The Brainiacs (4 page)

Einstein's voice rang out through the fog. ‘The winner of this round is…Zut from Geekatron!' He sounded oddly
pleased
Zut had won.

Kip didn't have time to wonder what that meant, though – the floor had started moving!

AAAAAAH!

A trapdoor swung open underneath Kip, and suddenly he was falling through the stage. Then…

OOOOOOOF!

Kip landed heavily in a gleaming metal chair. Above the chair was a large, clear bubble – it looked like a space helmet.

Except for this strange chair, the space under the stage was empty. The trapdoor he'd fallen through snapped shut, completely blocking out the audience's polite applause at Zut's win.

This place must be soundproof,
thought Kip, quickly looking around.
Creepy.

He tried to get out of the chair, but he found he couldn't. A powerful, invisible force was pulling him back.

An ingenious alien security system
? Kip wondered. He knew that human bodies had a weak magnetic field. If the chair was magnetised, it could be using his body's magnetic force to hold him back.

Suddenly the clear bubble above the chair began lowering itself towards Kip's head. It touched his hair. Then his head passed though the bubble. It was stuck inside!

With a surge of panic, Kip realised that he was trapped. Inside the bubble, air pressure built until Kip thought his head would explode.

What's happening?
he thought, trying to stay calm.
What's this machine doing?

His thoughts began to blur, just as a shaggy white shape streaked through the air. Finbar!

‘NOOOO!' howled Finbar, tearing the bubble from Kip's head. He ripped the chair's power cord from the wall. The electro-magnetic force sticking Kip's legs to the chair disappeared instantly.

‘How did you get here?' Kip asked Finbar dozily. His brain felt as sluggish as a lazy alien mudfish.

‘I followed your scent,' Finbar explained, padding towards the machine. ‘I climbed through an air vent.'

He helped Kip up out of the chair, then leant over to read a metal plaque screwed to the wall. ‘It's called a Hippocampus Deluxe,' Finbar said, ‘I wonder what it's used for.'

Kip bit his lip. The fog in his head was beginning to lift. He wasn't sure what the machine had done to him. But he was more worried than ever.

‘The other kids might have been in the machine much longer than me,' Kip said to Finbar. ‘And if I feel this bad after only a few seconds…'

Finbar's sharp eyes spotted a door cut into the padding of a nearby wall. He bounded over.

Through the door was a silent corridor lined with silver foam. There was no sign of the other kids.

Suddenly, Finbar froze. ‘In here!' he whispered. ‘Someone's coming!'

Finbar popped open another door in the padding that Kip hadn't even noticed. For the zillionth time he was grateful for Finbar's excellent vision and sense of smell.

They tumbled through the door, pushing it silently shut behind them. The room was tiny, and the only window was a peephole looking out to the corridor.

‘What is this place?' Kip shivered. ‘A jail cell?'

‘Einstein's outside!' Finbar said, glued to the peephole.‘He's muttering to himself.'

They couldn't hear what Einstein was saying, but Kip knew one thing for sure. ‘Something's very wrong with this quiz,' he said gravely. ‘And Einstein's involved!'

Luckily, Kip had his SoundMouse with him. It was a robotic mouse made of a highly flexible material.That meant it could squeeze through the smallest gaps like a real Earth mouse could. Audio sensors told it where to hide to pick up the best sound. Then it sent the audio back wirelessly to an earpiece in Kip's ear.

Kip placed the mouse on the floor. It immediately squeezed under the door and hid a little way from Einstein.

The earpiece in Kip's ear crackled to life. He could hear Einstein perfectly. And what he was saying chilled Kip to the core.

CHAPTER 7

‘Just a few more contestants to get rid of before Clevor meets Geekatron in the finals,' Einstein muttered. Kip heard him throw open the door of a cell.

‘I'll finally make up for the shame of losing the first-ever quiz to Geekatron,' Einstein added bitterly. He'd dropped his jokey quizmaster act and sounded serious. ‘Now, where has that stupid Earthling got to?'

Einstein must have lost to Geekatron when
he was a kid!
Kip thought.
I wonder if he got
the job of quizmaster to seek revenge.

