by Max Chase
‘It’s a cosmic-catapult!’ shrieked Otto from the gunnery station.
Peri looked out of the 360-monitor. The Phoenix had been scooped up by a massive red laser net. Peri turned to see where the laser net was aiming. He felt a hot tingle run through all his circuits when he saw the black hole at the edge of the Astro-Void.
Chapter 3
Peri slammed on the dodge mechanism and yanked the anti-drift levers, but the Phoenix simply juddered and made a terrible grinding noise. It couldn’t break free from the cosmic-catapult.
‘Hold on, everyone!’ Peri shouted.
‘We’re going to die!’ Otto roared as the black hole filled the 360-monitor.
Chaaaa-Boiiiiiiiiinngg! The catapult flung the Phoenix past the black hole and out of the Astro-Void at unbelievable speed. Peri pulled the Nav-wheel, but nothing happened. He yanked more levers and slammed more buttons, but he couldn’t regain control of the ship. At least the UpRighter mechanism was keeping the Bridge stable as the rest of the ship spun.
‘Look out!’ Selene shouted, pointing at the 360-monitor. ‘Moon!’
The Phoenix was on a collision course with a huge chunk of rock. It would have been too late to avoid a direct hit even if they had had control of the navigation systems.
‘Full power to the shields!’ Peri yelled as his astro-harness tightened again. ‘Brace yourselves!’
Slaaaam-Boooiiinnng! The Phoenix smacked into the moon, but the ship’s shields flexed and tossed the ship back out into space. The whole Bridge lurched as the UpRighter mechanism failed.
Suddenly, the ceiling was below them, then above them, and then off to the side. Peri was thrown against his astro-harness. The Bridge and the 360-monitor spun wildly in different directions. He clutched his stomach and groaned. He had never felt so space-sick before.
An astro-bucket sprung from the arm of his chair and Peri grabbed it. He glanced at the rows of swirling metal teeth inside that would chew anything up if he puked. He looked away, trying to take his mind off his space-sickness. As the ship spun, Selene and her dad held on to Peri’s chair and each other while space-wrenches flew out of her pockets.
Crrraaasssh-Boiiinnng! The ship ricocheted off an asteroid, then rebounded off a comet before zipping across a planet’s atmosphere and spinning away in a new direction. Only the Phoenix’s defence systems were keeping Peri and the crew from being smashed to pieces.
Groans were coming from the gunners’ chairs. Diesel had his head buried in an astro-bucket. Peri could just see his limp green hair plastered against his head, blue sweat dripping off it. ‘Make it stop,’ he moaned, his voice echoing from the bucket.
Peri’s stomach churned as the Phoenix flipped and bounced through space. He pressed his hand over his mouth and wished his bionic circuits could prevent him feeling sick.
With a jolt, the UpRighter mechanism started working again and the Bridge stopped spinning. The drone of the engines became less urgent and Peri realised that the Phoenix’s speed was decreasing. The ship bounced gently off another asteroid and came to a halt.
Diesel lifted his head from the astro-bucket and looked around. ‘Where are we?’ The half-Martian gulped and tried to put his hand over his mouth, but he was too late. His neon-green vomit splattered into the astro-bucket. Whirrrrrrrr! The bucket whizzed into action.
Peri didn’t want to see any more of that! He punched a button on the control panel and a map appeared on the 360-monitor. ‘I can’t believe it – we’re half a galaxy from our last position!’ He placed his palm on the smooth red section of the control panel. Click. It slid open and he punched in the coordinates. ‘Stand by! I’m going to use Superluminal to get back to where we started.’
Peri flicked the switch. The Phoenix leapt forward faster than the speed of light. It was a smoother ride than their catapult-fuelled trip halfway across the galaxy. The Phoenix dropped out of Superluminal speed to reveal the vast emptiness of the Astro-Void.
The blue planet was gone.
‘It’s not here,’ Otto boomed. ‘You’ve made a mistake!’
Peri rechecked the coordinates. ‘It was definitely here . . . But now it isn’t.’
Diesel pulled his head free of the astro-bucket and wiped his mouth. ‘How can you lose an entire planet?’
