Evil Star

by Max Chase

  As the mini-pod glided through the blackness, Peri could feel sweat trickling down his neck. His Expedition Wear suddenly felt stifling. At any moment the trap was going to spring into action. He placed his thumbs over the emergency-reverse thrusters so he’d be ready to escape.

  Caaarraaaroorraar! The space around him was ripped apart by a dark red light. Instantly, the mini-pod lurched forward. Being sucked into the dark-matter trapdoor was like being pulled into the jaws of the largest cosmic killer whale in the universe.

  Peri slammed on the emergency-reverse thrusters, but nothing could escape the overwhelming force of the trapdoor. The straps of astro-harness cut into his chest – the dark matter was trying to rip him right out of the mini-pod!

  He punched the controls again, trying to get the pod away from the trapdoor, but nothing worked. Instead he was spinning into the trapdoor’s jaws. There’s no way I can fly the mini-pod out of here, he realised. I’ve got to use my bionic connection to escape.

  As he tried to lift his hand to his neck, Peri realised that the gravitational pull of the dark matter made his hand weigh more than his entire body – and it was getting heavier every second. It felt like the trapdoor was trying to rip his hand from his wrist.

  Activate Fight-or-Flight, he shouted in his mind.

  Energy buzzed through Peri’s body as his muscles swelled. He fought against the pull of the dark matter, dragging his hand slowly up to his neck. But even with superhuman strength it wasn’t easy. His whole body was screaming with pain. He clenched his eyes shut and reached for the hidden button.

  Click!

  Peri didn’t know if it was too late. It felt like the black hole was ripping him apart, like his muscles were being torn from his bones and his circuits were melting.

  Then there was a blinding flash and the pain vanished.

  Peri opened his eyes. He was standing on the Bridge, surrounded by Selene, Jaxx, Otto and Diesel.

  I’m alive! he thought, taking a step forward and smiling at his friends.

  ‘That was easy,’ he said, just before his legs collapsed under him and he was plunged into darkness.

  Chapter 6

  Peri felt as if he’d been stretched between two moons. Every muscle in his body ached and his head was pounding, but his energy levels had regenerated back to normal. He opened his eyes and found himself in the captain’s chair.

  ‘Is everyone OK?’ he asked.

  ‘Did you have a good nap?’ Diesel replied. ‘What a wastoid, sleeping on a mission.’

  ‘Hey, I almost burnt out my circuits,’ Peri snapped. Another argument won’t help anything, he told himself, taking a deep breath. ‘Did we get what we needed?’

  ‘Yes, thanks to your crazy manoeuvre,’ Selene said. ‘I’ve never seen anything so recklessly brave. We were able to chart the dimensions of the trapdoor and pilot around it. But we were waiting for you to recover before we approached the planet.’

  ‘Great! Let’s go and get Daxx,’ Peri said. He clicked his fingers and the control panel slid over to him. ‘Selene, set the cloak to “Max”.’

  Peri plotted a course to avoid a string of defensive satellites between them and the shimmering planet. ‘Diesel, Otto – be on alert! But don’t activate weapons until I say.’

  Peri’s fingers automatically twisted a zip-dial marked ‘Ultra-Stealth thrusters’. He turned it to ‘Maximum’ and pulled the lever all the way down. The Phoenix roared towards the planet, but the Bridge’s lights turned red and started flashing.

  ‘This is the MezzStar,’ a voice boomed over a radio channel. ‘Surrender peacefully or die.’

  Peri brought the ship to a halt.

  Jaxx put a protective arm around Selene. ‘This is very bad! I’ve heard such horrible stories about what happens on the MezzStar. It’s a planet created and owned by the Mezzoka Clan. It’s their secret headquarters. If Daxx flew here, he must be working with them. We’d better surrender.’

  Peri shivered and opened a com-channel. ‘This is the Phoenix. We are surrendering peacefully.’

  A red laser shot up from the MezzStar. ‘Follow the laser to your landing bay or be destroyed.’

  Peri followed the red light. As they got closer, he realised that the MezzStar was not actually a planet – it was a massive space-base. One side had been scooped out and resembled a giant dish. At its centre was a transparent dome that stared at them like a giant eye. Parked in rows around the sides of the dish were colossal flying rubbish-trucks with large pincers.

