Lethal Combat (5 page)

‘There’s no time for fighting, Otto!’ Peri said, grabbing Otto by one arm. Diesel grabbed Otto by the other arm, and Selene pushed him from behind. Together, they propelled him through the door. Prince Onix followed, sticking close to Selene.

‘This way,’ Peri said. They set off at a run towards the palace. Soon it was looming right over them.

‘That’s your home, Prince,’ Selene said. ‘Recognise it?’

The prince shook his head. ‘Never seen it before in my life.’

‘Well, that’s where you’re going,’ Peri said, as they walked towards the palace gates. They passed through an archway made from the twisted wreckage of spaceships destroyed in battle. Peri drew the prince into the archway’s shadow. ‘I’m giving you a message to take to your mum and dad, OK?’ he said.

He pulled the Holographiser from the breast pocket of his Expedition Wear. This was a flexible, mirrored pad, into which the sender spoke. The message was then delivered as a 3-D holograph when the recipient opened it.

‘
Dear King and Queen – we are returning Prince Onix safe and sound. He was taken by mistake. He seems to have lost his memory but he’ll soon get that back. Probably. Apologies and best wishes, Peri, of Planet Earth. If it still exists.’

Peri folded the Holographiser and stuck the adhesive side to the prince’s tunic. ‘All right? Off you go.’ He pointed to the whitish towers of the royal palace. ‘Just knock on the door – they’ll be so glad to see you!’ Peri said.

‘But will I be glad to see them?’ Prince Onix asked.

‘Of course you will!’ Selene said. ‘They’re your mum and dad.’

‘I’d rather stay with you,’ the prince said. ‘With Selene.’

‘Look, Prince,’ Peri said. ‘Just go home!’

‘Go home!’ Selene said.

‘Go home!’ Diesel said.

‘Go home!’ Otto said.

‘Well, since you put it like that . . .’ the prince said. He stood thinking for a while. Then he pulled off the Holographiser, crumpled it up, and dropped it to the ground. ‘I’ve decided I feel most at home with you. We’ll travel all over the universe together in the
Phoenix
!’

‘No, we won’t,’ Selene said, turning the prince towards the palace and giving him a gentle push forward.

There was a shout. The Xion guards from the tavern were running up the street towards them. They were battered and bruised and their clothing was torn. And they were angry.

Very angry.

‘Get them!’ shouted the leader.

‘Let’s fight!’ Diesel said.

Otto turned to Diesel, flexing his arms. ‘I thought you’d never ask.’

‘Not each other, you voidoid!’ Peri shouted. ‘Them!’

The guards surrounded them. Diesel dropped into the classic cosmic-combat position. So did Otto. His tongue flickered in and out menacingly.

The leader of the guard produced a thick shiny cylinder from a holster on his belt. He took aim and fired. A blue flash lit up Diesel and Otto.

And then they were frozen into statues.

Chapter 6

Diesel and Otto toppled to the ground. They didn’t move. Diesel’s legs were still bent and his fists still clenched. Otto’s tongue was still sticking out of his mouth.

The leader of the guard aimed his weapon at Peri.

‘Wait!’ Peri cried. ‘We come in peace. Look – we’ve brought your prince back!’

‘A likely story,’ said their leader. Then he looked more closely. ‘Bubbling sludge! It
is
the prince!’ He spoke into a com-clip attached to his helmet. ‘This is Captain Grinkox at Archway One. We have Prince Onix here. Repeat: we have Prince Onix at Archway One.’

Peri grabbed Selene’s arm and started to back away.

‘You’re going nowhere!’ said Captain Grinkox.

Peri reached into his pocket. If he grew the
Phoenix
to full size now, he and his friends might be able to use the surprise and confusion to escape.

Captain Grinkox saw the movement. He blasted Peri with his strange weapon. Peri felt as if he’d been covered in a cloud of freezing blue gas. He couldn’t move a muscle.

The captain blasted Selene too. She froze and keeled over, her arms and legs sticking out at odd angles.

‘Search them!’ the captain said to his men.

One of the guards pulled the
Phoenix
from Peri’s pocket. ‘Found this toy egg, Captain.’

‘That’s a funny little thing,’ said Captain Grinkox, inspecting it. ‘I’ll give it to my little boy to play with.’ He tucked the
Phoenix
under his helmet.

