The Enemy's Lair (7 page)

There was a crash in the trees ahead and a nightmarish creature sprang into view. It was bright red, about the size of a chimpanzee, but without the fur. It had hard, shiny skin with huge muscles underneath. It had six arms, which it was using to swing from tree to tree. The most noticeable thing about it was the absence of a head. It had a long neck which ended in a gaping mouth filled with sharp, curved teeth. It sensed Diesel and Otto somehow and came swinging in their direction, grunting.

Peri’s SpeakEasy tuned in and the grunts turned into words. ‘YUM! DINNER! LOVELY DINNER! TWO DINNERS!’

‘
Run!’
shouted Diesel.

The Meigwor mud sucked at their feet. Trees and thorny bushes loomed up before them. The hideous creature’s excited grunts were getting louder. There was no way they could outrun it – it was built for the jungle, they weren’t.

Suddenly, Peri knew what to do. He reached down for the sparkling button at his ankle and touched it and rose straight up into the air, through the trees. He looked down and saw the creature right behind Diesel.

‘ONLY ONE DINNER NOW! BUT STILL YUM!’ Peri heard the creature grunt.

‘Diesel!’ Peri shouted. ‘Press the Zero-G button! On your ankle!’

Diesel fumbled for the button. The creature reached out three of its six arms to grab him.

Diesel touched the button. The creature’s paws grasped empty air as the half-Martian sailed up through the trees to join Peri.

Peri heard the creature grunt in disappointment, ‘NO DINNER!’

‘Good job I found that button in time!’ Diesel said.

‘Yes,’ said Peri, wondering if Diesel might thank him for thinking of it. He wasn’t surprised when Diesel didn’t.

Walking in Zero-G mode was not easy. They were just above the tree canopy, and their feet had nothing to touch except air. They had to make swimming motions with their arms. Peri remembered learning in science class at the IF Academy that air was a fluid. But it was a very thin fluid. They had to make huge arm-sweeps and take huge strides to get anywhere. But they gradually got the hang of it. Soon the tree canopy was scooting by beneath them.

The blinking dot on Peri’s visor got bigger. And bigger. It took shape.

Peri looked down into a clearing below and saw that the dot had become Selene herself.

‘There she is!’
Diesel said, seeing her too.

Peri touched the Zero-G button again. He began an angled descent into the clearing. The ground came up to meet him and he landed at a run, keeping his balance. Diesel landed beside him, more heavily.

‘Selene!’ Peri shouted.

Selene turned and stared at them. She didn’t say anything. The sunlight shone off her visor, so that Peri couldn’t see her face.

‘It’s us, you dumboid!’ Diesel yelled. ‘We’ve come to rescue you.’

Selene raised a small, hand-held laser and fired it at Diesel.

Peri reacted the quickest, diving at Diesel’s legs to tackle him clear. The laser beam passed overhead and hit the tree behind them. It burst into flames.

‘What’s the matter with her? Has she gone crazy?’ Diesel asked.

As they scrambled to their feet, Selene aimed the laser again.

Peri rolled to the ground. Another laser beam zipped past.

‘Looks like it,’ he said.

Zigzagging wildly – as recommended in the chapter on evading enemy fire in
The IFA Field Survival Guide
– they made it into the cover of the trees. The leaves around them flared up in flames. Selene was still firing.

‘The heat must have turned her brain,’ Diesel said, still running. ‘Let’s go back to the ship and leave her behind.’

‘No,’ Peri said. ‘If we can just disarm her, we can reason with her –’

‘How are we going to disarm her?’ demanded Diesel.

Peri felt in his pocket. ‘With this,’ he said. In the palm of his hand was the one Paralyside pellet left over from the fight with the Xion guards. ‘Activate your Atmos-Filter.’

With his nostril plugs in place, he broke cover. Selene instantly turned the laser on him. He dived to the ground, hurling the pellet at her feet. It detonated with a crack. Grey smoke arose. Selene reeled and fell over.

Peri ran to where she lay and grabbed the handlaser from her. Diesel ran up to join him.

‘Selene,’ Peri said. ‘It’s us, Diesel and Peri. Don’t you remember? We’ve come to take you back!’

Selene groggily got to her feet. ‘Who is Selene?’ the voice beyond the visor said. It was gruff and guttural. It didn’t sound anything like their friend.

Which was not surprising. For the first time, Peri got a proper look through the visor of Selene’s Expedition Wear helmet. The face that stared back was crimson, blotchy, with a long snakelike neck coiled neatly around its head.

‘It’s a Meigwor!’

Chapter 9

‘What have you done with Selene?’ Peri demanded.

‘I have done nothing with Selene,’ said the Meigwor, his translated voice scratchy through the SpeakEasy. ‘I do not know what Selene is.’

