The Enemy's Lair

by Max Chase

  ‘But we put you back together again,’ Peri reminded him, as he tapped a button on the side of his Expedition Wear. The helmet retracted and his Expedition Wear armour softened. He heard Diesel doing the same.

  ‘You think my people will let this insult go unavenged? They will go to the ends of the universe to find you. They will throw you into the Sludge Mines –’

  ‘Hey!’ Diesel said. ‘Don’t blame us. If your people want to send someone to the Sludge Mines, send him.’ He pointed at Otto. Otto glared back.

  ‘It’s true,’ Peri said. ‘We didn’t know what he was up to.’ He took a step towards the bounty hunter. ‘But he’s not in charge any more.’ Peri grabbed the Xion teleportation band from the Meigwor. ‘I’ll take that.’ He placed his hand on the wall of the Bridge. ‘Bits and bobs,’ Peri said to the Phoenix. A drawer popped out. It held all kinds of useful things, and could be accessed from any part of the ship. Peri dropped the teleportation band into it for safe keeping. ‘Lock drawer.’

  Peri started to realise just what a mess Otto had got them into. ‘We’re not going along with your evil plans any more, Otto.

  We’re going to Meigwor and we’re getting Selene back. Then we’re taking the prince back to Xion. No more of your stupid tricks!’

  Otto stood as still as a stone, his mouth hanging open. Peri thought maybe he was finally getting through to him.

  But Diesel’s mouth was hanging open, too. His strip of hair had turned white. They were both staring at something behind Peri.

  Peri turned round.

  There, in the middle of the 360-monitor, hung the sinister shape of a Xion battleship. Just like the one that obliterated the IF Space Station. It was very, very, very, very, very big.

  And getting closer by the second.

  Chapter 4

  ‘You see?’ said Prince Onix triumphantly. ‘You really thought you could get away with kidnapping me, without my people coming after you?’

  ‘They won’t dare blow us up with you on board,’ Diesel said.

  ‘No, they won’t,’ the prince agreed. ‘They’ll capture the ship and take you back to Xion, and then it’s the Sludge Mines for you.’

  Peri looked again at the battleship hanging in the blackness of space. A grid of glowing white rays projected from it. He knew what it was – he had read about it in training at the Intergalactic Force Academy. A Laser Cage. In a few seconds, it would close around them.

  ‘Do something!’ Otto yelled.

  Peri dived for the control panel. He had to engage the ship’s Superluminal speed, and fast. It didn’t matter where they went as long as it was a long, long way away from here.

  His hands hovered above the controls – and stopped. He couldn’t remember what to do. What had the electric mace done to him? Something was definitely wrong with his connection to the Phoenix.

  ‘Hurry up!’ Diesel shouted.

  The glowing lines of the Laser Cage now filled the 360-monitor.

  Peri forced himself to think, which he’d never had to do before when it came to the Phoenix. His parents had designed him to operate the ship and it had always come as second nature to him. He didn’t have to think what to do; he just did it. Now he concentrated and remembered that the touchpad for Superluminal speed was the glowing red one. He placed his palm on the red screen. The panel clicked and then glided open. Inside were two switches. His trembling fingers flicked them just in time.

  The Xion battleship became a dot on the 360-monitor. Then nothing.

  Planets and suns flashed past. Space was mostly empty, and there were light years of nothingness between solar systems. But at Superluminal speed, light years were covered in seconds.

  Peri tugged at the Nav-wheel, frantically swerving and dipping. It was much harder now his connection to the Phoenix was scrambled. Sweat formed on his brow and dripped down his temple. Giant spheres of rock and even gianter balls of blazing hydrogen rushed towards them.

  He remembered he must check the Velocity View. A huge yellow star rapidly filled the screen. They were heading straight for it. They’d be burned to a crisp. Or to a vapour.

  Peri screwed his eyes shut against the searing glare. The 360-monitor tinted. He disengaged Superluminal speed. He wrenched the Nav-wheel. Diesel was screaming. Then . . .

  Nothing.

  Peri opened his eyes. The star was a nice, safe distance away, still glowing. ‘Whew!’ he said shakily.

