by Louise Park
‘Check your mission packs,’ said Space Surfer. ‘There are wire cutters and a few other items you might need inside them.’
Addie took a look inside her mission pack. ‘What are these other things?’
‘Just clip it round your waist,’ said Valentina.
Addie put the mission pack on.
She quickly plugged her SpaceBerry into the remote control for the big screen.
A file came up on the screen.
‘Not bad,’ said Valentina. ‘Don’t be fooled by those Frozellas though. They might look sort of cute but they are strong and very, very mean. Grab your ice poles. We need to take the pod down now.’
Addie grabbed her poles and followed Valentina into the pod. It was a small space craft with two seats, a dashboard and a hatch.
Space Surfer’s voice came through the pod’s speakers. ‘The pod is on auto-pilot and will land itself,’ he said. ‘I’ll be waiting here with the Racer. You have an hour. After that your suits won’t protect you from the cold as much. Good luck Star Girl and Supernova 1.’ The pod hatch closed automatically and it took off towards Planet Polare.
As they got closer, the girls could see tall mountains of dark purple. At the foot of the mountains was purple ice.
This really is a frozen planet, thought Addie. How can anything live here?
‘Look at that sea,’ Addie said to Valentina. ‘The purple ice is all sliding into it, filling it.’ And that’s when she saw the lime-green frozellas. There were three of them and they were stranded floating on a small ice floe. ‘Valentina, they’re stuck,’ said Addie. ‘We have to help them.’
‘No way,’ said Valentina. ‘That’s not what we’re here for. Anyway, they can swim.’
‘I read about them back at the FlyBy. They can’t swim long distances. They’re too heavy and their legs are made for walking more than swimming. And there are babies. It looks like a family.’
Before Valentina knew what was happening Addie had hit the auto-pilot override button. ‘Drive the pod down to them,’ said Addie. ‘I’ll use the pod-rope and ice pick to jump down onto the ice floe and ram the pick into the ice. The other end is attached to the pod so you can pull us to shore.’
‘Are you crazy?’ said Valentina. ‘You can’t go near those things. And we don’t have time for this.’
But Addie was already opening the hatch. She held the ice pick and rope in her hand and she was getting ready to jump. I’d better land on the ice floe, thought Addie. Humans can’t survive in that cold, purple sea.
She waited until the pod was directly above the ice floe. She took a deep breath.
One, two, three … Jump!
CHAPTER FOUR
Addie landed right on the edge of the ice floe. She stumbled and nearly fell into the purple water. Phew, she thought. That was a bit too close. Then the frozellas made a strange sound. The big one turned to look at Addie. It bared its teeth and Addie’s tummy did those familiar back-flips. I’d better hurry up and do this, she thought.
Ramming the ice pick into the floe, she waved up at the pod. Then she heard a terrible noise.
‘Please, I’m trying to help,’ she said to the frozellas, feeling pretty stupid.
Why am I talking to them? They can’t understand me, she thought. But Addie kept talking just the same. It seemed to make her feel better. ‘You’re such a cute little frozella cub,’ she said to one of the babies. It bared its teeth and growled. ‘Look, land,’ she said and pointed.
Addie jumped off the ice floe as soon as it hit the shore. She ran to where the pod had landed on the purple ice. Valentina was standing beside it with Addie’s poles.
‘They’re safe!’ said Addie.
‘For now … but not for much longer. Look up,’ Valentina said.
Addie turned and saw a tall mountain of dark purple ice. And it was quickly melting. Purple ice and liquid was rushing down the side of it. ‘What’s that black thing up on top of the mountain?’ she asked. ‘And what’s that noise?’
‘I don’t know but I bet it has something to do with the ice melts,’ answered Valentina. She gave Addie her poles. ‘Activate the ice-holds on your boots. We’ll need them to climb up that.’
Addie activated her boots and long ice-spike treads shot out from the soles. Addie and Valentina began to climb.
‘The noise is getting louder,’ yelled Valentina. She was in front of Addie and climbing fast.
‘It sounds like a drill,’ said Addie. Just then an enormous pile of melting ice flew down at them. ‘Watch out!’ yelled Addie and she hit the maxi-attach button on her poles.
