The Dark World Read online

  Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT PAGE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  ‘How’s your ice-cream sundae, Jett?’ asked Kip Kirby. ‘Hot enough for you?’

  Kip and his best friend Jett were spending a rainy Saturday at the One Moon Shopping Mall.

  It was freezing, so Kip and Jett had headed straight to the ice-cream shop to warm up. In the year 2354, ice-creams were served steaming hot. Cold ice-cream was so last millennium.

  Kip licked his toasty caramel ice-cream. He practically never got to hang out having fun like this.

  Normally, Kip was busy with school or with his job as a Space Scout.

  The Space Scouts explored unknown galaxies for a second Earth. The current Earth was so crowded with people that it would soon run out of room. The future of all humans was riding on Kip and the 49 other Space Scouts.

  Some people would have crumbled under the pressure. After all, Kip was only 12 years old. The other Scouts were older and more experienced. But although his job came with huge responsibilities, Kip absolutely loved it.

  He’d seen some awesome planets on his missions – some freaky, some scary, some fun. He never knew what was waiting for him when he blasted into space. That was the coolest part of the job.

  ‘Want to check out the pet shop?’ Jett asked, leaning forward. A motionsensitive moist serviette on a mechanical arm popped out from the middle of their table. It wiped Jett’s sticky mouth then disappeared again.

  Jett loved the pet shop. Every time they came to the mall, Jett spent ages staring in the window. He had serious allergies to animals and wasn’t allowed his own pet.

  Before leaving the ice-cream shop, Kip and Jett bought a packet of Flamin’ Asteroid Chips to eat on the way. They simply swiped plastic cards, and the chips popped up through a hole in the shop counter. All the shops at the One Moon Mall were completely automatic, with no-one serving in them.

  The mall was 50 storeys tall and hundreds of square kilometres wide. There were 803 sportswear shops, 667 burger bars and 1407 different sneaker stores. Walking to the pet shop would take ages!

  ‘Let’s take Locata Arms,’ Kip suggested. The mall was shaped like a colossal doughnut. Suspended from the roof in the very centre was a huge bunch of Locata Arms. These were mechanical arms with claw-like grippers on the end.

  Kip walked up to the nearest free arm. As soon as the arm’s computer detected him, the claw closed firmly around his chest.

  ‘Pet Palace, 30th floor, east wing,’ Kip said clearly.

  There was a whirring of gears, and Kip’s feet were lifted off the ground. The Locata Arm carried him straight to the door of Pet Palace. Jett followed in another Locata Arm.

  The Pet Palace windows were filled with alien pets like glow-in-the-dark Florgs, which were bird-beaked snakes that came from the distant Ur galaxy.

  The shop was having a sale on microrhinos. These mouse-sized rhinos were native to a planet called Bron, and could be trained to ride on your shoulder. Jett wanted one more than anything.

  Kip watched as Jett pressed his nose against the glass. Luckily for Jett, the pet shop window was specially sealed. Nothing that could trigger allergies could escape.

  ‘Should I go in and hold a micro-rhino?’ Jett said. ‘Maybe my allergy has cured itself.’

  ‘Don’t risk it,’ Kip replied. Jett’s animal allergy was so bad that if he even sniffed an animal, his skin turned blue, his eyes bulged and his fingernails fell out.

  Kip was about to remind Jett of this when he felt his SpaceCuff buzzing.

  SpaceCuffs were the powerful mini super computers that all Space Scouts wore on their wrists. Kip checked his screen.

  Kip felt a bubble of excitement in his stomach. He couldn’t wait to get back into space!

  Then he remembered. He’d been planning to go to the Virtual Sports Centre to practise virtu-surfing that afternoon. His mum was coming to pick him up in ten minutes.

  Kip loved virtu-surfing. But with the future of Earth at stake, there was no way he could go.

  The real question was, how could he get to the Hoverport quickly?

  Kip thought hard, but he knew there was only one answer. He’d have to ask his mum to drop him at the Hoverport.

  Kip kept a spare spacesuit, helmet and gear in the back of his mum’s SnapDragon for this kind of emergency.

  Bet no Space Scout’s ever turned up for a mission with his mum, though, he thought, cringing.

  That was about the most uncool thing in the known universe!

  The airspace above the mall buzzed with spacecraft. The massive parking area was jam-packed.

  Kip checked the time on his SpaceCuff. 5.30pm! His mum would be here to pick him up any second. Jett had already gone home with his mum.