  The Phoenix was orbiting around a planet with orange land masses, purple oceans and wisps of green cloud.

  ‘I thought we were goners,’ Diesel said.

  Peri glanced around the Bridge and realised what was missing. ‘Where are Otto and the prince?’

  Diesel looked high and low. There was no sign of the Meigwor or the Xion.

  ‘What’s Otto up to now?’ Diesel groaned.

  ‘He must have some sneaky plan,’ Peri said. ‘He always does.’

  ‘Should we go after him?’

  Peri shook his head. ‘We don’t want to start playing hide-and-seek. Now we’ve got a bit of time to ourselves, let’s work out a plan to rescue Selene.’

  Diesel’s strip of hair faded from red to pink to purple ‘Can’t you use the Phoenix to send Selene a message? I mean, it must have lots of data about Selene stored.’

  ‘Good idea,’ Peri paused. ‘But how?’

  ‘You’re the one who’s supposed to understand this ship.’

  Peri nodded. Normally he understood the ship completely. But right now his mind was blank.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I can’t think.’

  Diesel’s strip of hair flared bright pink again. ‘Selene’s wearing her Expedition Wear, right?’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘Can’t the ship use that to locate her?’

  ‘That’s not a bad idea,’ Peri said. Why hadn’t he thought of it? If Diesel could out-think him, his circuits must have been badly scrambled by that shock from the electric mace. Otto had repaired some of the damage when he’d shoved him against the console, but he still wasn’t right. He was beginning to wonder if his bionic half would ever work properly again.

  ‘The suits are coded, right?’ Diesel continued. ‘Each one has a number.’ Diesel pulled at a label stitched to his forearm. ‘Mine’s #4737.3.’

  ‘#4737.6,’ Peri said, looking at his own label.

  ‘So Selene’s must be either #4737.0, or #4737.9.’

  ‘Right.’ Peri tried to think how the ship’s computer could use that information. But it was like trying to peer through fog. He knew the answer was there, but he just couldn’t see it.

  Diesel rolled his eyes. ‘What’s the matter with you? We use the Quikmap function, dumboid!’

  ‘Oh, yeah,’ Peri said. ‘I was just going to say that.’

  They stood together at the control panel – a huge bank of buttons and dials and touchpads and keypads and winking lights and screens and displays.

  ‘So where’s the Quikmap function?’ Diesel asked.

  ‘Er –’ Peri fingered a switch and then a dial. He couldn’t remember which button to use. He couldn’t imagine what hitting the wrong button might do. He knew they hadn’t discovered one millionth of what the Phoenix could do. One button might tuck them into their sleeping pods while another might be the self-destruct sequence. He didn’t know. He hadn’t realised how much being half-bionic had helped him know instinctively how the Phoenix worked. It had felt so natural, and now he felt empty somehow.

  ‘This must be it!’ Diesel pointed at a screen that had an icon of a solar system above it. ‘Set it for planetary level, right?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Peri said, but he wasn’t sure, not really.

  ‘And home in on Meigwor?’

  ‘That’s where she is, so . . .’

  Diesel flicked through the images on the touchpad until Meigwor, a greenish ball with muddy brown oceans floating in the blackness of space, appeared on the screen.

  ‘Closer Search Function,’ Diesel read from a messag
e that had appeared at the top of the screen. ‘Do you think that’s it?’

  ‘Must be.’

  Diesel touched the message. A keypad appeared in its place. ‘I’ll try the suit numbers.’

  ‘I can do that.’ Peri nudged Diesel aside and typed in the suit number. He missed the hum he used to feel when he touched the control panel.

  The image of Meigwor rapidly filled the screen. The image came into focus as the Quikmap orb reached the surface of the planet. It whizzed round and round Meigwor at a million miles an hour, transmitting pictures to the Quikmap screen. They flickered past so fast Peri could barely make them out. He just caught the odd detail here and there – a bubbling brown ocean, then, a nanosecond later, a city with strange, squat buildings. Then pictures of steamy jungle flickered past. The trees had round purple-and-green leaves. There were fluttering insects as big as birds. Peri caught a glimpse of a weird, red creature without a head.

