by Louise Park
‘It feels the same,’ Valentina said as she held her hands up over her head. ‘Hannah’s right. It’s like moving through chocolate mousse.’
‘But it looks freaky! We’re disappearing into the ground!’
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The two agents moved slowly through
the vortex and then suddenly began falling.
They dropped onto a huge trampoline bed.
‘Welcome, Agents Supernova 1 and Star
Girl,’ Professor Nebulus said with a smile.
‘How nice of you to drop in!’
Addie stopped bouncing and looked up at 3O
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the ceiling. ‘You can’t even see where we came through. It’s just a normal-looking ceiling.’
‘Yes. The vortex is a clever piece of
technology,’ the professor said. ‘Apologies for the trampoline landing. Some things on the space station aren’t quite completed yet. The FlyBy vortex landing is one of them. Although we have had a few cadets request that we keep the trampoline. They rather like it!’
‘I bet!’ Valentina laughed, taking a few big jumps before climbing down.
‘Anyone would think you were just a
cadet Valentina. Look at you. You’re hopeless,’
a voice said from the side of the trampoline bed quietly enough so that the professor didn’t seem to hear.
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Both Addie and Valentina turned to see Aziza sitting on the couch beside the trampoline. Addie jumped off the trampoline onto the FlyBy floor, accidentally knocking Valentina to the ground. ‘Oh gosh,’ Addie gasped between fits of laughter as she gave her a hand up. ‘I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.’
Aziza looked at the pair of them, her arms folded, then flicked her eyes away. She stood up and walked straight past them towards the professor.
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Addie took a quick look around the FlyBy.
‘It’s still big and round,’ she said. ‘And full of computers, scanners, cameras and stuff but there are corridors leading off it.’
‘Seven corridors lead to docking bays,’
the professor answered. ‘The eighth is the new change rooms and the ninth leads into the high security labs. You need to head for docking bay 2, Agent Supernova 1. You and Agent White Dwarf will be flying two cadets to their mission.
They’ve already been briefed by Mr Cruise.
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They are all are waiting for you in the bay. I’ll just go and get the mission flight information for you. It’s in the lab.’
Addie tried to smile as she looked over at Aziza. ‘Guess it’s you and me then,’ she said.
Turning to Valentina she said, ‘I hope we get back around the same time so we can still get ready together.’
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‘Awww,’ Aziza smirked. ‘Cinderella’s
going to the ball as well.’
Addie looked straight at Aziza and said ‘I hope you get some time over the weekend to use your pass to the Galleria. With missions and everything I’d hate for you to miss out.’
Aziza shrugged. ‘I don’t care about dumb little shopping gallerias. With any luck we’ll be off to the GDC space station again so I can take a better look at that time travel portal they were working on.’
‘You really need to get over that place,’
Addie said, irritated. ‘They’re so . . .’
‘Oh, come on,’ Aziza said, cutting Addie off. ‘I know you’d love to go back in time and see your mum again, wouldn’t you?’
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Addie could feel the blood rushing to her face. Say something, she thought. Anything. But she was too angry to speak.
Valentina took Addie by the arm. ‘Let’s go find the change rooms.’
‘Why are you so upset?’ Aziza asked. ‘Isn’t that a good idea?’
‘Here it is, Supernova 1,’ the professor said as he walked back to where the agents were standing. He handed the folder with the flight information to Valentina and then added, ‘You’d best get going.’
Addie took Valentina’s backpack and said goodbye. Then she and Aziza followed the professor to the change rooms in silence.
‘You’ll be gearing up in here,’ Professor 36
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Nebulus said. ‘The planet you are going to is very close. It’s called Catlabrator. We’ll be teleporting you there.’
‘Oh,’ Addie said, a little shocked. ‘I
thought we could only teleport once we were within a planet’s orbit.’
‘We’ve been working on the teleporting
technology and can now teleport from the space station to close planets. I’ll put your backpacks and dress in the lockers. You both go in and get ready for the mission.’
While Addie was getting changed, Aziza
peaked from her change room and caught a glimpse of the professor. He was taking Addie’s dress from her bag. ‘Aqua-green with shoestring straps and sequins,’ she said to herself.
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‘I was told that’s what Space Surfer’s partner would be wearing. She’s the one going with Space Surfer!’
Aziza quickly finished changing,
collected her mission gear and stepped out from the cubicle. Immediately an image of her appeared on the computer screen on the wall.
