Space Wars! (6 page)

‘We’re trying,’ Peri yelled, flicking a series of zip-dials. ‘We need a short cut!’

‘That’s it,’ Selene said. ‘Not a shortcut, but a short circuit!’

Peri nodded. ‘Great idea.’ He slid under the main control console and ripped off an access panel. He grabbed the tangle of wires with his fist and yanked them out, shielding his face as hot sparks exploded around him.

He heard Selene sigh. ‘Nothing’s happening.’

‘Hold it,’ Peri said, sliding his head out from under the console. ‘Maybe I can overload the system, rather than pull it apart?’

‘But that would need another source of power,’ she replied.

‘I’m half bionic – I can use my internal batteries as a counter-charge!’ Peri exclaimed.

‘That could kill you!’ she gasped.

‘There’s no other choice.’ Peri grabbed two wires. As they touched together, they sparked.

He took a deep breath, then pushed the wires into his forearm. He gritted his teeth against the pain as he forced them through his nerves and muscles to the circuits underneath. Something like plasma-lightning flashed through him, making his limbs spasm and his circuits burn. It was like fire ripping through his skin.

Alien computer code stormed his head. There was so much information, Peri could feel his brain heating up. He imagined melting grey matter dripping from his ears.

‘I’m not giving up without a fight!’ he muttered as he pushed back against the assault with his mind.

Kaboom!
The door to the control room exploded, followed by a dozen smoke grenades.

‘Hurry up, Peri,’ Diesel shouted. ‘We’ve got company!’

Chapter 7

As the smoke cleared, laserfire lit up the nerve centre.
Zap-blam-blam-sssizzz!

Pulses of green and red pinged back and forth between the crew and the guards. The bug-o-matic prevented the guards storming further into the room than the doorway. Otto had a blaster in each hand and wasn’t even bothering to take cover. He faced the guards, dodging the zapster fire as the monitors exploded behind him.

‘Otto, use a flash grenade,’ Diesel shouted.

The bounty hunter flung a grenade from his belt at the Meigwor guards.
Kaaa-boom!
A bright light exploded, temporarily blinding them.

In the lull, Diesel sprinted towards Selene. The engineer crouched down with her hands linked together ready to lift him into the air. As he stepped on to her hands, she boosted him upwards. Diesel somersaulted across the room. He grabbed hold of the main monitor hanging in the middle and climbed on to it. Then he opened fire with his blaster.

As the Meigwor guards ducked, Selene rolled towards Onix. The Xion prince had built a barrier in front of Peri’s console made from pieces of computers, melted technicians’ chairs and charred manuals. Once she was safely behind the barricade, Diesel backflipped from his hanging perch and landed in a perfect crouch behind the chairs. He threw himself against the barrier and unleashed another round of blaster fire.

‘
Mars ’rakk
!
’ Diesel taunted. ‘Is that all you got? I had better aim when I was a baby!’

The console behind Peri took a direct hit, showering him with molten sparks. It didn’t matter. He had to ignore what was happening in the control centre. His battle was with the Extractor itself. He used his bionic senses to weave through the Meigwor computer code. By mentally ducking and diving, sneaking and sliding, he navigated the alien system, searching for the main control functions.

But it knew he was there, and sent a surge of power to blast him away from the Extractor’s core. It swamped his mind with thousands of small computer codes and programs, making every nerve and circuit in his head feel as though it had been dipped in molten metal. The pain screamed at him to disconnect himself, but Peri kept dodging and twisting through the surge.

He caught glimpses of the Extractor’s own camera feeds, showing him the battle in the nerve centre from every angle. He didn’t understand how his bionic brain could hold so many images and information in one split second. He could see Onix firing wildly at the Meigwor guards. Selene and Diesel were shooting with extreme accuracy. He wanted to help his friends, but he had a fight of his own to finish first.

The Extractor dashed him away from the camera feeds, plunging him deeper and deeper into the program until it felt as though he was drowning in computer code. It kept crashing against his mind with blocks of data, rolling his brain around in a storm of alien symbols.

He was disorientated. He didn’t know where he was or how far he was from the core program. He pushed hard against it and surfaced back in his body. He took a deep breath then dived again into the Extractor with his mind. It pushed Peri back. The computer slammed everything it had into his body. Every nerve and wire inside him was under assault. His skin crackled with a white-hot web of electricity, each spark stinging him like a Martian-wasp. He had to pull the wires from his arm soon, or he was going to explode!

