Deadly Mission (8 page)

Otto stomped toward the controls. His tongue flicked out and narrowly missed Peri's nose. “Show me these damage reports!” he said.

“Sure,” Peri said, changing the display on the 360-monitor.

As Otto studied the reports, Diesel spoke. “Can I meet your prince? I'm sure he'd want to thank me. I did rescue him, after all.”

Otto spun around and glared at the gunner. “Not on your life, half-Earthling!” he snapped. “I must send a message to
my general and tell him about your incompetence!”

“
Our
incompetence?” shouted Diesel. “I think you'll find
we're
the ones who saved
your
stupid long neck.”

Otto flicked his black tongue across his lipless mouth like a lizard.

“Come on, Diesel,” Peri said, “help me to the Med Center.” The last thing he needed was another fight breaking out between Otto and Diesel. He needed time to think and talk to his gunner without the Meigwor around. “Give Otto the bridge so he can send his message.”

Diesel nodded, but he couldn't take his eyes off Otto. “Don't make yourself too comfortable.”

Peri let Diesel support him to the nearest portal. All he had to do was think of the Med Center, and when the portal hissed
open, there it was. In the center of the room, a medical table lay waiting. Around it the latest medical technology clicked and whirled.

As the portal closed, Diesel coughed nervously and Peri glanced at him.

“There's something I need to tell you, Diesel,” Peri said.

“You're not human, are you?” Diesel said bluntly. “After what happened on Xion, you can't deny it. You have superstrength. You can send out a pulse that stops laser fire—I checked the inventory; we don't have a gadget that does that. So what are you?”

Peri stared at his gunner, trying to decide whether he could trust him with the truth. Diesel was not fully human, either. He was half-Martian, and the son of an emperor. In a way, he was as different as Peri.

Peri glanced at the portal. Otto wouldn't
be able to hear them here. “My full name is Experiment. I'm part bionic. I was modified by my parents to operate the
Phoenix
. I think being on the ship flipped some sort of bionic switch inside me.”

Diesel's eyes opened wide. “No kidding? You're part of the ship! I always thought there was something weird about you.”

“But you can't tell anyone,” Peri warned. “If the Meigwors find out, they'll never let us go. I've got to fully recharge, and then we've got to find out what Otto's really up to.”

Peri scanned all the buttons and dials in the Med Center. He closed his eyes and stretched out one hand. He needed to concentrate on what the ship wanted him to do. He started to walk, being pulled like metal to a magnet. His fingers tingled. He opened his eyes and punched the glowing button beneath his hand.

The Med Center went dark, and thousands of thin blue lines of light scanned Peri from every angle. The lights flashed on, and a deep-blue pulse shot from the button he pressed and zapped him right between the eyes. He heard the computer voice inside his head:
Energy low. Specimen is self-charging. For more energy, eat fruits and vegetables and sleep.

Peri was a bit disappointed. He'd hoped for something more high-tech, but he'd been programmed by his parents, who were always trying to get him to eat healthily.

Diesel took a step back and looked Peri up and down. “So …”

“I'll be fine,” Peri said, with a shrug. “We've got bigger things to deal with.”

Peri found a com-panel in among the medi-lasers and internal probes. He touched the screen and whispered, “Computer, show us the location of everyone on board.”

The screen blinked as it pulled up a map of the
Phoenix
. Four flashing lights appeared.

“Those two must be us,” Peri told Diesel, pointing at each in turn. “This must be Otto, and this … is the prince.”

Diesel twitched his head from side to side. “Where is he?”

Peri enlarged the image on the screen. “Otto's sleeping quarters. Come on.”

He imagined themselves outside Otto's quarters and approached the portal.

Hiiissssss.
The portal opened exactly opposite Otto's sleeping chamber. Peri glanced around to make sure they were alone. He placed his hand on the scanner beside the door. A bar of blue light moved down the panel. It turned red. Sparks erupted from Peri's fingers. The light flickered and turned green. The door to Otto's room slid open.

“Neat trick,” Diesel exclaimed. “Wish
I
was part bionic!”

They stepped inside. Peri gasped when he saw the prince chained to Otto's upright sleeping station and still wrapped in the silver blanket.

“This doesn't make any sense,” he muttered. “Why would Otto treat a Meigwor prince like this?”

“You heard Selene,” Diesel said. “He's been lying to us.” He tried to melt the chains with his laser blaster. He shook his head. “It's no use. It's some sort of special Meigwor metal alloy. I can't cut through it.”

Diesel stood on a chair and yanked the silver blanket from around the prisoner. The prince's neck was not freakishly long or lumpy. His skin was not red, and he had no dark patches around his eyes. In fact, he looked almost human except for his webbed fingers and a strong squidlike smell.

“He's not from Meigwor,” Peri said, feeling a numbness flow through him. “He's from Xion!”

