Space Wars! (8 page)

‘Do something!’ Otto and Diesel screamed, for once in unison. A rainbow of colours flashed through Diesel’s bristling band of hair.

Phoenix
, Peri thought.
Help us! What should we do?

Phhhooomph!
The ship shuddered and lurched forward.

Peri glanced back. He didn’t understand. The viper was gone. It had vanished without a trace. There was only one answer, the
Phoenix
had heard his cry for help!

‘This ship rocks!’ he whooped. ‘Selene: Superluminal, please!’

‘You bet!’ Selene slid open the red Superluminal panel and, with a grin on her face, flicked the switches.

Nothing happened.

As Selene flicked the switches again, she started to frown. ‘It’s not working . . .’

Peri snapped his fingers and the control panel slid close to him. He flicked the red switches himself, but still nothing happened. ‘The viper must have damaged the
Phoenix
,’ he said.

‘If we don’t go Superluminal in under three minutes, we’ll disintegrate!’ Selene yelled.

Peri tried to contain his panic and looked over the controls again. He tried to ignore the spinning vortex outside, but he knew only Superluminal speed could save them. ‘We’re just going to have to face it . . . we’re as good as dead . . .’

‘That’s it!’ Selene exclaimed, scrambling over the control panel to the button at the very top. ‘The very last page of the manual has only one instruction:
When you stare death in the face, press the Blue Helix
!
’ She pointed at a strange twisted button that glowed with a ghostly blue light.

‘But we don’t know what the Blue Helix even does!’ Peri said. ‘It could be the self-destruct button!’

‘Do you have a better idea?’ Selene asked.

Peri’s circuits fizzed with fear. They had run out of options. Pressing the Blue Helix was their last resort – the only possible way out. He nodded and Selene slammed her hand down on the blue button.

The
Phoenix
shook violently and noisily, as if the vortex was ripping it apart.

Crrrraaacccaaachhhaaa!
Searing white light exploded through the Bridge, followed by an ear-splitting
BANG!

Peri blinked. He didn’t believe what he was seeing. He checked the 360-monitor and the radar screen. Then he rubbed his eyes and checked again.

It can’t be
, he thought.
It’s not possible.

But it was. He could see the
Phoenix
– or a ship that looked exactly like it – in the 360-monitor right in front of them. He looked around.
But I’m still on board
, he thought.

Diesel’s strip of hair was every possible colour, showing his complete confusion. ‘How can there be two
Phoenix
es in the vortex now?’ he said.

Peri turned to Selene. ‘Are we there or here?’ he asked.

‘Both!’ Selene said as she studied the monitor. ‘It’s amazing. The Blue Helix has allowed us to travel back in time, but only by 5.451 minutes. It’s like a cosmic make-over button. We’re here in the future and there in the past.’

‘Are you crazy?’ Diesel shouted. ‘How is that even possible?’

‘Shut up, Diesel!’ Peri yelled. ‘Just look!’

The
Phoenix
in front still had the Meigwor viper-ship attached to the hull.

‘We’re flying behind ourselves,’ Peri explained. ‘That’s how the viper disappeared from the hull. We blasted it off ourselves by going back in time.’

‘But why didn’t we see ourselves behind the ship?’ Diesel asked.

‘Because we hadn’t done it yet,’ Selene said. ‘We can’t see our future selves in the past, only our past selves in the future.’

Otto groaned and put his head between his hands. ‘Stop explaining and just shoot the viper!’

‘Diesel, activate the
Phoenix
’s laser cannons,’ Peri said. ‘Let’s get rid of that Meigwor sucker!’

‘Wait,’ Selene said. ‘We mustn’t damage ourselves in the past – nor the present or future. We need to use a vaporising laser beam. It’s the only way to make sure there’ll be no debris to hit us.’

There was no time to argue. The hull  integrity was down to 32%.

‘Diesel, stand down,’ Peri said as he activated the laser controls in front of him. A target tracker whooshed from one side of his chair and a control stick from the other. He gripped the stick and started mapping the viper-ship with the targeting sensors.

