Xalata Orbit and Melody Fret: The Hammer of Asttar Page 12

  Brett stepped away and headed for the door, "I have to check on Melody - she's not turned up at the Academy either and ..." The realization of what he was saying was suddenly evident in his face. "Melody must have gone to look for Xalata. She's probably with her."

  "Don't be ridiculous," said Fark. "That mouse? She's too frightened to do anything. She'll be at home with a headache."

  "We shall see!" said Brett and stepped out of the airlock, securing it behind him. He ran up the corridor to Melody's home and touched the door alert. There was no answer so he used the guest passkey given to him by Dawn Fret, moved through the airlock door and walked into the living space. The place was empty. He poked his head around the bedroom doors - no sign of anyone. Opening his communicator, he called Dawn and let her know that Melody was not there.

  "I can't think where she would be," said Dawn, the anxiety now clear in her voice. "I'm coming home."

  "I don't think there's much point," said Brett. "However, I think I might know where she is. I told you a small untruth today, Dawn. Xalata's not at home either. Something strange is going down and it involves those two girls. I'm looking into it now, so can you just wait on my next call and we'll see whether my suspicions are right?"

  "What do you suspect them of doing, Brett? They're such good girls ..."

  "It's not they who are the problem, but I'll need to confirm what I'm thinking. Give me a couple of hours. Don't contact anyone at the moment and certainly don't contact Fark!"

  "Why ever not?"

  "Tell you later ..."

  Chapter Thirty-two

  The two girls stared at the screen and could see that the asteroid was winging its way towards the Earth with Beijing as its target. What could they do to stop it? Xalata scanned the screens, touching places where there seemed to be controls, but failing to understand how they worked.

  Melody stood by, looking desperate. "There must be something we can do, surely?"

  "I don't know. The controls don’t make a lot of sense to me. Did you say that the asteroid's supposed to be hitting Mars?"

  "Well, yes, that's what my Mum told me. She's saying it's part of the ..."

  "Yeah, terraforming project - you said already. The question is, why's it now heading for Earth and who's made it take this new course? And, how do we put it back on target?"

  At that moment, they heard a faint hiss as one of the airlocks in the corridor outside was opened.

  "Quick!" said Melody and she and Xalata dived behind one of the consoles. "Do we do anything but keep hiding?"

  "Quiet!" hissed Xalata. The two girls peered between the units and saw the door of the control room edge open slowly. A figure came in, dark clothes, hood over his head and the pair shrank away from their viewpoint so that there was little chance of being spotted. As they listened, quiet footsteps walked towards the main console and they heard a low whistle as the visitor discovered the controls.

  "What in Jupes loops is this," whispered the voice and, as it did so, Melody and Xalata turned and stared at each other: "Glitch!" they mouthed and then both stood up suddenly and pointed at the startled figure.

  Glitch bounced away from the controls and stumbled against a chair, sitting down heavily. "What the ...!"

  "Glitch! What are you doing here, you weasel!" screeched Xalata, dashing over to him with her fists clenched. "I've a good mind to remodel your face, your rotten little piece of Moon debris."

  "Xalata! No!" cried Melody. "He can tell us what's going on. Can't you Glitch?" She turned to look at him and walked over, her eyes wide and a very no-nonsense look on her face. "Well?"

  "Er, hi guys," Glitch said weakly, "Fancy seeing you here. Look, none of this is what it seems. I've been, er, stupid ..."

  "Nooo!" said Xalata, "who would have noticed? Why did you give me up to those two creeps, Fark and Machin?"

  "Fark?"

  "Yeah, Fark - you know, the guy in charge of security? He's running the show here and it's a bit of a horror story as far as we can see - and I don't know why, but you're tangled up in it."

  "I didn't know it was Fark behind what happened - although I s'pose I should have joined the dots. I was told I had to get you to the Outpost for a lecture and then they would take care of things."

  "Take care of things? What do you mean?"

  "Not sure - I certainly didn't expect you to be grabbed like that, but thing was I'd been threatened."

