Meteor Madness Read online

  “My tidy mind thinks Splash and Rocky are taking a long time in that engine room,” Fuzz said, putting the mop away. “Perhaps one of us should check on them.”

  The doors slid open.

  “There you are!” said Captain Krill, as Splash and Rocky entered the cabin together. “Anything to report?”

  “This ship needs refuelling,” said Rocky.

  “This ship needs refuelling,” said Splash.

  “It sounds like this ship needs refuelling, Captain,” said Fuzz.

  Captain Krill sighed. “Fine, we’ll dock as soon as we can and refuel. ICEcube, is the next planet a friendly one?”

  “The planet Kroesus,” said ICEcube. “Population: four billion. Known primarily for its spacetanium mines, Kroesus produces more than three-quarters of the spacetanium supply in the entire universe. Spacetanium is the strongest, lightest metal in the cosmos and is very valuable. Kroesus was robbed ten thousand times a year until it created a unique security system to protect itself from pirates. Its inhabitants are small, yellow and unfriendly.”

  “If I’d been robbed ten thousand times a year, I’d be unfriendly, too,” said Captain Krill.

  “What sort of unique security system?” asked Fuzz.

  “Mechanical meteors orbit the planet at twenty thousand kilometres an hour,” ICEcube replied. “Every visitor to Kroesus must pass a series of security checks. If the security checks are satisfactory, the meteors are frozen in mid-air and ships can land safely. If the visitors fail the security checks, the meteors burst into flames, setting fire to their ships.”

  “This ship needs refuelling,” said Splash.

  “This ship needs refuelling,” said Rocky.

  “We heard you the first time,” said Captain Krill. “Set the coordinates for Kroesus, Rocky. And I really hope we’re not pelted with mechanical meteors today.”

  Rocky settled down at the controls. “Destination: planet Kroesus,” he said, setting the coordinates. “Estimated duration of flight: three hours.”

  “Estimated time of arrival: twenty-five hundred hours, Kroesus time,” said Splash. “Check.”

  Captain Krill watched his ship’s engineer and his pilot. He couldn’t put his flipper on it, but something strange was going on.

  “Everything OK, guys?” he asked.

  Rocky kept his eyes trained on the flight instruments. Splash looked at Captain Krill without twanging up his goggles.

  “Dinner!” Fuzz shouted, bringing out a large plate of freshly defrosted space-spinach and a selection of fish sandwiches. “Sorry it’s only sandwiches, but we did just have a massive birthday tea.”

  “Destination: planet Kroesus,” said Rocky, not moving.

  “Estimated duration of flight: two hours and fifty-nine minutes,” added Splash.

  “Estimated time of arrival: twenty-five hundred hours, Kroesus time,” said Rocky.

  “Check,” said Splash.

  Fuzz set the sandwiches down as Captain Krill took his place at the table. Then Fuzz waddled over to Rocky and Splash with his flippers on his hips. “I said, DINNER!”

  The little blue penguin shouted so loudly that a couple of red flashing lights on the flight deck started flashing a bit faster.

  “This ship needs refuelling,” Rocky and Splash said together.

  “So do you, you daft dolphins. Get to that table at once, unless you want a kung-fu chop in the guts from the Fuzzmeister!”

  Rocky and Splash turned away from the controls and waddled towards the table. They were moving strangely, as if they’d forgotten how their bodies worked.

  “Who’s for a sandwich?” said Captain Krill, as Rocky and Splash sat down.

  “Space-spinach first,” Fuzz interrupted. “And don’t complain. It’s good for you and—”

  Rocky and Splash both shot out their flippers. They scooped up so much space-spinach that there was none left for the Captain or Fuzz. Splash tipped the whole lot straight into his mouth. Rocky pulled a sandwich apart, took out the fish that was sitting inside and replaced it with a lump of space-spinach. Then he put the bread back together again. Blue space-spinach juice oozed out of the sandwich and dribbled down Rocky’s front as he munched it up.

  “That is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen,” said Fuzz. He gazed at the fish, lying abandoned on the table. “What’s the matter with you both?”

  “Is there any more space-spinach, Fuzz?” said Captain Krill.

