The Gas Giant (5 page)

Slowly, Finbar nodded his head. ‘I’ll come,’ he said bravely.

Kip sighed in relief. He and Finbar stepped into the AirSkis and gripped the tow-rope.

The Vapod aliens flapped their huge, bloated wings and lifted off the ground. They took flight, their ropes stretching a few metres behind. Kip and Finbar soared through the air.

As his alien shot up to the cloud layer, Kip shuddered with pain. Something was seriously wrong with his stomach. As soon as he got back to MoNa, he’d have to get the Docbot to check him out. But until then, he had to concentrate on the mission.

Just then Kip’s pocket vibrated. It was his holographic walkie-talkie! Kip took it out and Jett’s hologram appeared in front of him.

‘Just calling about those nanobots…’ Jett began.

‘Now’s not really a good time, Jett,’ Kip said. He didn’t have time to talk. The floating city might be under attack. Besides, he was flying through the air strapped to an alien at that moment!

Jett seemed too excited to listen. ‘I’ve never seen that kind of design before,’ he went on. ‘I think there’s some kind of heating device inside them. It’s really cool.’

‘Great,’ Kip yelled. ‘I’ll call you back.’

Grinning, Jett waved goodbye. His hologram disappeared.

‘Are these winds getting stronger?’ Finbar said as the Vapod aliens flapped upwards towards the orange cloud layer.

Kip nodded grimly. The winds were out of control.

Suddenly, the Vapod aliens plunged into the cloud layer. There must be other aliens around, but Kip couldn’t see them. Visibility was almost zero. Kip was on high alert — at any moment, a hostile creature could attack from any direction!

Just then, Kip remembered his MistEze. He’d clipped it to his utility belt ages ago, back when WorldCorp was planning a mission to the fog planet Mysterio.

MistEze was shaped like a ray-gun, but fired dissolving pellets. If a pellet met something hard, it exploded into a harmless mist and sent a radar message back to Kip. Then the display on the inside of Kip’s helmet produced a picture based on the information it received.

Kip fired pellets in all directions and waited, watching the display on his helmet. For a moment nothing happened, but then a picture started to form.

A
huge
picture.

‘I think the creature’s right in front of us!’ Kip said urgently.

There was a deafening buzzing noise in the air. Then a huge green shape loomed up at them. The creature!

Nanobots were swarming around it. The creature swished angrily back and forward, trying to get rid of the bots.

The creature was almost hidden by orange cloud. Kip could just make out its curved body and huge beak.

What is it?
Kip wondered.
It’s huge!
He knew they had no chance of survival against such an enormous enemy.

Kip stared in horror. Then he stopped, squinting at the beast. Now that he looked closer, he realised there was something weirdly familiar about it…

‘That creature looks exactly like MoNa, except green!’ Kip said.

Finbar gasped. ‘MoNa’s Chameleon Paint!’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s turned her green!’

Relief flooded through Kip. The city wasn’t under attack — it was just MoNa!

But what was she doing down here in Vapod’s cloud layer? Kip and Finbar had left MoNa on the far side of the cloud layer, in deep space. She’d never normally venture further without permission.

She must have been practising her Ninja tricks,
Kip realised.
Then accidentally dipped through the cloud layer and caught the nanobots’ attention.

Kip started to explain the situation to the Vapod aliens. But they didn’t seem so relaxed. MoNa had completely freaked them out!

‘MoNa’s our starship,’ Kip said. ‘She’s not hostile.’

‘Just a little bossy,’ Finbar added.

But the two aliens didn’t look convinced.

Nanobots were still swarming around MoNa. She was swooshing back and forward, as furiously as ever.

I’ve got to stop her from doing that,
Kip thought. The wind she was creating was strong enough to cause serious damage if it kept up. And more importantly, he had to convince the Vapod aliens that MoNa wasn’t attacking the city — or else they might think he and Finbar were bad news too.

Kip’s last hope of finding out how the floating city worked was to fly to one of the balloons and check them out. To do that, he needed the aliens’ help.

I’ll have to prove that MoNa’s under my command
, Kip thought. That was going to be tricky, though. MoNa never listened to anything Kip said! Plus his SpaceCuff wasn’t working, so he couldn’t call MoNa and explain.

Kip could think of only one other way to get MoNa’s attention. He’d have to fly through the swarm of nanobots and knock on her front windows. And that would mean getting the Vapod aliens to fly close to MoNa.

‘Can you do me one more favour?’ he asked the aliens, and then explained what he wanted them to do.

The aliens’ eyes bulged. They both looked like they’d rather have their wings removed with lasers than fly anywhere near MoNa!

‘Please,’ Kip begged. ‘If you help me now, I
promise
to cure your headaches!’

Inside his helmet, Kip bit his lip. What if MoNa’s Docbot couldn’t find what was wrong? But it was a risk he had to take.

The alien towing Kip huffed and rubbed his painful head. After a long pause, he seemed to decide to help them.

‘OK. Hang on,’ the alien said grimly, shooting off towards MoNa. Finbar’s alien followed closely behind.

They rocketed upwards as if they wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. Kip and Finbar hung on tight to their AirSkis.

As the Vapod aliens got near MoNa, she suddenly swooshed forwards and almost brushed the Vapod aliens’ snouts.

With a terrified shriek, Kip’s alien swerved out of the way. Kip was just close enough to reach MoNa’s front window. He stretched out his arm and pounded on the glass.

There was a crackle as MoNa turned on her exterior microphones.

Kip engaged his helmet microphone. ‘Calm down, MoNa,’ he called. ‘It’s just a swarm of maintenance bots buzzing around. You’re freaking out the locals!’

But MoNa wouldn’t listen. ‘Do you think I was manufactured yesterday?’ she said. ‘Something’s trying to attack me!’

The Vapod aliens widened their eyes. ‘Are you…sure that’s your starship?’ Kip’s alien asked.

Kip groaned. Why did MoNa insist on always showing him up at the worst possible time?

‘MoNa! Stop thrashing around,’ Finbar barked sharply. ‘The nanobots are friendly!’

Kip stared at Finbar. He’d never heard his 2iC talk like that to anyone. For once, his wolfish side must’ve won out over his gentle nature.

MoNa stopped at once. ‘Yes, Finbar,’ she said in a small voice. MoNa was obviously as shocked as Kip!

‘Fly to the other side of the cloud layer and stay there until we’re ready to leave,’ Finbar ordered. ‘No more acrobatics!’

Abruptly, MoNa threw herself into reverse. She shot upwards and disappeared through the clouds.

‘Thanks, Finbar,’ Kip said, his spirits lifting.

The Vapod aliens looked impressed and relieved.

‘Can you take us to the nearest balloon now?’ Kip begged his alien.

They seemed to trust Kip again. They dived downwards, back to the floating city. The nanobots swarmed around them in a cloud.

The Vapods circled the balloon so Kip and Finbar could have a close look. At the base, Kip noticed a valve poking out.

That must be the valve labeled CO
₂
on the blueprint,
he thought to himself.

A couple of nanobots buzzed over to the valve.

‘Look!’ said Finbar, excited.

They flew closer to the balloon. Kip watched as one of the nanobots put its tiny mouth over the valve. There was a soft hiss. The nanobot seemed to be filling the balloon with gas!

‘This must be part of their job as maintenance bots,’ Finbar said.

Kip’s brain began to whirr. Could it be that the
nanobots
held the answer to the secret gas?

The Vapod aliens took Kip and Finbar back to their igloo-shaped home. Kip was silent, his mind still racing.

Back on Earth, inflating a balloon was simple. You just breathed in oxygen and huffed it back into the balloon as carbon dioxide.