Pirate Ambush (5 page)

Selene shifted in her seat and coughed again.

Peri paused the hologram. ‘You OK, Selene?’

‘I’m fine,’ she muttered.

Peri let the mission briefing continue. ‘All relevant data has been uploaded to the
Phoenix
,’ said the general. ‘You will first travel to the last known coordinates of the IF ship Jaxx stole during his escape. Good luck!’

As the hologram vanished, the coordinates appeared on the monitor. It was a location way outside the solar system.

‘Space pirates are the lowest of the low!’ Diesel sneered. ‘They should all be fed to Venusian bog beasts.’

‘You don’t even know if Jaxx really
is
a space pirate,’ said Selene. ‘He’s innocent until
proven
guilty. We shouldn’t jump to conclusions.’

‘You have to admit,’ Peri said, ‘running away before his trial does make Jaxx look awfully guilty.’

‘Perhaps he’s trying to find evidence to show he is innocent,’ Selene replied.

Peri shook his head. ‘He’s going the wrong way about it if he is. Besides, it’s not our mission to decide whether he’s innocent. Our orders are to find and arrest him.’ Peri flexed his fingers as he looked over the control panel. He could feel his connection with the ship strengthening. ‘Prepare for take-off.’

His hands darted across the panel, flicking switches and twisting zip-dials. It was good to be back in command of the
Phoenix
. He let his palm rest on the pyramid-shaped button and then pushed it down. Peri felt the vibrations from the engines rise up through the vessel and into his body. He felt at one with the ship. ‘Let’s go catch a space pirate!’

As the massive launch-bay doors slid open, the
Phoenix
roared into space.

Chapter 6

Peri stared at the 360-monitor as a rock two hundred times bigger than the
Phoenix
tumbled past.
Crraaaa-aarroorrr!
It smashed into another asteroid and obliterated it, leaving behind nothing but space dust.

Peri swallowed. They’d just flown across seven galaxies, had near misses with three black holes, and for what? To risk their lives in the largest asteroid field he’d ever seen.

‘Welcome to the Rumana galaxy, guys,’ Peri muttered.

‘This has to be a mistake,’ Diesel said. ‘Why would General Pegg send us here? Check those coordinates again.’

‘The IF must have got their intelligence wrong,’ Selene said.

It didn’t look promising, but orders were orders. Peri’s hands darted over the control panel. ‘Activating a full scan.’

‘It’s no use,’ Selene said. ‘Jaxx is obviously not here.’

‘We should lie in wait!’ Otto boomed.

Diesel scoffed. ‘That’s just a fancy way of saying we should hide.’

Otto’s long neck bulged with anger. ‘Meigwors don’t hide! We lie in wait! We set traps!’

Ping!
A light on the console flashed to show the scan was complete. Peri brought up the results on screen. He could see nothing but rocks, and no sign of any spacecraft.

But Jaxx had to be here somewhere. The IF had tracked the space pirate’s stolen spaceship to these coordinates. There must be a clue to his whereabouts. ‘Perhaps Jaxx has a secret base hidden close by?’ Peri suggested.

‘We’d never find it among the asteroids,’ Selene replied. ‘If he is here, he’s chosen the most brilliant of hiding places.’

‘That’s it!’ said Peri, his circuits tingling excitedly. ‘Jaxx is on the run – which means he wants to avoid detection. I bet he’s using cloaking technology to hide his spacecraft from IF scanners.’

Peri’s hands darted over the control panel. He knew how to find Jaxx! Even a cloaked ship left a gravitational wake. He slammed the button to refocus the
Phoenix
’s detectors. He only had to wait a nanosecond before –
ping!
– a fast-moving object appeared on the screen.

‘I’ve found something!’ Peri called. He zoomed in on the foreign object as it zigzagged between the asteroids, weaving from one icy rock to the other. It was a hunter class stealth ship.

‘Definitely pirates!’ Otto shouted. ‘They prefer small vessels! Blast it!’

Peri turned to Otto. ‘We’re here to capture Jaxx, not kill him,’ he said. He turned back to the scanners. ‘Hey . . . where did he go?’

‘You lost the target?’ Diesel exclaimed. ‘What a lamizoid!’

Peri checked the scanners again, but there was no trace of the craft. ‘No . . . it just . . . vanished.’