  “Not you as well, Captain!” Fuzz gasped. “You’re supposed to eat space-spinach, but you’re not supposed to LIKE it!”

  “I don’t like it,” Captain Krill assured his chef. “But I’m prepared to do my duty and eat it. And there’s none left.”

  Splash was now wiping the empty plate with his flipper, then putting his flipper in his beak.

  “I’ll fetch some more from the extra-cold store,” Fuzz said. Firing a confused look at Rocky and Splash, he waddled out of the cabin.

  “Destination: planet Kroesus,” said Rocky, heading back to the flight deck. “Estimated duration of flight: two hours and forty-three minutes. Estimated time of arrival: twenty-five hundred hours, Kroesus time.”

  “Check,” said Splash, waddling after him.

  Captain Krill ate a solar-sprat sandwich thoughtfully.

  Fuzz headed deep into the belly of the Tunafish. Thanks to NASA, the extra-cold store held spare supplies of pretty much everything, from spacesuits to salmon pâté.

  “Eating space-spinach,” Fuzz muttered to himself. “Enjoying space-spinach. GUZZLING space-spinach. I can’t believe I’m fetching more of the stuff. I thought it’d take months to go through the last lot.”

  He flipped open the hatch to the extra-cold store, enjoying the chilly blast as it ruffled through his feathers.

  “Space-spinach,” he said thoughtfully to himself, looking around the extra-cold store. “Where did I put it?”

  His eyes swept past jars of pickled space-squid, tins of star-whale blubber, flipper brushes, oxygen tanks, ice cubes, boxes of wing-pong balls, bottles of feather conditioner and two pairs of penguin feet, pointing straight up at the ceiling.

  “Big beluga bottoms, NASA,” Fuzz said out loud, staring at the feet in surprise. “I know you packed spare supplies of everything, but when are we going to need those?”

  Fuzz heard the door slide open. His eyes widened as he took in the shadowy stranger in front of him. Then an extra layer of coldness stole over him and everything went black.

  Captain Krill was about to go and investigate where Fuzz had got to when the little blue penguin came back into the cabin. He was carrying so much frozen space-spinach that he could hardly see where he was going.

  “Destination: planet Kroesus,” said Rocky from the flight deck. “Estimated duration of flight: two hours and thirty-one minutes.”

  “Estimated time of arrival: twenty-five hundred hours, Kroesus time,” said Splash.

  Captain Krill followed Fuzz into the kitchen.

  “Thank goodness you’re back, Fuzz,” he said. “There is something seriously wrong with Splash and Rocky. It’s all ‘destination’ this, ‘estimated time of arrival’ that. If I hear how long we’ve got to go until we reach Kroesus one more time, I might go mad.”

  “This ship needs refuelling,” said Fuzz, putting the space-spinach away in the kitchen’s freezer compartment.

  “Believe me, I know that,” said Captain Krill. “I think their behaviour has something to do with those pirates. Don’t you think it’s odd that the pirates attacked us, but then went off again without robbing us or stealing our ship?”

  Fuzz took a lump of frozen space-spinach and popped it into his beak. There was a crunching sound as he chewed it up.

  “Taste better frozen, does it?” asked Captain Krill. “It can’t taste much worse. Listen, Fuzz – we have to do something. Why didn’t Splash want any birthday cake? Why did Rocky change his mind like that about us needing fuel? And our destination – Kroesus – is bothering me for some re
ason. I’m sure that the answer to all this is right under my beak. I just have to look a bit harder.”

  Captain Krill suddenly clapped his flippers together. “I know! I’ll go down to the engine room to see for myself just how much fuel we’ve got left. I don’t mean to say that I don’t trust Rocky and Splash, but—” He stopped and smoothed back his yellow ear patches. “OK,” he said, “I don’t trust Rocky and Splash. But I’ll trust my own eyes. If we’re really out of fuel, then I’ll put their peculiar behaviour down to a simple case of space sickness.”

  Leaving Fuzz to put away the rest of the space-spinach, Captain Krill waddled back into the cabin.

  “Destination: planet Kroesus,” said Rocky.

  “Estimated duration of flight: two hours and twenty-five minutes,” said Splash.