‘We had these Molecule Movers on Planet Molteyser,’ Addie said, joining Aziza. ‘But there’s no lava on Catlabrator.’
‘You’re right, Star Girl,’ Professor Nebulus said, coming over to join them. ‘It’s a very hilly place with a lot of red dirt and rock. The earth’s been turned into muddy sludge. The alien creatures are getting bogged in it.’
‘That’s terrible!’ Addie said, distressed.
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‘They’re so small. Like little puppies but with tiger faces. And they can’t swim. I have a photo of some on my SpaceBerry.’
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‘Our boots will let us
move through the sticky
sludge but don’t we need
helmets for that place?’ Aziza
asked.
‘The air and climate
is alright for us,’ Addie
answered. ‘But we do have protective visors.’
‘Now, do you both have everything?’ the professor looked them over, taking a mental checklist of gadgets and gear. ‘Yes, I believe you do. You’ll be able to contact me using your holographic watches and the teleporting app is also there to use when you’re ready to return to SEAS. Leaving is a bit different to coming home, though. Come with me and
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we’ll get you on your way.’
The agents followed Professor Nebulus to an area in the middle of the FlyBy.
‘If you could just stand inside the red circle on the floor, I’ll hit the teleporter. The codes for Planet Catlabrator have already been entered.’
The two agents moved into the circle and stood together ready to leave.
Why am I feeling so scared? thought Addie.
It can’t be any different to teleporting to and from a spacecraft.
Before she could thi
nk any further, a
crisscross of coloured laser lights filled the circle they were standing on and in a flash they were gone.
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Addie and Aziza landed in a pool of red mud.
‘Eew!’ Aziza screeched as her legs sank into it. ‘It feels like glue!’
‘Weird,’ Addie said. ‘It’s all hills and mountains covered with blue plants with big violet catberries. The alien creatures live off those but they’re poisonous to us.’
Aziza squelched her way to the edge of
the mud and touched a berry hanging from one of the plants. ‘But isn’t it only if we eat them?’ she asked, deep in thought.
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‘Yes, eating them can kill you,’ Addie
answered. ‘But the red juice and flesh inside the berries stains everything. It can stain our skin. And then we’ll absorb some of the poison. If that happens, it can make you sick for a short while. I wouldn’t touch them if I were you. And I think we should pull our protective visors down, just in case.’
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‘Are you always this scared on missions, Star Girl?’ Aziza asked. ‘The berries can’t hurt us unless someone opens one and squirts it at us.’
‘Whatever,’ Addie said. She lowered her visor over her face and started heading uphill along the edge of the mud, pushing her way carefully through the plants.
‘Where are you going?’ Aziza shouted
after Addie as she pulled her own visor down.
‘Wait for me.’
‘This mud is running down through these hills. I’m going to see where it starts because maybe that’s where the problem is. Do you have a better idea?’ Addie asked.
‘Just give me the Molecule Mover and I’ll turn this mud to hard earth again.’
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Addie stopped walking and turned back to Aziza. ‘And what about any aliens stuck in this mud somewhere along here? They’ll be trapped in hard earth.’
‘I can’t see any aliens! And it would make it so much easier to walk if we were on hard ground and not squelching through stuff a hundred times thicker and stickier than honey.’
Addie took a long, deep breath. ‘Use your head, number-one space captain. Adjust the setting on your suit. I have mine set to high and it doesn’t feel like I’m walking through anything at all.’
But before Aziza could change her suit
setting a loud rumble shook through the hills.
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‘What is that?’ Addie asked, staring up through the hills where the sound was coming from.
‘Sounds like it’s a blast of water,’ Aziza shouted. ‘We have to get out of here!’
Addie and Aziza scrambled to the side of the mud but there was nowhere to go. Above the trees on the higher slopes, they could see spray and leaves hurtling into the air.
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and bringing everything in its path with it!’
Aziza shouted.
Addie grabbed hold of the roots of a plant but when the water hit she was washed along with it. The two agents bobbed and tumbled as they were washed down the hillside along with plants, dirt, rock and aliens.
At the very bottom of the hill the mud
sludge pooled like a huge lagoon and spread out.
‘Are you alright?’ Addie asked, treading water in the sludge lake. ‘I’m okay but my visor is smashed to pieces.’
‘I think I’m okay,’ Aziza puffed between breaststrokes. ‘But it’s so deep. Swim!’
‘The catralabs are drowning!’ Addie called but Aziza didn’t appear to hear her.