Diesel stepped in front of Peri and poked his finger in the Meigwor’s chest. ‘Where did you get that suit?’

‘In trade with a human. For some spaceship parts – a transformational booster a zonkschrift drive and some universal fixative.’

Peri brushed Diesel aside. ‘What did this person look like?’

The Meigwor splayed his elbows out like a chicken’s. Peri and Diesel looked at each other in surprise.
That must be how a Meigwor shrugs
,
thought Peri.

‘Of small stature,’ the Meigwor started. ‘Female gender. Head-growth of considerable length.’

‘Sounds like Selene,’ Peri said to Diesel. ‘But why would she get rid of her suit? And what does she want spaceship parts for?’

Diesel scratched the back of his head. ‘Maybe the heat’s driven her crazy, like I said.’

‘When did you last see her? Was it near here?’ Peri asked the Meigwor.

‘Not far – she’s in that garage over there, see?’ The Meigwor pointed to the far side of the clearing where a low, white building was half hidden by overhanging purple-and-green leaves.

‘Great!’ Peri said. He turned to go, and stopped. ‘Can I ask a question?’

‘You just did,’ said the Meigwor.

‘I want to ask another one. Why did you shoot at us?’

‘Just Meigwor habit.
“
See a stranger, shoot a stranger
,”
that’s what we say.’

‘Right,’ Peri said. ‘I see. Well . . . You won’t mind if I hold on to this handlaser, then? Just to be on the safe side.’

Peri and Diesel ran across the clearing. As they neared the garage, they heard booming voices. Then laughter. Then the noise of some sort of electric drill and the scream of metal on metal.

‘I don’t like the sound of that,’ Peri said. ‘There’re Meigwors in there with her. They could be torturing her for fun.’

He set the handlaser to ‘fairly painful stun’ and kicked open the door.

Selene stood there, flanked by two tall Meigwors. Their snaky, red necks craned curiously towards Peri and Diesel.

Peri hit them with a blast each from the handlaser. The Meigwors crumpled to the floor.

‘What did you do that for, space-dunce?’ Selene demanded. She was wearing dark blue overalls and had a streak of oil across her cheek. Spaceship parts and tools were scattered all around. At the back of the garage was an old grey flying saucer, scratched and dented.

‘We are rescuing you,’ Peri said.

Selene snorted. ‘Yeah, right.’ She knelt beside the two dazed Meigwors. ‘You OK, guys?’

‘That really hurt!’ said one of them.

‘Like stubbing your toe really hard, but all over your body!’ said the other.

Selene helped them to their feet.

‘She’s gone mad,’ Diesel muttered to Peri. ‘Totally flipped. We have to get her out of here.’

He grabbed Selene and pulled her towards him.

‘Back off, you guys!’ he warned the Meigwors. ‘Or my friend will zap you again.’

‘Get off!’ said Selene, struggling against Diesel’s firm grip.

‘Don’t worry,’ said Diesel soothingly. ‘You must have been hypnotised or drugged – but we’ll cure you . . .’

Selene elbowed him in the stomach and broke free.

‘You total blankoid, Diesel!’ she screamed.

‘
Grark!
Don’t talk to me like that!’ Diesel shouted. ‘Have you forgotten who I am?’

Peri held up both his hands. ‘OK, easy. Both of you.’ He turned to Selene and asked, ‘What’s going on, exactly?’

‘Blotto and Blatto are my friends,’ Selene said, gesturing to the two Meigwors. They helped me escape from General Rouwgim. They’re his enemies, just like we are.’

‘But I saw you on the Quikmap monitor,’ Peri said. ‘You were being attacked – by Meigwors. They had swords and laserpulses –’

‘That was a training exercise,’ Selene explained. ‘I was running through a few combat scenarios with these guys and their friends.’

‘We are working to overthrow the evil Emperor Niatto the Nasty,’ said Blotto. ‘And Selene’s help was invaluable – she certainly knows plenty of tricks!’

Selene nodded. ‘That’s why they let me have this old flying saucer. I’m trying to fix it up and blast out of here. Except, I can’t get it to work.’

‘Forget that!’ said Diesel. ‘We don’t have time to mess with that old junk. We’ve left Otto on the ship, he could be up to anything.’

He threw his arm round Selene’s shoulder and grabbed Peri by the arm. He reached for the orange button on the Xion teleportation band.

‘Will it work with three –’ Peri started but Diesel slammed the button before he could finish his sentence.

‘
Woooaaaagh
!
’ Peri screamed. He felt as if he was being stretched, squashed and shuffled all at once. The air crackled and sparkled and flashed. Something was wrong – there was an enormous field of energy playing around them – but they weren’t going anywhere.

All three of them collapsed in a heap. They had not moved. They were still in the garage. The air stopped crackling and sparkling and flashing. Peri began to feel normal.