  Then, in a clearing, a figure clothed in Expedition Wear.

  ‘There she is!’ Peri shouted.

  No doubt about it. Peri saw her face clearly. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair clung damply to the side of her face. She was looking around nervously, biting her lip.

  From out of the surrounding jungle, Meigwor soldiers advanced.

  Ten of them. Some held laserpulses. Some held curved, scythe-like swords. Their long, red necks craned towards Selene.

  They closed in on her. Selene looked wildly around. But there was nowhere for her to run.

  The monitor fogged up and then flickered off.

  ‘She’s in trouble,’ Peri said. ‘We have to get there now!’

  Chapter 5

  ‘I’ll plot a course for Selene’s location,’ Peri said, trying to sound more confident than he felt.

  ‘I’ll go look for Otto and the prince,’ Diesel said, hurrying towards the nearest portal. It opened with a hiss. Diesel clumped down the corridor.

  Peri searched the console for the Pinpoint Navigational Keypad. There it was: a milky-white window with a keypad of letters, numbers and symbols. To plot a course for the right section of the Meigwor jungle he’d have to input the space coordinates for where they’d just seen Selene. How would he find those?

  There had to be a quicker way of doing this. If he was his normal self, he’d know it intuitively.

  The shipboard monitor on the far wall glowed into life. Peri saw Diesel standing by a glittering blue swimming pool. ‘Hey, Peri, check this out!’ Diesel said and flipped some sort of Remote Transfigurator Device. At once the pool closed over and a full-sized Neptunian quarkball court sprang into view.

  ‘Cool, isn’t it? You can go for a swim or play quarkball. This ship’s got all kinds of stuff!’

  ‘I’m so glad you’re having a nice time,’ Peri said. ‘But shouldn’t you be looking for Otto and Onix?’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll find them, don’t worry.’

  Peri returned his attention to the console. There was a glowing purple button marked Oracle. He touched it.

  A shimmering panel of rainbow light appeared in the air in front of him. ‘Please pose your question,’ it said in a soothing deep voice.

  ‘Space coordinates for most recent location of Expedition Wear 4737.0, please.’

  ‘Easy-peasy,’ the Oracle said. ‘1010101011100110001zxfxfzbluedogpqr and fifty-seven and a half.’

  ‘Er, thanks,’ Peri said. ‘Sorry, do you think you could repeat that?’

  The shipboard monitor panel glowed into life again.

  ‘Hey, look at this!’ Diesel said. He was standing in a dark auditorium with antique-style anchored seats and a big screen at the front. On the screen were moving pictures of a cowboy and a quaint, old-fashioned cartoon spaceman figure. ‘We’ve got an old-time cinema on board, how about that? 3-D, computer-generated graphics. Can you believe how primitive entertainment on Earth used to be?’

  ‘Great,’ Peri said with a roll of his eyes. ‘Shall I come down and watch it with you?’

  ‘Aren’t you busy?’

  ‘Yes, I am!’ Peri shouted. Martians just didn’t get sarcasm. ‘And so are you! Find Otto!’

  ‘All right, all right,’ Diesel said. ‘Keep your wig on.’

  Peri returned his attention to the Oracle. ‘Could I have those coordinates again? A bit slower?’

  The Oracle repeated the coordinates. Peri only just managed to key them in. Hope I haven’t got them wrong, he thought, as he engaged the ship’s Thruster Control and saw the ship speed forward.

  A portal opened and Diesel appeared with Otto and Prince Onix. They were both gagged and bound with lengths of adhesive silicon hemp. All three were shivering. Prince Onix’s teeth chattered, and Diesel’s strip of hair had turned a pale, arctic blue. Otto glared at his captor.

  ‘Nice one,’ Peri said. ‘How d’you catch them?’

  ‘Easy for someone with my super-advanced combat skills,’ Diesel said. ‘Plus a bit of good old Martian cunning. Not everyone could have carried it off, of course, but I have the qualities to –’

  ‘Brag about it later,’ Peri said. ‘Just tell me what happened.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Diesel. ‘I found them in the library.’

  ‘The Phoenix has a library? With real, actual, paper books?’