Valentina looked up but it was too late. The ice hit her and sent her flying. She slid and bounced past Addie on her padded bottom.
When she finally stopped sliding and lay flat on her back, her broken poles continued to slide right down the mountain.
‘Stay there,’ yelled Addie. ‘I’m coming down. Are you hurt?’
‘I’m okay,’ Valentina called back. ‘Mr Cruise was right. The extra padding really does help. And the space helmet protected my head. But my poles are broken. And gone! You keep going. I’ll go back to the pod and wait. We don’t have a lot of time left.’
‘No,’ said Addie, ‘we’re meant to stay together.’
She slowly made her way to where Valentina was. She helped her up and checked her boots.
‘At least your boots are still on ice-hold,’ said Addie. ‘Here take one of my poles. We’ll climb together.’
‘It’s freezing,’ said Valentina who had icicles hanging from her spacesuit. ‘We need to keep moving to stay warm. Even wearing these suits.’
They climbed slowly back up the mountain. Ice fell and purple water gushed down under their feet. The higher they climbed, the louder the noise became.
When they reached the top they were exhausted. They both sat down on the flat plateau of hard ice and looked around.
‘What is this place?’ asked Valentina as she took out her SpaceBerry. ‘I’m going to get some pictures.’
At the edge of the plateau was a tall pole with a massive dish on it. It looked like a satellite dish except that it was facing the ground instead of the sky.
Bright blue light shot out from the dish and shone down the mountain. It was melting the ice. In the centre of the plateau was the big black thing they’d seen from down below. It was like a long pipe going down into the middle of the mountain.
Every sixty seconds it drove down into the mountain. Up close, the noise was so loud and when the pipe moved, everything shook. Then it all went quiet and still until the pipe moved again.
‘I wonder what the pipe does?’ asked Addie.
‘I wonder who put it and that dish that’s melting everything here?’ asked Valentina.
‘I think we should use our holographic watches to call for help,’ Addie said. She went to flip the watch cover open but Valentina stopped her.
‘We can do this mission ourselves,’ said Valentina. ‘I don’t want help. We’ll score more points if we do it ourselves.’
‘We’ve already used up forty-five minutes,’ said Addie. ‘In another fifteen minutes our suits won’t protect us from the cold.’
‘All we have to do is stop that dish and then report in,’ Valentina insisted.
‘How?’ asked Addie. ‘And what about the black pipe thing. We don’t even know what it’s doing. I’m contacting Mr Cruise.’
Addie flipped the watch cover up. Straight away a holographic image of the teacher appeared on the open watch face.
‘Star Girl, where is Supernova 1?’ asked Mr Cruise.
‘She’s sitting over there on the ice,’ said Addie. ‘We’ve found what’s melting the ice. And there’s something else here too. Look.’ Addie moved her arm slowly in a circle so that Mr Cruise could see the dish, the black pipe and the melting ice.
‘Good work, Star Girl,’ said Mr Cruise. ‘Is there anyone else around? Any other alien life forms?’
‘Not here,’ said Addie. ‘Just
this machinery that seems to work by itself.’
‘Good. You need to stop the pipe. Its vibration must be cracking the ice and causing big ice sheets to break off and fall into the sea,’ said Mr Cruise. ‘And you have to turn the dish off. The blue light is melting the ice at the same time.’
‘But how do we do it?’ asked Addie.
‘One of you must stop the pipe first to stop the shaking,’ said Mr Cruise. ‘Find the power source. There will be two wires feeding the pipe. Cut the blue wire only. The other cadet needs to climb the ladder onto the dish. Somewhere up there will be a power box. In your mission pack is a magnetic disabler unit. Attach the MDU to the power box and it will do the rest. I’ll have Space Surfer call the pod back to the Galactic Racer. Then he can hover over the plateau and pick you up from there.’ Then Mr Cruise was gone.
Addie opened her mission pack and found the MDU. Valentina ran around the pipe and found the wires. ‘I’ll do this,’ said Valentina. ‘The dish is yours.’
Addie looked at the dish. It was so high up. And it was huge. Addie’s hands began to sweat. She felt dizzy just looking at it.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘Off you go,’ said Valentina with a smirk. ‘You’re the ballerina. The dish will be easy for you. I’ll go cut the wire on the pipe.’
