by Max Chase
‘Pod engine failing!’ announced the pod’s computer. ‘Fuel leakage catastrophic.’
‘No!’ Peri hit the control panel. The guard’s shots had wiped out the engines and fuel-cells too.
He stared at the chaos outside, helpless to do anything. The Extractor was retracting its tentacles from the now wrinkled atmosphere of Xion, leaving clouds of orange dust trailing through space. At the same time, viper-ships were breaking away from the weapon. The tentacles smashed into the ships, destroying some and flinging huge chunks of debris out into space.
Peri gasped as a massive ragged piece of shielding blazed within a hair’s breadth of his pod. Any closer, it would have smashed him to smithereens. But without engines or life support, he wouldn’t last for long.
No, no, no, he thought, this can’t be the end.
‘Help!’ he screamed. ‘He . . . lp . . .’
Peri couldn’t breathe. The oxygen monitor had dropped to less than five per cent. The emergency console lights dimmed. The power reserves were falling fast. The pod was getting colder. He closed his eyes, trying to shut out the sickening ache in his stomach, and recited the words he’d heard General Pegg use on the IF Remembrance Day. ‘Those born of stardust are destined to return to it. We honour the brave who die knowing they will not see the better world they strived for . . .’
The pod stopped spinning. Peri felt a flicker of hope and opened his eyes. His view was blocked by a strange, orange light that rippled and writhed round his pod – a lasernet!
The Phoenix must have heard my call, Peri thought, as the net dragged the mini-pod back to the great ship.
The lights blacked out.
Clunk! Whiiirrr.
Peri’s chair dropped away, sending him sliding down a long docking tube and out on to the Bridge.
‘Thank you, Phoenix!’ he whooped.
Selene gave him a high five. ‘The Phoenix shot out a web to catch your pod and brought you back – amazing!’
Even Diesel had a relieved grin on his face. But before he could say a word, the Bridge was lit by an explosion on the 360-monitor. Kaaaboooomm!
The Extractor had erupted into a gazillion pieces. Chunks of burning wreckage were flung in every direction, forcing the surviving viper-ships to blast anything that got in their way.
Peri punched the air. The Extractor was no more.
‘Let’s hope that my planet won’t be able to build another one for a hundred years!’ Otto said, sombrely. ‘Xion is safe!’
‘Look,’ Prince Onix exclaimed, pointing at the 360-monitor. Xion fighters were blasting through the holes in the Cos-Moat, firing cluster missiles at the retreating viper-ships.
‘Incoming message,’ the Phoenix announced as the King of Xion appeared in the middle of the monitor.
‘Thank you for saving Xion!’ the king cheered.
‘Don’t forget our deal, Your Majesty,’ Peri replied. ‘You promised never to attack the Milky Way again. And, you said you’d send us home.’
‘Of course,’ the king said. ‘I’ll create another vortex just like the one you destroyed.’
‘Just like the one you used to attack our galaxy,’ Diesel replied.
The gunner’s eyes were flashing yellow. It wasn’t easy to forget that the Xion had blown up the IF Station. Since the Xion vortex sucked the Phoenix into the Ubi galaxy, they had had no contact with their home.
They didn’t even know if there still was a Milky Way to return to.
‘The past can’t be changed,’ the king replied. ‘But I am sorry.’ He looked away from the camera. ‘Create the vortex!’
‘Yes!’ Prince Onix exclaimed. ‘I’ve always wanted to see the Milky Way!’
The king slammed his fist down. ‘You will return to your official duties, my son.’
‘But I want to stay with my friends!’ Onix howled.
‘You are the heir to the throne of Xion,’ the king said. ‘Now you must start to behave like it!’
‘But I don’t want to be king. I want to be a Star Fighter.’
The blood vessels on the king’s face bulged as if they were about to explode. Onix looked around for support from his friends. He shot Selene a smile, but the engineer just rolled her eyes.
The king said nothing. But Peri noticed him nod as if someone was talking to him off-screen. His eyes flicked back to Peri.
‘The vortex is ready. Good luck, Earthlings!’ the king said before he vanished from the monitor.
