The Slime Volcano (4 page)

‘Can you hear me?' whispered a voice.

Woozily, Kip opened his eyes. Finbar was beside him, looking worried. Next to him were the dirty faces of Zorg and Zert.

‘They found us at the bottom of the volcano,' Finbar said. ‘They brought us home and nursed you.'

Up close, Kip could see that the aliens had friendly faces. He stuck out his hand for a handshake. Zorg took Kip's hand and patted himself three times on the shoulder with it.

That must be their version of shaking hands
, Kip thought, trying not to giggle as he patted himself with Zorg's hand.

He looked around. He was in a spotlessly clean circular room. There was blue matting on the floor made of dried slime vines woven together. In one corner was a pile of plastic-wrapped bags of food. One bag was open. Kip could see some kind of dried vegetable inside.

So they don't eat Slime Crawlers,
Kip noted, standing up.
But then where does their food
come from?
The room swayed. Kip shook his head, trying to get his balance.

‘Their house hangs in mid-air,' Finbar explained.

Kip wobbled towards the window. Outside, it was night. A bright green moon hung in the sky.

Kip could see two other houses shaped like beehives. Their tops were stuck to the underside of a rock ledge with dried sap from the blue vines.

‘I guess they're designed to be protected from the hot slime,' Finbar commented. ‘Slime runs right over the ledge and misses them.'

Kip knew these houses would be hard to build. Too hard for
simple
aliens…

Kip's stomach growled. He took a can of his favourite snack BurgerMousse from his backpack. He squirted some into his mouth through a hatch in his helmet. He then passed the can to Zert, who knew exactly how it worked.

She's done that before,
Kip thought.
But
there's nothing else like it on Grimor…

Kip's brain ticked over. When he'd first seen the aliens, they looked dirty. Kip had decided they were a bit gross, and maybe even stupid. But jumping to conclusions was one of the worst mistakes Space Scouts could make!

He thought about the spotless, cleverly designed houses. The way Zert used the can of BurgerMousse so easily.

They're actually quite advanced!
Kip thought. He was annoyed for getting things so wrong.
But why are there so few of them?

‘Where are the rest of your people?' Kip asked.

Zert looked out the window and pointed towards the green moon. A tear rolled down her face. The aliens had funny hugs and handshakes. But tears meant the same thing all over the universe.

Kip was sure he could guess the sad truth. ‘I think Zorg and Zert come from Grimor's moon,' he said quietly to Finbar. ‘Judging by their provisions, they might have been on a short mission to explore Grimor, just like us!'

‘Why are they still here?' asked Finbar.

‘Problems with their spacecraft?'

Kip turned to Zorg. ‘Did you crash here?'

Zorg nodded glumly. He began to explain the aliens' story. Kip set the Space-Cuff to translate aloud this time so Finbar could hear.

‘Our transporter was small.We crashed into a river of slime and it was carried away. We've searched Grimor but can't find the wreckage. The only place left is the Slime Pond near Pustula, the giant volcano.'

They said they were searching the Slime
Pond before,
Kip thought
. They must have been
looking for their transporter, not hunting Slime
Crawlers to eat!

‘We could take you home,' Kip offered. ‘You could come in our starship, MoNa.'

Zorg and Zert grinned.

MoNa hated giving anyone lifts, but Kip didn't care. He tried to call her on his SpaceCuff again.

Communicate mode:

‘Still no reception!' Kip said to Finbar, his stomach lurching.

‘Maybe the slime damaged the Space-Cuff's satellite receiver,' Finbar replied. ‘To fix it, a Technobot will have to totally rebuild it.'

‘Well, we don't have one of those here,' Kip said grimly. ‘And if we can't call MoNa, we're trapped on Grimor. Just like Zorg and Zert!'

CHAPTER 6

‘There's got to be a way to find your transporter!' Kip said to Zorg and Zert, and the SpaceCuff translated.

Zorg replied.‘We think our transporter is at the bottom of the Slime Pond. But we don't have any diving gear.'