  "Oh yeah? What with?"

  "That if I didn't do what they said, my sister back on Earth would get hurt. They had her captured and sent me a picture."

  "And did they?"

  "Did they what?"

  "For Frank's sake, this is like pulling teeth. Have her captured?" Xalata was getting angry now ...

  "Er, no. Apparently not. The picture was a fake ..."

  "Well, yes. Of course. How dim are you?"

  "Hmm. I think you're right. Pretty dim. I'm really sorry - I never meant to get you into this mess. Anyway, what is the mess?"

  Melody stepped forward and put herself between Xalata and Glitch. "Look you two, let's put away our differences, huh? The fact is that there's something bad going down and we're here and could potentially stop it. Glitch, you've been an idiot but, well, you're here now and ... wait a minute. How the freak did you get here?"

  "Wondered whether you might ask that. There's this portal, see? And it flips you from one side of the Moon to the other. I followed Fark into it - it's where you were grabbed Xalata - and then I found a truck and drove here. It was cool."

  "Idiot! How can it be cool being such a dustbrain as you?" said Xalata. "Still, you made it and now you can help us sort things out."

  "OK - that sounds like a plan. By the way, I saw that thing that destroyed parts of Habitat 14."

  "The Cryomorph? It nearly had us, then we discovered that it doesn't go into some areas and we know why."

  "Yeah, me too. I didn't go near it. Just let it amble off, but here's the thing, it's controlled. There's an antenna on its back along with an inset control panel."

  The two girls looked astonished. "Really?" said Melody, "So someone's making it do the things it's doing. But who - Fark? And why?"

  "Who knows," said Glitch, "But it's a sure thing that its not a nice beastie to come across in a dark corridor. It would make tofu out of you."

  "All right - enough talk. The thing we have to deal with is on that screen and we need to do something now ..." As Xalata said these words the sound of the airlock hissing again reached their ears. They all glanced at each other and then, as one, dived for cover.

  The door opened swiftly and into the control room walked Wiglet. He went straight to the control panel, touched a few items, frowned and then walked out once more. The airlock door hissed shut.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Brett had lost no time in making his way across the LunarBase to the Outpost. As Fark had rightly concluded, Brett had soon decoded the passkey to the portal and, as he strode into the Outpost, his mind was on Xalata and Melody and where he would find them.

  He found the cupboard once again and stepped inside, unable to see anything in the gloom and leaving the door ajar so that he could see what he was doing. However, Fark's notes had alerted him to where the control was and he bent down and touched the panel, making it glow. With a swift movement, he keyed in the code and a dazzling light heralded the opening of the portal.

  With his heart in his mouth, he stepped through and into Habitat 14 - scene of so much destruction, as he remembered the news segment he had seen. Sure enough, there were the blasted walls, gaping holes visible in sections outside the airlocks that protected him from the vacuum of space. He moved forward, cautious and wary of any danger. There seemed to be no sign of people at all, although there were tracks on the floor - a combination of wheel tracks from the lunar carts that were used as trucks throughout the habitats, footprints of other people and prints of some creature that was not known to him - large almost circular pads that were printed in the dus
t, marking out a trail.

  Brett decided to follow the wheel tracks, as he believed that he would need transport if he were to explore this forbidding environment. Down the long corridor he went, following footprints made by Glitch, unknown to him, leading towards a gallery that glowed a little brighter than the surrounding gloom of emergency lighting. As he approached, the hair on the back of his neck prickled and he could feel it slowly standing on end. "Bizarre," he muttered to himself, "There's nothing to be afraid of here."

  Despite himself though, he couldn't help but feel a primitive fear, as though there were some great danger lurking nearby. He stepped forward again, the light barely revealing any sign of life in the bleak environment. There was nothing moving, nothing living, as far as he could see, nothing to be afraid of. Or was there? A few more paces, hesitant now as he still felt the fear crawling through him. Was it just the darkness or could he really sense the fact that there was something threatening him?

