Space Wars! (2 page)

Tsack!
Selene materialised in the empty chair next to Peri.

‘Where have you been?’ Peri asked.

‘Engineering,’ Selene replied, wiping a smudge of grease from her cheek. ‘I’ve made an adjustment to boost the emergency thrusters and reconfigured the vaporising lasers.’

‘We’re going to need all the help we can get,’ he replied. Their radiation gauges screeched as the enemy vessel tested its weapons systems. But the viper-ship showed no sign of changing course. The Meigwor vessel hadn’t noticed the
Phoenix
shadowing it.

Prince Onix came up beside Peri’s chair. Peri almost gagged at the stench of space-squid sweat that came with the prince. ‘We’ve got to do something!’ Onix said.

‘It’s no use!’ Otto boomed. ‘The entire fleet of vipers will swoop down on Xion and your cowardly people will surrender! They’ll be slaves to the victorious Meigwors before the day is done!’

‘Otto!’ Peri and Selene scolded.

‘What?’ Otto demanded, then laughed. ‘Our entire fleet is attacking Xion! You think this puny ship can stop them?’

The viper-ship banked suddenly. Peri slammed on the steering-thrusters. He steered hard, following the craft towards the dark side of the planet.

As the glare from the sun vanished, Peri’s jaw dropped. Instead of viper-ships lined up for attack, he saw a huge black cylinder like a gigantic, armour-plated Saturn Soda can. It was orbiting Xion slowly. Peri felt a cold shiver through his circuits.

The viper-ship stopped and another pulled alongside. Tentacles sprang from the second craft and latched on to the first one. The two ships locked together like a jigsaw puzzle. More thin tentacles then lashed the vessels into a massive cylindrical mega-hull.
There has to be more than a thousand ships already in the mega-cylinder
,
Peri thought.
And hundreds more are joining it.

Whatever it was, Peri knew it had to be bad news for Xion. The Meigwors had created some sort of unspeakable weapon. And Otto was right. There was not a space-puppy’s chance in a meteorite storm that the
Phoenix
could destroy it alone.

Peri leapt from his chair. ‘What is that thing?’ He grabbed Otto by the lumps on his long neck. ‘Why didn’t you warn us?’

Otto’s face had lost the smirk. The black patches around his eyes had shrunk in absolute terror as he stared at the mega-cylinder. ‘I didn’t know,’ he said. ‘I can’t believe it . . . It
does
exist.’ He seemed genuinely shocked at what they were seeing.

Peri could feel the Meigwor’s muscular body trembling. ‘Otto, talk to us!’ he said.

‘It’s not possible,’ Otto gasped. ‘The Extractor . . . It’s a myth. It’s not real . . . It’s just a story to scare primitive species! But . . . But . . . There it is!’

‘Just tell us what an Extractor
does
!’ Peri yelled at Otto.

Otto shivered and took a deep breath. ‘You don’t understand! The Extractor is the ultimate piece of Meigwor technology! It can completely drain a planet of carbon dioxide and then store it! But . . .’

‘But what?’ Peri pressed.

‘The force of the extraction will make the planet implode!’ Otto replied. ‘The Meigwors have talked about it for more than a hundred years, but I didn’t know we’d constructed one for real!’

‘Something’s happening,’ Selene shouted.

Peri looked out through the monitor. A hatch opened from the base of the Extractor. A massive tentacle whipped through the Cos-Moat as if it was nothing more than jelly. It latched on to the Xion atmosphere with suction cups the size of the Earth’s Moon.

Chhuuunnhhhuuunnnhhh!
A deafening hum rattled the atmosphere like a mega-turbo engine. Green light pulsed down the tentacle towards the planet. Comet-sized bubbles boiled up the tentacle’s skin as carbon dioxide was pumped into the Extractor.

‘We should run,’ Diesel said. ‘Get out of here before the planet implodes.’

‘The space-monkey’s right,’ Otto said.

‘I hate agreeing with either of them,’ Selene said. ‘But the Meigwors will vaporise us before we even make a dent in the armour-plating.’

‘You’re giving up?’ Prince Onix shouted. ‘Look at my planet! All those innocent people! If it was your home, wouldn’t you try
anything
to save it?’

Peri stared at the pulsing tentacle. The Extractor was the most terrifying thing he’d ever seen. But he knew he couldn’t run away

‘Listen,’ he said. ‘At the Intergalactic Force Academy we’re taught to do the right thing. We’re going to help save Xion – even if we have to risk our lives to do it!’

Chapter 2

Peri’s hands darted over the control panel, selecting the Exo-Scanner to get a closer look at the Extractor. A 3-D holographic projection of the monstrous ship appeared in front of him. Even at a greatly reduced scale, the Extractor was ridiculously big.

And it was
growing
.

Viper-ships were still flocking towards it and locking on to the weapon’s massive hall. But that wasn’t the only problem. The Exo-Scanner could not see inside the vessel. Peri knew what this meant. The radioactive armour-plating was so thick, even the X-cite detonators wouldn’t be able to penetrate it.

As if reading his mind, Otto boomed, ‘This is crazy! Every viper is loaded with ultracombat craft! As soon as you fire, it’ll be like flying into an astro-wasps’ nest! You’ll be obliterated in seconds!’

