by Tom Bradman
‘What are you doing here?’ he said. ‘I thought I told you to –’
Suddenly, a whining noise came from Alpha, like a computer re-booting itself. Purple light began to pulse in the line at the top of its head once more.
‘WARNING!’ Alpha boomed. ‘CRITICAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED TO ENTIRE SYSTEM! INITIATING SELF-DESTRUCT PROTOCOL! PLANET CORE DETONATION IN FIVE MINUTES AND COUNTING! WARNING…’
‘I don’t like the sound of that,’ said Luke. ‘Is it as bad as I think, Yuri?’
‘It’s our worst nightmare,’ said Yuri, tapping at his laptop. ‘The sphere drew its power from the planet’s core and Alpha’s still linked to it.’
‘Nice one, Luke,’ sighed Yasmin. ‘Looks like it’s game over.’
‘I don’t know about that,’ said Yuri. ‘I tried to tell you a while back, but you wouldn’t listen. I think I’ve found us a ride out of here. There’s a shuttle bay –’
‘Why didn’t you say so sooner?’ said Luke. ‘Come on, let’s get going!’
They found another door into the chamber and gathered up Clarke, then they raced along the corridors towards the shuttle bay, following Yuri’s directions. Lines of purple energy crackled over the ceilings, and Luke could feel the ground rumbling through the soles of his space boots.
Eventually, Yasmin skidded to a halt. Luke and Yuri almost crashed into her.
‘Hey, watch out!’ said Luke.
But Yasmin took no notice of him. She was staring straight ahead, her eyes like saucers. ‘Check… it… out!’ she said. ‘Is that cool, or what?’
Sitting in the centre of the cavern was the sleekest spaceship Luke had ever seen. If the Buzz Aldrin’s shuttle was like a minibus, then this was like an incredible sports car or speedboat.
Luckily, the hatch was open and they all piled inside. The interior looked quite alien, of course, but there were four seats, a view-screen and a control panel.
‘I’ve just thought of a problem,’ said Yasmin. ‘Does anyone know –’
‘How to fly this thing?’ said Clarke, smiling. ‘Leave it to me.’
Clarke sat in the pilot’s seat and the children strapped themselves in.
‘I don’t want to worry anyone,’ said Yuri. ‘But we’ve only got ten seconds…’
‘Just firing up the engine,’ said Clarke. He touched a glowing square on the control panel and the shuttle rose.
Luke glanced through the view-screen and saw that the whole ceiling of the chamber was opening.
‘BLAST OFF!’
Then he was pressed back into his seat as shuttle shot upwards and out. Luke caught a glimpse of jagged cracks in yellow sand and dark mountains, and then they were in space, accelerating away from the planet as fast as they could go.
Suddenly they heard a huge BOOM!, and chunks of the planet flew past them, crackling with purple energy. The spaceship juddered, then steadied.
‘Here we go again,’ moaned Yuri, his face green. ‘I feel really sick…’
‘Don’t worry, Yuri,’ said Clarke, ‘we’ll soon be back on the Buzz Aldrin. What an awful creature Alpha was! Please tell me I’m never that boring.’
‘Oh no, sir, not at all,’ said Luke. ‘You’re always very interesting!’
Yasmin couldn’t look at him, and they both sat there shaking with silent laughter. But Luke knew they were pleased to have their old teacher back. Life on the Buzz Aldrin just wouldn’t have been the same without him.
First published 2011 by A & C Black
Text copyright © 2011 Tony Bradman and Tom Bradman
Illustrations copyright © 2011 Si Clark
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This electronic edition Published in February 2013 by Bloomsbury Publishing
The rights of Tony Bradman, Tom Bradman and Si Clark to be identified as the authors and illustrator of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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eISBN 978-1-4081-6378-8
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