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Addie grabbed one tiny creature struggling to keep its head above the mud and placed it carefully on her shoulders. ‘Hold on tight, little one,’ she said, and with her other hand she reached for the snare-shot attached to her belt.
‘Aziza, help me,’ she called as she hit the button to release the snare-net. ‘They’re going under. Quick!’
Addie scooped as many catralabs as she
could in her net and then began to swim after Aziza.
Aziza had made it to higher ground. She turned to see Addie struggling to swim as she balanced a net of catralabs over one shoulder and the tiny catralab perched on the other.
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‘I’ll use my snare net to pull you in,’ Aziza called out as she hit the pole-extension button on her snare-shot. ‘Grab hold of it with your free hand.’
‘No,’ Addie called back between breaths.
‘Save as many catralabs as you can. I can manage.’
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The two agents were an exhausted, grimy mess when they pulled the last of the catralabs from the mud and set them free on higher ground.
Addie watched as the last batch
scampered away through the plants and
undergrowth. ‘They are so adorable,’ she said.
‘Like furry little pups!’
‘The one you had on your shoulder doesn’t seem to want to leave,’ Aziza pointed out.
‘It’s been huddling by my boots the
whole time we’ve been working. Maybe it’s lost its family.’ Addie bent down and picked the baby catralab up. It snuggled into her neck and licked her face. ‘Sorry, little cutie, but you can’t come with us.’
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‘Put it down and give me the Molecule Mover,’ Aziza snapped. ‘I’m setting the stuff hard now we’ve rescued as many aliens as we could.’
Addie chewed her lip and looked up the
mud river into the hills.
‘What?’ Aziza asked. ‘They would’ve all been washed down here like we were. Let’s turn this stuff back to the way it should be so no more catralabs get caught in it.’
‘You’re right,’ Addie agreed. ‘And at least when it’s set hard again we’ll have an easy trail to walk up.’ She gave Aziza the Molecule Mover and watched as she aimed it at the lagoon of mud.
‘Look at that!’ Aziza exclaimed.
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‘It reminds me of that liquid chocolate stuff we have for dessert sometimes. You know, that stuff that goes hard when it hits
ice-cream.’
Addie laughed, watching as the river
turned to hardened earth. ‘And it’s setting hard all the way up through the hills. We have a big walk ahead of us. Let’s get going.’
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The agents had climbed through the first set of hills and reached a small flatter section of land on the other side.
‘Look at that thing lying on the ground between the two hills in front of us. Is it what I think it is?’
‘It looks like a very wide train track
coming down between the hills,’ Aziza said staring ahead. She gave a quick glance behind.
‘And that creature is still following you.’
‘I know,’ Addie said. ‘But what can I do?
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I’ve tried to shoo it away.’ Addie bent down and picked the little catralab up again. ‘
You’re getting tired, little one, aren’t you?’ She unzipped her spacesuit and popped the little alien creature inside.
‘Aren’t you worried the red berry juice on its paws will rub off on your skin and stain you?’ asked Aziza with an evil glint in her eye.
‘That would look really bad in that aqua dress with the shoestring straps.’
How does she know what I’m wearing
tonight? Addie thought, slowly looking up from the little alien snuggled safely inside her spacesuit. None of my friends would have told her.
‘Oh gosh, don’t look so surprised, Star Girl,’ Aziza said with a mean little laugh.
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‘I know everything that goes on. Though I don’t know why Space Surfer would want to ask you to the agents’ ball!’
‘Well, so what that you know that Space Surfer asked me,’ Addie bristled. ‘It’s a masked ball. Half the fun is in guessing who’s who and that’s why our costumes are meant to be kept secret. But you’re not going anyway so it doesn’t matter what you know. I don’t care. I just want to get this mission done and go home.’
Addie walked off towards the metal tracks that led down through the hills leaving Aziza trailing behind her. When she reached the metal tracks she looked down and laughed.
Whoever owns this isn’t going to be happy with us, she thought feeling pleased with herself.
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We’ve set all the mud hard in it and we’ve blocked it up. It’s useless now!
Then Addie felt the ground beneath her
feet begin to vibrate in a strange way. It must be another deluge, she thought, horrified.
‘Up the hill!’ she yelled, breaking into a sprint. ‘Get as high as you can!’
Aziza stared after her, bewildered. And then she heard it.
The agents got out of the way just in time before the next blast of water shot down along the side of the mountain bringing red dirt, rocks and plant life with it.
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