  Then his nose told him that something was different, changing. A strange odour, half animal, half industrial, touched his senses - there was something that disturbed the air nearby, making it move and bringing with it the smell of its own body. A small tremor rattled through the habitat and then another. Brett looked around wildly. Where was it? What was it? He turned to run back the way he had come and then, he saw it. The Cryomorph was standing, observing him - huge, dark and threatening, its tiny eyes glistened dully in the half-light and its mouth was opened in a bizarre imitation of a grin.

  Brett knew he had moments to live - his brain raced, planning exits, defences and ways to hide himself from this monster that had come from who-knows-where? Behind him now was the dimly lit area from which the trucks obviously came. To left and right were corridors, but they led to damaged areas of the habitat that were even more unsafe than the area in which he stood. He glanced behind as if to run down to the trucks then, with a bound, he leapt towards the Cryomorph, which stood back a step as its slow brain registered an unusual activity - a threat!

  As the Cryomorph stood back, Brett dashed to its left and ran down its flank, leaving the beast to find a way to turn around in order to pursue its quarry. Brett lost no time - he ran as hard as his legs would carry him, dashing through corridors, turning unexpectedly into side passages and then doubling back along parallel ones, in the hope that his rapid flight would not be detected by the huge beast that was obviously preparing to pursue him.

  Then he saw it - an abandoned truck. It was standing where it had been left, near to a suite of homes that had long since been left by human inhabitants. The truck looked to have been parked here not particularly long ago as it was not covered in the thin layer of grime that coated every surface of the damaged habitats. Brett leapt into the driving seat, checked the controls and pressed the go pedal. Nothing happened - no juice? Nope - he'd not activated it in his haste. Switching on, he then tried the pedal again and, sure enough, the truck glided silently away from the habitat area and down the nearest passage.

  As he steered, Brett tried to get his bearings. In his flight, he'd not kept track of where he was running and now, he wasn't sure whether he was heading towards the Cryomorph or away from it. Coming out into a wider corridor, he had the choice of a left or right turn. Tyre tracks ran down the middle of the passageway and also prints that he now knew were those of the beast. Still no clue as to which way to go, so he opted for left and pressed the pedal to move the truck away from the danger.

  As he drove, the habitat corridors became less damaged and cleaner, meaning that the tracks in front of him were less clearly marked. Where was he going? He hadn't a clue. All he knew was that, somewhere in this god-forsaken place, was Xally and, probably, Melody. And he meant to find them.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Fark was furious. Tied up and not able to move, he seethed and ranted to an invisible audience. The gaffer tape bound him tight and although he struggled hard, he couldn't shift it or make any inroad into releasing a hand or a foot. As he swung himself around, the chair tilted precariously and he nearly lost his balance. Then, with another violent jerk, he tried to pull his right hand free, swinging his body to give him leverage. The chair tilted onto two legs and, then, Fark gave another twist and it was over, the chair taking its occupant to the ground with a crunch. There was a sound of snapping plastic and Fark suddenly realised that the arm to which his right hand had been tied had come away from the chair with the impact.

  His arm was free, but he was still securely fastened to the other arm and both legs with lengths of the strong, sticky tape. He twisted around so that his free hand could pick at the tape on his other arm and, within a few minutes both hands were free.

  Rapidly he worked on his two legs, pulling off the tape and rubbing feeling back into the limbs. "Tie me up would you, Mr Orbit? Is that what you'd do? Well I think there may be a new lesson on its way to you and it's one you won't want to learn."

  He jumped to his feet, kicked the remains of the chair and tape to one side and then ran to the airlock door and let himself out. At speed, he headed for the TransTrak to the Outpost and then dashed to the cupboard where the portal was hidden. To his surprise the door was standing half open, but there was no sign of anyone inside. Must have left it like that when I came back, he surmised.

  One thing was certain, Brett Orbit would be ahead of him. He'd have downloaded the access to the portal from his pad and would now be trying to be the hero. Big surprise, Mr Orbit. Just you wait. As he stepped inside, he pulled out a small control unit and touched some areas of its surface. See what you make of this, you meddling creep!

