The Enemy's Lair (8 page)

Almost
normal. Had he short-circuited again? He got to his feet and noticed at once that the ground seemed further away than usual. Diesel, who was usually taller than him, was now small enough so that Peri could see the top of his head of long brown hair. But Diesel didn’t have long, brown hair. He looked to his right and saw Selene running a hand over her head, which was completely bald – except for the strip of hair running along the middle.

Peri closed his eyes and shook his head. He couldn’t be seeing what he was seeing. But he opened his eyes again to the strange jumbled sight. He, Diesel and Selene’s bodies had been mixed and matched.

‘Uh-oh,’ Selene breathed.

Diesel held out a lock of hair that was attached to his head and gazed at it in horror. ‘I’m a girl! No!’

‘I guess that’s what happens when you use technology you don’t understand,’ said Peri. ‘Maybe there’s a way to set it for three users, but we didn’t –’

‘You’ve got my legs!’ Diesel interrupted him. ‘Give them back! Right now!’

‘How?’

‘I’m a short-legged girl!’ wailed Diesel.

Peri cautiously checked the rest of himself. It all seemed to be in order . . .
No, wait
,
he thought.
My stomach!
It was no longer the firm stomach he was used to. He could push his finger right in. There were no bionic parts under there any more.

Selene saw him touch his stomach and copied the gesture. Her mouth dropped open in shock. ‘It feels like there’s
metal
under my skin!’

‘We got shuffled!’ said Peri. ‘We have to get off this planet – and hope there’s something on the
Phoenix
that’ll change us back.’

‘There'd better be!’ said Diesel. ‘I don’t want to spend the rest of my life as a girl! With dwarf legs!’

‘My legs are normal!’ said Peri, annoyed. ‘It’s yours that are too long.’

Selene picked up a piece of space junk – it looked like an old-fashioned power cell – and carried it over to the flying saucer. ‘I’d better have another try at this,’ she said.

She banged and clanged about, fitting it under the saucer’s bonnet.

‘So – you’re the Resistance, are you?’ said Peri to Blotto, trying to make conversation.

‘Yes,’ said Blotto. ‘Not all Meigwors are cruel and aggressive like Niatto and his mates.’

‘Yeah, some of us think that all the intelligent life forms should live together in peace and harmony.’

‘But Niatto doesn’t like peace,’ said Blotto. ‘So we don’t like him.’

‘Hey, guys!’ said Selene. ‘I think I’ve cracked it!’

‘What?’ said Peri. ‘That was quick!’

‘I know, it’s amazing – I suddenly felt I could totally
understand
this machine, I knew exactly what to do and my fingers worked so fast it’s as if I was –’

‘Bionic,’ Peri finished her sentence.

‘Yeah,’ Selene said.

‘Long story,’ Peri said. ‘I’ll tell you later.’ Peri found that he missed being bionic.

‘Let’s go!’ Selene said and opened the door of the flying saucer. It was small and cramped inside, and smelt of stinky leather and alien sweat. The controls at the front were sticky with brown and yellow stains. Peri tried not to think about what kind of aliens had been in here before them.

‘Goodbye, you guys,’ Peri called to the Meigwors. ‘Sorry for zapping you!’

‘Good luck!’ called Selene as she climbed into the flying saucer. It had been designed for only two occupants. When Diesel and Peri piled in after her, they were almost sitting on each other’s laps.

‘Your hair’s in my face!’ said Selene.

‘It’s not my hair, it’s
your
hair!’ said Diesel.

‘Couldn’t you have got something bigger?’ asked Peri.

‘I was lucky to get this,’ said Selene. She closed the lid. A single neon strip light flickered on. Selene’s fingers raced across the console, touching buttons, as if she was playing the piano, or a Gromboolian Synthesiser.

They began to move. First, the saucer juddered forward, then hovered a few centimetres off the ground. It seemed to drag its way out of the garage, into the clearing, each side dipping and shaking with the motion.

Selene pressed more buttons. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘Here we go.’

She reached for a lever and gently pulled it down. The saucer spun, slowly at first, and then faster and faster. Peri felt a curious tingling in his belly, and realised that he was feeling dizzy and sick. The old-fashioned spaceship didn’t have the modern stabilisers that the
Phoenix
had.

