outside her eyes grew dimmer. The sound faded away.

Rebecca still felt a little dizzy and opened her eyes quickly to stop herself falling over. She looked around. And this was the most curious thing of all.

She was in a place she had never seen before in her life.

It was a room, but unlike any room she had ever seen before.

It was round. Totally round. Round in all directions. In fact it was like being inside a ball. A very big ball. There was no way of telling which was the floor and which were the walls and where the ceiling was.

Rebecca stared. There was a door in what should have been the ceiling and some windows in what could have been the floor, and sitting half-way up what might have been a wall was a man.

All around the man were strange machines and instruments. They had lots of flashing lights and made whirring noises, and looked a bit like the things Rebecca had seen on television science fiction programmes. The man looked extremely angry. He pushed buttons and pulled knobs and turned dials, and the instruments gave off crackling noises and puffs of smoke. Finally, the man pulled one great big switch and all the instruments and lights seemed to die.

The man turned to stare at Rebecca. It was quite obvious that he wasnt pleased with her.

Wretched child, he said, in a voice that sounded like chalk scraping on a blackboard. Horridnastywickedinterfering child.

He got up from his chair and walked down the wall towards her.

Thats clever, Rebecca thought. I wonder how he does that.

He halted just in front of her and Rebecca was surprised to see that he was much shorter than her. A tiny man and extremely ugly. He had sprouty hair that seemed to grow in several colours, a nose that was a bit like a chickens beak and a mouth like Poisson, who was Rebeccas goldfish.