by Max Chase
‘If it’s like the one on Meigwor, there’ll be lots of smaller chutes joining into a giant one,’ Otto said. ‘One of the chutes will lead directly to the incinerator. We don’t want to go down that!’
Peri studied the column of flames as they powered up again. ‘Twenty-three seconds, sixteen micro-seconds and five nanoseconds between blasts,’ he said. Somehow, his bionic brain knew the exact time. ‘I hope that will be long enough.’
They set a direct course and were soon hovering a few hundred miles above Xion. Peri wiped the sweat from his forehead. The Bridge had grown hot. Even with the Phoenix’s thermo-dials turned all the way to ‘Arctic’, the heat from the Xion rubbish incinerator was stifling. Diesel was gasping for breath.
‘I reckon we’re close enough,’ Peri said. ‘Time to start the descent.’
‘OK – you take the Nav-wheel,’ Selene said. ‘I’ll count us down. Diesel, can you man the Space Cannon? Blast any bits of debris that look like they’re going to hit us.’
‘Oh yeah!’ Diesel took his place at the gunnery station.
‘What am I going to do?’ Otto said.
‘And me!’ the prince said. ‘What about me?’
‘You two just hold tight,’ Peri said.
He turned the Nav-wheel until the column of flame, soot and ash was directly ahead. It licked out towards them hungrily – the tip of the flames only a few miles away.
‘I’m counting down from five,’ Selene said. ‘At zero the flames will drop and we go. Five, four, three . . .’
Peri gripped the Nav-wheel.
‘. . . two, one, zero!’
Peri pulled the booster levers.
The Phoenix dive-bombed.
The flames dropped away. Ahead, Peri saw the mouth of the metal chute, still glowing red.
It widened rapidly.
Darkness fell as they entered the chute. Peri flicked on the outboard lights. The walls of the chute rushed by, curving one way and then the other. Desperately, Peri tried to keep the ship in the middle of the tunnel, without slowing down. Any miscalculation and they’d hit the side of the chute. At this speed, that would be the end of them.
Peri felt a tingling in his arms and legs. His bionic abilities were firing up. His reactions became super-fast. He threw the Nav-wheel from side to side as he followed the twists and turns of the chute.
‘Fifteen seconds till incinerator powers up!’ shouted Selene.
Peri saw chunks of rubbish explode and disintegrate into fragments as Diesel’s missiles hit them.
‘Nice shooting, Diesel!’ he called.
‘Ten seconds until it fires up!’ Selene yelled.
Then Peri saw three black holes rushing towards them. It was a junction – the chute split three ways. He eased up on the boosters.
‘What are you doing?’ screamed Selene. ‘Five seconds to go!’
‘One of those must be the incinerator!’ Otto said. ‘Choose the wrong one and we’re grilled.’
‘Go left!’ shouted Diesel.
‘Go for the middle!’ boomed Otto.
‘Go right!’ screamed Selene.
‘What’s happening?’ said Prince Onix.
Peri made his choice.
Chapter 4
The Phoenix zoomed into the left-hand chute.
Peri heard a roar. A wave of red light lit up the Bridge.
But the light was behind them.
He’d guessed right.
‘Klûu’ah!’ Diesel said shakily. ‘That was close.’
Prince Onix tried to hug Selene, but she dodged.
As the Bridge cooled, Peri’s muscles relaxed. The tingling in his limbs stopped. He slowed the ship to a few hundred miles an hour. It would be silly to crash into anything now, after avoiding the incinerator.
The chute widened. And straightened. The outboard lights lit up what looked like a mountain. A mountain of sludgy brown and muddy red and sickly green and radioactive blue. Peri reached for the boosters, to try slowing the Phoenix, but he reacted too late – they hit the mountain with a soft thump, the ship burying itself in the mountain.
A mountain of rubbish.
The 360-monitor showed slimy, decaying food, old bandages and various bits of rusting Xion mining machinery. There were also bits of broken-up battlecruisers, and other piles of bubbling slime.
‘We need to get moving. We’ll have to go through this mess,’ Selene said.
‘Why can’t we fly in like we did before?’ Diesel asked.