Through the tiny porthole, Peri saw Blotto and Blatto down below, waving goodbye. Then the two Meigwors became a blur as the saucer spun and spun, faster and faster. The whole jungle became a blur, looking like someone had spilt water on a painting, making the colours run.

Whooosh!
In a couple of nanoseconds they had left the jungle far behind and were hurtling up through the clouds.

‘This old wreck can certainly shift!’ said Selene.

The sky all around them turned red. An ear-splitting siren wailed. A moment later, the sky was filled with the feared Meigwor Ultracombat craft converging on them. They were black craft with pointed noses. And they were fast.

‘We’ve got company,’ Selene said, turning a dial and making the flying saucer drop low, beneath their attackers.

Twin lasers zipped overhead, right where their tiny craft had been a nanosecond before.

‘Let’s get out of here!’ Diesel bellowed.

Inside, Peri tingled with fear. This could be the end. The Meigwors were not out to capture them now; they were out to blow them to pieces. He noticed that Selene’s strip of hair had turned a dull grey.

‘I’ll steer,’ said Selene. ‘Peri, you take charge of the boosters.’

‘What about me?’ demanded Diesel.

‘You can be lookout.’

‘OK – there’s one coming straight for us on the starboard side!’

‘Thanks,’ said Selene, deftly switching course, while Peri pulled both booster levers. The Ultracombat craft passed beneath them and its laser beams streamed away into space.

‘Two more above us, to port!’ shouted Diesel.

Again, Selene and Peri dodged out of the danger zone. The Ultracombat craft were much more powerful than the tiny flying saucer. But they weren’t as mobile.

‘One on each side!’ screamed Diesel. ‘Port and starboard!’

Peri reached over Selene’s shoulders to wrench the booster levers up. The flying saucer spun in tight circles, rocketing up higher out of Meigwor’s atmosphere.

The two Ultracombat craft fired at the same instant. Their laser beams passed below the flying saucer and hit each other. They both exploded in orange fireballs, propelling the flying saucer even further into outer space.

‘Yay!’ said Diesel. Peri and Selene briefly took their hands from the controls to high-five each other.

‘Look!’ said Diesel. ‘They’re turning back!’

He was right. The Meigwor Ultracombat craft were wheeling around and diving back to the planet’s surface.

Diesel punched the air then flipped Selene’s long hair out of his face. ‘We did it!’

Selene frowned. ‘It’s not like the Meigwors to give up so easily. They must have some other trick up their sleeve.’

‘Like what?’ said Diesel.

Peri’s eye fell on the radar screen.

‘Like that,’ he said.

Two giant rocks, the size of small moons, were heading straight for them.

Chapter 10

‘
Quick!
’
Diesel shouted. ‘Dodge them!’

Peri grabbed the booster levers and tried to calculate a path away from the moon-sized asteroids. Diesel shouted commands and Selene obeyed – slicing left then right. Up and down.

‘It’s not working,’ Selene said, twisting to look at the asteroids advancing on both sides of her. The huge rocks were closing in. ‘Look at the size of those things? Here!’ She squeezed out of the way. ‘You take the controls, Diesel. Peri, do you still have that teleporter?’

Peri gave it to her, keeping one hand on the boosters, pushing the flying saucer
higher and faster. ‘But . . .
it might scram
ble us up completely this time!’

Selene examined the teleporter closely. She wedged her fingernail at the hinge and cracked it open. ‘It was configured for two,’ she said, tugging at tiny wires and stripping them with her teeth. Peri was unnerved as he watched her twist and pinch wires using
his
hands.

His bionic hands.

Peri glanced out of the porthole. One of the rocks was rolling and tumbling in space as it rushed towards them. He glanced out of the other porthole and saw the exact same thing.

‘That’s it!’ said Selene. ‘I think.’ She clapped one hand on each of her comrades.

I hope this works
, thought Peri.

Selene hit the button.

Peri felt the tingling, then the blackness. Then the sensation of fragmenting into millions of tiny stars. Then the rush of energy as all those stars crashed together, and then the falling sensation . . . Then firm ground beneath his feet.