Crash Landing

by Max Chase

  Before he could say another word, Selene shot the prince with a sonic dart. Onix slumped to the floor, unconscious.

  ‘What the lunar moon-base did you do that for?’ Peri cried.

  ‘Is he in a coma again?’ Diesel asked.

  Selene shook her head. ‘He’s just stunned. Look, he’s obviously got amnesia. He’s going to be a pain to look after. If he’s asleep, he can’t try to escape or hurt us.’

  ‘But we’re in enough trouble as it is,’ Peri said. ‘The Xions will execute us on the spot if we bring him back like this – they’ll think we’ve tortured him. How can we return him when he doesn’t know who he is?’

  ‘Leave the stinking Xion on this rock and forget about him!’ Otto boomed.

  ‘No,’ Peri said. ‘We didn’t leave you when we could, so we’re not going to do it to Onix. And, Selene, I want you to promise not to shoot or sedate the prince again. You too, Otto.’

  Peri stared at Otto and Selene until they reluctantly nodded. Two mechanical arms appeared and lifted the prince back into the stasis-pod.

  ‘You’re making more trouble for yourself, Earthling!’ Otto muttered.

  ‘I know,’ Peri replied. ‘It’s not going to be easy, but doing the right thing isn’t about doing the easiest thing. We just have to be ultra-careful from now on.’

  As Peri stepped through the portal back to the Bridge, he vowed to himself: ‘I’m going to get the prince back to Xion. Then I’m going to find a way home before we land ourselves in even deeper trouble!’

  Will Peri and the crew make it safely to planet Xion?

  Can they survive an encounter with the terrifying Xio-Bot?

  Find out! In . . .

  Turn over to read Chapter 1

  Chapter 1

  Purple. That was all Peri could see. He closed his eyes. He opened them again and turned 360 degrees. One moment they had been cruising in the Phoenix, watching the stars like tiny diamonds shining in space, and then this purple haze had descended.

  Purple all around. It was bright and blinding. Peri screwed his eyelids tightly shut. He could hear Selene, Otto and Diesel stumbling around the Bridge.

  ‘S’fâh!’ Diesel shouted. ‘What did you do, Otto?’

  ‘I did nothing!’ boomed Otto. ‘Everything’s just gone purple!’

  Peri felt a change in the motion of the Phoenix. It speeded up, and shifted course.

  ‘Something’s taken control of us!’ Selene shouted.

  ‘How?’ Peri asked. ‘How could they get past our shields?’

  Selene cleared her throat. ‘That may be my fault,’ she said. ‘I sent Boomerang messages on Ultrawave – to find out if anything’s left of the Milky Way after the Xion attack. It’s supposed to come back with replies attached. Something must be piggybacking on the return signal, using it to hack into our computer – and control us.’

  ‘Who would do that?’ Diesel asked.

  ‘Take your pick,’ Peri said. ‘The Xion and the Meigwor have both sworn to destroy us.’

  ‘I don’t think any Meigwor is smart enough to pull this off,’ Diesel replied.

  Peri heard a swish, and crack, then a bellow of pain from Otto. He must have swung a punch at Diesel and hit the wall – in retaliation for the comment about his home planet.

  ‘Missed!’ Diesel jeered.

  ‘We don’t have time for fights,’ Peri said. ‘We need to take back control of the Phoenix.’

  Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Berlin, New York and Sydney

  First published in Great Britain in April 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP

  This electronic edition published in April 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  Copyright © Working Partners Limited 2012

  Illustrations copyright © Sam Hadley 2012

  The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted

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  ISBN 9781408815878

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