‘Xion’s defence systems will be on red alert this time,’ Peri explained. ‘If we take the ship in closer to the palace, we’re bound to be spotted.’
He tapped the nano-button implanted in his ribs, coughed and felt his lungs expand. The hydro-bubble had kicked in; now he’d be able to breathe freely in Xion’s carbon-rich atmosphere. Selene and Diesel did the same. Robot arms shot out from the wall and replaced the thick magnetic soles of their space boots with thinner soles, suitable for Xion gravity.
‘Prince – do you know the way to the palace from here?’
‘What palace?’ the prince asked.
Selene rolled her eyes. ‘Better use the Quikmap.’
Peri engaged the Quikmap 7000 touchpad on the control panel. ‘Palace of the Xion royal family, please.’
A purple ball shot from the ship. Peri saw it whizz over the mountain of garbage and disappear. A moment later, it beamed back images to the Quikmap 7000 monitor screen. There was a wide, grassy plain. It looked like Earth grass, except that it was red. The orb raced across it. Then there were miles of coalfields with tall chimneys, mining machinery and clouds of black smoke.
Then, at last, a town.
On a hill in the middle of the town was a palace with tall, spiky white towers, slightly stained with soot. The Quikmap orb came to a stop. The words RANGE: 102 MILES came up on the monitor.
‘Could be worse,’ Peri said.
They left the Bridge and went down the mauve-lit corridor. Peri touched the exit panel. The wall slid open and a ramp appeared, leading into the heart of the rubbish.
The smell hit Peri as soon as he set foot on the ramp. He gagged. The Expedition Wear helmet smoothly rose and covered his head. It shut out some of the smell. But not all of it.
Diesel took two wads of Eterni-chew gum from his pockets. He stuffed one in his mouth, and pushed the other up his nostrils. ‘That’s better,’ he said.
‘We need to cloak the ship,’ Selene said.
‘Cloaking won’t be enough,’ Peri said. ‘That won’t stop it from getting shovelled into the incinerator.’
He looked at the control strip on the wristband of his Expedition Wear. He wasn’t sure what to do. But his bionic half was gradually learning more and more about the Phoenix’s powers. It made the decision for him. One of the dials was labelled Expansion Packs. Peri twisted the dial anticlockwise.
The Phoenix shrank.
And shrank.
And shrank.
At last it was the size of a toy.
‘Wow!’ Selene said.
Peri picked up the Phoenix and slipped it in his pocket. ‘OK, let’s get moving.’
They climbed up the rubbish heap. It felt horribly soft and slimy underfoot. They got to the top and saw more rubbish mountains. Miles and miles of them, as far as the eye could see.
‘I don’t like this place,’ the prince said.
‘But this is your home planet,’ Selene replied.
‘It can’t be,’ the prince said. ‘I’m sure my home planet is a beautiful place. But this is revolti— Eeeek!’
The prince gave a sudden squeal and leapt into Selene’s arms. She staggered and dropped him. ‘What are you doing?’ she said crossly.
‘There are horrible creatures!’ Prince Onix said, dancing on the tips of his toes. He pointed with a shaking finger.
Peri saw twitching snouts poking through the stinking mounds of rubbish.
Rats! They were not quite like Earth rats. They had scaly, yellow, hairless skin. They
had extra mouths at the side of their heads, just below the ears. They opened their mouths and squeaked horribly, each showing three sets of needle-sharp teeth.
Then they came swarming over the rubbish towards the Phoenix’s crew.
Peri snatched the laser from the belt of his Expedition Wear and shot the rat closest to him. It rolled over and lay still. Two other rats instantly jumped on it and started nibbling.
‘Urgh!’ squealed Otto. ‘Rats! Help!’
‘You’re scared of rats?’ jeered Diesel. ‘Some bounty hunter you are! Ch’açh!’ He jumped back just in time to avoid the rat snapping at his leg.
Selene shot it. But more and more rats were appearing from the deepest, darkest cracks in the rubbish. The crew were surrounded by them.
‘Mummy!’ shrieked Otto.
‘Help!’ Prince Onix whined. The rats crept closer, squeaking. Saliva dripped from their needle teeth.
