Lab Rats in Space

by Bruno Bouchet

  ‘Whoah!’ They stopped just in time as the tank crashed to the floor in front of them. The creature let out a high-pitched ‘keee-yah!’ from its toothy mouth, leapt clear, landed on four green tentacles and ran. Four purple tentacles lashed around in the air stopping any lab assistant from coming close.

  ‘Over here!’ KT shouted. He was with Emm and Jay. Zed and Dee joined them.

  They had found the nearest door, but a massive bench had been turned over and was lying across their path. They tried to go around it only to run into one of the lab assistants. As the assistant lunged forward to grab them, she was suddenly splattered with a blue gooey liquid. It was a bird whirling around above them. The bird had discovered it could drop huge bomb-like eggs whenever it wanted. Jay smiled, happy that someone else produced large amounts of gooey liquid too.

  ‘Come on, Jay!’ He felt Dee’s hammer hand gently hook over his arm and pull him.

  Running around the other side of the bench, the children had to step carefully through a field of broken test tubes.

  Another bench came crashing to its side as they ran past it. The gas jet attached to the bench ignited, sending a burst of flames right across their path.

  ‘Get back,’ shouted Zed.

  ‘We’re trapped!’ Emm said, clutching XL tightly under her arm. XL was too scared to think anything. If this girl dropped him he would never get out, he thought. Flames were ahead of them, benches on either side, and assistants were making their way over the broken glass towards them.

  ‘Hang on,’ Dee moved forward and swung her hammer hand at the gas tap. She hammered it down, jumping back between each blow to avoid the flames. Soon she smashed the tap closed and the flames died down.

  ‘Great work, Dee,’ Zed grabbed her hammer trying to shake it. ‘Let’s go!’

  They sprinted to the door. Dee got there first and held it open for everyone to run through. She was about to close it behind them and smash the handle with her hammer when she saw the bird with the blue bomb eggs heading towards them. Dee held the door open a moment longer and it swooped out, screeching thanks as it flew away.

  As the door shut, everything fell quiet. There were no other doors in the corridor, just long white walls. At the far end they could see a window, but the bright lights reflected on it so they had no idea what was outside.

  ‘This way!’ Zed led them to the window. Dee nodded her agreement.

  ‘We might be able to see an exit or even find out where we are,’ she said.

  As they approached the window, the sky outside was dark. It must have been night-time. They could see a few stars.

  ‘We must be high up,’ said KT.

  They hurled themselves at the window, as if they could almost smash their way through to the outside. They couldn’t.

  With their hands and noses pressed to the glass, they gasped at what they saw.

  ‘I guess you could say we’re high up,’ said Jay, horrified. He started to feel dizzy. Blood was rushing to his nose.

  ‘I think… I think I’m no good at heights,’ he said and stumbled back.

  The others reeled too.

  ‘Oh no!’ said Zed, realising that escaping was going to be even harder than they thought.

  It wasn’t night-time outside the window. It was space. They were in a massive space station floating somewhere in the universe. All they could see were stars and a million miles of nothing.

  Chapter 6

  Xanax’s Favourite Number

  Professor Xanax’s Research Station was the biggest experimental facility that had ever existed. Far away from planets, other space stations and, more importantly, far away from any laws.

  Here, Professor Xanax was free to carry out any experiment he wanted. And the more extreme, the more horrible, the more painful the experiment, the more he loved it. He had never forgotten the joy of his first experiment. When he was a young boy, he had pulled hairs off a mouse. He had started with one hair, then two together, then three and four until he reached the number of hairs you had to pull to make a mouse squeal out loud in pain. It was thirty-seven.

  Thirty-seven. It was his favourite number. As the little mouse had yelped, Xanax had chuckled with delight and rubbed his hands together, but he didn’t notice that the mouse’s hairs had stuck on his shirt. His mother had seen the shirt, noticed Xanax’s pet mouse was missing and realised he had been up to no good. She punished him by spanking the back of his legs hard with a ruler.