Peri couldn’t believe it. After all this time, they were finally going home! Peri sat in the captain’s chair and an astro-harness snaked around him as the churning centre of the vortex rapidly expanded in front of them.
Peri’s mouth felt dry. A vortex was one of the deadliest things in the universe. Even with the excitement of going home, he knew it wasn’t over yet. As the vortex spiralled outwards, debris and damaged ships were sucked into it. They exploded into huge multi-coloured blooms of fire as the awesome astronomical forces ripped them apart.
‘Strap in,’ Peri ordered. ‘Selene, stand by to engage Superluminal speed.’
Selene reached for the red touchpad, ready to activate the controls. The Phoenix slid towards the vortex, getting faster and faster as the gravitational pull got stronger.
‘Everyone’s going to be so relieved when I return,’ Diesel said. ‘There will be the biggest celebration ever! I can’t wait to tell them how I foiled a Meigwor plot, saved the moon-bats, fought the Xio-Bot, blew up the Extractor and got Xion to stop attacking the Milky Way! I’m going to be the biggest hero ever!’
Selene cleared her throat and glared at him.
‘I’ll make sure someone gives you guys a medal or something,’ Diesel replied. ‘They always listen to my recommendations.’
An alarm sounded. ‘Intruder alert!’ the Phoenix warned.
Before Peri could even check the sensors, Prince Onix started yelling, ‘No!’ Peri twisted around in his chair. The Xion General Dachkor had an arm wrapped around the prince. ‘Let go of me!’
‘What’s the meaning of this?’ Peri shouted.
‘King’s orders!’ replied the general, pressing the bright orange teleportation device strapped to his wrist.
‘Noooooooo!’ Onix screamed before he and the general winked out of existence.
Another alarm sounded. Eeee-raaa! Eeee-raaa!
‘Behind us,’ Diesel shouted.
Peri looked. A Meigwor viper-ship had used sonic-grapplers to hold on to the rear of the Phoenix.
Selene checked some calculations on the monitor. ‘We can’t blast it off from this range.’
‘Don’t worry, we’ll lose them when we go Superluminal,’ Peri replied. But he could see Selene shaking her head.
‘We can’t go Superluminal with a viper attached to us!’ she said. ‘Our engines aren’t powerful enough. We have to break the connection! Circle around before we’re crushed to atoms!’
Peri twisted the Nav-wheel, but the Phoenix didn’t respond to his command. ‘It’s no good,’ he cried. ‘The vortex is too strong!’
Chapter 9
Space currents rocked the Bridge as the Phoenix looped the outermost rim of the vortex. The Velocity View showed they weren’t going fast enough to escape the vortex. Unless they got rid of the viper-ship and went Superluminal soon, the vortex’s currents were going to tear the ship apart.
Peri’s heart pounded in time with the flashing red lights on the control panel. The computer calmly proclaimed, ‘Hull integrity 62%, weakening. Five minutes to hull collapse.’
‘I don’t know how to get rid of them!’ Selene shrieked, turning dials desperately.
‘Do something!’ Otto and Diesel screamed, for once in unison. A rainbow of colours flashed through Diesel’s bristling band of hair.
Phoenix, Peri thought. Help us! What should we do?
Phhhooomph! The ship shuddered and lurched forward.
Peri glanced back. He didn’t understand. The viper was gone. It had vanished without a trace. Ther
e was only one answer, the Phoenix had heard his cry for help!
‘This ship rocks!’ he whooped. ‘Selene: Superluminal, please!’
‘You bet!’ Selene slid open the red Superluminal panel and, with a grin on her face, flicked the switches.
Nothing happened.
As Selene flicked the switches again, she started to frown. ‘It’s not working . . .’
Peri snapped his fingers and the control panel slid close to him. He flicked the red switches himself, but still nothing happened. ‘The viper must have damaged the Phoenix,’ he said.
‘If we don’t go Superluminal in under three minutes, we’ll disintegrate!’ Selene yelled.
Peri tried to contain his panic and looked over the controls again. He tried to ignore the spinning vortex outside, but he knew only Superluminal speed could save them. ‘We’re just going to have to face it . . . we’re as good as dead . . .’