Anger built up inside Peri like static electricity. It was as if the Extractor had sucked out all the good ideas from his brain. He slammed his palm against the control panel in frustration.

‘Everyone think!’ he shouted. ‘The Extractor must have a weak point. Everything has
one
weak spot.’

‘We could try to hack into their computer systems,’ Selene exclaimed. She flipped a control panel to reveal a touch-screen keyboard and started typing. She stopped suddenly. ‘It’s no good – their cyber-defences are too strong. We’ll never get inside the system this way.’

‘Inside the system!’ Peri exclaimed. ‘Remember how we defeated the Xio-Bot? We found a way to crawl inside its brain and rip out its circuits.’

‘Crazy space-monkeys!’ Otto boomed. ‘The Extractor’s nothing like a Xio-Bot. For a start, it hasn’t got a brain, it’s a ship!’

‘Forget the brain part,’ Peri said. ‘We just need to get inside the Extractor and find the nerve centre which controls the whole weapon – then we can figure out how to destroy it.’

‘You make it sound easy,’ Diesel scoffed. ‘I don’t remember being taught how to sneak aboard enemy ships back at the Academy. I mean, not that I need lessons, but how do you think we can get aboard
that
? Through the front door?’

Peri glared at Diesel. ‘It’s got to have vents or something like that,’ he said, ‘otherwise it would overheat. It can’t be completely sealed, right?’

Selene punched some buttons and started zooming into the 3-D hologram to show larger areas of the ship. She scanned along the vessel’s armour-plated surface. ‘Ah-ha!’ she said. ‘Look here, a ventilation shaft at the base of the cylindrical hub.’ She paused. ‘Oh, but it’s too small for the
Phoenix
.’

Peri peered closer at the hologram. ‘There are space-rafts and life-pods on the
Phoenix
. We could adapt them into attack-pods.’

Selene pressed a button next to the touch screen. As she scrolled through the entries, she read out. ‘Pods . . . A-pods, pod-beetle-repellent, expansion pods, Expedition Wear survival pods, J-pods, K-pods, medical pods, mini-pods –’

‘Wait,’ Peri interrupted. ‘What are mini-pods?’

‘“
Mini-pods
,”’ read Selene. ‘“
One-person craft designed to fly short distances, limited weapon capacity
.” That’s what we need.’

Peri’s fingers tingled as he stretched over the control panel. ‘I think I can take it from here.’ He closed his eyes and listened to his instincts. He was part bionic, built to interface with the
Phoenix
. His fingers twitched over a striped dial. He twisted it five times and gave it a good thump.

Whoooooooooosh!

Five long silver tubes extended out from the
Phoenix
’s hull. The ends swelled until, finally,
pop!
Five egg-shaped pods appeared. Each was a miniature version of the
Phoenix
. Five portals rose under the 360-monitor, glowing yellow.

‘
Ch’açh
,’ Diesel said. The band of hair across his head spiked with excitement.

With a whirl, mechanical arms swooped down and pushed the ship’s crew into their Expedition Wear. Another set of arms strapped double-barrel blasters to everyone’s hips, apart from Otto’s. The Meigwor had ammo-belts criss-crossing his chest, and five different kinds of weapons tucked into his snakeskin belt.

Diesel pressed a button on the gunnery station and a pack of Eterni-chew gum dropped into his pocket. Peri looked at him, puzzled. The half-Martian grinned. ‘Remember last time? That Meigwor vessel reeked worse than an unwashed Xion.’

‘To the pods!’ Peri said, grabbing a pack of Eterni-chew for himself.

Diesel, Selene and Prince Onix rushed across the Bridge towards the portals. Peri looked back. Otto was completely still, his extra-long arms folded across his chest.

‘First of all,’ the Meigwor boomed, ‘you’ll get me killed or captured! Second, you will never succeed!’

‘Fine,’ Diesel snapped. ‘We don’t need you anyway.’

‘Shut up, Diesel,’ Peri yelled. ‘We do need him. The Extractor is going to be well guarded. Otto is not only a fierce fighter, but he knows how the Meigwors think.’

Otto didn’t budge. Peri clicked his fingers. ‘
Phoenix
, show us satellite images of Xion.’

The dusty orange streets of Xion appeared across the 360-monitor. In the sky, a huge tentacle was sucking in air and whipping up twisters of dust. People were screaming and running in terror. Parents were trying to stop their children being pulled up by the wind. Peri magnified one family, the two kids were gasping for air. Their skin had started to turn a pale blue. It wouldn’t be long before they suffocated.

Prince Onix couldn’t bear to watch. He covered his eyes.

‘Look at it, Otto,’ Peri ordered. ‘What did these children do to the mighty Meigwors? Nothing. But the Extractor’s killing them anyway.’

Otto’s beady eyes didn’t even blink. Peri started to worry that the Meigwor might be heartless after all. Peri continued, ‘If we don’t act now to stop it, the planet will implode.’

After a long moment, Otto started to move towards the portal. ‘I will help,’ he muttered. ‘The Extractor is a cowardly weapon. Not the true way of the Meigwors. Xion should be crushed in a
fair
fight – not like this.’