  The stings from the ruler grew hotter and hotter as his legs turned scarlet. In between wondering how many spanks it would take to break his own legs, he decided he had learned two very valuable things. First, it took thirty-seven mouse hairs to be pulled at the same time to make it cry and second, he should wear a rubber lab coat to wipe away all evidence of his secret experiments.

  He still wore the shiny rubber lab coat, but nobody spanked the back of his legs with a ruler anymore. Now people sought him out for his experiments. If anyone wanted an experiment that was too dangerous or too illegal to be carried out on their home planets, they came to Xanax’s Research Station. He invented new weapons, developed new creatures, created new materials and released new viruses for whomever had enough money to pay for them.

  He was banned from most planets. His work was illegal in most worlds. But in between worlds he was free and he was powerful. He was powerful because he was useful. Lots of people wanted the results of his experiments without having to carry out the experiments themselves.

  He had been happy to stay in space, between worlds, to rule in his own space station, until now. Xanax was very rich but he was bored with everyone else benefiting from his brilliance. He had the freedom to do what he wanted and experiment with anything, but his latest research was an experiment in power. It was his most magnificent research yet and the Lab Rats were an essential part of that research. How much of the universe could you control if you were the most brilliant experimenter that ever existed?

  When the break-out from the lab occurred, Xanax had found it amusing. He observed as his subjects worked together for the first time. He noted that the little three-armed creature had encouraged them to talk to each other and work together. He ordered the Typetor to bring up Zed’s file on his screen.

  ‘Fascinating,’ Professor Xanax tapped the tips of his rubber-gloved fingers together with interest, ‘and most unexpected.’

  Xanax had even laughed as the chaos broke out in the lab and noted how many times Bumface had slipped up as she tried to move under the slippery mess of Jay’s snot.

  ‘Most satisfactory.’

  Nearly all of the escapees had been recaptured so no harm was done. Only six subjects remained at liberty. They were the most resourceful of all the test subjects, but he had no doubt they would soon be back in their cages. The escape itself would prove a useful experiment.

  The Typetor furiously entered all the data Xanax read out to it.

  ‘Give me a list of any outcomes that were not expected,’ Xanax asked. The Typetor flashed the results on its screen. Hundreds scrolled by.

  ‘Key findings please!’ Xanax said with impatience.

  ‘Professor, I would draw your attention to the unexpected role played by Z-155…’

  ‘Yes, I’ve already factored that. What else?’

  ‘Subject XL-3 is one of the escapees.’

  ‘What?!’ Xanax had not expected the furry brick to move.

  ‘How? Replay the surveillance.’

  The Typetor replayed the footage from the security camera of Emm grabbing XL from his cage.

  ‘Freeze… reverse… zoom.’ The image zoomed in on Emm’s face.

  ‘Compare her facial expression with the data on emotions for her species.’

  ‘According to our species information she experienced three emotions: fear, excitement and affection.’

  ‘Affection?’ thundered Xanax. ‘Ridiculous!’

  Xanax had never guessed they might find XL cute.

  ‘Sound the alarm. End
the experiment. I want all subjects back in the lab immediately, especially XL-3. If that lump of fur escapes the telepathic dampening zone, it will become a danger. I don’t want it communicating with the other subjects… or any of our computers.’

  Chapter 7

  The Endless Corridor

  The gang followed the corridor to the right of the window. It seemed to go on and on. There were no more windows, no doors, nothing… just white walls, floor and ceiling which went on forever.

  ‘This is hopeless,’ said Jay. ‘It’s like we’ve got nowhere.’

  ‘We should keep going. Someone’s bound to come after us soon,’ Dee said. ‘Here, you carry him for a bit.’ She handed XL over to Emm.

  ‘Aah, he is kinda cute isn’t he?’ Emm stroked his fur.

  ‘I am not a cat!’ XL said to himself and then realised that for all he knew of the body he was in, it could have been a cat with no arms, legs or any moving part other than eyes.

  ‘Perhaps we’re going the wrong way,’ said KT.

