The Brainiacs
THE BRAINIACS
BY
H. BADGER
ILLUSTRATED BY
D. GREULICH
The Brainiacs
published in 2011 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.
A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia
Text copyright © 2011 H. Badger
Illustration and design copyright © 2011 Hardie Grant Egmont
Cover illustration by S. Miller
Illustrated by D. Greulich
Series design by S. Swingler
Typeset by Ektavo
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Printed in Australia by Griffin Press, an Accredited ISO AS/NZS 14001:2004
Environmental Management System printer.
The paper this book is printed on is certified against the Forest Stewardship Council® Standards. Griffin Press holds FSC chain of custody certification SGS-COC-005088. FSC promotes environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world's forests.
CONTENTS
Kip Kirby couldn't stop yawning. He'd been studying for ages and the school library always made him feel sleepy. His head nodded and his eyelids loweredâ¦
âWake up!' yelled Kip's best friend Jett.
âSHHHHHHHHHH!' bleeped a robot, tidying a shelf nearby. Its red eyes flashed.
Kip and Jett
hated
Shhhbots, which had replaced human librarians hundreds of years ago. Shhhbots had antennas on their heads that picked up the tiniest noise. In-built detectors scanned your library books from a distance. The Shhhbot gave your arm a mild shock if your books were overdue. Antenna for picking up noise
âKeep reading,' Jett told Kip. âYou're nearly out of time.'
Kip wasn't studying an old-fashioned paper book. He was reading a BuzzBook. In fact, he was reading two at once!
BuzzBooks vibrated with millions of electrical pulses. Kip ran his fingers over them and his brain converted the vibrations into words. He was reading
Alien Cuisine
(Year 2354 ed.)
with his left hand and
Flags
of the Universe, Vol. 2
with his right.
Kip didn't usually study this hard. He didn't have time! He was juggling school with his job as a Space Scout.
Kip loved being a Space Scout. It was his job to search the universe for a second Earth, because the current one was nearly out of room.
Kip's job meant he got the fastest, coolest starship and lots of high-tech gadgets. Plus he got to explore planets that humans had never seen before.
Kip was due to leave on his next mission into space in a couple of hours, but this one was going to be different.
Kip was heading to a planet called Clevor. The annual Smartest Kid in the Universe quiz was being held there. Earth was competing for the first time, and Kip had been chosen to represent his planet!
âHow come you were chosen, anyway?' asked Jett.
Kip explained that even though he wasn't the geekiest kid on Earth, he had the most intergalactic travel experience. It was a long flight, and space travel could be hard on people who weren't used to it.
âSo that's why they're sending me,' he finished, pushing back from the desk. âAnyway, I'm bored of these BuzzBooks. Let's do something else.'
Kip hit play on his Teach-A-Tronic, a virtual-reality lesson player.
A virtual alien popped out from behind Jett's chair. Kip picked up a glob of virtual purple goo that had appeared next to him. It felt slimy and cold. Even though Kip knew the goo didn't really exist, he was always impressed with how
real
virtual reality was.
âStudying alien slime-tossing customs is
heaps
more interesting this way!' Kip laughed, tossing the glob at the virtual-reality alien.
The alien hurled back his own glob of slime and Kip ducked as it flew past him. Straight into the back of a ShhhBot's head!
SPLAT!
Uh-oh,
thought Kip.
âLeave the library IMMEDIATELY!' bleeped the outraged robot.
âIt wasn't
real
slime,' Jett protested.
âBut it made
real
noise,' the Shhhbot snapped.
âDon't chuck us out,' Kip begged. âI haven't finished studying!'
The Shhhbot rolled towards Kip, waving the shocker on its arm.
Kip and Jett jumped up. They didn't want to get shocked! They raced out of the library and jumped into an elevator, narrowly missing the Shhhbot.
âThere's no point hanging around on Earth if I can't study!' said Kip pressing the button for the roof. âI might as well head up to MoNa a bit early.'
MoNa 4000 was Kip's starship. She was glossy and black, and highly advanced. Unfortunately she was also very bossy.
Kip flagged down a Universal Taxi and jumped in. UniTaxis were small, self-piloting spacecraft designed for travel within Earth's atmosphere.
In a swirl of dust, Kip blasted off, waving goodbye to Jett. Kip was heading for the Intergalactic Hoverport, where MoNa was docked.
Soon the UniTaxi dropped Kip off inside MoNa's landing bay. Kip jumped out and strode through the airlock into MoNa's main cabin.
âSoâ¦you're battling the Universe's smartest kids,' MoNa's voice chirped over the loudspeaker. She saw and heard everything Kip did while he was onboard. âAre you sure your head will fit through that door?' she added.
Kip rolled his eyes and didn't answer. He felt a paw on his shoulder.
It was Finbar, Kip's second-in-command, or 2iC. Finbar was half-human, half-arctic wolf. He was two metres tall and looked scary. But beneath his fangs and claws, he was a total softie.
Finbar lived aboard MoNa. He always looked thrilled to see Kip. Kip reckoned that living with MoNa would get a bit much sometimes!
âTime to download your mission brief,' ordered MoNa, right on cue.
An excited shiver zipped up Kip's spine. His mission to Clevor was about to begin!
Kip and Finbar headed for MoNa's bridge, the command centre in her nose cone. It had huge windows looking out to space.
Kip got into his captain's chair and activated the holographic console. A cylinder of light shot down from above. MoNa's controls floated in mid-air all around him.
Kip hit Download Mission Brief.
While Kip was reading, MoNa had piloted them out of the Hoverport. There was a bump as she left Earth's atmosphere. Then MoNa flew herself smoothly towards the wormhole leading to Clevor.