  “Don’t tell me,” said Captain Krill irritably. “Estimated time of arrival: twenty-five hundred hours, Kroesus time?”

  “Check,” said Splash.

  Did they really need to be heading for this Kroesus place, with its endless spacetanium mines and its deadly mechanical meteor defence system? Captain Krill wondered, waddling towards the engine room as fast as he could. What if they didn’t pass the security checks? They’d be blown out of the sky.

  He opened the doors. The engines rumbled loudly around him as he headed for the fuel gauges.

  LOW said one. VERY LOW said another.

  Captain Krill felt guilty. He and his Tunafish crew had been through a lot during their time in space. Why was he doubting the loyalty of his pilot and his ship’s engineer like this?

  NOT LOW AT ALL, said the third.

  PRACTICALLY FULL, said the fourth.

  WHY ARE YOU CHECKING THE FUEL GAUGES? said the fifth and final one. WE’RE FINE FOR ANOTHER HALF A MILLION LIGHT YEARS. YOU DO YOUR JOB AND WE’LL DO OURS.

  Captain Krill gasped. He was right! There was something fishy going on. And it wasn’t Fuzz’s solar-sprat sandwiches!

  A cold breeze blew over the Captain’s feet. He turned round.

  A smoky, dog-like creature stood in front of him on its hind legs. It had a long black snout, short black fur and eyes that didn’t reflect any light. It was so black that the Captain wondered if he was looking at a shadow.

  The creature shimmered in the air. Captain Krill backed up against the fuel gauges as it floated towards him.

  “Ooh, that’s cold,” he said, as the smoke crept over his toes.

  It was the last thing he said for a while.

  Captain Krill opened his eyes and stared at a line of metal rivets over his head. Where was he? He got to his feet and took in the bottles, spacesuits, tins and boxes of wing-pong balls stacked around him. He was in the extra-cold store with Rocky, Splash and Fuzz.

  “What happened?” he asked, rubbing his eyes with his flippers.

  “We were hoping you could tell us that,” Rocky said.

  “Is my birthday cake OK?” asked Splash.

  “You didn’t want your birthday cake,” Fuzz said.

  Splash looked shocked. “Of course I wanted my birthday cake! I chose it, didn’t I?”

  Rocky shook his head so hard his feathery eyebrows flapped like socks on a windy washing line. “You didn’t, Splash. We all saw you eat a pile of space-spinach instead of a piece of cake.”

  They all started talking at once.

  “And then you said the ship needed refuelling—”

  “No WAY would I eat space-spinach instead of cake – I’d rather eat my own flippers—”

  “ENOUGH!” Captain Krill commanded. “Something weird is going on here and I think I know what. Remember when those pirates attacked us? And there were those four big whooshes? They must have teleported aboard the Tunafish.”

  “You mean, they’ve beamed their way on to our ship?” said Rocky. “But we haven’t seen any extra passengers!”

  “That’s because these pirates are shape-shifters.” Captain Krill clasped his flippers behind his back, and paced up and down. “Aliens that take on the shape of other creatures. They’re famous for loving space-spinach. They got Splash first. Then Rocky. Then Fuzz. Now they’ve got me as well.”

  “You mean when Rocky and Splash started acting weird, it wasn’t them at all?” said Fuzz. “It was these shape-shifting things?”

  “Exactly,” said Captain Krill.

  “Thank haddock for that,” said Fuzz. “Splash and Rocky’s conversation was a lot more boring than usual.”

  “Hey!” Rocky and Splash said together.

  Captain Krill tried the handle of the extra-cold store door. It didn’t move.

  “We’re locked in,” he said. “So right now, four aliens that look exactly like us are flying the Tunafish towards the extremely rich planet Kroesus.”

  “What do they want to go there for?” asked Rocky.

  “To rob it, of course!” said Splash. “Sometimes I think you have a sprat for a brain, Rocky.”

  “They’re going to pretend to be four innocent penguin explorers needing fuel,” said Captain Krill. “They will get through the security checks and land on Kroesus, then probably shape-shift into Kroesans, turn off the mechanical meteor defence system and bring in that big fleet of black ships to steal everything they can find.”