  ‘What other way is there?’ Zed knew that the worst thing they could do was go back.

  Before them, the white walls, floor and ceiling stretched ahead and blended into each other. It was like they were running into a white blob. Behind them they could no longer see the window they had looked through. They were surrounded by white.

  ‘There are no doors, nothing!’ Jay sank down and sat on the floor exhausted. They joined him, tired from the run out of the lab. None of them could remember when they had ever run before.

  ‘The walls,’ said XL to himself, ‘are probably hidden doors that we’ve been running past.’ He had given up trying to communicate with the others and was resigned to never being able to tell anyone anything again.

  ‘I can’t have been like this before,’ he thought to himself. ‘Someone as intelligent as me could not possibly be unable to communicate.’

  ‘The walls,’ said Emm suddenly, ‘they could be hidden doors we’ve been running past.’

  She looked surprised at having had such a smart idea.

  ‘Yes!’ said Zed jumping up. ‘Let’s try them.’

  They all pressed the walls, hoping to find something that gave way or opened.

  Jay found it. He tripped over his own foot, smashed his nose into the wall, which suddenly slid to the side, and he fell forward.

  ‘Whoah!’ he stumbled into a dark corridor. ‘What’s this?’

  He was blinded by the dark after the bright light of the white corridor. This new dark one ran alongside the white one and went just as far.

  ‘In here guys!’ Jay stood up in the dark corridor. The others stuck their heads through the hole and could see nothing.

  ‘It’s the same as this corridor, only dark. What is it for?’ wondered Dee.

  ‘I think something’s coming,’ Jay’s nose could sense a change in the air. Something was moving towards him. It was getting closer. There was a noise, a hissing like a really quiet train.

  ‘Move Jay,’ Dee shouted, ‘back here. It’s a…’

  She didn’t have time to say whatever it was she was going to say. Suddenly she could see a huge container charging along. Jay also saw it. He stood frozen to the spot as the large object shot towards him and suddenly stopped just millimetres away from his nose. He nearly fell over with shock. A huge metal container twice as high as he was hovered just off the ground in front of him.

  ‘Uh oh!’ said Jay. He couldn’t move.

  The container had no windows or any way of seeing inside it. Around the top of it was a rail. It hovered without moving forward.

  ‘I think it’s waiting for you to move out of the way,’ said Dee. As she spoke another container hurtled up and stopped just behind the first one.

  ‘This must be a transport corridor,’ Dee realised. ‘These containers are being delivered somewhere else on this space station.’

  ‘Cool,’ KT liked the idea.

  ‘Not cool from here,’ said Jay, ‘I daren’t move!’

  ‘Don’t,’ said Zed looking at the rail around the top of the container, ‘we can use this to get out of here. If we all grab onto the rail, we could go wherever it’s going.’

  ‘But we don’t know where it’s going,’ said KT.

  ‘It could be dangerous,’ added Emm.

  In his head, XL muttered that anywhere was better than nowhere which is where they were now.

  ‘But I suppose anywhere is better than here right now,’ Emm suddenly added with a flick of her hair.

  ‘Too right,’ said Zed.

  As they wondered about the risks of leaping onto the container, a faint beeping noise started in the white corridor. It gradually grew louder and louder. The container had been on its way to the station’s shipping bay. It was holding up all the other containers heading to the loading bay. The control centre had sent out a crew of technicians to investigate the problem.

  ‘What’s the noise?’ KT heard the beeping. Everyone who had their heads stuck into the dark corridor pulled back and saw the technicians approaching in the distance.

  ‘They’re coming to examine the stoppage! We’ve no time to lose. Everyone grab onto the rail on the container while Jay holds it up.’

  Suddenly the beeping noise erupted into a loud alarm. Professor Xanax’s head appeared in the white corridor right in front of them. It was his unique holographic projection device. When he had an important message to deliver, he appeared directly in front of everyone wherever they were on the station.