Peri wanted to shout that it wasn’t a toy, it wouldn’t be safe to play with, and anyway it wasn’t the captain’s to give to anyone.

But he couldn’t utter a sound.

The guards loaded Peri, Selene, Diesel and Otto into hoverbarrows. Dumped on his back, Peri could see nothing but sky, and the bobbing antennae of Captain Grinkox’s helmet.

‘What have you done to my friends?’ he heard the prince say.

‘They’re not your friends, Your Highness.’

The guards began to push the hoverbarrows towards the palace. Peri watched the orange sky pass by above. A jolt sent Otto tumbling against him, so that his tongue touched Peri’s ear. Peri strained to move away, but couldn’t.

There was a fanfare of Xion trumpets, which sounded like someone sitting on a set of old Earth bagpipes.

‘Your Majesties!’ Peri heard Captain Grinkox say. ‘Your son is here – and I have arrested his kidnappers.’

Peri was just able to see the royal couple as they stepped closer. They were humanoid, except for the webbed hands and the squid-like smell. They had sharp, pointed noses and teeth. The king wore a crown of some dull grey metal with huge spikes sticking up out of it; the queen wore a similar one in white.

‘Oh, my precious Onix!’ said the queen.

‘Welcome home, son!’ said the king.

‘Who are you?’ the prince asked.

The queen moved out of sight. Peri heard a scuffling sound, as if she was trying to hug Onix and he was pulling away. ‘Don’t you remember me?’ she asked pleadingly.

‘Should I?’

‘We’ll get your memory back, my boy,’ the king said. ‘Top doctors will work on it. And never fear – your abductors will be punished. We will show them no mercy! Captain – take them to the dungeons!’

‘Can I go with them?’ asked the prince.

‘Don’t be silly,’ said the queen. ‘You are coming home with us!’

‘I don’t want to go with you,’ the prince said sulkily. ‘I want to go with my friends.’

The king came and stood over Peri. ‘We Xions are a fair people. You will have a fair trial. And after the fair trial, you Meigwor-lovers will wish you had never been born!’

The guards tipped Peri and his frozen crew down the palace steps and let them bump to the bottom. The palace dungeons were dark. And damp. And dreary.

Two guards followed them down and clamped Otto’s wrists in a pair of massive steel cuffs. The cuffs were then chained to the wall, so that Otto had to stand with his arms above his head. They covered Otto’s neck-bumps with stick-on patches, so he wouldn’t be able to use the hypnotic powers Peri and Diesel had seen him use when they kidnapped the prince.

‘Stay there, Meigwor scum!’ said one of the guards. ‘The rest of you, keep quiet or you’ll be chained up too.’

He left, banging the huge metal-studded door behind him. Peri heard the key turn in the lock.

The effect of the Xion weapon was beginning to wear off. Peri rubbed his arms and legs, which had pins and needles. He looked round. There was a tiny barred window, high up. A few feeble rays of light sneaked in. Apart from that, nothing but stone walls.

Dark shapes moved across the floor. One scuttled over Otto’s feet. He shrieked. ‘Was that a rat?’

‘No,’ Selene said. ‘Just a giant cockroach.’

‘You’d better enjoy these delightful surroundings while you can,’ said a quiet voice.

Peri spun round and saw a figure sitting hunched in the corner. It had a grey, cement-like body, but no head. It was holding up its hands, palms outwards. In the centre of each palm was a single, staring eye. A Zaxonian. From Zaxos. Peri had never met one before, but had learned about them at the IFA in the intelligent life-forms module. They had mouths where you’d expect their bellybuttons to be. He looked – sure enough, there was a mouth set into its middle. ‘What are you in for?’ the Zaxonian said, turning its hands over. On the back of each hand was an ear.

‘Kidnapping the prince,’ Peri said. ‘But we didn’t do it.’

‘I’m in for being a space highwayman,’ said the Zaxonian. ‘And I did do that.’

‘Cool!’ Diesel said. ‘You robbed spaceships, yeah?’

‘That’s right. On my last raid I robbed a banking ship and got away with fifty-seven million creds and a hat – which I couldn’t wear, obviously, but it was a really nice one.’ The Zaxonian sighed. ‘I’m Tambo, by the way.’

‘So what’s going to happen to you now?’ asked Selene.

‘Same thing that will happen to you. A big live public trial. It’s their favourite entertainment. First they watch the trial, then the punishment.’

‘What if the accused gets off?’ asked Peri.