‘Hull integrity 17.3%,’ called Selene. ‘We don’t have much longer!’

Peri concentrated. He had almost outlined the whole vessel with the laser array. Just a little more and he could save the Past-
Phoenix
. He just had to make sure none of the beams hit the Present-
Phoenix
. Or was it the Future-
Phoenix
? He wasn’t sure.

So I’ll just save them all
, he thought.

‘Firing now!’

Orange lasers blazed from their spaceship. They seemed to move almost in slow motion against the fierce swirling mass of the vortex, but they hit the viper-ship in an instant. The Meigwor ship glowed for a matter of seconds before it vanished in a puff of smoke!

‘We’ve done it!’ Selene exclaimed. ‘Now to try Superluminal again!’

Peri flicked the red switches. Nothing.

‘I don’t understand!’ Selene cried.

Suddenly, every circuit inside him was tingling with instructions from the
Phoenix
– in the past and the present.

He knew what they needed to do.

Peri pushed the thrusters to maximum and fired the
Phoenix
’s boosters. The ship surged forward, towards the Past-
Phoenix
.

Diesel tried to grab the controls from him. ‘Have you gone mad?’

‘Trust me!’ Peri yelled, pushing him away from the controls. Otto grabbed Diesel and dragged him away.

‘It’s certain death anyway!’ Otto boomed, restraining Diesel. ‘Let him try anything he wants!’

As the vortex swirled around them and the Past-
Phoenix
loomed larger on the 360-monitor, Peri adjusted the controls slightly. There was only one chance to get this right.

Another shockwave rocked the Bridge. Otto and Diesel tumbled backwards. Peri held steady, fighting every impulse to pull away. It was their only chance. They hurtled towards the Past-
Phoenix
. Its sleek white hull was so close, Peri could see it sparkling. Proximity alarms erupted across the Bridge, before the Present-
Phoenix
slammed into the back of its earlier self.

The purest white light Peri’s bionic eyes had ever seen flooded the Bridge.

Chapter 10

Peri’s body ached as though he had been pulled apart then stitched back together again. He remembered crashing towards the Past-
Phoenix
and then the white light.

Have I died?

He opened his eyes, finding that he was in the captain’s chair. Next to him, Selene was strapped in, unconscious. Otto and Diesel were lying on the deck.

Peri’s astro-harness released him. He stood up and gazed at the 360-monitor. It was the most incredible sight he had ever seen. The vortex and the Past-
Phoenix
were gone. Instead, an enormous rainbow of galactic confetti had been smeared across space. A swirling stripe surrounded them, sparkling and glistening with every colour imaginable and then some.

Peri nudged Diesel with his foot. ‘Wake up!’ he shouted. ‘We did it. We’re alive!’

‘What?’ Diesel moaned as Peri pulled him up.

‘The vortex didn’t destroy us! We destroyed
i
t
! Look – all that’s left is a rainbow-coloured scar!’

‘You woke me for scenery?’ Diesel brushed his hand through his hair. ‘I don’t understand. How did we survive the crash?’

‘We didn’t crash into another ship,’ Peri said. ‘We crashed into our
own
ship.’

‘We crashed into ourselves?’ Diesel stuck a wad of Eterni-chew in his mouth. ‘That doesn’t even make sense.’

‘Yes it does,’ said Selene. She had just woken up, but she was already checking the controls. ‘Our present selves crashed into our past selves. The universe can’t sustain two versions of the
Phoenix
for very long – so, when the two ships crashed together, it created a natural explosion that gave us a Superluminal boost. That dragged both versions of us, and the
Phoenix
, back into the present.’

Diesel was holding his head. ‘Enough!’ he growled. ‘Just tell me if we’re back to normal or not!’

‘We are,’ said Peri, feeling tingles of gratitude that, yet again, the amazing ship had saved their lives. ‘And we are back in the Milky Way at last!’

Diesel and Selene cheered.

Otto had woken up and was getting to his feet. ‘But that vortex was my only route back to Meigwor!’

‘You’re part of our crew now,’ Peri said. It felt odd saying it, but he knew it was true.