Peri glanced at Selene and Jaxx to see what they thought. Jaxx was standing up and dusting himself off while Selene sat slumped on the floor, smirking.
Peri narrowed his eyes. ‘Something funny?’ he asked. ‘We’ve just lost our only lead to clear your dad’s name!’
Selene’s grin got wider. ‘Who said we’ve lost the planet?’
‘For Neptune’s sake,’ Diesel yelled. ‘It doesn’t take a wastoid to look outside and see that the planet is GONE!’
Selene rolled her eyes. ‘You don’t get planets in an Astro-Void,’ she said. ‘So whoever owns that planet must have fitted it with engines and flown it here –’
‘Which means,’ Jaxx interrupted, ‘that they can probably move it wherever they like.’
‘Genius,’ Diesel said sarcastically. ‘But we still don’t know where it’s gone.’
Selene smiled again. ‘As soon as I realised it was mobile, I used a hypodermic laser to inject a tracking device into the planet’s stratosphere.’
Jaxx helped his daughter up and gave her a hug. ‘Smart thinking! I’m very impressed.’
Selene’s hands moved over the engineer’s console and made adjustments to the tracing scanners. ‘It only has a range of one light year, but it should be enough to track down the planet.’
Zeeeeeee-Zaaaa-Ping!
A bright orange light beam appeared on the 360-monitor. ‘Tracking the signal,’ the ship announced. The light began to snake across the Astro-Void, swirling and dipping through the emptiness. Then it stopped and the line faded away, leaving a bright orange dot on the screen.
Selene pointed. ‘There! One missing planet found.’
‘Space-tastic, Selene!’ Peri cheered. ‘Now let’s go and arrest Daxx.’
Peri blasted the Phoenix towards the planet while everyone kept their eyes on the sensors to make sure they steered well clear of the cosmic-catapult this time around.
The shimmering blue planet appeared on their 360-monitor again.
‘Diesel, Otto,’ Peri said, ‘let’s make sure we’re ready for anything they can –’
Before Peri had finished giving the order, he saw a flash of sparkling blue ahead of the Phoenix and another siren erupted. Eeeaarraaa!
Peri shielded his eyes as all the lights on the Bridge glowed bright red.
‘We’re slowing down,’ Selene reported.
Peri pulled at the thrusters. ‘How is that even possible? All the engines are running at maximum thrust.’
The black patches around Otto’s eyes turned a ghostly shade of grey and he started murmuring in a low voice. ‘Ra-cnar, fagh, marigngh, fro-fulra, duphrfrig, ghirfight! Fagh.’
‘Is Otto praying?’ Diesel gasped. ‘I thought Meigwors weren’t afraid of anything.’
Otto strapped himself in the nearest chair and shook his head. ‘We’re only afraid when we’re going to die in the most painful way in the universe!’ he boomed. ‘You’ve just hit a StellarTrip! There is no escape!’
Chapter 4
‘What is a StellarTrip, Otto?’ Peri asked.
‘You space-monkeys know nothing!’ Otto boomed. ‘It holds a string of stars together. When something crosses the wire, it pulls all the stars towards the centre of the trap! We’re going to be blown apart! There won’t even be space dust left.’
Peri magnified the wire on the 360-monitor and followed it along its entire length. A thin purple laser-wire stretched around the ship and then out into deep space. Otto was right – the wire was threaded through hundreds of small but powerful stars. The ends of the wire folded towards them, smashing the stars together to create the deadliest fireworks display in the universe. As more stars were caught up in the explosion, the fireball swinging toward
s the Phoenix grew larger and larger.
We’ve got to outrun this, Peri thought, slamming on the turbo-reverse.
The Phoenix responded with full power. Peri rammed the backward thrusters to ‘Maximum’. The Bridge shook as the ship gave it everything it had. Chrrorrrraarr! The engines screamed with effort, but nothing happened.
‘Stop it!’ Selene yelled. ‘You’ll strip the plasma-flux relays and destroy the engines!’
Peri released the thrusters and the engines fell silent. Glancing at the 360-monitor, he realised his manoeuvres had just tangled the laser-wire even more closely around the ship. ‘If we can’t escape the wire we have to break it.’
‘I have an idea.’ Selene started twisting a row of zip-dials. ‘Remember when we saved those moon-bats?’