‘That’s it!’ Selene exclaimed, scrambling over the control panel to the button at the very top. ‘The very last page of the manual has only one instruction: When you stare death in the face, press the Blue Helix!’ She pointed at a strange twisted button that glowed with a ghostly blue light.
‘But we don’t know what the Blue Helix even does!’ Peri said. ‘It could be the self-destruct button!’
‘Do you have a better idea?’ Selene asked.
Peri’s circuits fizzed with fear. They had run out of options. Pressing the Blue Helix was their last resort – the only possible way out. He nodded and Selene slammed her hand down on the blue button.
The Phoenix shook violently and noisily, as if the vortex was ripping it apart.
Crrrraaacccaaachhhaaa! Searing white light exploded through the Bridge, followed by an ear-splitting BANG!
Peri blinked. He didn’t believe what he was seeing. He checked the 360-monitor and the radar screen. Then he rubbed his eyes and checked again.
It can’t be, he thought. It’s not possible.
But it was. He could see the Phoenix – or a ship that looked exactly like it – in the 360-monitor right in front of them. He looked around. But I’m still on board, he thought.
Diesel’s strip of hair was every possible colour, showing his complete confusion. ‘How can there be two Phoenixes in the vortex now?’ he said.
Peri turned to Selene. ‘Are we there or here?’ he asked.
‘Both!’ Selene said as she studied the monitor. ‘It’s amazing. The Blue Helix has allowed us to travel back in time, but only by 5.451 minutes. It’s like a cosmic make-over button. We’re here in the future and there in the past.’
‘Are you crazy?’ Diesel shouted. ‘How is that even possible?’
‘Shut up, Diesel!’ Peri yelled. ‘Just look!’
The Phoenix in front still had the Meigwor viper-ship attached to the hull.
‘We’re flying behind ourselves,’ Peri explained. ‘That’s how the viper disappeared from the hull. We blasted it off ourselves by going back in time.’
‘But why didn’t we see ourselves behind the ship?’ Diesel asked.
‘Because we hadn’t done it yet,’ Selene said. ‘We can’t see our future selves in the past, only our past selves in the future.’
Otto groaned and put his head between his hands. ‘Stop explaining and just shoot the viper!’
‘Diesel, activate the Phoenix’s laser cannons,’ Peri said. ‘Let’s get rid of that Meigwor sucker!’
‘Wait,’ Selene said. ‘We mustn’t damage ourselves in the past – nor the present or future. We need to use a vaporising laser beam. It’s the only way to make sure there’ll be no debris to hit us.’
There was no time to argue. The hull integrity was down to 32%.
‘Diesel, stand down,’ Peri said as he activated the laser controls in front of him. A target tracker whooshed from one side of his chair and a control stick from the other. He gripped the stick and started mapping the viper-ship with the targeting sensors.
‘Hull integrity 17.3%,’ called Selene. ‘We don’t have much longer!’
Peri concentrated. He had almost outlined the whole vessel with the laser array. Just a little more and he could save the Past-Phoenix. He just had to make sure none of the beams hit the Present-Phoenix. Or was it the Future-Phoenix? He wasn’t sure.
So I’ll just save them all, he thought.
‘Firing now!’
Orange lasers blazed from their spaceship. They seemed to move almost in slow motion against the fierce swirling mass of the vortex, but they hit the viper-ship in an instant. The Meigwor ship glowed for a matter of seconds before it vanished in a puff of smoke!
‘We’ve done it!’ Selene exclaimed. ‘Now to try Superluminal again!’
Peri flicked the red switches. Nothing.
‘I don’t understand!’ Selene cried.
Suddenly, every circuit inside him was tingling with instructions from the Phoenix – in the past and the present.
He knew what they needed to do.
Peri pushed the thrusters to maximum and fired the Phoenix’s boosters. The ship surged forward, towards the Past-Phoenix.
Diesel tried to grab the controls from him. ‘Have you gone mad?’
‘Trust me!’ Peri yelled, pushing him away from the controls. Otto grabbed Diesel and dragged him away.
‘It’s certain death anyway!’ Otto boomed, restraining Diesel. ‘Let him try anything he wants!’
As the vortex swirled around them and the Past-Phoenix loomed larger on the 360-monitor, Peri adjusted the controls slightly. There was only one chance to get this right.
