The Alien Brainwash (6 page)

Zara didn't seem to notice, but suddenly Kip had an idea.

It was pretty out-there. But then again, so was this entire mission.

CHAPTER
9

Kip's plan was weird, but simple.

Botanicus-1 needs insects. Finbar's got too
many. Finbar's stinging space fleas could be
trained to pollinate the flowers!

‘The Botanicus-1 flowers need us, so let's go,' Kip commanded.

The brainwashed Zara followed obediently as Kip and Finbar raced out of the greenhouse, through the clearing and back into the flower field. As he ran, Kip flicked on his SpaceCuff and typed.

Translate mode
:
English to Flowerspeak

Attention flowers

He hoped the SpaceCuff had finished learning to translate by now. Kip watched the screen nervously. Then…

A translation popped up! But instead of words, Kip had to sing a series of musical notes so that the flowers could understand him.

A Space Scout's got to be ready for anything,
Kip thought, clearing his throat.
Even a spot
of opera!

‘My 2iC is infested with fleas,' Kip warbled at the flowers in his best high-pitched moan. ‘Hypnotise them instead of us. They'll do the spiderbees' job!'

The flowers rustled. They understood!

Kip held his breath as the field was silent. They seemed to be deciding whether Kip's plan could work.

At last, the nearest flowers bent down and sang their reply. ‘The flowers love the idea!' Kip said, reading the translation from his Space-Cuff. ‘They never wanted to keep anyone prisoner. They just needed a way to pollinate their seedlings.'

The flowers looked a bit like the ones on Earth. But Kip knew they were more complex than any flower back home. The flowers had a language, for a start, and they seemed to have emotions like humans and aliens, too.

The flowers near Finbar set to work on the fleas at once. They swayed left to right in perfect time with each other.

The flowers rubbed their leaf arms together above their heads as they swayed. Their voices joined together in song, so high-pitched that only the fleas could hear it properly.

Fleas streamed out the neck of Finbar's spacesuit. The faster the flowers sang and swayed, the more excited the fleas got. Soon the air was thick with space fleas, flying in formation.

‘It's working!' Kip yelled. ‘The fleas are brainwashed.'

‘Hang on,' said Finbar suddenly. ‘My fleas are tiny and the spiderbees were massive. It'll take the fleas ages to do the spiderbees' job.'

Kip grinned. ‘I thought of that,' he said, reaching for the Yum X-Pander gadget tucked into the pocket of his spacesuit.

Space Scouts used Yum X-Panders when food supplies were short on missions. X-Panders shot a ray that took tasty food particles and multiplied them thousands of times. A normal donut could grow as big as a tyre in half a second.

Kip aimed the Yum X-Pander at the cloud of fleas. He squeezed the trigger. A bright yellow ray shot out. There was a flash and then the faint smell of singed fleas.

Instantly, the fleas grew to the size of Kip's head. He fired the Yum X-Pander again until the fleas were as big as the spiderbees had been.

WorldCorp Yum X-Pander

At that size, the fleas' creepy pincers, giant bulging eyes and fuzzy wings were very easy to see.

Finbar shuddered. ‘
That's
what was crawling all over me?'

But the flowers were thrilled. They started singing again to Kip and Finbar.

‘To thank us, they're going to reverse our brainwashing,' Kip translated, looking down at his SpaceCuff. Then he winked at Finbar. No point in telling the flowers that they'd only been pretending!

Giant Stinging Space Flea

The flowers began swaying in the opposite direction. They struck up their song again, lower-pitched and with the strange tune reversed.

A moment later, Zara shook her head slowly. ‘What's going on?' she asked, looking confused.

Her hypnosis was broken!

‘Long story,' said Kip with a grin. ‘Let's get out of here, and then I'll tell you all about it.'

At that second, Kip's SpaceCuff started buzzing impatiently.

Incoming call…
MoNa

Kip punched the Call Answer button.

‘At last,' MoNa said grumpily. ‘I've tried to call you three times.'

‘What?' Kip said. ‘I've been trying to call
you.
I thought you were wrecked!'

‘Hmmph,' MoNa sniffed. ‘Well, there has been a lot of strange musical interference in the atmosphere.'

Kip sighed with relief. ‘I think we've sorted that out,' he said. ‘Can you send us three Scramblers? And you'll need to use your MagnaSweep to take Zara's wrecked starship back home for repairs.'

The second the Scrambler Beams appeared, Kip, Finbar and Zara stepped into them. Kip felt the familiar sensation of his body parts being shuffled by a giant pair of invisible hands.

Moments later, Kip, Finbar and Zara were safely back in MoNa's landing bay.

Kip's mission was complete…almost.

CHAPTER
10

‘Time to file your mission report,' said MoNa bossily.

Kip glanced at Zara. It was strange having another Space Scout on board, especially a more experienced one. Would Zara think MoNa ordered Kip around just because he was young?

‘Don't worry,' Zara whispered to Kip. ‘Starships think they know everything, but they'd be nothing without us.'

Kip grinned. Zara seemed to think he was a top Space Scout, even if he was the youngest.

Together, they all made their way to the bridge. Kip sat down in his captain's chair. Immediately, his holographic console appeared around him.

Exploring Botanicus-1 had been Zara's mission. But during her rescue, Kip had seen a lot of the planet. So he could tell WorldCorp whether Botanicus-1 could be the next Earth.

He went straight to the File Mission Report screen and began to type.

Sighing, Kip sent off his report. He'd completed his mission, but he probably wouldn't get a Planetary Point this time. It had been a rescue mission, not a scouting one.