  ‘Why are there so many dump-jets?’ he asked.

  ‘The Mezzoka Clan use space-rubbish collection as a cover for their criminal activities,’ Jaxx replied.

  ‘So the MezzStar is the centre of their entire intergalactic criminal operation?’ Peri said as he guided the Phoenix into a parking slot between the dump-jets.

  Jaxx nodded. ‘The Mezzokas are the most organised and vicious criminals in the universe. We must proceed cautiously.’

  Diesel started activating drawers from under his gunnery station. ‘Where’s my Eterni-chew?’

  Peri frowned. ‘You’re worried about chewing gum at a time like this?!’

  Diesel pointed at the dump-jets. ‘This place must be a garbage collection centre for the whole universe. It’s going to smell awful.’

  As the Phoenix stopped, a voice boomed over the radio channel, ‘Leave your ship immediately. No weapons allowed.’

  ‘Otto,’ Peri said, ‘hand over your weapons.’

  The patches around Otto’s eyes darkened as he shook his head. ‘I’d rather die than have fewer than six weapons on me!’

  ‘You’ll put us all in danger if you don’t leave them behind,’ Peri said. ‘The Mezzokas don’t look like they need an excuse to be nasty.’

  Otto pulled several silver batons, two blasters and a string of grenades from his belt and dropped them with a clang-clang-clang! Then he pulled a twelve-barrelled space-laser from a place Peri couldn’t figure out.

  ‘Thank you,’ Peri said, leading them to the exit. He opened the door and saw a dozen Mezzokan guards lined up in rows to meet them. They were all as tall as Otto and just as well-built and bulky. But each guard had three eyes and two extra arms.

  ‘Halt!’ they announced as one. ‘We search you for weapons.’

  Two guards grabbed Peri and eight hands patted down his Expedition Wear. They took chocolate spacebars and card keys from his pocket and kept them.

  ‘Hey,’ Peri protested. ‘They’re not weapons!’

  ‘We don’t know that,’ one of the guards replied. ‘Those spacebars could be poison.’

  Peri grabbed for the spacebars and card keys. He glanced at the others. Selene was trying to reclaim a space-wrench and a pad of sticky notes. Other guards were shoving Otto while Diesel was wrestling for his pack of Eterni-chew.

  The Phoenix crew eventually surrendered their belongings. Diesel huffed and puffed in frustration while Otto stood with his double-jointed arms folded around him.

  ‘Follow us,’ the guards said. ‘The boss wants to see you.’

  They were marched through the corridors of the MezzStar. Another hand slipped over Peri’s shoulder. He swatted it away before it could pinch his Star Fighter badge. He glanced behind him to see the others struggling against the guards’ pickpocketing. It was as if the guards couldn’t help stealing and, with so many hands, they were natural-born thieves.

  Finally, the Phoenix crew and the guards reached a pair of jewel-encrusted gold doors, which swung open to reveal a massive hall. A laser fountain in the middle of the room sent ripples of light across the hand-painted ceiling. Priceless works of art hung on the walls.

  Diesel gasped. ‘That’s one of my father’s paintings, The Martian Lisa! It’s been missing for years. The Mezzokas must have stol—’ Peri elbowed Diesel in the side. ‘What was that for, voidoid?’

  ‘Be careful what you say,’ Peri hissed. ‘We’re in enough trouble without accusing them of stealing.’

  Peri glanc
ed down to the far end of the room. A muscular alien with extra-large ears sat on a throne made of gold bricks. He had two forearms jutting out from each elbow and hands where his feet should have been.

  The guards pushed the Star Fighters towards the alien. In the reflection of the gold throne, Peri noticed that the alien had an eye in the back of his head, which he used to look up at a screen behind him.

  A green face flashed up on to the screen and the alien shouted, ‘No.’ Just before the screen went black, the green face became a mask of fear.

  The alien on the throne focused his two front eyes on the Phoenix crew. ‘Welcome, Peri, Diesel and Selene. I am sorry for the trouble we put you through, Jaxx.’

  Behind him on the monitor, another alien face flickered into view. It was pale blue, and had two rows of eyes that were all filled with tears.

  ‘Maybe!’ snarled the muscular alien. The many eyes on the blue face lit up with relief. The screen went black again, and their ‘host’ continued in his normal voice. ‘Otto . . . a bounty hunter whose reputation goes before him! Welcome to my humble planet.’