Another shockwave rocked the Bridge. Otto and Diesel tumbled backwards. Peri held steady, fighting every impulse to pull away. It was their only chance. They hurtled towards the Past-Phoenix. Its sleek white hull was so close, Peri could see it sparkling. Proximity alarms erupted across the Bridge, before the Present-Phoenix slammed into the back of its earlier self.
The purest white light Peri’s bionic eyes had ever seen flooded the Bridge.
Chapter 10
Peri’s body ached as though he had been pulled apart then stitched back together again. He remembered crashing towards the Past-Phoenix and then the white light.
Have I died?
He opened his eyes, finding that he was in the captain’s chair. Next to him, Selene was strapped in, unconscious. Otto and Diesel were lying on the deck.
Peri’s astro-harness released him. He stood up and gazed at the 360-monitor. It was the most incredible sight he had ever seen. The vortex and the Past-Phoenix were gone. Instead, an enormous rainbow of galactic confetti had been smeared across space. A swirling stripe surrounded them, sparkling and glistening with every colour imaginable and then some.
Peri nudged Diesel with his foot. ‘Wake up!’ he shouted. ‘We did it. We’re alive!’
‘What?’ Diesel moaned as Peri pulled him up.
‘The vortex didn’t destroy us! We destroyed it! Look – all that’s left is a rainbow-coloured scar!’
‘You woke me for scenery?’ Diesel brushed his hand through his hair. ‘I don’t understand. How did we survive the crash?’
‘We didn’t crash into another ship,’ Peri said. ‘We crashed into our own ship.’
‘We crashed into ourselves?’ Diesel stuck a wad of Eterni-chew in his mouth. ‘That doesn’t even make sense.’
‘Yes it does,’ said Selene. She had just woken up, but she was already checking the controls. ‘Our present selves crashed into our past selves. The universe can’t sustain two versions of the Phoenix for very long – so, when the two ships crashed together, it created a natural explosion that gave us a Superluminal boost. That dragged both versions of us, and the Phoenix, back into the present.’
Diesel was holding his head. ‘Enough!’ he growled. ‘Just tell me if we’re back to normal or not!’
‘We are,’ said Peri, feeling tingles of gratitude that, yet again, the amazing ship had saved their lives. ‘And we are back in the Milky Way at last!’
Diesel and Selene cheered.
Otto had woken up and was getting to his feet. ‘But that vortex was my only route back to Meigwor!’
‘You’re part of our crew now,’ Peri said. It felt odd saying it, but he knew it was true.
‘Don’t remind me!’ Otto boomed.
Peri, Selene and Diesel laughed. It was good to be back in their own solar system again.
‘Set a course for the IF Space Sta—’ Peri stopped mid-word as he remembered seeing the Xions destroy the space station during the attack on the Milky Way. ‘Where should we go?’
Selene brought up a map of the solar system on the display. ‘When we left, the Intergalactic Force had bases on every planet – and quite a few comets, too.’
‘But which ones survived the attack?’ Peri asked. ‘We should head for Earth first. If it’s still there.’ He hesitated before he instructed the 360-monitor to zoom in on Earth. Peri held his breath as the monitor flickered and flashed, homing in on Peri’s planet. Relief washed over him as the familiar blue-and-green sphere came into focus.
He smacked the pyramid-shaped button to fire up the engines. The Phoenix shot towards the heart of the solar system. As they swept around Mars, Diesel grinned. His hair changed to the same dusty red colour of the planet.
As Earth came into view, Peri saw that the IF Space Station was gone. Not even a speck of dust was left from the attack. Diesel’s hair flopped and turned ash-white. Peri and Selene gasped.
‘At least we’ve stopped Xion attacking again,’ Selene muttered.
Peri started scanning Earth. Carbon dioxide levels were OK. Its defensive satellite seemed to be back in action.
‘Incoming message from the IF,’ the Phoenix announced.
‘How are we going to explain Otto?’ Diesel asked.
‘You’re right!’ Peri exclaimed. ‘We need the right moment to tell them why the Intergalactic Force now has a Meigwor in its ranks. Otto, you’d better find somewhere to hide.’