‘We have to get out of here,’ Selene said. ‘We can’t fight them off, there are too many!’
‘Press the Zero-G button on your ankle!’ Peri called to his crew.
He pressed his and immediately rose into the air. Selene and Diesel joined him a moment later.
Otto and the prince were still on the ground. Otto was flapping his arms wildly, shrieking.
Selene grabbed Onix under the armpits and lifted him clear.
It took both Peri and Diesel to lift Otto. With his free hand, Peri fired his laser again. He hit two rats, which were gobbled up by the five more that emerged from the rubbish.
The Zero-G carried the Phoenix crew on over the rubbish heaps, just above the snapping jaws of the leaping rats. Otto thrashed around so much that Peri and Diesel kept dropping him. They ended up carrying him by his feet.
At last, they left the rubbish heaps behind. The squeak of the rats died away.
‘That was the worst thing that’s ever happened to me!’ moaned Otto.
‘Let’s dump the prince and split,’ Diesel said. ‘This planet isn’t any too friendly. We’ve brought him back home. Isn’t that enough?’
‘He’d never find his way to the royal palace alone,’ Peri said. ‘And if anything else happens to him, it’s us they’ll blame.’
‘Peri’s right,’ Selene said. ‘We have to take him all the way. It’s only about a hundred miles.’
‘Only!?’ groaned Diesel and Otto at the same time.
After a while they got the hang of zooming along in Zero-G. Selene carried the prince. Peri and Diesel carried Otto. The red, grassy plain scooted by beneath them. Then the black mining country, that seemed to go on for ever. Later in the day, they finally reached the dark, sooty buildings and narrow streets of Xion’s capital city.
‘Better walk from here,’ Peri said. ‘We’d be pretty easy to spot flying along.’
They touched their Zero-G buttons and dropped to the ground with a gentle bump. Otto wound his arms round his back and pulled up his cape collar to conceal his neck. A few people stared at them as they walked through the streets. Luckily, they didn’t need to ask for directions – the marble towers of the palace were easy to spot.
They were only a few streets away when a group of Xion guards appeared in the road ahead. They were dressed in battle gear, with black chest armour, antennae sprouting from their helmets and pincer-like gloves. They carried laserpulses. At the sight of the Phoenix’s crew in their Expedition Wear, they quickened their pace.
‘Halt!’ shouted the leader.
Peri, Selene, Diesel and Otto looked at each other in dismay.
‘What do we do?’ Diesel said.
‘I think,’ Peri said, ‘that we should run!’
Chapter 5
Peri led the way, looking for somewhere to hide. He bolted round a street corner. There was a low green door set into a wall. Peri yanked it open and they all piled through.
They found themselves in a tavern. It reminded Peri of saloon bars he’d seen in old movies from planet Earth, called ‘westerns’. People of all species were sitting at wooden tables drinking foaming green ale from which clouds of smoke arose. As well as the Xion customers, Peri recognised Saturnians, Betelgeusians, Sirians, and a group of Alpha Centaurians who had humanoid heads and horse-like bodies. They were all talking and shouting and laughing.
At the sight of Peri and the crew, they fell silent. The ten-tentacled Aldebaranian who had been playing the piano stopped playing.
Every head turned to stare at them.
‘Er – hi,’ Peri said awkwardly.
The silence continued. Then the customers shrugged and turned back to their drinking, and the noise level rose again.
‘They’re used to seeing strangers here,’ said Otto. ‘It’s a mining planet – people come here from all over the galaxy to find work.’
‘What now?’ Diesel said.
‘Let’s just hide out here,’ Peri said. He led the group to an empty table in a dark corner, taking care to keep between Prince Onix and the people at the bar. ‘We’ll look and see if the coast is clear in a while.’
A Xion waiter came and stood by their table. ‘To drink?’
‘Just water,’ Peri said.
The waiter raised his eyebrows. ‘You have expensive tastes, my friend.’
‘Expensive?’
‘Water is the most expensive drink on Xion. That will be sixty-one thousand creds, please.’
The door of the tavern was kicked open. The Xion guards marched in. Their antennae quivered as they scanned the room.
‘We’re looking for some strangers,’ the leader barked.
