Lab Rats in Space (10 page)

S
weat dripped off Bumface as she puffed and panted. She was running on the spot, lifting her knees high. She wanted to stop but she couldn't, her legs just kept going.

‘I feel… I am… at my… limit,' she said to Xanax. He wasn't so sure.

Xanax was on his ship, bored as he waited to gain access to Libris. The ship looked like one of his laboratories—all white with hard benches. He didn't believe in things being comfortable and he loved the colour white, it was so clean. He liked things to be clean.

Xanax sat in his hard white control chair annoyed that Libris had been able to keep him out. His plan to disable the security systems was taking some time so he
had decided to amuse himself by testing a new invention on Bumface.

So far it was working very well. A tiny computer chip had been injected into her bloodstream. When it received a signal from the Typetor, it controlled all her muscle movements. It had been ordered by a school in the outer galaxy as a way of forcing lazy children to exercise more. Bumface's body was currently obeying a command to run on the spot.

‘Star jumps, Typetor,' Xanax commanded. Typetor adjusted Bumface's settings. Unfortunately, instead of jumping up with her arms and legs to her side, her arms started waving up and down in front of her and she walked towards Xanax. She panicked as her body moved towards the evil genius and her arms started hitting him.

‘Stop the experiment!' he commanded and glowered at Bumface, who stopped moving. She stood still, panting more than ever.

‘…Sorry… I…'

‘Running on the spot,' Xanax commanded and she started running again.

‘Faster!'

Her legs moved faster than ever.

‘High knee raising, change!'

Her knees shot up so high she almost hit herself in the face.

Xanax smiled. He had wanted to check the chip was still working and that Bumface had not faked the error to make him stop.

‘Stop!' he called out to the Typetor when it looked like she could take no more.

Bumface collapsed in a heap on the floor. She dreaded it when Xanax was bored. She hated the whole of Libris for keeping them out and making Xanax bored and despised the Lab Rats for going there in the first place.

‘Typetor, check progress on Libris!'

Xanax sat with his hands resting on the square white armrests of his command chair. He turned his cold eyes to the big screen. There he could see the Great Hall of Libris. The librarians were all bumping into the tables and knocking things over.

‘Professor, our virus has worked beautifully.' Bumface might have been exhausted but she was always impressed by how clever Xanax was.

‘Our virus?' Xanax turned his head to Bumface and raised his hand ready to start her experiment again.

‘
Your
virus, professor,' she said, ‘your virus, of course.'

Xanax had released a computer virus, which had caused the librarians' glasses to tune into every reality TV show being broadcast on every planet in the galaxy. Their minds were being flooded with useless mind-numbing information. They could do nothing but vote people out, discuss who had the best singing voice, who ran the best restaurant and argue about which celebrity danced best in the jungle. Thousands and thousands of programs flashed before their eyes at the same time, turning them into gibbering idiots.

‘I think we'll find landing on the planet quite simple now,' Xanax announced, his thin lips pressed together in a determined smile. The Lab Rats would not escape him this time. He had programmed the Typetor with his latest creation. Xanax knew what his most powerful weapon was and now he could make as many copies of it as he wanted.

Once they had landed on Libris, Xanax strode off the ship. His rubber coat squeaked louder then ever as he brushed aside some librarians who were so focused on the announcement of Yllangork as
Idol
winner that they didn't notice a spaceship had practically landed on their heads.

‘Come along,' he announced to the Typetor and Bumface, who were hovering behind him, ‘we have some experiments to complete.'

Z
ed and Dee were making progress removing the panelling that held Emm's cocoon. Dee smashed the wood, Zed pulled as hard as he could. They were halfway round.

‘If I can get in behind the panelling, I might be able to push against the other wall and force the rest of it to break,' suggested Zed.

They pulled at the side of the wood panelling but couldn't move it enough for Zed to get behind.

‘Katy, can you help us?'

Katy could not wake Jay. He lay on the floor totally out of it. As she went to help the others, XL had never felt so useless. He was sitting at the edge of Dr Doe's desk, watching as everyone else worked hard. He could
do nothing. He didn't even have information to share with them.

Katy, Zed and Dee heaved at the edge of the panelling. It cracked open a little more.

‘Hold it!' shouted Zed and he squeezed himself into the space between the wall and the loosened wood. He could feel the wood pushing down hard on him. He managed to place his rear hand flat on the wall behind with his other hands in front of him. All he had to do was push. Zed strained and pushed with all his might.

It barely moved.

‘Come on Zed, you can do it, you're stronger than all of us put together,' Katy urged him on.

XL sent thought messages as hard as he could. He hoped that if he thought ‘be strong' hard enough, it might just help Zed. He thought so hard he felt his brain was going to burst out of his body. Suddenly his brilliant mind realised there might be another way he could help… if only he could move. Jay was lying on the floor next to the desk. His head lay back just below XL. He could feel the breath rushing in and out of Jay's huge nose. XL focused his mind on moving his own body. He used every little bit of brainpower he had to move himself to the edge of the desk.

He strained, he pulled, he thought as hard as he could and moved a millimetre.

‘It's a start,' he thought to himself and he pushed himself again.

‘Heave!' shouted Katy, helping Zed push the panelling away from the wall. Zed pushed as hard as he could with
his rear hand. At the same time he pushed the panelling with his front arms.

Dee had her hammer hooked around the edge of the wood, pulling it with her whole body.