  ‘Attention all assistants. Subjects have escaped from the maximum security lab. They must be returned. These six subjects are your top priority. They must be captured immediately. Take all steps necessary but do not kill them.’

  Chapter 8

  Into the Darkness

  As the alarm sounded and Xanax’s bald head glowered at them, pictures of the six escapees appeared around it. The Lab Rats were too busy staring at the professor’s scary scowl to notice themselves, until Emm looked up.

  ‘That’s you lot… and some horrible girl!’ said Emm.

  ‘That’s you!’ said Dee. As they looked at their faces, they realised that none of them had any idea what they looked like.

  ‘I’m not pretty!’ Emm said to herself surprised. She had assumed she was quite beautiful but she didn’t like what she saw at all.

  ‘Which one am I?’ Zed said as he looked and realised his face was the only one he didn’t recognise. He could see his third hand sticking up behind his own head, like he was taking the mickey out of himself in a photo. It looked stupid.

  Beep beep beep. Their faces had made them forget that the technicians were approaching and their priority was now to capture them.

  ‘We need to go!’ Zed shouted. He could see the technicians’ hovercraft clearly now. They would be on them at any moment.

  ‘Didn’t think I looked like that,’ said KT, still puzzled at his own face.

  ‘Good grief, I really am a furry brick,’ groaned XL at the sight of himself.

  ‘Excuse me!’ Jay called from in front of the container. ‘I’m about to look like squashed tomatoes in a minute.’

  There was now a line of containers backed up. They started swaying backwards and forwards in unison as if building up strength to push Jay over.

  ‘Come on!’ shouted Zed.

  ‘But I’m so ugly!’ moaned Emm.

  ‘Emm, you’re gorgeous!’ said Dee. ‘You haven’t got a hammer arm for a start.’

  ‘Girls! Come on!’ shouted Zed at them. They all climbed back into the dark transport corridor.

  Dee hooked her hammer arm over the rail.

  ‘Give me XL, my arm’s secure enough,’ she said to Emm, who handed him up to her.

  KT and Zed held Emm up and she grabbed the rail with both arms. Then KT jumped up and grabbed on too.

  ‘What about me! How do I climb up?’ Jay called from the front.

  Zed thought for a moment.

  ‘Shuffle towards the edge and hold your arm in
front of it so the box knows you’re still there. I’ll hold on at the back with my third arm. When I shout “ready”, jump to the side and stick your arms up.’

  Everyone was holding onto the container. The gap between the side of the container and the wall was very narrow.

  ‘Make sure you stay close to the container,’ Dee said to Emm. Emm nodded, trying not to think about her head hitting the wall.

  ‘We’ll be OK,’ Dee smiled at her.

  The technical assistants were seconds away. As the assistants travelled down the white corridor, Professor Xanax projected images of the children’s faces directly in front of them. There was no way they wouldn’t recognise the Lab Rats.

  Beep… Beep… Beep.

  The beeping of their craft grew louder and louder and then suddenly stopped. They had arrived.

  Zed scrambled up at the back of the container. His rear arm gripped the rail with his feet against the container wall for extra grip.

  ‘OK now!’ he shouted.

  Jay didn’t moved. He was frozen with fear.

  ‘I can’t do it!’

  ‘You can,’ said Dee, ‘it’s easy.’

  ‘Move it you idiot!’ shouted KT from the side. He was looking around at the gap in the wall, waiting for the moment the technicians would appear. Emm closed her eyes and pressed her body as close to the container as she could.

  ‘I’m not an idiot,’ said Jay. ‘You try standing with this huge box pushing your nose!’

  ‘Dee,’ Zed said, ‘talk him through it.’

  ‘Listen to me Jay,’ Dee spoke calmly. ‘Just move one little step to the side. A tiny one.’

  Jay moved.

  ‘OK.’

  ‘Now another… and again. You can do it, Jay. It’ll be fine.’

  He moved another step.

  ‘You ready Zed?’ Dee shouted to the back.

  ‘In here!’ One of the assistants poked his head though the doorway and spotted the children. They had to go.