Kaaaa-boooom!
Another grenade rattled the nerve centre. Diesel slammed against the console above him. The gunner’s Expedition Wear was in shreds. Peri looked down, seeing Selene and Onix pressed against the barricade. Wisps of smoke rose from their smouldering suits. He had to help his crew! Peri grabbed the wires to pull them out, but hesitated.

What am I doing?
he asked himself. His friends were still fighting, risking their lives to help the dying Xion people. Millions of lives and an entire galaxy were at stake. It didn’t matter if all Peri’s circuits were fried.

The Meigwors
had
to be stopped.

Peri let go of the wires and traced the power throbbing through his circuits. The Extractor was trying to saturate his body with electricity. But instead of frying his circuits, he realised it was giving him greater power! The more energy that flowed into him, the stronger a weapon he became. All he had to do now was turn the power-flow in the opposite direction, back into the Extractor.

Starting at his feet, he reversed the current. He pushed a cosmic-wave of destruction through his body, adding as much of his own energy as he could. It coursed through him like a fireball before bursting from him. Every megawatt of power he could find flowed into the Extractor. He raced it towards the core, making it pick up more energy as it did.

Krrraaccckkk-BLLLAAAAAMMMMM!

The console exploded, throwing Peri backwards into the air and ripping the wires from his skin. His bionic self instantly took control of his muscles, turning him in a twisting somersault. He landed safely next to Diesel and he grabbed a spare weapon from the half-Martian’s holster and started firing.

‘Glad you could join us,’ Diesel said.

Peri, Onix, Selene and Diesel ducked more shots from the Meigwor guards. Molten plastic sprayed up from the chairs. There was no way to escape now – they had no choice but to fight, and hope that they survived.

‘For the Milky Way!’ Peri shouted.

The ship shuddered as though there was a spacequake and the laserfire stopped.

Raaaa-eeee! Raaa-eeee! Raaa-eee!
Sirens blared as an electronic voice screamed, ‘Extractor dismantling! Emergency! Emergency!’

The Meigwor guards dropped their weapons and dashed into the corridor and out of sight.

‘What’s happening?’ Selene shouted.

Otto edged around the barricade to look at the only undamaged monitor. ‘The Extractor’s breaking up into separate viper-ships again!’ he boomed. ‘We’ve done it!’

‘Time to get out of here,’ Peri shouted.

They pushed through the throng of panicked Meigwors. But it wasn’t the clean escape they hoped for. A new battalion of guards appeared in the corridor ahead, pounding towards them with their weapons blazing.

Diesel set his blaster to Continuous Pulse and opened fire, but his aim was thrown by another shudder rocking the Extractor. His laser melted a small hole in the deck.

‘Fire at the floor,’ the gunner barked. ‘Continuous Pulse!’

Peri and Otto joined him in firing at the same spot. The three beams made the floor dissolve like a sun going supernova. Before the Meigwor guards had time to do more than scream, the floor simply melted away and sent them tumbling down a huge hole in the deck.

They had no time to cheer. Yet another explosion shook the Extractor. They slipped along a narrow ledge around the hole and then sprinted down the corridor.

‘Which way?’ Selene asked at the junction.

Instantly, Peri could see the layout of the whole ship in his mind’s eye. It took only nanoseconds to see the best route back to the mini-pods. He couldn’t believe it. During his fight with the Extractor, he must have absorbed the design of the whole vessel.

‘This way!’ he shouted.

They raced as fast as they could. It didn’t matter about the guards. They just had to make it back to the pods before the Extractor dismantled or exploded. Peri rounded the corner and saw two crab-bots hanging from the ceiling.

The robot-guards barely had time to say ‘In-troo-DAH!’ before he, Diesel, Selene, Otto and Onix blasted them into a gazillion smoking fragments.

‘Keep going,’ Peri shouted, racing down another corridor. The vent hatch was still open. Otto boosted him and the others into the shaft and climbed up last. It was still hot and cramped in the ventilation shaft, but it didn’t matter. They crawled as fast as they could towards the pods. They could hear the shouts of the Meigwor guards following behind them, ‘Take them dead or alive! For Meigwor!’