Crack.

‘I heard a crack,' said Katy. ‘It's working, the wood's breaking. Come on, H-E-A-V-E!'

There was a bigger crack, and another. Zed could feel himself pushing away from the wall. It was moving.

‘Stand back and get ready to catch her,' he shouted. It would be no good if the piece of wood Emm was stuck to fell over and crushed her on the floor.

The two girls stood back. Zed took a deep breath.

‘Argh,' he pushed front and back with all his might. Harder and harder. His muscles were so sore he felt they would snap, but he could feel the gap widening. He could hear the wood breaking.

Suddenly there was a huge crack and his arms shot forward. The panel swung out and down. The girls caught the edge and stopped it falling altogether.

‘It's so heavy!' Katy said. They weren't just holding the heavy piece of wood, but Emm's body and her cocoon. Zed jumped out. It seemed like he didn't have a single shred of strength left in his body but he knew he had to help the girls turn the panel over.

‘We're nearly there. I'll lift, you turn it.'

He stood between the girls, took the weight of the wood panel and tilted it up on its side. Katy and Dee grabbed one side and swung it around.

Zed lowered it to the ground so the cocoon was facing up. Emm was free from the wall and safe for now.

The three stood panting and smiling at each other, too tired to talk.

Dee then pointed to the desk. Her eyes looked worried. The others turned in time to see XL teetering on the edge of the desk. Katy leapt forward to catch him but it was too late, he fell off.

XL braced himself. The landing would be soft but horrid. For the second that he fell through the air, XL felt wonderful, enjoying the feeling of having moved himself.

The wonderful feeling didn't last long. His body dived into Jay's nose and became stuck. XL could feel the gooey snot pressing in on all sides of him. This had been his plan. He thought all the hair on his body would tickle the inside of Jay's nose so much it would make him sneeze and wake him up.

He sat there waiting for Jay to stir and sneeze him back out again. Nothing happened except he could feel more and more snot around his body.

‘I don't believe it!' said Dee. ‘XL is stuck up Jay's nose!'

They looked over at Jay's nose and saw XL's body in there. It was like looking at the edge of a volcano—there could be an eruption at any moment.

‘Someone's going to have to fish him out,' said Katy screwing her face up.

‘Yuck!' said Zed.

‘Look, he's safe in there. Perhaps we should leave him,' said Dee. ‘We've got enough to carry.'

She was right. The three of them had to carry Emm's cocoon and Jay's body. If XL was safely tucked away in Jay's nose, it was one less thing for them to worry about.

‘What about him?' Katy indicated towards Dr Doe who stood bouncing his head on the window and shouting, ‘It's not fair, Anthony should have won'.

‘We have to get out of here before Professor Xanax finds us. We can't look after Dr Doe too. He'll be safe, Xanax isn't after him,' declared Zed. ‘We'll use one of the ladders to get back to our ship.'

Zed's plan was to strap both Emm and Jay to one of the moving ladders. Going through the drawers in Dr Doe's desk, they found big rolls of sticky tape and string.

First they dragged Jay to the ladder in the corridor. Zed climbed up as high as he could, pulling Jay up behind him. He strapped Jay's hands to the ladder while the girls tied his feet. Next they dragged Emm on her panel out to the corridor and propped her against the ladder. With a massive effort they lifted the panel up and rested it on the first step. Zed held it in position while the girls got to work with the tape and string.

It held, just.

‘They won't last very long, but if we hold them on we should get as far as the Great Hall.' Zed hoped for the best. He scrambled up over Emm's cocoon and put his arms and legs around Jay to keep him on the ladder. The girls climbed on the ladder either side of the cocoon.
Dee held her hammer arm out and Katy grabbed it. It was easy for her to hold on to.

‘Everyone right? OK, let's go!' Zed announced, expecting the ladder to shoot off at high speed.

Nothing happened.

‘What did Miss Tennet say to make it go?' asked Katy.

‘It was something really dumb,' Dee said.

They screwed up their faces trying to remember what Miss Tennet had first said. The corridor was silent. There were no librarians. The only light was coming from the open doorway of Dr Doe's office. As they searched their memories for the words, a faint squeak put them off.

They looked at each other, hoping they had not heard the same thing. They heard it again.

Squeak.

‘Come on, Dee,' urged Katy. Noone wanted to admit it sounded like the squeak of shiny rubber boots.

‘Err, boys will be boys,' Dee shouted. No movement.

The squeaking grew louder. The corridor was dark apart from the light coming from Dr Doe's office. They could not see anything, but that noise meant just one thing. Xanax was coming. Katy gulped at the thought of her cage.

‘Please Dee! He's getting closer.'

‘Girls were in the phrase too,' said Zed.

‘Boys will be girls,' said Dee.

Still nothing happened.

‘Why can't a… girl be more like… a boy?' Dee was just guessing now.

Squeak… squeak… squeak. The noise grew louder.

‘It was grown-ups,' Zed suddenly remembered.

‘Yes!' Katy exclaimed.

‘Why can't a man be more like a woman!' shouted Dee. Still nothing happened.

A cackle sent shivers down their spines. The shivers froze halfway down as they turned round. At first they couldn't see anything but the doorway to Dr Doe's office. Then Xanax stepped into the light from the doorway. His white coat was as shiny and clean as ever.

‘Children… it's time to go home.'