Space Wars! (7 page)

Peri was the first out of the ventilation shaft to where the mini-pods were waiting.

‘Otto, you were the last one in, go!’ he ordered. ‘You next, Onix, then Diesel, and Selene.’

Peri crouched by the shaft and fired his blaster towards the attacking Meigwors to buy his friends some more time. One by one, the mini-pods sealed themselves and then shot off into space. Now, it was Peri’s turn. He knew as soon as he stopped firing he wouldn’t have long to escape. He counted under his breath, ‘Three, two, one!’ Then he dropped his weapon and leapt into his mini-pod. It sealed around him as he engaged the thrusters.

But even at bionic speed, he wasn’t fast enough. As Peri cleared the vent, he saw the Meigwor guards reach the narrow chamber and open fire.

Baaammm!
A blast shuddered through the mini-pod.

Chapter 8

Peri’s mini-pod spun away from the Extractor. He jammed the Nav-wheel left and right. Nothing. He tried firing the manoeuvring thrusters and slamming on the hyper-brakes. Nothing worked. The Meigwor guards had scored a direct hit as he tried to escape. The pod’s controls were wrecked. He could see the other mini-pods heading for the
Phoenix
and tried to radio for help, but that was dead too.

‘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.