Peri nodded. ‘We adjusted our hand-held lasers to shoot ice-beams.’
‘Exactly – we can use our laser array to make the wire cold enough to snap.’ Selene punched a series of buttons.
On her command, Otto and Diesel opened fire. Bright blue beams burst from the Phoenix and struck the StellarTrip.
‘It’s not working,’ Diesel reported. ‘They need to be colder.’
‘I’m on it!’ Selene said, making more adjustments to the laser controls.
Peri ran a scan. The beams had now dropped to the coldest temperature possible. He could see ice forming around the ship’s laser ports, but none on the laser-wire. The StellarTrip had been cooled, but only enough to slow down the stars crashing towards the Phoenix.
‘It hasn’t weakened the wire, but it has bought us more time.’ Peri swept his gaze across the control panel. His eyes stopped on the strange twisted button at the far end.
The Red Helix.
Peri reached for the button, then froze. His parents had warned him to use it only as a last resort. Is this the right time? he asked himself. This was a life or death situation – he needed to save his crew and the Phoenix – but the Red Helix was completely dark, unlike the Blue Helix, which had glowed when it was the right time to use it. An aching prickle flowed through his muscles. His bionic body was telling him, Not now.
Peri pulled his hand away. If his bionic connection with the ship didn’t want him to press the Red Helix, what else could he do? The explosive fireball was getting larger and hotter with every nanometre as it got closer to the ship. Peri could see it without magnification now. They didn’t stand a chance against its awesome power.
Help us, Phoenix!
A tingling feeling spread up Peri’s hands and arms. At first he thought it was fear, but then he realised that the Phoenix was trying to send him a message. He took a deep breath and listened to the ship, but what he heard didn’t make sense at all.
Big . . . Think.
Peri took another breath, trying not to panic. Concentrate, he told himself.
Think Big!
His eyes drifted towards the Expansion Pack controls. His fingers twitched, wanting to activate them.
But how can they help? Peri wondered. They only make the Phoenix bigger, which would mean we’d be too bulky to fly fast . . .
‘That’s it!’ Peri exclaimed. If they made the ship bigger, then maybe the StellarTrip laser-wire that was tightening around them would be stretched to breaking point. They could snap it and escape!
Peri started flicking the switches to expand the ship. The ship’s plan on the control panel glowed as the Phoenix was transformed. Schurrrpt! The ship gained algae-growing generators and swimming pools. Peri pressed more buttons to add a solar-sampler unit, fully functioning astro-labs and a gymnasium. The Phoenix was now one hundred times bigger, but Peri activated even more Expansion Packs. Firing ranges, manufacturing rooms and moon-buggy racing tracks appeared on the plan. The display of corridors and compartments was dazzling.
The tangled laser-wire contracted tighter, but the Phoenix kept on growing. Peri pushed the last Expansion Pack button. The ship reached its maximum capacity.
Ting-ting! Peri and his crew stood still as they listened to the strange noise echoing through the Bridge. Ting-ting-ting-ting! It sounded like the laser-wire was stretching. Ting-ting-ting! The Phoenix shuddered under the strain. TING-PING-PING!
KRRRAAACCCKKKK! Peri covered his ears as an almighty noise ripped through the Bridge. He gripped the control panel to steady himself as the ship shook. Peri saw the laser-wire recoil into the Astro-Void. The StellarTrip had snapped and was throwing stars spiralling off into space.
Peri and the others cheered, but the sound was drowned out by the howling of sirens. Angry red letters flashed across the 360-monitor: Hazard Alert! He checked the scanners. Part of the StellarTrip was spinning towards the Phoenix on a collision course!
Peri slammed a button to collapse all the Expansion Packs, which vanished in seconds.
‘Let’s go,’ he said, smacking the pyramid-shaped button to activate the engines.
As the ship shunted forward, Diesel yelled, ‘Peri! Port side!’
On Peri’s left, a gigantic snake-like whip of laser-wire and exploding stars was smashing towards the Phoenix.
Peri slammed on the dodge mechanism, sending the Phoenix sliding sideways to starboard. The snake of stars swept harmlessly past.
