The Slime Volcano

by H. Badger

  Somehow, Kip felt sad to leave without knowing more about the aliens. They did seem interesting – just very grubby. But it was time to go home.

  He tried to call MoNa on his SpaceCuff.

  Communicate mode:

  ‘My signal is blocked for some reason,’ Kip said, annoyed. ‘We’ll have to try moving to higher ground to call MoNa.’

  By now, the waterfall of slime had slowed to a trickle. Kip and Finbar backed out of the cave without disturbing the aliens.

  Zorg was talking to Zert in an urgent voice.

  ‘He’s still going on about that slime pond,’ Kip said, checking his SpaceCuff. ‘Maybe they’re going swimming!’

  Finbar looked grossed out.

  Kip needed to find the best spot for reception so he could talk to MoNa. ‘I think we’ll have to climb up there,’ he said, after a minute. ‘Even though it’s an –’

  ‘Active volcano!’ Finbar cut in. ‘We’re NOT climbing that. It just erupted!’ The Suckerbot spun its wheels nervously.

  Kip shrugged. ‘Unless you want to stay here, it’s our only choice.’

  In the high-gravity atmosphere, the climb would be tough and dangerous. And if the volcano erupted again, Kip and Finbar would be swept away in boiling-hot slime.

  Luckily, they had their voice-activated Arachnalegs. These would give them vital support during the dangerous climb ahead.

  Kip and Finbar started tramping heavily to the base of the volcano. When they got there, Kip engaged his Arachnalegs. All six suction caps stuck firmly on the ground.

  WorldCorp Arachnalegs

  Then Kip started climbing up the volcano, with the Arachnalegs supporting his weight. Finbar followed close behind, carrying the Suckerbot.

  It was hard going up the volcano, especially with the high gravity dragging them backwards.

  ‘Are you having fun?’ Kip asked Finbar, trying to joke.

  Finbar didn’t answer. He’d stopped, tail stuck straight out the back of his spacesuit. Uh-oh, that’s his distress signal! Kip thought.

  There was an angry rumble deep inside the volcano.

  ‘It’s erupting again!’ Finbar yelled. ‘JUMP!’

  CHAPTER 5

  Blazing blue slime spurted from the crater. Kip and Finbar had to move or they’d be drenched!

  ‘I’m falling!’ Finbar yelled as slime loosened the suction caps on his Arachnalegs. He gripped the Suckerbot tightly. ‘Me too!’ Kip yelled.

  Kip was dragged down into the boiling slime. Luckily his spacesuit seemed to be able to withstand the heat.

  ‘Watch your head!’ Finbar roared.

  Too late. The slime picked Kip up and hurled him into a somersault!

  He bashed his helmet against a rock. His head rattled hard inside it, and then the world went black…

  ‘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.

  Jus
t 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.

  Soon, Kip found something poking up from the roof. There was a hatch on top. He guessed it was some kind of airlock into the transporter. He forced open the hatch a little way and squeezed through.

  Using the CatsEyes, Kip made out a ladder fixed to the wall. He climbed down nimbly into an airlock, and then inside the transporter itself. Finbar followed nervously.

  This must be the bridge, Kip thought.

  The small room was half-filled with slime. Six corridors led in all directions. A can floated by, as though the aliens had been mid-snack when the transporter crashed.

  Looking around, Kip could see through that the floor of the transporter wasn’t quite flat. In fact, it seemed to ripple a little. He gulped uncertainly.

  Finbar didn’t seem to have noticed the floor. He pointed to the transporter’s console.

  Even coated in slime, Kip could see it was packed with dials, screens and navigation instruments. They weren’t as high-tech as MoNa’s. But it was extra evidence that the aliens were more advanced than they first seemed.

  Suddenly, Finbar stopped. Standing completely still, his wolf ears twitched inside his helmet.

  Kip’s skin prickled. I knew something wasn’t right, he thought.

  Something made Kip trip up onto the floor. His breath was knocked out of him.

  Gasping for air, he tried to pull himself up. But he couldn’t!

  Kip’s ankles were tied together with some kind of thick rope.

  Finbar stooped to help Kip up. But the second Finbar’s gloved paws touched Kip’s shoulders, the rope coiled around him too!

  Desperately, Kip tried to tear his feet free. But then he realised the rope had hundreds of moving legs attached.

