Cosmic Crash

by Lucy Courtenay

  The penguins watched with horror as the squid monster blasted out a long tentacle and grabbed at a fleeing fish. Popping the little creature into its mouth, it chomped down with evil green teeth. Then it turned its hungry eyes on the Space Penguins.

  It was time to fight or be eaten. Or maybe swim away.

  They decided to fight.

  Fuzz attacked first, speeding at the monster’s belly with his beak outstretched.

  BOING!

  The squid’s skin was tough and rubbery, and Fuzz bounced right off again.

  Rocky tried another tactic. WHAM! BAM! He pummelled the squid with his flippers. Like Fuzz, he bounced straight off the monster’s skin. There were tentacles everywhere. The penguins felt like mice, in the power of a cat with too many paws. And now its mouth was getting closer. Closer and closer…

  The penguins were running out of air. They had to get back to the surface!

  In desperation, Captain Krill charged at the monster’s ugly face and smashed his feet into its nose.

  “WAWAWA!”

  The purple ocean boomed with the monster squid’s howl of pain. It pulled back its tentacles and fled into the deep darkness, trailing its rubbery limbs behind it.

  The Space Penguins were safe – for now.

  As the three penguins got to the surface, they found Splash sitting on top of a large purple ice floe.

  Captain Krill, Rocky and Fuzz leaped aboard, their lungs burning for air.

  “The fish aren’t the only inhabitants on this planet, Splash,” gasped Rocky. “There’s a monster squid down there … and it’s ten times bigger than the Tunafish!”

  “Ten times!” gasped Splash, his eyes bobbling with fright.

  “Yes, we almost got eaten!” said Fuzz with excitement. “It was wicked!”

  “We can’t fetch anything else from the Tunafish,” said the captain. “It’s too risky. Do you have what you need to build this winch, Splash?”

  Splash looked at the pile of nuts, bolts, tools, wheels, explosives and sticky tape that they had collected. “I think so,” he said. “It won’t be perfect, but I’ll manage.”

  “Then do it!” commanded Captain Krill. “The quicker you make that winch, the quicker we can pull up the Tunafish and get out of here! Penguin power!”

  “Penguin power!” the others shouted back.

  So what if there was a big squid monster underneath them? They weren’t intergalactic heroes for nothing.

  “We’re the Space Penguins!” roared Fuzz. “Hear us flap!”

  The penguins got busy. Banging and hammering filled the wide purple horizon as far as the ear could hear. Every now and again, a blue-eyed fish popped its head above the water to see what was going on. When Splash put on his goggles and fired up his welding torch, Rocky backed away. He didn’t want anything else to be burnt.

  “Pass me the sticky tape,” Splash said as the two suns began to set.

  Rocky handed it over.

  Splash wiped his forehead with his flipper.

  “Spanner,” he said next. “Not that spanner, Rocky, THAT spanner.”

  Tinker. Hammer. Tinker.

  The instructions went on. “I need a screwdriver! The measuring tape! A cup of tea! That little thingy with the pointy bit on the end!”

  By the time the winch was finished, the two yellow suns were sinking. Fifty metres of steel rope and a heavy steel hook hung off the ice floe down into the purple water. The other end looped around a complicated set of wheels with three turning handles.

  “Now that’s what I call a winch,” said Rocky approvingly.

  “Excellent work, Splash,” said the captain.

  Fuzz was too busy practising anti-squid moves further back on the ice floe to say anything.

  Splash preened his feathers and looked pleased with himself. “I’m glad you like it,” he said. “Let’s just hope it works.”

  The Space Penguins paddled the ice floe along. Splash lay flat on his belly, peering into the water with a pair of waterproof binoculars to see if he could spot the Tunafish below.

  “Left a bit!” he shouted. “Right a bit! That’s it! You’ve got it! The Tunafish is directly beneath us! Slowly now…”

  The penguins felt the steel rope shudder, as if it had hit something.

  “Yes!” said Splash. “You’ve hooked it! Start winding it up!”

  “Here we go!” shouted Rocky.