  “It’ll be the crime of all time!” gasped Fuzz. “And we’ll be the suspects!”

  “It’s our duty to protect the universe and our good name, and stop these villains,” said Captain Krill. “One for all…”

  “And all for fish!” cried the others, slapping flippers.

  The sound echoed around the extra-cold store.

  “But we’re locked in!” said Rocky. “We can’t stop anybody!”

  Captain Krill waddled over to a communication button on the wall of the extra-cold store and pressed it. “ICEcube? Can you hear me?”

  “Loud and clear, Captain.”

  “Can you get us out of here?”

  “No. The locks on the doors are controlled by NASA-issue keys only, which are kept in the main cabin.”

  “So much for your mega-brain, ICEcube,” Fuzz grumbled. “What can you tell us about these shape-shifting space-invaders aboard our ship?”

  “They are called Dogmutts and they are the most fearsome space pirates in the universe,” said ICEcube. “They are cunning, dangerous, determined and unstoppable.”

  “Nothing stops the Fuzzmeister,” said Fuzz, striking a ninja penguin pose.

  Captain Krill peered thoughtfully through the storeroom window. “If we can’t open the inside door,” he said, “we’ll have to open the outside one instead.”

  The Space Penguins stared at the door set in the wall of the extra-cold store. It led to an airlock, which opened out into the inky blackness of space itself.

  “I like your thinking, Captain,” said Fuzz.

  “I don’t!” Rocky protested. “He means we go outside and that’s proper space out there!”

  “It’s our only choice.” Captain Krill pointed a flipper at the row of spare spacesuits hanging up by the tins of star-whale blubber. “Get yourselves suited up. We’re going to spacewalk underneath the Tunafish and give those Dogmutts a real birthday surprise!”

  The Space Penguins put on the spacesuits and switched on the microphones inside their helmets. They shuffled into the airlock and shut the door that led back into the extra-cold store. Now only one door stood between them and the starry void of space.

  “Counting one, two, three,” said Captain Krill.

  “Very good, Captain,” said Rocky. “Four and five come next.”

  “I’m checking the microphones, Rocky,” said the Captain. “Can everyone hear me?”

  Rocky, Fuzz and Splash gave the flippers-up.

  “We need to tie ourselves together before we go out there,” said the Captain, “otherwise we’ll float away.”

  Floating off alone into space was a horrible thought. The Space Penguins worked quickly, looping a strong piece of steel rope through their space belts and double-checkin
g the knots.

  “Ready?” said Captain Krill at last.

  “As ready as a guppy in a grillpan,” Fuzz said at once. “Time to show those dodgy Dogmutts what the Space Penguins are made of!”

  “You are holding on to me, right, Splash?” checked Rocky.

  “As tight as a tadpole,” Splash promised.

  “Tadpoles don’t have anything to hold on with!”

  “OK, as tight as a trout.”

  Captain Krill heaved open the great wheel lock on the external door and the Space Penguins stepped out into nothing.

  Although penguins are perfect for spacewalking, with their natural abilities in weightless, freezing environments, the enormous darkness made the Tunafish crew feel very small and helpless. Space had never looked so spacious. The stars were extra bright, and the silence was deep. Holding firmly to the rope, Captain Krill clanged his magnetic boots against the metal shell of the Tunafish. He stuck there like a limpet.

  “I’m pleased to say that the boots work,” he said into his helmet microphone. “Try and walk quietly, crew. We don’t want the Dogmutts to hear us coming. We’ll enter through the external airlock door in the freezing-fog room and surprise them in the cabin.”

  The Space Penguins made a strange sight as they climbed under the belly of the Tunafish, hanging upside down like a row of beaky bats. Below them, the stars twinkled and glowed.

  “This is so weird,” Rocky said happily. “I’m upside down, but I feel like I’m the right way up. It’s like swimming in a crazy ocean out here.”

  A large planet lay straight ahead of them, with thousands of scary mechanical meteors orbiting it like moons. Kroesus’s defence system was hard at work. It looked very unwelcoming, dangerous and too close for comfort. The Space Penguins were running out of time.