‘
He expected to find you in that chair,' Finbar whispered. ‘You weren't there, so now he's looking for you.'

Then Einstein's headset bleeped. He paused, listening to the voice on the other end. ‘Alllllll-righty then,' he said in his quizmaster voice. ‘See you in a moment.'

‘He's leaving!' Finbar whispered, squinting through the peephole.

‘Lucky,' Kip said. ‘Maybe he was called back to hosting duties.'

When Einstein had gone, Kip and Finbar left their cell to go exploring.

‘There are lots of doors here,' Finbar said, feeling the walls. ‘The corridor must have more cells.'

Kip figured the losing quiz contestants had to be inside. It was up to him to break them out! The Space Scout Code of Practice was very clear.

Kip didn't have much time. Any second, Einstein might be back with another losing contestant.

The cell doors didn't open like the first one, so Kip checked for a lock to pick, but he couldn't find one.

Maybe the locks are voice-activated,
thought Kip. If that was true, he'd just need to work out Einstein's password.

Kip thought of his own SpaceCuff's passwords. He always picked words that were important to him so he'd remember them easily.

What word would be important to Einstein
right now?
Kip wondered. Straight away he had an idea.

‘Geekatron!' Kip said firmly.

The door clicked open a little way.

‘Stand back,' Kip warned Finbar. A confused or angry alien kid might come racing out of the cell.

But…nothing.

Kip opened the door wider. Inside the cell was Gorb, the alien that Kip had beaten in the first round. He was sitting in the corner looking dazed.

‘Gorb!' Kip said. ‘Come on, we're setting you free.You can help us work out what's going on here.'

‘That sounds hard,' Gorb answered slowly. ‘I'm probably OK in here.'

What?
Kip thought. When he first met Gorb, the alien had seemed super-smart. This Gorb was a bit, well…thick.

Kip tried the next cell along. Inside, he found the missing cyborg from the BG-4 Galaxy. He seemed as dim-witted as Gorb.

What's happened to these aliens?
Kip wondered, worried. They were among the smartest in the galaxy before they lost a round of Clevor's quiz. Before they fell into the machine…

‘Somehow that machine made these aliens stupid!' Kip whispered.

‘The machine I rescued you from was called the Hippocampus Deluxe,' Finbar replied thoughtfully. ‘The hippocampus is part of the brain.'

Kip thought about his experience in the machine. His brain had felt tired, like he'd just done four maths tests in a row.

Kip knew that brains had a natural electrical energy that powered their thoughts. Could that energy be drained? He explained his theory to Finbar.

‘Of course! So your brain was drained for the few seconds you were in the machine,' Finbar said. ‘You went dopey, but then your brain's energy built up again and you went back to normal.'

The other kids weren't lucky enough to have a 2iC to save them,' said Kip. ‘Their brains would have been drained a lot more than mine!'

If Kip's theory was right, it would take ages for the other kids' brain energy to be restored.

It explained some things – like why Einstein was keeping the losing kids locked away.

But Kip
had
to know more. Where was Einstein storing the energy? And what was he planning to do with it?

CHAPTER 8

Kip's SpaceCuff beeped. He had a message from MoNa.

‘Let's open the cell doors and rescue the kids,' Finbar said urgently.

But Kip was staring at his SpaceCuff. ‘MoNa's system has detected a missile from Clevor heading for Geekatron,' he said, looking white.

Finbar's whiskers quivered.

‘This rivalry is getting out of hand,' Kip said. ‘We'll have to work out what Einstein is up to, then free the kids later.'

Getting to the bottom of Einstein's plan would be impossible with a bunch of brain-drained kids in tow. Sometimes Kip's job as a Space Scout meant making tough decisions.

Finbar led the way to the air vent he'd climbed through earlier. It was near the Hippocampus Deluxe.

Before they escaped, Kip and Finbar took another look at the machine. A thick cable at the back caught their attention.

‘The brain energy could be travelling along that cable,' Finbar suggested.

‘Actually, I noticed one like that plugged into the weird orb on stage,' Kip remembered.

Of course! The orb, crackling with electrical energy. That
had
to be where the energy was stored.