by H. Badger
‘This is the greenhouse,’ Zara beamed.
She guided them toward the nearest flower. Carefully, she dropped a single speck of pollen into its petals.
Finbar followed. But his wolf paws were clumsy. A pollen speck tumbled from his grip.
Zara dived to catch it before it hit the dirt. ‘The golden grains are precious!’ she squeaked. ‘Without them, the Beautiful Ones cannot survive.’
Kip had a photographic memory for details, even nerdy ones. It was one reason why he was such a talented Space Scout.The golden specks reminded him of something his Teacherbot had told him.
Zara and Finbar are taking pollen from the outside flowers to the young flowers inside the greenhouse, he thought. Kip knew that insects normally did that job.
His mind was racing at warp speed. I bet those weird giant spiderbees used to spread the pollen, he thought. They could have made this greenhouse too.
Zara had said that the spiderbees were all dead now. But back when dawn was breaking, Kip had noticed that the bodies littered on the ground hadn’t started decomposing yet. That could only mean that the spiderbees had died recently.
Then Kip had a brainwave. Maybe the Intergalactic Killer Bug Flu wiped them out!
It meant that the flowers needed some-one else to do the spiderbees’ job. Because the flowers couldn’t really walk, they couldn’t spread their pollen to the little flowers inside the greenhouse! And with-out the pollen, new flowers couldn’t grow.
So the flowers hynotised Zara, and then Finbar, to spread the pollen for them!
Kip had to admit that it was pretty clever.
A loud rumble outside interrupted Kip’s whirring brain. A fork of fizzing orange lightning lit up the sky. Rain started pouring down.
Finbar’s doggy side hated thunderstorms! Kip was sure that if he wasn’t brainwashed, he’d be terrified.
Kip watched Finbar closely. Zara kept on pollinating seedlings. But Finbar had stopped what he was doing. The fur on the back of his neck stood on end. His glazed smile drooped.
Outside, another lightning fork sizzled across the sky. Finbar’s ears flattened again his head. He let out a low, mournful growl.
Kip’s Space Scout training had taught him that things weren’t always what they seem. When Zara was a safe distance away, he walked over to Finbar.
‘You’ll be fine,’ Kip whispered. ‘It’s just a thunderstorm.’
Finbar looked Kip in the eye. ‘Thanks,’ he whispered back.
Finbar’s voice sounded completely normal. He hadn’t even mentioned serving the Beautiful Ones!
Relief flooded though Kip. Finbar’s only faking being hypnotised! We had the same idea.
Kip had been right about the wink. But what about the cat-like purrs?
‘For a giant walking cottonball, you’re a pretty good actor,’ Kip muttered.
Finbar grinned and scratched his leg.
At that moment, Zara wondered over.
‘Let’s gather more golden grains,’ Finbar told her, acting brainwashed again.
Zara reached out to take Finbar’s paw. Just at that moment, a stinging space flea flew out from Finbar’s spacesuit and landed on Zara.
Zara didn’t seem to notice, but suddenly Kip had an idea.
It was pretty out-there. But then again, so was this entire mission.
CHAPTER 9
Kip’s plan was weird, but simple.
Botanicus-1 needs insects. Finbar’s got too many. Finbar’s stinging space fleas could be trained to pollinate the flowers!
‘The Botanicus-1 flowers need us, so let’s go,’ Kip commanded.
The brainwashed Zara followed obediently as Kip and Finbar raced out of the greenhouse, through the clearing and back into the flower field. As he ran, Kip flicked on his SpaceCuff and typed.
Translate mode:
English to Flowerspeak
Attention flowers
He hoped the SpaceCuff had finished learning to translate by now. Kip watched the screen nervously. Then…
A translation popped up! But instead of words, Kip had to sing a series of musical notes so that the flowers could understand him.
A Space Scout’s got to be ready for anything, Kip thought, clearing his throat. Even a spot of opera!
‘My 2iC is infested with fleas,’ Kip warbled at the flowers in his best high-pitched moan. ‘Hypnotise them instead of us. They’ll do the spiderbees’ job!’
The flowers rustled. They understood!
Kip held his breath as the field was silent. They seemed to be deciding whether Kip’s plan could work.
At last, the nearest flowers bent down and sang their reply. ‘The flowers love the idea!’ Kip said, reading the translation from his Space-Cuff. ‘They never wanted to keep anyone prisoner. They just needed a way to pollinate their seedlings.’
The flowers looked a bit like the ones on Earth. But Kip knew they were more complex than any flower back home. The flowers had a language, for a start, and they seemed to have emotions like humans and aliens, too.
The flowers near Finbar set to work on the fleas at once. They swayed left to right in perfect time with each other.
The flowers rubbed their leaf arms together above their heads as they swayed. Their voices joined together in song, so high-pitched that only the fleas could hear it properly.
Fleas streamed out the neck of Finbar’s spacesuit. The faster the flowers sang and swayed, the more excited the fleas got. Soon the air was thick with space fleas, flying in formation.
‘It’s working!’ Kip yelled. ‘The fleas are brainwashed.’
‘Hang on,’ said Finbar suddenly. ‘My fleas are tiny and the spiderbees were massive. It’ll take the fleas ages to do the spiderbees’ job.’
Kip grinned. ‘I thought of that,’ he said, reaching for the Yum X-Pander gadget tucked into the pocket of his spacesuit.
Space Scouts used Yum X-Panders when food supplies were short on missions. X-Panders shot a ray that took tasty food particles and multiplied them thousands of times. A normal donut could grow as big as a tyre in half a second.
Kip aimed the Yum X-Pander at the cloud of fleas. He squeezed the trigger. A bright yellow ray shot out. There was a flash and then the faint smell of singed fleas.