Uh-oh, Peri thought. Trouble. The others were looking at him anxiously. ‘Has anyone seen any aliens?’ demanded the leader of the guards.
‘We’re all aliens here,’ said an Arcturusian, with eyes the size of plates and a wrinkled pink trunk.
The guard continued, ‘I mean aliens who’ve just come in –’
Peri’s mind went Superluminal. He had to create a distraction. That was the only hope they had of slipping away unnoticed. And what better distraction than a fight.
‘– you Arcturusian monstrosity!’ Peri yelled, mimicking the guard’s barking voice.
‘What did you call me?’ The Arcturusian took a step towards the guard.
‘– you Xion heap of space-shark droppings?’ added Peri, in a perfect imitation of the Arcturusian’s nasal tones.
The leader of the guards rushed at the Arcturusian with his arm upraised. The Arcturusian’s trunk shot out and whacked the guard on the nose. Another guard ran up and pushed the Arcturusian, who fell over a table, breaking it.
‘Get down,’ Peri told his crew.
A bottle crashed on the wall above Selene’s head. They all ducked behind the table.
The Arcturusian’s friend, one of the Alpha Centaurians, kicked out with his hooves and sent the guard flying. Another guard whacked the Alpha Centaurian with his laserpulse. Then someone broke a chair over that guard’s head. Soon the whole tavern had joined in the fight and furniture and glasses and fists were flying everywhere.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ Peri said.
‘But I love a good fight!’ Otto said. He unfolded his arms and rushed forward.
‘There’s no time for fighting, Otto!’ Peri said, grabbing Otto by one arm. Diesel grabbed Otto by the other arm, and Selene pushed him from behind. Together, they propelled him through the door. Prince Onix followed, sticking close to Selene.
‘This way,’ Peri said. They set off at a run towards the palace. Soon it was looming right over them.
‘That’s your home, Prince,’ Selene said. ‘Recognise it?’
The prince shook his head. ‘Never seen it before in my life.’
‘Well, that’s where you’re going,’ Peri said, as they walked towards the palace gates. They passed through an archway made from the twisted wreckage of spaceships destroyed in battle. Peri drew the prince into the archway’s shadow. ‘I’m giving you a message to take to your mum and dad, OK?’ he said.
/> He pulled the Holographiser from the breast pocket of his Expedition Wear. This was a flexible, mirrored pad, into which the sender spoke. The message was then delivered as a 3-D holograph when the recipient opened it.
‘Dear King and Queen – we are returning Prince Onix safe and sound. He was taken by mistake. He seems to have lost his memory but he’ll soon get that back. Probably. Apologies and best wishes, Peri, of Planet Earth. If it still exists.’
Peri folded the Holographiser and stuck the adhesive side to the prince’s tunic. ‘All right? Off you go.’ He pointed to the whitish towers of the royal palace. ‘Just knock on the door – they’ll be so glad to see you!’ Peri said.
‘But will I be glad to see them?’ Prince Onix asked.
‘Of course you will!’ Selene said. ‘They’re your mum and dad.’
‘I’d rather stay with you,’ the prince said. ‘With Selene.’
‘Look, Prince,’ Peri said. ‘Just go home!’
‘Go home!’ Selene said.
‘Go home!’ Diesel said.
‘Go home!’ Otto said.
‘Well, since you put it like that . . .’ the prince said. He stood thinking for a while. Then he pulled off the Holographiser, crumpled it up, and dropped it to the ground. ‘I’ve decided I feel most at home with you. We’ll travel all over the universe together in the Phoenix!’
‘No, we won’t,’ Selene said, turning the prince towards the palace and giving him a gentle push forward.
There was a shout. The Xion guards from the tavern were running up the street towards them. They were battered and bruised and their clothing was torn. And they were angry.
Very angry.
‘Get them!’ shouted the leader.
‘Let’s fight!’ Diesel said.
Otto turned to Diesel, flexing his arms. ‘I thought you’d never ask.’
‘Not each other, you voidoid!’ Peri shouted. ‘Them!’
The guards surrounded them. Diesel dropped into the classic cosmic-combat position. So did Otto. His tongue flickered in and out menacingly.