‘We do,' said Kip with a grin. ‘Come on, let's go!'

At the door of Zert and Zorg's house, there was a rope made of knotted dried slime vines, hanging down to the ground. Kip climbed down from the hanging house, using the rope's knots as footholds.

Finbar, Zorg and Zert followed. Zorg called out to the other two houses. Four more aliens appeared and climbed down to help.

‘Pustula's that way,' Finbar said, pointing.

Together, they all set off.

In Grimor's high-gravity atmosphere, trekking to the Slime Pond was exhausting. Beads of sweat popped up under Kip's helmet.

Kip saw the aliens staring at his sweaty face. They weren't sweating at all. Kip guessed that they might not have sweat glands. To them, the sight of Kip's wet forehead probably looked bizarre.

Just like the way their handshake looks weird
to us
, Kip thought.

The aliens were clearly used to high gravity. Zert explained that the gravity on Zorn, Grimor's moon, was even higher than on Grimor.

Kip knew humans could never survive for a long time in a place like Zorn, no matter how friendly the locals were. It was hard enough to move around on Grimor, even for a super-fit Space Scout!

At last they came to Pustula's massive base. They circled it until they came to a large pond filled with cool, thick slime. The pond gave off a strong smell, like mouldy washing.

‘The transporter could be at the bottom of the pond,' Finbar said. ‘And we have no idea how deep it is.'

We're just going to have to search until we
find it!
Kip thought, determined.

He pulled his SecondSkin out of his backpack. SecondSkins were thin water-proof covers that fitted perfectly over spacesuits and helmets. They transformed any spacesuit into a diving suit.

Now, time to engage my CatsEyes!

CatsEyes were WorldCorp's latest and coolest gadget. Flexible and ultra-light, they were radar contact lenses that Kip and Finbar wore under their eyelids. With a precise sequence of blinks, they could pop the CatsEyes down over their eyes whenever they needed to.

There would be no light under the slime. Instead, the CatsEyes would create a radar image inside Kip and Finbar's visors.Then they could see what was around them.

Finbar handed the Suckerbot to Zorg. At once, the other aliens crowded around, oohing and ahhing. They wanted to have a good look at the robot.

With a wave, Finbar and Kip waded into the slime pond.

It was gluier than a tissue full of snot. Unlike the hot slime from the volcanoes, the pond slime was very cool, and Kip shivered as they went deeper.

The slime was soon up to their necks. Kip and Finbar plunged underneath. It swallowed them up with a revolting sound.

Even with the CatsEyes, it was hard to see much under the slime. To Kip, Finbar was nothing but a wolfman-shaped blob beside him.

Reaching out, Kip grabbed Finbar's arm. He couldn't risk losing his 2iC in the slime.

Together, they dived deeper and deeper.

Kip's heart was soon hammering in his chest. The pond was much bigger than it had looked from the bank.

Kip scanned the pond-bed for any sign of the transporter.

For a while, there was nothing. But then he spotted an odd shape just below him. Round and flat, it was perfect for whizzing the short distance between Zorn and Grimor. It could be the transporter!

Pointing the shape out to Finbar, Kip gathered the energy he had left and he and Finbar stroked down through the slime. Kip hoped desperately that he was right.

And then…
yes!
They felt metal under their boots. Kip hadn't seen anything made of metal on Grimor. This had to be the transporter.

Suddenly, Kip felt something else. The transporter was trembling beneath him.

It shouldn't be moving
, Kip thought.
It's
wrecked!

Something ran across Kip's foot through the thick slime.

What was that?
Kip thought.

The thing was heavy and pretty big.

Even worse, it seemed to have hundreds of creepy-crawly legs…

CHAPTER 7

Stay calm
, Kip told himself sternly. As a Space Scout, he was trained to have superior control over his emotions.
There's
some kind of critter down here. So what?

Kip knew they had to take a closer look at the transporter, infested or not. Now they'd found the wreck, they had to work out how to get it out of the slime.

Kip and Finbar carefully crossed the transporter's flat roof. The metal was slippery and difficult to walk on.