Ping!
Another stealth ship appeared and then disappeared.

Peri frowned. ‘Something very strange is going on here.’ He began tracing the heat signatures of the ships. There had to be a clue as to what was happening to those ships. Slowly, dotted lines appeared on the 360-monitor to show where the ships had been. Both lines led to a huge asteroid in the centre of the field.

Peri pointed. ‘That’s what they were heading towards.’

‘It must be Haven!’ Otto boomed. ‘The legendary hollow asteroid.’

‘That’s just a myth,’ Selene said.

‘No!’ Otto shouted. ‘Haven is a free port for smugglers and pirates! It’s run by the Mezzoka Clan!’

Diesel scoffed. ‘Are you saying that an organised clan of the worst criminals in the Milky Way runs a secret base out of a hollow asteroid?’

‘There’s only one way to find out,’ Peri said.

He reconfigured the
Phoenix
’s scanners to penetrate deep into the asteroid. But all that showed up on screen was the word
Error
in angry red letters. ‘There’s definitely something ultra-high-tech there,’ he said. ‘Only the most advanced force field would be strong enough to block the
Phoenix
’s
scanners.’

‘We should leave,’ Selene said. ‘If Otto’s right, we’re heading for big trouble.’

Otto shook his massive head. ‘Let’s blast our way in!’

‘Blasting isn’t always the answer,’ Peri said. ‘I think we should trick our way inside. We need to disguise the ship, and then go undercover as space criminals.’

A control pad slid out from the main console as if the ship had read his mind. A hologram of the
Phoenix
appeared above it. Peri twisted a zip-dial and the image of the craft shrank a bit and turned pink. He twisted another and its smooth shape became rounder and less sleek.

‘I don’t think many pirates fly pink ships,’ Selene said. Peri twisted the dial again and punched a few buttons. It wasn’t long before the
Phoenix
looked like it had come off worse in several space-battles. Its hull was now black and red, with countless dents and scratches – the perfect disguise for pirates.

‘Now for us,’ Peri said. ‘We can’t go around in Expedition Wear.’

‘I’ll sort it out,’ Diesel said, pushing Otto aside and pressing buttons on the control panel. ‘We need camouflage and lots of black so we can hide in the shadows and stuff.’

‘No!’ Otto boomed, elbowing Diesel out of the way. ‘I want clothes in the latest Meigwor style! We need greens and blues with ammo-belts and massive weapons!’

‘The Meigwors have style?’ Diesel scoffed.

‘We need to look like successful space pirates,’ Peri said.

‘Commands accepted,’
the
Phoenix
announced calmly.
‘Please wait.’

There was a short pause before the ship’s robotic arms shot out of the ceiling and grabbed all four crew members. Their Expedition Wear was quickly swapped for dark blue Astro-jeans and tight-fitting black jackets.

‘We’re ready to go!’ Peri slammed the pyramid-shaped button and they blasted off towards Haven. He kept the scanners sweeping the asteroid, looking for a way to get inside, but there was nothing.

Dwoooooooooooo . . .

‘What was that noise?’ Otto asked.

‘I think the engines have stalled,’ said Peri, desperately jabbing at the controls.

Eeeee-rrraaaaa. Eeeee-rrraaaa!
Sirens sounded across the Bridge. Robotic arms shot from the walls and then sprang back again. Lights flashed on and off. The control panel swung away from Peri and rose up into the air. Artificial gravity turned off and on again, throwing them into the air before dropping them back on the deck.

‘We’re being scanned,’ Selene shouted as a yellow light flashed through the Bridge. ‘Everything has gone haywire! I can’t stop it.’

‘Fight it,
Phoenix
,’ Peri urged.

But before he could do anything else, a blinding light exploded through the Bridge.

Chapter 7

The ship was in total darkness. Peri clicked his fingers, but the control panel didn’t respond. He couldn’t feel his bionic connection with the ship. His hands turned cold with fear as he realised the ship was completely without power.

What had happened to the
Phoenix
?

‘We’re under attack!’ Otto shouted. ‘We must fight!’

‘Stay calm,’ Peri yelled. ‘We need to restore power.’

‘Working on it,’ came Selene’s muffled yelp somewhere in the dark.