  Peri frowned. Whoever this alien was, he knew more about them than they did about him – and Peri didn’t like that. ‘I’m sorry,’ Peri said. ‘But who might you be?’

  The alien laughed, a low sinister laugh. ‘I am Tonka Mezzoka, head of the Mezzoka Clan. And I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse.’

  Chapter 7

  Tonka smiled at Peri. ‘The Phoenix is the only ship to have made it through my sophisticated booby traps. Imagine what I could do with such a fabulous vessel! But the Phoenix is useless without you, Peri. If you and your crew come and work for me, I’ll let you live.’

  Another face appeared on the screen behind him. This one was as white as a summer cloud on Earth, and it had two mouths, one in each cheek. Both sets of teeth were chattering in terror.

  The eye in the back of Tonka’s head swivelled up to look at the latest face. ‘Yes,’ he shouted. The white alien’s two mouths grinned broadly as the screen went black once more.

  ‘I can always use a smart spaceman,’ Tonka said to Peri.

  ‘And if we don’t agree to work for you?’ Peri asked.

  ‘Then you’ll be as useful as trash.’ The Mezzoka Clan boss pressed a button on the throne and a giant screen appeared above him. It showed a yellow-skinned alien strapped into a firing tube. ‘And trash . . . gets flung into space.’

  Peri felt his throat tighten as he realised what the clan boss was about to do.

  ‘No!’ Tonka shouted.

  The yellow alien screamed. This time the screen did not go black. Tonka made sure that Peri and the others could see the helpless yellow alien being fired into outer space.

  Then Tonka continued talking to Peri, as if none of it had happened. ‘If you refuse, you and your ship will be destroyed. The choice is yours entirely.’

  If we’re to have any chance of surviving, Peri thought, we have to agree to work with him . . . or at least pretend to. He glanced at his crew, and hoped that they would go along with his plan.

  Peri took a deep breath. ‘You make a convincing argument. We’ll agree, but can we ask one favour?’

  Tonka narrowed his eyes. ‘What?’

  ‘We’ve heard that you’ve created a massive super-weapon greater than any in the galaxy,’ Peri said. ‘We were hoping to see it for ourselves. It would be good to know exactly how powerful our new boss is.’

  Tonka clapped his four hands and two feet-hands together. ‘Excellent! You’ll find the Mezzanator truly inspiring! I promise you, you’ve never seen such an amazing weapon. I’m itching to test it and see it in action. I’ve just had the final segment delivered, but then, you already know that.’ He stood on his feet-hands. ‘Follow me.’

  Tonka turned and walked through a door behind his throne. The guards pressed in against Peri and the rest of the crew, marching them to the end of the massive hall. They followed Tonka down a series of corridors until they reached what looked like a planetarium. Peri gazed up through the thick glass dome ceiling. They were at the bottom of the vast landing bay. He could see the Phoenix parked among the thousands of dump-jets.

  In the centre of the room was what Peri guessed was the Mezzanator. From a huge base of computers and machinery, it curved up to a crystalline point. Thick black tubes were wrapped like snakes around the giant weapon. Between them, huge whirling silver-bladed fans kept the circuits cool as sparks leapt from one wire to another. On three platforms linked by steep metal ladders, technicians were scrambling around, making adjustments. On the middle platform one of the technicians had a very familiar face.

  ‘Daxx!’ Selene and her father exclaimed.

  The space pirate looked down and grinned. He opened a small space-case next to him and pulled out a glowing jewel as big as his hand. It sparkled with rays of yellow, orange, silver and gold as if it was alive.

  The Heart of Mars, Peri realised. He grabbed Diesel’s shoulder as the gunner made to charge. They watched as Daxx slotted the stone into the centre of the weapon.

  Tonka clasped a pair of hands together. ‘I had to kidnap experts from across the universe to build this magnificent machine. But not Daxx, of course. I didn’t need to kidnap him – he was more than happy to help!’

  ‘What do you need this weapon for?’ Peri asked. ‘You’re already the most powerful crime boss in the universe.’

  Tonka clapped Peri on the back with two of his hands and almost sent him flying. ‘There’s always more power and money to be earned!’ Tonka laughed. ‘With the Mezzanator I can punish any galaxy that refuses to pay me protection money.’