  With a quick movement, he closed the door behind him, touched the small control panel near the floor, entered the passkey and then stepped into the portal that opened before him in a blaze of light.

  Chapter Thirty-five

  "What the ...!"

  "I can't believe it ...!"

  "For Frank's sake ...!"

  The three friends were astounded by what they'd just seen and as one, exclaimed their astonishment. Wiglet had walked in, reviewed the control panel and walked out and they couldn't believe that he was part of the plot to send the asteroid crashing to Earth, destroying Beijing and plunging Earth into a nuclear winter.

  "Wiglet! He's the mastermind behind this plot!" Melody was beside herself with anger. "I just can't believe that he would do something like this and ... that means he's in league with Fark and Machin too! He's probably an Asttarian - this just gets worse. What shall we do? What can we do?"

  Glitch had been looking thoughtful and he suddenly looked up and said, "We need to get that asteroid back on track or at least stop the override that has been put on it by Wiglet and his wicked friends."

  "Oh yeah, brains? And how are we to do that?" Xalata's scornful answer made Glitch swing round and face her.

  "Look, Xalata, I'm sorry 'n' all for what happened, but it wasn't meant. I was trying to look after my own and now we're all stuck in this together - so back off!"

  Xalata looked angry and then she glanced at Melody, saw her pleading eyes and then looked back to Glitch. "OK. Yeah, you're right. It made me so mad that you had given me up to those creeps but I can see why. So now, we need to get out of this mess and find a way to stop the asteroid. Let's take another look at those controls and see what we can make of them."

  Melody smiled and Glitch grinned, "Cool. Let's go save the world, huh? Always saw myself in that way."

  "Glitch, you're a joke!" Xalata laughed. They all pulled themselves out from their hiding place and dashed over to the control screen. "So, what can we do - I don't understand the controls, don't get what's going on and don't know how to make this thing stop."

  "I think we can work it out," said Melody and she touched a part of the screen that brought up the view from the asteroid, with the Earth glowing brightly in front of it. "There's got to be a status panel that shows the situation with all the controls for the engines. There need to be navigation tools to show where it
's going and how fast - my bet is that's the most important bit. And there has to be some way of communicating with the team on Earth that are driving this thing - or were until Wiglet took it out of their hands!"

  As she said those words, they were shocked by a woman's voice that came from the control panel, "Status critical. Mission Hephaestus is out of control. Target vector unstable and intercepted. Overrides initiated but failed."

  "What's all that mean?" said Glitch, staring at the panel.

  "It means that the mission control is no longer in control," replied Melody. "Can we speak back to them?" She touched a microphone icon on the panel and said, "Mission control, can you hear me?"

  There was a delay and then Mission Control responded, "Affirmative, hearing you clearly. Please identify yourself."

  "Oh, er, hi! I'm Melody Fret and my friends Xalata Orbit and Glitch - er, Justin Shaw-Storey are here with me too."

  Again a slight pause as the messages flashed across space and around the Moon. "How are you able to interface with the mission please? This is a classified and restricted data stream. From where are you speaking?"

  "We're on the Moon - LunarBase, in Habitat 14. We've just discovered this control room and can see what's happening but don't know what to do."

  "Melody, I am Colonel Thien Thi of the Mars Terraforming Project, working on Mission Hephaestus. You say you are aware of what's happening?"

  "Yes, well sort of. We can see from these controls that the asteroid is being targeted onto Beijing and we're fairly certain that you don't want that!"

  "Indeed not," replied Colonel Thi. She continued, "You are our feet on the ground in the rebel stronghold - are you also aware of the faction that is diverting this mission?"

  "Well yes, we think so. We believe it's the same people who made the mess of Habitat 14 with the Cryomorph."

  "You are in great danger, Melody. You and your friends can help us to stop this awful tragedy from happening, but you will put yourself in harm's way in doing so."