Star Attack
Page 4
The fish cannon vending machine had lifted off the ground now, opening up the blocked door. Light from the Great Ice Deck flooded into the Fish Station, together with at least twenty RoboSeals. Half of them were flying for the first time in their lives and looking a little upset about it.
Captain Krill spun around and pointed his beak at the gaping door. “Time to get Fuzz out of that cage!” he said.
The three astronauts dodged the floating RoboSeals and hurtled on to the Great Ice Deck. Dollops of water from the great tank were billowing around the cave like overblown soap bubbles. Glittering icicles hung in mid-air, spinning gently. RoboSeals were turning somersaults and attacking each other in confusion.
“I’m over here,” shouted Rocky, zooming past an angry robot. “Now I’m over HERE! Cooee! Can’t catch me!”
Dark Wader floated past upside-down. There was an ominous crack as the back of his armour smashed against the icy wall. “CRABBA!” he screamed. “I think I’m broken!”
Captain Krill expertly zigzagged through the tumbling RoboSeals towards Fuzz’s cage as it spun in slow circles. The robot whale was now rising from what was left of the tank. Water rolled off his enormous body in all directions. A big glob floated straight through the fresh crack in the back of Dark Wader’s armour.
“CRABBAAAA! I’VE GOT A WET BOTTOM! HURRY UP BEFORE I SHORT-CIRCUIT!”
“Coming, boss!” squealed Crabba from up near the ceiling.
By flicking its huge tail, the whale had some kind of control in the air. Its red eyes gleamed as it swam towards Fuzz. Captain Krill surged at Fuzz’s cage with a powerful webbed kick.
His beak slammed into the cage like a power-driven chisel. The cage exploded in slow motion.
“Yippee!” shouted Fuzz. He danced on the whale’s black metal nose and launched himself skywards. “Come and get me now, you great oily oik!” he yelled.
Captain Krill felt the snap of a tumbling RoboSeal’s jaws brush a little too close to his tail. He grabbed a mackerel bullet from the fish cannon as it floated past and lobbed it at the snapping monster. The mackerel pronged the robot up one of its metal nostrils. There was a BANG as the RoboSeal blew up.
“Come to Mama!” Fuzz shouted at the angry whale, flinging an armful of mackerel as hard as he could. “Wham, blam, mackerel jam!”
Dark Wader was sizzling like a frying pan on the far side of the great white room. His waterproof armour was ruined. Dancing blobs of water from the whale tank were playing havoc with his circuitry.
“I thought … bbzzt … that little jellyfish spy thing you sent after Krill and his cronies was supposed to … zstz … WARN us about this kind of thing, Crabba,” Dark Wader hissed as Crabba tried to fix the wet electrics sparking out of his boss’s armoured chest. “We haven’t heard a … zxzx … thing since the jail break!”
“It was a prototype,” said Crabba. “Prototypes are always unreliable. Stay still, boss, or you’ll be eating fried crab for dinner.”
Rocky and Splash joined the fish-hurling. PING… PING… PING… The mackerel moved a lot slower in zero gravity, but they were effective just the same. BANG! BANG! BANG! The penguins blew up three more RoboSeals, including the gigantic Masher. Shattered robot components and broken metal teeth twirled around the room.
“WAHOO!” yelled Rocky as Cruncher exploded extra loudly.
“NOOO—bzsyst—OOO!” howled Dark Wader.
“Time to go,” Captain Krill said.
“They’re ESCAPING … ping … pziznzg…” shouted Dark Wader. His helmet had started smoking. “Fetch, Cyril! FETCH!”
The whale’s eyes blazed. It beat its tail extra hard. For such a huge creature, it moved very fast.
“The whale’s called Cyril?” said Rocky. “I almost feel sorry for it now.”
“You pathetic mechanized mussel—” Fuzz began, spinning back to face the charging whale, just as the penguins reached the spaceport ice hole. He was holding a fresh pile of fish bullets in his flippers.
“Oh no you don’t,” said Rocky, shoving Fuzz into the tunnel.
SMASH!
The ice tunnel went black as the whale plunged after them. The tunnel heaved and shuddered and threw Captain Krill against the walls.
“I think Cyril just got stuck!” Rocky shouted.
There was an awful grinding sound behind them. Cyril had wedged himself tight. The tunnel rang with his enraged bellowing.
“That’s good news, crew,” Captain Krill said, righting himself. “Wader can’t follow us now. Onwards and outwards!”
They zoomed into the great white spaceport. The Tunafish waited for them in mid-air.
“No Squid-G make-over for you, babe,” said Rocky glumly, looking at the Tunafish’s rusty patches. “Though at least they fixed the hole Fuzz made with the bazooka-blaster and put the door back on. I guess they didn’t have time to do the rest.”
“Where did the pizza guy go?” asked Fuzz, looking around for the Doughball.
“Delivering out-of-space pizzas a whole lot faster, Fuzz,” said Krill, darting through the door of the Tunafish. “We got him out. Our mission here is complete.”
“Welcome back,” said ICEcube. “I was starting to feel lonely – and computers never feel lonely.”
“It’s good to be back, ICEcube,” said Rocky, preparing to start the engine. “Hit the exit button on your way aboard, Splash!”
“Your fish is my command!” Splash shouted back.
“Did Splash just make a joke?” said Fuzz, rocketing into the ship with his flippers full of mackerel.
“It has been known,” said Splash, zooming in after him.
“Get the dinner on, Fuzz,” said Captain Krill, rubbing his flippers. “I fancy mackerel tonight.”
Steel doors slammed into place, sealing off the spaceport from the rest of the Death Starfish. The space station’s massive external doors heaved open. With a roar of its engines, the Tunafish lifted off and pelted out into the blackness. Captain Krill’s faint shout echoed through the silent stars.
“Good to see you again, Universe! The Tunafish is back on the case!”
P.S.
Fixed firmly on the underside of the Tunafish, where it had been since Rocky had flicked it off his belt, the little jelly-cam winked a little message back through a million light years of Deep Space.
ON BOARD TUNAFISH. MESSAGES TO FOLLOW.
“The jelly-cam!” gasped Crabba, looking up from the workbench where he was repairing Dark Wader’s armour. Bits of RoboSeal and broken pieces of the robot whale lay nearby. “It’s working after all!”
“Prepare for payback, Crabba,” growled the half-naked pengbot, shivering on his commander’s chair. “Next time I meet Krill and his crew, I will not show them any mercy. I will not give them any second chances. And I will most definitely not give them any pizza.”
Copyright
STRIPES PUBLISHING
An imprint of Little Tiger Press
1 The Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road,
London SW6 6AW
First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing in 2013.
Text copyright © Lucy Courtenay, 2013
Illustrations copyright © James Davies, 2013
Cover illustration copyright © Antony Evans, 2013
eISBN: 978–1–84715–491–0
The right of Lucy Courtenay and James Davies to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved.
Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any forms, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Lucy Courtenay, Star Attack