‘You do gymnastics,’ said Addie.
‘You’d have much better balance than me.’
‘Afraid of heights, New Girl?’
‘No,’ said Addie in a voice that was just a bit too quiet. And I thought we were starting to be friends. Wrong!
Addie began to climb the ladder.
Don’t look down, she thought. Keep looking up.
The ladder shook each time the pipe went down into the mountain. Addie held on tight. When she reached the top she was level with the dish. It curved in front of her like an upturned bowl. The power box is on the other side, thought Addie. Right at the edge. I’ll slide off the dish for sure.
Then she remembered her space boots. ‘Valentina?’ she called. ‘My poles are down there. Turn the ice-holds off.’
‘Okay,’ Valentina called back. ‘I’ll switch them to non-slip.’
‘And cut the wire, on the pipe,’ Addie yelled. ‘I’m stepping out on the dish now.’
‘Doing it right now,’ Valentina shouted back. But she didn’t. She waited.
Let’s see how good her balance really is, thought Valentina. I’ll give her just a little shake-up and then I’ll cut the wire.
Addie stepped out on the dish.
She walked across it quickly and carefully. The MDU was in her hand. Nearly there, Addie thought.
Suddenly the pipe began to move again.
Everything started to shake. Addie bent down to attach the MDU to the power box. As she placed the MDU on the box, the dish shook so much that her non-slip boots couldn’t save her. She dropped from the dish and landed on her bottom right at the edge of the mountain.
Addie rolled and bounced on her big, padded bottom down the hard, wet mountain. Valentina raced over to the edge of the plateau and watched. For a brief moment she thought she was going to laugh. The sight of Addie’s big padded bum bouncing along did look funny but Valentina knew this was bad. Suddenly she felt scared. Very scared. Then with one big bounce, Addie vanished from view.
Oh no! thought Valentina. Where’s she gone?
Taking out her SpaceBerry, she hit the radio button. ‘Supernova 1 to Space Surfer. Do you read me?’
A voice came out of the SpaceBerry.
‘I read you, Supernova 1. What’s wrong?’ said Space Surfer.
‘Star Girl fell and has rolled down the mountain.’ Valentina knew she was shouting but she couldn’t help it. ‘I don’t know where she is. I can’t see her anymore!’
‘Supernova 1, stay calm. I’m almost there,’ said Space Surfer. ‘I’ll get you and we’ll find Star Girl using the GPS tracking chip. Over and out.’
Valentina put a hand inside her spacesuit. She felt her shirt pocket. There was the little hard square—the chip. Then Valentina felt really sick. Seemed like a good plan at the time, she thought. She raced over to the pipe and cut the blue wire. Everything went quiet and still.
Addie didn’t know where she was. All she knew was that her arm hurt and she was shivering. Really shivering.
She lifted her head and looked down. She was on a steep patch of ice. It went straight down to the purple sea. The sea she knew she couldn’t survive in. And that was when she saw them. Lime-green frozellas. A group of them and they were coming towards her.
No fast moves, thought Addie. I don’t want to slide into that sea. But I don’t want to be dinner for a bunch of frozellas either.
I’ll get Mr Cruise on holograph. Why am I soooo cold? Addie slowly moved to flip open her watch cover. ‘It’s broken!’ she said to herself. ‘Now what?’
The watch cover was smashed. The digital numbers had stopped and the time had gone past one hour. No wonder I’m shivering, thought Addie. The spacesuit isn’t protecting me against the cold anymore. Then she heard her SpaceBerry.
‘Space Surfer to Star Girl, do you read me?’
It’s Space Surfer, she thought. But she was so cold. She was getting sleepy and the frozellas were getting closer.
Addie managed to slide her SpaceBerry from the pocket of her spacesuit. She hit the button and spoke. ‘St-St-Star Girl to Spa-a-ace Surfer. I’m so, so, c-c-cold. Too t-t-tired. Frozellas. H-h-help.’
The cold had taken hold and Addie fell asleep. The SpaceBerry slipped from her hands onto the ice.
‘Space Surfer to Star Girl,’ said Space Surfer. ‘I can find you using the SpaceBerry signal. Hang in there.’