The prisoner's eyes bulged at the sight of Diesel and Peri. He spat out the gag stuffed in his mouth. “I demand you let me go,” raged the prisoner. “I am Prince Onix, firstborn son and heir to the throne of
Xion! Untie me or your deaths will be even more excruciatingly painful than they will be for this treason.”

“I don't understand,” Diesel whispered, ignoring the prisoner. “Did Otto rescue the wrong person?”

Peri wished it was true, but he knew deep down it wasn't. Otto had been too pleased with himself. “I think this was General Rouwgim and Otto's plan all along. The Meigwors wanted to kidnap the Xion prince, and they duped us into helping them!”

“Don't for an instant think that a Xion will be held hostage by a Meigwor any longer!” bellowed the prince. “They won't get another drop of fuel in ransom!”

Peri shook his head. “What do you mean ‘be held hostage by a Meigwor'?”

“Insolence! Don't talk to me unless I tell
you to!” shouted the prince. “Everyone knows the Meigwors are the greatest intergalactic bullies! Well, this is the last straw. My father, the king, will make sure that this debt is paid in the green blood of the Meigwors. And you, the stupid subspecies of humans, you will be treated harshly for aiding those galactic criminals! And, another thing,
huuumphh, aaagrahh
!”

The prince couldn't say anything more, because Diesel had stuffed the gag back into his mouth.

“Diesel!” Peri objected.

“What else am I supposed to do?
Listen
to him?”

Peri shrugged. He couldn't argue with that. “Sorry, Your Highness,” Peri said to Prince Onix, giving a little bow. “We'll think of something. We won't let Otto get away with tricking us into cosmic kidnapping.”

Peri turned to Diesel. “Help me cover him up and let's get out of here. We'd better go back to the Med Center in case Otto gets curious.”

Diesel nodded. The prince squirmed and protested, but Peri and Diesel finally covered him just like they had found him. Peri sealed the door to Otto's quarters.

As they stepped through the portal back to the Med Center, Diesel asked, “Who's really our enemy—the Xions or the Meigwors?”

“They both are. We've landed in the middle of a galactic war,” Peri said. “And one side is as bad as the other. The Meigwors are holding Selene hostage. The Xions have attacked Earth! There's only one side to be on now—our own!”

“So what's the plan, Peri?”

“I'm tired of being pushed around. It's about time we did what was right for
us
,”
Peri replied. “We've got to rescue Selene, then get out of this galactic conflict without the whole thing going supernova!”

Peri realized this was going to be their most difficult mission yet.

 

Will Peri and Diesel make it back to
Meigwor to rescue Selene?

Can they outsmart the double-crossing Otto?

Find out in

Read on for a sneak peek …

 

“That treacherous double-crossing snake in the grass!” Diesel slammed his fist into the wall as he and Peri walked along the corridor that led to the bridge of the
Phoenix
.

“I don't think they have grass on Meigwor,” Peri said.

“What do they have?” asked Diesel.

Peri shrugged. “Trees, mostly. It's a jungle planet.”

“Snake in the trees, then. Let's push Otto into the air-lock and out into space and let the space-sharks chew on his big, long, rubbery neck!”

The strip of hair on Diesel's head was bristling like a Betelgeusian pinfish's spines and glowing bright orange, as it always did when the half-Martian was really angry.

They had just survived a dangerous
mission on the planet Xion, supposedly to rescue a kidnapped Meigwor prince. The Meigwors had sent Otto, a bounty hunter, to lead the mission, but he had lied to Diesel and Peri. They had raided the Xion palace and captured someone, but it wasn't a
Meigwor
prince.

They hadn't rescued anyone. They had in fact
kidnapped
a
Xion
prince!

“Let's give Otto what he deserves,” Diesel said.

Peri held up his hand. “If we throw him to the space-sharks, the Meigwors will take it out on Selene.” Their friend was being held on Otto's home planet. “It's time we stopped letting Otto boss us around. We need to rescue Selene and then return Prince Onix to Xion.”

“Otto won't back down without a fight.”

“Then we'll give him a fight!” Peri said. “There are two of us—we should be able to disarm Otto and take back our ship.”

They were nearly at the bridge now. Peri touched a button on the belt of his Expedition Wear. Diesel did the same. The surfaces of their suits became hard and shiny, like armor. Steel gauntlets emerged from the sleeves and covered their hands. Plastic helmets rose from the necks of the suits, encasing their heads in identical transparent, armored bubbles.

“We might need more protection,” Peri said.

He touched the wall, and a section slid smoothly aside to reveal a chamber filled with vaporizers, blasters, phasers, and jellifiers in countless different shapes and sizes.

“Look,” Peri said. “Otto's been here.” He pointed to a silver flask on a shelf. It was
the flask in which Otto kept his favorite drink, Meigwor Mudcreeper's Blood. Peri grimaced. “Don't know how he can drink that stuff.”

Diesel picked up a little black weapon, with a wide, square muzzle. “I've seen these in the training manual,” he said. “It's a duster.”