‘Hold on,’ Peri yelled as the stars spun around to strike again. He yanked the Nav-wheel hard. The Phoenix swept up and around as the StellarTrip sliced close to one side, then the other.
There’s no way to outrun it, he realised.
There was only one option left. He’d have to turn the whip’s power against itself.
‘What are you doing?’ Diesel and Otto shrieked in horror, as Peri turned the Phoenix in the direction of the StellarTrip.
‘Trust me!’ Peri yelled. As the fiery whip curled up and lashed out, he yanked down the thrusters. The Phoenix soared ahead, pulling the whip along in their space-wake. Peri turned and twisted the Nav-wheel, sending the ship in a wide loop and setting the whip on a collision course with itself, then he jerked the ship straight up and out of the way.
Shaannaa-baaaam! The whip snapped, tearing itself apart, sending stars flying off in all directions.
‘Mars’rakk!?’ Diesel cheered as he high-fived Peri.
Behind them, Selene and Jaxx were punching the air.
But Otto was staring up at the 360-monitor. Peri could tell from the look on the Meigwor’s face that they weren’t out of trouble yet.
Chapter 5
‘There’s another trap!’ Otto boomed.
Peri turned to look, but all he could see between the Phoenix and the shimmering blue planet was blackness. He slammed on the turbo-brakes and brought their ship to a complete halt. ‘What do you mean there’s another trap, Otto?’
‘We’re in deadly trouble!’ Otto said. ‘It’s a dark-matter trapdoor!’
‘I don’t see anything,’ Diesel scoffed.
Otto flicked his black tongue towards Diesel’s face. ‘It’s made of dark matter! It wouldn’t be a very good trap if it was visible to the eyes of inferior life forms!’
‘But the Exo-Scanner should detect it,’ Selene said. She twisted a zip-dial and a monitor whirled from the control panel. The thermal image of the area revealed nothing. ‘Are you sure there’s something there, Otto? I’ve adjusted the wavelength range, but there’s no sign of anything.’
‘Isn’t that proof enough?’ Otto boomed. ‘Whoever owns that planet wants to keep unwanted visitors out! They’ve used a cosmic-catapult and a StellarTrip! A dark-matter trapdoor must be next!’
Peri stared into the darkness ahead of him. They hadn’t spotted either of the other space-hazards until it was too late. ‘I guess it makes sense . . . What do dark-matter trapdoors do, Otto?’
‘Nobody knows,’ Otto said, ‘because nobody has lived to tell.’
Peri clenched his fist in frustration. They were so close to completing their mission. All they needed to do was slip past the trap, then they could find and arrest Daxx and recover the Heart of Mars. He wished he could be in two place
s at once so he could trigger the trap without endangering the Phoenix.
The artery in his neck started throbbing, but it wasn’t his heart racing or his blood pressure increasing. It felt urgent, like a flashing button on the control panel but inside him. His bionic half was sending him a message.
Peri raised his fingers to his neck. He could feel blood beating under his fingertips, and behind the artery he could feel something else. A small button.
He pushed it. Click!
Body Duplication activated, announced a voice in his head. Imagine secondary location.
Peri pictured himself on a mini-pod racing towards the blue planet. A blinding flash of light burst through his mind like a solar-flare. Suddenly, he was sliding down a long silver tube into a mini-pod, but part of him was still on the Bridge. His mind strained with astonishment. I’m in two places at once!
He landed in a mini-pod with a hurrrupt. An astro-harness snaked around his body. He took a deep breath while he tried to understand what was happening. He could feel and touch the mini-pod as if his body was normal, but he was also aware of the part of him he had left behind on the Bridge. It felt like he’d left behind an energy shell that was able to see and hear what was happening, but was fixed to the spot, as still as a statue. The shell-Peri on the Bridge could not move or even speak.
Peri’s pod-self fired up the mini-pod’s engines and blasted towards the dark-matter trapdoor.
He became aware that, back on the Bridge, Selene was yelling at his energy shell. ‘You reckless idiot! I don’t know how you did it, but I know you’ve split yourself in half. Even split in half, you still have a heat signature.’
Peri’s pod-self hit the control panel to activate the com-unit. ‘This is going to work. Just keep watching the Exo-Scanner and record how big the trap is.’