  The steel rope tightened as the Space Penguins turned their handles. It was slow going because the Tunafish was heavy. Fuzz’s legs were so short that he lifted off the ground when his handle reached the top of the wheel. He paddled hard at the air and brought his wheel back to the ground again.

  Slowly the spaceship started lifting off the ridge. Its nose came first. Then its belly. Soon the Tunafish was dangling from the rope like a massive – well, a massive tunafish.

  “Yes!” Splash shouted. “Yes! Ye— No! NO!”

  The rope suddenly went slack. The penguins tumbled backwards as the steel rope flew out of the water. The empty hook crashed into the purple ice floe, just missing Rocky’s head.

  “We dropped it!” said Splash in dismay. “The Tunafish is gone!”

  The two yellow suns disappeared into the purple sea. Two green moons rose in their place. It was too dark, even in the bright green moonlight, for the Space Penguins to try and find the Tunafish now. Who knew where she had ended up?

  “We’d better get some sleep, crew,” said Captain Krill.

  “My mother sang me a lullaby when I was a chick,” said Splash as the penguins settled down and tried to get comfortable. Rocky cuddled Dave, who had defrosted. “It helped me to drop off.”

  “I never knew you had a mother, Splash,” said Fuzz.

  “Everyone has a mother, Fuzz,” said Captain Krill, staring up at the green night sky. “No matter how far away she might be. Will you sing it for us, Splash?”

  Splash cleared his throat.

  “Hush little penguin, don’t lose your fluff,

  “Mummy’s going to catch you some fishy stuff,

  “When the snow storms freeze your feet,

  “Mummy’s going to warm them with her body heat,

  “When you’re feeling really bored,

  “Mummy’s going to build you an ice-cube sword,

  “Nights will come and seals will snore,

  “Mummy’s going to love you forever more.”

  It was a lovely song. But in spite of Splash’s best efforts, no one slept a wink. They lay on their backs on the ice floe, staring at the green-looking moons and feeling terrible. Here they were, four intergalactic heroes, who now needed rescuing themselves! The winch, the rope and the empty steel hook lay beside them. Would they ever get off this planet?

  “Poor Tunafish,” said Fuzz.

  “Poor ICEcube!” wailed Rocky. “I promised we’d be back to rescue the ship.”

  “Poor us,” said Splash. “Staying here forever and eating nothing but coconut-flavoured fish.”

  “Stay positive, crew,” said Captain Krill. “I’m sure that everything will look better in the morning.”

  “Let’s face it,” Rocky said glumly. “It can’t look any worse.”

  Morning came ten minutes later. The planet was clearly very small, with short days and even shorter nights.

  “Right,” said the captain. He stood up on the ice floe and smoothed his yellow ear patches. “Let’s go down there and find out exactly where the Tunafish is.”

  “What about the monster squid?” asked Splash.

  “I’m not afraid of that tentacled trampoline,” said Fuzz.

  “We can use the fish,” said Rocky.

  “In what way?” said Fuzz. “A coconut casserole?”

  “No, you dim dogfish,” said Rocky. “Remember how the fish swam away when the squid appeared? Well, how about we swim with them, and use them as a warning system? If they disappear again, it means that the squid is coming. Then we can disappear too.”

  “The Fuzzmeister n
ever disappears,” said Fuzz. He struck a ninja pose. “He fights to the death!”

  “He follows orders,” Captain Krill reminded Fuzz. “And I order you to swim away this time – as soon as you see the squid. Now let’s go.”

  Thousands of alien fish glided around the penguins as they went in search of the Tunafish once again. The spacecraft wasn’t on the ridge where it had been before. Either it had landed further along when it fell off the winch hook, or it had vanished into the bottomless ocean forever.

  A vent in the ridge exploded with boiling hot water as Fuzz swam over it.

  “Yow!” he yelled, shooting to the surface.

  “I feel your pain, Fuzz,” said Rocky, shooting up beside him. “Actually, no, I don’t. HA HA HA HA!”

  They swam on cautiously, following the ridge the whole way. There were fewer alien fish the further they went. Things were looking bad.

