Pirate Ambush (6 page)

Two beams of light sliced across the Bridge. Otto and Diesel were in the cosmic-combat position, torches in one hand and zapsters in the other. One of the beams caught Selene’s legs wiggling into a hole in the deck.

‘An alien intruder has captured Selene!’ Otto boomed. ‘I blast!’

‘Wait!’ Peri yelled. ‘Selene is below deck trying to restore power.’

Otto lowered his blaster. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes!’ There was a flicker of light across the Bridge. Peri ran to the control panel and started activating every sensor he could think of. ‘We don’t have full systems. The sensors are dead. Diesel, check weapons.’

Diesel was already flicking switches at the gunnery station. ‘
S’fâh,
’ he yelled as he thumped it. ‘We’re defenceless!’

Selene pulled herself back on to the Bridge. ‘It’s a dampening field round the ship,’ she explained. ‘We’ve not sustained any actual damage. Whoever attacked us doesn’t want to destroy us. They’re restoring systems one by one.’

As she spoke, the 360-monitor sprang to life. They could see that they were actually inside the asteroid! The
Phoenix
was surrounded by a flickering blue electro-fence. Everywhere Peri looked he could see space vessels of different shapes and sizes jostling for room behind the electrified barrier. Beyond the fence, jutting from the far side of the asteroid, was a settlement of squat, ramshackle buildings and the odd space rocket.

A green-skinned horned Venusian in a blue sash appeared on the screen and hissed at them like a Martian lizard. Peri pressed the slight bulge under his chin and activated his SpeakEasy computer chip. The translation device crackled loudly before Peri found the right wavelength. ‘Language frequency 23.10.04,’ Peri told the others.

Diesel adjusted his SpeakEasy implant as Selene and Otto strapped two battered SpeakEasy devices to their heads. Now they could all hear what the Venusian was saying: ‘Haven Security. All ships visiting Haven must be inspected by security teams. Please grant permission to board your vessel or exercise your right to be destroyed.’

Peri hit the mute button. ‘Otto is our best chance of getting in. They won’t suspect him of being an IF agent.’

Diesel nodded. Otto had been a bounty hunter on planet Meigwor. ‘He’ll probably blend right in on Haven.’

‘Yes!’ Otto boomed. ‘Follow my lead, space-monkeys! I know how to deal with the criminal world!’

Peri reactivated the communications channel.

Otto took a deep breath. ‘Listen –’

‘Stand by,’ the Haven security guard replied. ‘Beaming aboard.’

With a blaze of fizzy orange light, the security officer appeared. He had a blaster in each hand. He looked around the Bridge.

‘Haven welcomes you,’ he said as he holstered his weapons.

Otto licked his lipless mouth. ‘Keep your welcome! Just lead me to the trouble!’

The security guard straightened his sash. ‘No weapons, or personal defence devices, are allowed on Haven. You must obey the rules. Haven was established to allow the exchange of goods and services away from prying eyes, not as a place for troublemaking. Honour among thieves is strictly enforced here. Understood?’

Otto nodded and the guard carried on: ‘The atmosphere has been configured to be safe for all species. And we value privacy. We don’t want to know your names. No one will give you theirs or tell you where they’re from. So don’t even ask. Everyone enters Haven at his, her, or its, own risk. There are no peacekeepers, no police and no IF here. Do you agree to these terms?’

‘Of course!’ Otto boomed. ‘My crew and I are no strangers to places like these.’

‘Stand together for beaming.’ The security guard turned to Selene. ‘You must leave that device behind. It’s been identified as a weapon.’

Selene looked at her electro-pulse gadget, which she was holding in her hands. ‘But –’

Peri put a hand on Selene’s shoulder. ‘Don’t argue,’ he hissed. ‘It doesn’t work yet anyway.’

Selene put her gadget down and stood with the rest of the crew. The guard pulled what looked like a remote control from his pocket and fired it at them.

An orange teleportation beam fizzed around the crew. It tingled against Peri’s skin and the orange light covered his eyes. He felt like an astro-mint in a bottle of Saturn Soda. Then, nanoseconds later, the beam vanished and Peri found himself on a metal teleportation platform in the middle of Haven. He looked out across the vast interior of the asteroid. On the other side, he could see the
Phoenix
waiting for them behind the blue electro-fence.

‘Get a move on!’ said a guard in a green sash. ‘Other people need to use the teleportation platform!’