Instantly, the fleas grew to the size of Kip’s head. He fired the Yum X-Pander again until the fleas were as big as the spiderbees had been.
WorldCorp Yum X-Pander
At that size, the fleas’ creepy pincers, giant bulging eyes and fuzzy wings were very easy to see.
Finbar shuddered. ‘That’s what was crawling all over me?’
But the flowers were thrilled. They started singing again to Kip and Finbar.
‘To thank us, they’re going to reverse our brainwashing,’ Kip translated, looking down at his SpaceCuff. Then he winked at Finbar. No point in telling the flowers that they’d only been pretending!
Giant Stinging Space Flea
The flowers began swaying in the opposite direction. They struck up their song again, lower-pitched and with the strange tune reversed.
A moment later, Zara shook her head slowly. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked, looking confused.
Her hypnosis was broken!
‘Long story,’ said Kip with a grin. ‘Let’s get out of here, and then I’ll tell you all about it.’
At that second, Kip’s SpaceCuff started buzzing impatiently.
Incoming call… MoNa
Kip punched the Call Answer button.
‘At last,’ MoNa said grumpily. ‘I’ve tried to call you three times.’
‘What?’ Kip said. ‘I’ve been trying to call you. I thought you were wrecked!’
‘Hmmph,’ MoNa sniffed. ‘Well, there has been a lot of strange musical interference in the atmosphere.’
Kip sighed with relief. ‘I think we’ve sorted that out,’ he said. ‘Can you send us three Scramblers? And you’ll need to use your MagnaSweep to take Zara’s wrecked starship back home for repairs.’
The second the Scrambler Beams appeared, Kip, Finbar and Zara stepped into them. Kip felt the familiar sensation of his body parts being shuffled by a giant pair of invisible hands.
Moments later, Kip, Finbar and Zara were safely back in MoNa’s landing bay.
Kip’s mission was complete…almost.
CHAPTER 10
‘Time to file your mission report,’ said MoNa bossily.
Kip glanced at Zara. It was strange having another Space Scout on board, especially a more experienced one. Would Zara think MoNa ordered Kip around just because he was young?
‘Don’t worry,’ Zara whispered to Kip. ‘Starships think they know everything, but they’d be nothing without us.’
Kip grinned. Zara seemed to think he was a top Space Scout, even if he was the youngest.
Together, they all made their way to the bridge. Kip sat down in his captain’s chair. Immediately, his holographic console appeared around him.
Exploring Botanicus-1 had been Zara’s mission. But during her rescue, Kip had seen a lot of the planet. So he could tell WorldCorp whether Botanicus-1 could be the next Earth.
He went straight to the File Mission Report screen and began to type.
CLASSIFIED
CAPTAIN’S LOG Botanicus-1
Population:Giant flowers. They can communicate and seem to have thoughts and feelings.
Like: Singing in harmony. Their songs have the power to hypnotise and eventually brainwash listeners.
Environment: Both rainy and sunny. The environment was perfect for growing flowers…until the Killer Bug Flu struck, killed the spiderbees and threw everything off balance.
Animals: As of ten minutes ago, a population of giant stinging space fleas. Space fleas exist in all known galaxies so they’re unlikely to harm the ecosystem of Botanticus-1.
Recommendation: I can’t recommend Bontanicus-1 as Earth 2. The planet needs time to adjust to its new giant flea population. Plus, kids would go crazy with nothing to do hang out with singing flowers all day.
KIRBY, SPACE SCOUT #50
Sighing, Kip sent off his report. He’d completed his mission, but he probably wouldn’t get a Planetary Point this time. It had been a rescue mission, not a scouting one.
He clicked on the latest Space Scout leader board. I’ll be right down the bottom, he thought glumly. But when the board finished down-loading, Kip gasped.
Space Scout Leader Board
#1 Blake Nagoda
#2 Danika Treasure
#3 Kip Kirby*
* For accepting and completing a rescue mission without complaint, 2 honorary Planetary Points awarded.
Kip flushed with pride. Getting on with the rescue mission without making a fuss was definitely the right decision.
‘I’m scanning for wormholes to Earth,’ announced MoNa. ‘It might be a while before one opens up.’
Kip shrugged. He was in no hurry to get home. What if his parents had another family outing in mind?
‘Let’s show Zara the Hobbytron,’ Kip suggested quickly.
MoNa might have been grumpy, but she made up for it with cool new features like the Hobbytron.
The Hobbytron was shaped like a huge upside-down bowl. A digital display seemed to float on its glossy black sides.
Kip, Finbar and Zara stepped inside. ‘I’ll set it to Random Hobby,’ Kip said, adjusting the controls.
MoNa 4000: Hobbytron
‘Cool,’ said Zara. ‘My starship doesn’t have one of these! What do I do?’
‘Stick these on your head,’ Kip told Zara. He pointed to a bunch of electrodes dangling from the roof.
They stuck their electrodes on. At once, lights flashed inside the Hobbytron.
‘Generating hobby…’ said a smooth digital voice.
Suddenly, a powerful smell of flowers filled the Hobbytron. Virtual reality flowers sprang up all around.
Kip leant down and tried to pick one. Although it was digital, a thorn on the stem pricked him. Kip started bleeding! Virtual reality was getting more real every day.
‘Today’s random hobby is…flower arranging,’ said the Hobbytron voice.
Kip and Zara rolled their eyes at each other. As if two top Space Scouts would spend their time off practising flower arranging! Anyway, they’d had more than enough flowers for one mission.
‘What about extreme trick hover-boarding instead?’ Zara said.
‘As long as we set the skill level to “death defying”,’ Kip agreed.
Finbar’s ears went flat. ‘I might sit this one out,’ he said, shaking his head.
Kip grinned at him. Some things were best enjoyed by Space Scouts only!
THE END