  “The emptiness down there is making me nervous,” said Rocky the next time they rose to the surface to catch their breath. “The squid could be just around the corner. What if he’s hiding in the shadows?”

  “Then we’ll end up as fish food,” Splash said.

  “No one makes fish food out of Fuzz Allgrin!” said Fuzz.

  “Keep looking, crew,” said Captain Krill.

  On they went. They had no choice.

  This part of the deep purple ocean was completely still and silent. Now there were no alien fish at all. The penguins had lost the only warning they had.

  Suddenly, Rocky spotted something silvery lying on a steep part of the ridge. He clapped Captain Krill on the shoulder and pointed.

  The Tunafish was in a funny position with its nose pointing downwards, but at least they hadn’t lost it completely. A big black cave yawned beside it like a hungry mouth.

  “Great!” said Fuzz as they surfaced. “Now we’ve found it, all we have to do is winch it up again!”

  “I didn’t like the look of that cave, though,” said Splash. “What if the squid monster’s in there? Or more hot vents?”

  “Only one way to find out,” said Fuzz, ducking under the water again.

  “What’s he doing?” said Rocky.

  “I think he’s going to swim inside the cave and check it out,” said Splash.

  “He’ll be boiled alive!” Rocky gasped. “Or eaten! Or both!”

  “Follow him, crew!” said the captain. “He may need our help!”

  They pelted after their space-mate, reaching the Tunafish and the cave just as Fuzz shot inside. The Space Penguins would have held their breath if they hadn’t been holding it already.

  Moments later, Fuzz shot out again. His eyes were wide with terror.

  An impossibly large tentacle whipped out of the cave mouth. It was the size of an express train and was dotted with suction pads like giant satellite dishes. It made the tentacles on the first alien squid look like skinny spaghetti.

  Captain Krill was right when he said that everyone had a mother. The Space Penguins had just found the squid monster’s mummy!

  “Swim for your lives!” cried Fuzz.

  The Space Penguins turned and fled.

  The gigantic tentacle was still unrolling from the cave mouth. It whipped from side to side, churning up the purple water so that it fizzed and bubbled.

  More tentacles burst out of the cave. There were tentacles everywhere the penguins looked. A sea of tentacles. An ocean of tentacles. An entire PLANET of tentacles! How many more tentacles were there? The baby squid had had loads. Did the mother squid have even more? It was too scary to think about.

  The penguins tried whooshing to the surface but their path was blocked by the biggest tentacle of all. They squeezed past its groping suction cups with millimetres to spare.

  “We need to get to the ice floe!” shouted Rocky, bursting from the water. “Where is it?”

  “Over there!” shouted Captain Krill, pointing to a pale purple dot on the horizon.

  The monster tentacle reared out of the water and thudded down on them.

  SMASH!

  Purple water exploded in all directions. The penguins dived and twisted. Their flippers were a blur. Their feet were like whirling propellers.

  SMASH! SMASH! SMASH!

  More huge tentacles whipped and thumped into the sea. Waves crashed over the penguins’ heads as they sped away. Nearly there… Nearly…

  Leaping from the water, they skidded into the middle of the ice floe. The sea rocked violently.

  “Now that’s what I call a monster squid!” gasped Rocky. He smoothed his shaking eyebrows away from his face. “It makes the other one look like a bath toy!”

  “I can’t believe I swam away,” Fuzz said. “I never swim away from ANYTHING.”

  “But that thing was the size of an iceberg,” Splash soothed.

  “I want to go back and fight it!” said Fuzz. “Now I know what I’m dealing with, I’ll beat it flippers down! I have this BRILLIANT ninja penguin move—”

  “No,” ordered Captain Krill.

  The ice floe lurched from side to side as the monster’s tentacles smashed at the water around them, over and over again.

  SMASH! SMASH!

  It wasn’t giving up.

  “There’s only one thing for it,” Captain Krill shouted above the crashing waves. “We have to go back down, lure the monster inside the cave again and block the mouth. Otherwise we’ll never be able to hook up the Tunafish. It’s too close to the beast’s lair.”