As Peri and his crew hurried away from the platform, a thin man with more scars than money ran beside Otto. ‘Need a better crew, captain? They look on the small side.’

‘No, no!’ Otto pushed him away. ‘They’re useless, but they’re my crew and I’m keeping them!’

‘Useless?’ Diesel snarled. ‘How dare you –’

‘Keep quiet, space-monkey!’ said Otto as he led them into the heart of Haven.

It was hard weaving through the streets. Everyone was elbowing and shoving their way forward. Peri peeked through an open door in one of the shacks that lined the streets. Two tough-looking aliens sat inside, deep in conversation. One of them opened a wide astro-case. Peri caught a glint of gold, before the alien noticed him and slammed the case shut. His glare was enough to make Peri slip away quickly and not look back.

Every street corner had buskers or pirates arguing – sometimes both. The whole place stank of stale drink, sweat and open drains.

Peri pulled his crew aside. ‘I picked up some short-range coms-patches from the
Phoenix
,’ he whispered. He pulled the postage-stamp-sized devices from his pocket. They had delicate gold circuitry on one side and chameleo-skin on the other.

He handed them out. ‘Stick one behind your ear. It’ll blend into your skin, and they’ll allow us to communicate with each other. Without our Expedition Wear, we’ll need them if we get separated.’

Peri stuck his coms-patch on. He heard a loud whistling in his ear as the device connected to his circuits and his brain. The whistling vanished and a menu of options appeared in his mind’s eye:
Open Radio, Close Radio, Track Others, Transmit Image.

Peri mentally chose the last option. He’d uploaded an image of Jaxx into his coms-patch before leaving the ship. ‘I’m sending you all a photo of Jaxx.’

The space pirate flashed across Peri’s vision like a ghost. He was looking at Selene, but he could see Jaxx’s face hovering over her. The space pirate looked really familiar as if he’d met him somewhere before.

‘Will you stop looking at me?’ Selene huffed.

Peri shook his head and the image of Jaxx faded. ‘Haven’s huge. We should start searching.’

‘This way,’ Otto shouted, pointing towards the roughest-looking area of the marketplace. The streets were even narrower, as if the shacks had been pushed together by a trash compactor. The buildings seemed to have been made from whatever their alien owners could find – shipping crates, bits of spacecraft, sheet metal and tarpaulins. Smoke and the sound of arguing drifted through the gaps in their walls.

‘How are we going to find him in there?’ Diesel asked.

‘I have found more elusive prey in harder places,’ Otto boomed. ‘This is child’s play.’

As they followed Otto down the alleyway, Diesel muttered, ‘Meigwors have strange childhoods.’

Peri tried not to laugh. ‘Everything about Meigwors is strange,’ he said. But he was worried about how they were going to find Jaxx. They couldn’t disappoint General Pegg. They had to locate Jaxx and this was their only lead. Peri wasn’t about to let his first official Star Fighter mission end in failure.

Chapter 8

‘Mind your own business or I’ll blast you into space,’ snarled an alien with a dozen eyes.

Peri swallowed as he backed off into the crowd, hoping the alien wouldn’t come after him. It was really hard to search for anyone on Haven. No one on this asteroid liked to make eye contact unless they absolutely had to.

At the next crossroads, Peri stopped his crew. ‘We’re attracting too much attention as a group. Let’s split up. Selene, head back to the teleportation platform and keep watch. Otto, go left. Diesel, go right. I’ll carry on in this direction. Use your coms-patches to keep in touch.’

Peri set off, but the alleys got narrower and darker as they twisted down and down into the worst part of Haven. The smell of sewage became almost unbearable. But before he decided to turn back, Peri spotted a crowded tavern.

The perfect place to find a space pirate!

Peri sneaked along the outside of the tavern, peeking through the gaps in the tarpaulin sides. Tired-looking waitresses carried large trays filled with glasses that brimmed with a foul-smelling liquid and dishes piled high with fried space-rats on sticks. There was no sign of Jaxx. Two humans with scars over their faces and burns on their arms were talking close to the tarpaulin. They had to be space pirates. Peri edged closer to eavesdrop. He listened for a while. He could only hear snatches of their conversation.

‘. . . IF ship for sale . . .’ The words triggered an internal alarm. Peri leaned in.

‘I’ve never seen a real IF ship,’ one pirate said. ‘But I bet it’s a perfect replacement for our rust bucket.’