  Peri was confused. ‘Protection money?’

  ‘Galaxies pay me not to attack them. Now anyone who refuses to pay up will suffer the wrath of the Mezzanator.’ One of Tonka’s eyes narrowed and looked at Diesel. ‘The Emperor of the Milky Way has repeatedly refused to give in to my requests . . .’

  ‘My father doesn’t pay protection money to criminals,’ Diesel said.

  ‘But without the Heart of Mars he’s not as powerful as he used to be,’ Tonka said. ‘If I don’t collect from the emperor, the other galaxies might think I’ve gone soft. They might decide not to pay me as well. You see how I’m left without a choice?’

  ‘You could stop demanding protection money,’ Selene said.

  Tonka shook his head. ‘Impossible. I must make an example of the Milky Way to show the entire universe what happens to any galaxy that doesn’t pay up.’ He waved at Daxx with three of his hands. ‘Let’s test the weapon.’

  Technicians started slamming access panels and hurrying away from the weapon. Daxx slid down a ladder to the control panel. He pressed a button and a large screen flickered to life, showing an image of the Astro-Void. He punched another button and the Mezzanator started swivelling. Hmmannna. The image on the screen panned across a background of stars. Chugggaaa. The weapon came to a halt and zoomed in on a solar system.

  ‘Target selected,’ Daxx said. ‘An uninhabited solar system called Epsilon D-5-9-0 – twelve planets, all radioactive.’

  Tonka nodded, waving his hands impatiently. ‘Fire!’

  Daxx hit a large red button and the Mezzanator growled into action.

  Shhaaaa-blaaam! A clean cold bullet of light exploded from the weapon and shot through the glass dome. It sparkled as it raced through the Astro-Void before plunging into the star at the centre of the targeted solar system.

  KAAAAAA-BOOOM! The star exploded in a burst of ultra-bright light that flooded the Mezzanator room, almost blinding Peri. Even the Mezzokan guards had to cover their three eyes.

  Peri was stunned. As the initial burst of light faded, the entire fabric of the solar system was ripped apart by a swirling firestorm. The burning gases collapsed inwards, leaving no trace of any of the dozen planets.

  The star went supernova! Peri thought.

  ‘No one should have a weapon this powerful!’ Otto boomed. ‘It takes all the fun out of b
attle!’

  ‘Exactly,’ Tonka said. ‘Now no one will ever dare to oppose me!’ He laughed, waggling all his hands.

  Peri realised they had to stop this galactic criminal – before he destroyed the entire universe!

  Chapter 8

  A solar system of twelve planets had been completely destroyed in seconds. Tonka watched the blazing supernova, hopping about and clapping his feet-hands together. Peri saw the eye in the back of the alien’s head narrow as it glanced towards him and Diesel.

  ‘Take aim at the Milky Way!’ he commanded.

  ‘No!’ Diesel shouted, lunging for Tonka. Before he had even got close, one of the guards grabbed him from behind with three hands. A fourth hand was slapped across Diesel’s mouth.

  Peri had a vision of himself using his bionic strength to push guards out of the way and pummel the Mezzanator into pieces before throwing Tonka off the MezzStar. His limbs tingled with excitement, but he forced himself to ignore it. They couldn’t defeat the Mezzoka Clan on their own. Even with his superhuman bionic strength, they were still outnumbered. He was going to have to use his brain instead.

  ‘Hmmm . . . Arghh!’ Diesel moaned through the guard’s hand as he struggled to get free.

  Tonka shook his head. ‘This is your father’s fault, Diesel, not mine. He should have swallowed his pride and paid up. Now he’s being taught a lesson none of the other galaxies will ever forget.’

  Peri watched as Daxx adjusted the controls and the Mezzanator rotated. Chugggaaa. The image on the screen moved from the supernova across countless stars and planets. The screen filled with the swirling arms of the Milky Way.

  The Mezzanator slid into place and stopped. The image came into focus. Peri caught sight of the dusty red gleam of Mars and the yellow gas giant, Jupiter.

  Peri’s head began to buzz with an overwhelming need to get back on board the Phoenix. It had to be a message from the ship. Peri tried to focus on it, but all he could see in his mind’s eye was a red blur.