  ‘Thousands of them. It’s like some crazy old museum. Anyway, I did something really clever.’

  ‘I bet you did.’ Peri shook his head, growing sorry he’d asked.

  ‘I remembered what happened when we lowered the temperature to hide Otto from the Xion Toll-Takers. Meigwors can’t take the cold – they go all sluggish, remember? So I turned down the thermo in the library to sub-zero. I snuck in and climbed on top of a bookcase and let him have it with the heaviest book I could find – The Complete History of Intergalactic Conflict, all two thousand four hundred and twenty-three pages of it. I thumped him right on the head. Just in case the prince started causing trouble, I hit him with The Stupendous Compendium of Intelligent Life Forms, Volumes 1 to 13.’

  ‘And then you tied them up? Where did you get the rope?’

  ‘Used the library’s Auto-Silencer. Ties and gags anyone making a noise.’

  Peri had no idea the library had an Auto-Silencer. He hadn’t even known the Phoenix had a library. He should have known – or at least not been surprised to find out. There’s no doubt about it, he thought. My connection with the ship is gone.

  ‘Awesome of me, wasn’t it?’ Diesel said.

  ‘Yeah, whatever.’ Peri shrugged. ‘While you were off having an ice-tea party with Otto and Onix, I found the coordinates for where Selene is on Meigwor, and we’re headed there right now at . . .’ He checked the Velocity View. ‘. . . a hundred thousand miles a second . . . No, wait a minute, eighty thousand miles a second. No, I mean fifty thousand miles a second . . .’

  The numbers on the dial were decreasing as he spoke.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Diesel asked.

  Peri tapped the Velocity View as the numbers clicked down. He had no idea what was happening. Could Otto have sabotaged the ship? But that was impossible. He wasn’t smart enough. Plus, he’d had no opportunity.

  The Velocity View read 0 miles per second now.

  Peri scanned the 360-monitor. The infinite blackness of space surrounded them, and countless stars glowed like tiny floating jewels in the distance.

  And right in front of the ship, was something very strange.

  ‘Diesel,’ said Peri in a low voice. ‘I’m seeing things, aren’t I? That’s not really a giant red thumb, floating in space . . . is it?’

  ‘Ch’açh!’ Diesel said, running his hand through his now yellow strip of hair. ‘That’s an intergalactic hitchhiking device. I’ve heard of them; they force passing ships to stop. It’s the first one I’ve ever seen.’

  The thumb curled up and seemed to flick something invisible in the direction of the Phoenix. A moment later there was a Ping! and a string of words appeared on the Bridge, hovering in the air like black, unwaverin
g smoke.

  Peri read and reread the message. The 360-monitor flashed as information from The Space Spotter’s Guide appeared. The Space Spotter’s Guide contained info on all the life forms, guns and gadgets they were likely to find in the furthest, darkest corners of space.

  Diesel grabbed the control panel and started to engage thrusters.

  ‘Wait.’ Peri brushed Diesel’s hands away. ‘We have to help him, don’t we?’

  ‘Are you crazy? We have enough to cope with already!’

  ‘We can’t just leave him out there.’ Peri grabbed Diesel’s arm and ushered him out of earshot of Otto and the prince. ‘That’s not the Intergalactic Force way. We help those in trouble. It might be a long time before another ship comes along. Like, a few thousand years.’

  He located the Universal Message Transmitter on the console and typed: Welcome aboard.

  Then he lowered the Phoenix’s shields.

  The thumb exploded in a shower of red stars, which faded and disappeared.

  A moment later, there was another passenger on the Bridge.

  Chapter 6

  The new arrival was one of the strangest creatures Peri had ever seen. And the most colourful. His skin was sky blue. His hair and beard were green. His eyes – all seven of them – were pink. He was wearing red shorts and a golden vest. He had no legs or arms that Peri could see – just two big feet that poked out of the shorts, and two hands that poked out of the sleeves of the vest. He was short, reaching only to Peri’s chest. He looked rather like a multicoloured penguin.

  ‘Oh, you saved me!’ he said. His voice sounded like a swarm of crickets having an argument with a swarm of bees. ‘Oh, my lovely saviours, my oh-so-special saviours!’