The lights of the Racer woke Addie. The first thing she knew was that she was warmer. They’ve rescued me, she thought. Then she saw the Racer up above her. The ice was hard under her back. No. I’m still here, Addie thought. But I’m as warm as toast. How?
Addie carefully lifted her head. She was confused and didn’t know where she was. The last thing she remembered was feeling terribly cold and very sleepy. And now she was warm. She looked around her. I’m surrounded by frozellas. They’re cuddling around me and keeping me warm and safe.
‘Now I remember,’ she said as she wrapped her arms around the baby. ‘I was on a steep piece of ice and was too scared to move. You must have come and rescued me. But how?’
The baby just cuddled into her neck. ‘If only you could talk little one,’ she said. ‘I’d love to know how you got me from that steep ice and onto this flat ice. But who cares, really. I’m just so glad to see furry green things like you. My beautiful little family from the ice floe.’
Above Addie a space-stretcher was being lowered from the Racer down to the ice. Space Surfer was sitting in it.
‘Time to go, Star Girl,’ said Space Surfer. ‘Can you stand?’
Addie stood up very slowly. The mother frozella sat in front of her making sure she didn’t topple into the sea.
‘I think I’m alright,’ she said. ‘I’ve hurt my arm and leg though.’
‘Let’s get you onto this space-stretcher,’ said Space Surfer. ‘As soon as we have you back on board we can get you some first aid.’
‘Wait,’ said Addie and she turned to her furry family. ‘Thank you guys!’ Addie said. ‘You saved my life. You’re not mean at all. I wish I had a photo of this to show everyone back at SEAS.’
‘No problem, Star Girl,’ Space Surfer said as he lifted his SpaceBerry up.
‘Say cheese!’
Addie stood in-between her little frozella family and smiled. ‘Good one,’ said Space Surfer. ‘Now it’s really time to leave. In the space-stretcher you go!’
CHAPTER SIX
Valentina was sitting in her seat on the Racer when Addie and Space Surfer returned.
‘I’m so glad you’re alright,’ Valentina said. ‘I’ve never been so scared! What happened?’
‘One minute I was on the dish and the next I was rolling down the mo
untain,’ Addie said. ‘I don’t really remember though. I just remember flying through the air and landing some place else.’
‘You can take your suits and helmets off now,’ said Space Surfer. Then he handed Addie a space blanket. ‘Wrap yourself in this and then both of you do your seatbelts up. We’re out of here in two minutes.’
The girls removed their helmets and Space Surfer locked them into the Racer’s helmet hold. Valentina undid her spacesuit and bent down to unlock her boots. As she did the tracking chip fell from her shirt pocket. She quickly stood on it with her boot. But she wasn’t quick enough. Addie and Space Surfer saw it.
They looked at each other but Addie said nothing. Valentina held her breath and looked at Addie. Addie turned away.
Mr Cruise was waiting for them in the FlyBy when they returned.
‘What happened out there girls?’ he asked. ‘Space Surfer told me about the fall. Did you cut the pipe wire first like I said?’
Valentina jumped in before Addie had a chance to speak. ‘The wire was cut, Mr Cruise,’ she said. ‘Addie fell from the dish. It curved down pretty steeply.’ Addie noticed that Valentina elected not to say exactly when the wire was cut.
‘Where’s your tracker chip, Star Girl,’ asked Mr Cruise. ‘You know very well it’s against the rules to remove it or turn it off.’
Addie stared at the ground. She could feel Space Surfer’s eyes on her. She looked at Valentina. She was staring at Space Surfer.
‘Well?’ asked Mr Cruise.
‘I’m not really sure,’ said Addie. ‘I just know that my watch is completely broken. I must have hit it hard on the ice out there, I guess.’
‘Do you have anything to add about this, Supernova 1?’ asked Mr Cruise.
‘No, Mr Cruise,’ said Valentina as she shifted on her feet.
‘Well, the important thing is that you are alright, Star Girl, just a few bruises,’ said Mr Cruise. ‘You both did a good job out there. We’ve already sent a team in to take the machinery apart and remove it. Polare and its frozellas are safe now. Good work. You’ll score extra points as well for saving that family on the floe.’