  “How?” said Rocky.

  BLAM! went the tentacles.

  “I could make a swimming clockwork bomb,” Splash said. He seized some sheet metal, a couple of blue glass marbles and a bundle of explosives from the pile of spare equipment which hadn’t been used to make the winch. “The explosion will cause a rock fall and block the cave mouth. It will give us just enough time to hook up the Tunafish and winch it to safety. I can make it look like one of those coconut fish, so that the monster isn’t suspicious when it swims into the cave.”

  SMASH!

  A tentacle came down so close that the ice floe tipped sideways. The Space Penguins grabbed at the equipment and the winch to stop them sliding into the churning sea. Splash gave the winch a blast with the ice ray to freeze it to the floe. They couldn’t afford to lose anything now.

  “The squid might even eat the fish-bomb,” said Rocky hopefully.

  “Then I hope it likes food with an explosive flavour,” said Fuzz.

  Splash fired up his welding torch and set to work. The ice floe stopped rocking as the monster got bored of smashing at the surface of the sea. But the penguins knew that it was still gliding around underneath them, waiting for its chance…

  “Nearly there!” shouted Splash, welding bits of metal and blue marbles together at top speed. “I’ve packed it with explosives. It’s going to make a mighty bang!”

  BANG!

  A gigantic tentacle split the penguins’ ice floe in half. They clung on to what was left.

  “Finished!” Splash held up the little bomb triumphantly. It looked just like an alien fish, complete with blue marbles for its eyes. “Now all we have to do is lure the monster back inside that cave! Who wants to be bait?”

  “Me!” shouted Fuzz.

  “You’re a brave penguin but we almost lost you last time,” said the captain. “Your legs and flippers aren’t long enough for speed swimming. You’d be eaten in moments. Rocky? You’re fast. Are you up to the job? You’ll have to swim into the cave with the monster and then swim out again before Splash sets off the bomb.”

  Rocky smoothed his eyebrows away from his face. “Aye aye, Captain!” he said, standing to attention on the broken ice floe. “Just leave it to Rocky Waddle!” He leaped into the stormy purple water.

  “Rocky!” called Captain Krill.

  Rocky bobbed up. “What?”

  “You’re going the wrong way,” said the captain. He pointed. “The cave and the Tunafish are over there.”

  “Oh … OK!” Rocky ducked
beneath the waves again … just as the squid pulled its tentacles back under the water and started to chase him.

  The rest of the penguins leaped in after the squid.

  “Good luck!” shouted Splash as their space-mate zoomed out of sight ahead of them. “You’re going to need it!”

  The penguins swam deeper and deeper, following Rocky and the squid monster. The monster filled the ocean. Its tentacles went on forever. It seemed almost as big as the watery planet itself. And it was fast. Very fast. Rocky twisted his flippers into crazy shapes to send himself zigzagging through the water. As he swam like mad towards the Tunafish and the cave, he used every penguin trick he could think of to avoid being caught.

  Nothing helped. The squid was gaining on him.

  He burst back up and out of the water to take a breath, just as the other Space Penguins sprang up behind him to breathe as well. PING! PING! PING! Then they all dived back down.

  A cloud of alien fish pelted through the water beside them for a while, before veering off into the gloom. The squid was getting closer to Rocky all the time. The other penguins stayed on its tail.

  “Keep up, crew!” shouted Captain Krill as he arrowed into the air and back into the water again. “Not much further!”

  “Don’t drop the bomb before we get there, Splash!” yelled Fuzz. He surfed along on his belly for a bit, steering with his flippers. “Walloping whale-blubber! What a chase!”

  The teetering Tunafish and the cave mouth loomed into view. Rocky sped through the hole into the blackness. The gigantic squid monster followed him in and vanished like a snail curling back into its shell.

  The rest of the Space Penguins screeched to a halt, back-paddling to slow themselves down. Splash wound up the clockwork fish-bomb and got ready to release it. Now all they needed was for Rocky to swim out of the cave again.