  It wasn’t a rope – it was alive! The bridge was teeming with massive slimy creatures.

  Hundreds of them slithered around Kip’s neck, trying to pierce his suit with glistening fangs. And Finbar’s arms were pinned to his side by even more of them.

  Kip tried to keep his breathing steady, even though he wanted to scream. He’d seen these creatures before. It was in the slime puddles when they’d first landed on Grimor.

  Slime Crawlers!

  Back in the pond, they’d been tiny. But the slime pond was clearly the perfect environment for Slime Crawlers. They’d shot up to hundreds of times bigger than their normal size!

  Slime Crawler tails lashed at Kip’s helmet.

  There’s no way these mega-crawlers will give up their home easily, Kip thought.

  His mind whirred. There had to be a way to escape…

  Suddenly, it came to him.

  My UltraSonic Grenade! he thought. It’s in my spacesuit pocket.

  The UltraSonic Grenade was a cruelty-free way to stop alien animal attacks. Pull the pin and the grenade released a squeal too high-pitched for human ears. But most animals found it unbearable.

  To grab the grenade, Kip had to reach under his SecondSkin and inside his spacesuit pocket. And he had to do it covered in Slime Crawlers!

  Gotta surprise them, Kip thought. He stopped struggling, and for a moment sat completely still. The Slime Crawlers seemed to slow down.

  They must think they’ve got me, thought Kip.

  Then, with a roar tearing from his throat, Kip ripped off as many Slime Crawlers as possible. He plunged his hand under his SecondSkin. His fingers closed around the grenade in his pocket.

  Kip yanked the pin, and there was a puff of smoke.

  Immediately, the transporter began to rock violently. In a seething mass, the Slime Crawlers slithered away at top speed. They disappeared through the escape hatch and into the pond.

  Kip couldn’t hear a thing. But Finbar howled, burying his head in his lap. He was half-animal, so the grenade irritated his ears. Luckily, he had his helmet for extra protection.

  Now to see if we can get the transporter out of here and flying again, Kip thought. And then we can all go home!

  CHAPTER 8

  Kip and Finbar swam speedily back up to the bank of the Slime Pond. Zorg and Zert were waiting there with the other aliens and Finbar’s Suckerbot, which spun its wheels excitedly.

  The aliens stuck their tongues out at Kip and Finbar, and wiggled them around, going cross-eyed at the same time. Then they blew gigantic spit bubbles.

  Kip
was a bit taken aback. But then he remembered that these aliens had different customs. Although it was freaky, this must be their way of saying they were glad he and Finbar were back!

  ‘We found your transporter!’ Kip said.

  All the aliens tapped their hands to the side of their heads over and over again.

  Hmm, is that their way of clapping? Kip thought, frowning. He didn’t want anyone getting too excited until he’d actually got the transporter back from the bottom of the pond.

  Luckily, Finbar had a plan.

  He picked up the Suckerbot and gave it a little pat. ‘This new model has an excellent atomic compactor,’ Finbar said proudly, and Kip’s SpaceCuff translated aloud for the aliens. ‘It sucks up dirt and grime, and then shrinks down each particle to a fraction of its normal size.’

  Kip looked doubtful. ‘Can it shrink an entire pond’s worth of slime?’

  Finbar’s expression was serious. ‘It’s our best shot.’

  Kip nodded. ‘I just hope those massive Slime Crawlers don’t come back!’

  Finbar led the Suckerbot to the edge of the pond. Eagerly, it plunged its massive nozzle-lips into the slime.

  The Suckerbot slurped up the slime even faster than Kip could gulp a PlutoBlast Chill sports drink after a ParticleBall game.

  Although it was only as tall as Finbar’s knees, the Suckerbot seemed to find room for a limitless amount of slime.

  The Suckerbot actually seemed to enjoy drinking slime! It made happy little purring sounds. Kip couldn’t help gagging a little.

  The minutes ticked by tensely. The Suckerbot was good, but could it really suck up the entire pond?

  ‘Look!’ Kip yelled suddenly. ‘I can see the top of the transporter!’

  The transporter’s hatch soon poked through the surface of the pond.

  Let’s hope the atomic compactor holds out!

  As he watched, Kip gave a nervous cough. The aliens stared at him, amazed.

  ‘What does that barking sound mean in your language?’ Zert asked.