  Kip scanned the sky for his mum’s SnapDragon. Almost every family had one of these buzzing personal short-flight spacecraft. Kip’s mum’s was bright blue with a yellow sign on the side:

  SPACE SCOUT ON BOARD

  There it was, streaking towards him.

  ‘Hurry,’ Kip’s mum called as the SnapDragon touched down. ‘I’m almost late for Venusian Folk Choir practice.’

  Kip felt bad as he jumped in next to her. His mum loved Venusian Folk Choir. But he really needed a lift!

  He paused for a moment, thinking about how he should ask his favour.

  ‘You look nice today, Mum,’ he began.

  ‘Do I? Thanks…’ his mum smiled before trailing off. ‘Kip Kirby, are you about to ask a favour?’ she asked, laughing.

  She saw right through me! Kip thought.

  ‘Could you please give me a lift to the Hoverport?’ he pleaded. ‘I just got a message about an urgent mission.’

  Kip watched guiltily as his mum entered the Hoverport’s co-ordinates into the trip computer. She’d miss choir. But he knew she understood that he was missing virtu-surfing too. With the future of Earth’s people at stake, there was nothing else for it.

  The Hoverport was inside Earth’s atmosphere, about 10 kilometres off the ground. All intergalactic space flights departed from there, so it was very busy. Kip’s starship, MoNa 4000, was docked there when Kip wasn’t on missions.

  Kip soon spotted MoNa’s pointed nose cone and gleaming black thrusters.

  ‘If you drop me here, I’ll spacewalk the rest of the way,’ Kip suggested to his mum.

  He wanted to avoid the embarrassment of turning up for a mission with his mum! But Mrs Kirby insisted on taking Kip to MoNa’s landing bay door.

  Kip groaned. MoNa would never let him live this down! Teasing Kip was her favourite thing in the galaxy.

  MoNa’s door slid open.With his helmet and spacesuit on, Kip leapt the short distance from the SnapDragon to the landing bay. When he boarded, MoNa’s laughter was echoing all around.

  ‘Don’t worry about her,’ said a friendly, growly voice. ‘Space Scouts do whatever it takes to get the job done.’ It was Finbar, Kip’s second-in-command.

  Finbar was tall and covered with white fur. He was half-human, half-arctic wolf, but his personality was more like a teddy bear’s.

  Together, Kip and Finbar headed for the Bridge, MoNa’s command centre. There, Kip could pilot MoNa using the holographic console as well as download his mission brief.

  While Kip prepared, MoNa would fly herself out of the Hoverport and into deep space on auto-pilot.

  Kip settled into his captain’s chair, engaged his holographic console and began to read.

  6.34pm? That’s only a fe
w seconds away! thought Kip.

  Through MoNa’s massive windows, Kip and Finbar scanned the sky for the wormhole.

  Wormholes were shortcuts between galaxies. Usually they glowed with light shining through from the galaxy beyond.

  But this time, the only thing visible in the night sky was a faint, murky black patch of cloud.

  If that’s the wormhole, Kip thought uncertainly, it must be super dark on Neron. There’s no light shining through.

  Pushing a button on his console, Kip switched off MoNa’s auto-pilot and took the controls. Flying through a wormhole took Kip’s advanced skills. Especially when the wormhole was pitch-black!

  With a deep breath, Kip flew MoNa into the wormhole. The entire Bridge was plunged into darkness.

  Kip was in luck. The wormhole might have been dark, but at least it was calm and easy to fly through. MoNa popped out the wormhole into Neron’s galaxy completely unharmed.

  Neron’s galaxy was so dark that Kip could hardly see a thing. Up ahead, though, he made out a dull, black ball of a planet.

  Kip and Finbar strode to MoNa’s landing bay. It was time to travel to Neron via Scrambler Beam. Scramblers separated their particles, beamed them through space and rearranged them on the surface of Neron.

  When they arrived on the surface, Kip heard an eerie moan.

  ‘Finbar?’ he whispered. Finbar hated travelling by Scrambler!

  But the moaning was the wind, whipping wildly around them. Kip analysed the air. According to his SpaceCuff, it was safe to breathe…but freezing!

  Kip and Finbar carried limited oxygen. To save supplies, it was always best to breathe a planet’s own air if possible. Kip took a deep breath, not looking forward to taking off his helmet. He made sure his HeatCheeks balaclava was switched on.

  HeatCheeks had heating elements woven through the fibres. When switched on, they glowed as red as a hotplate.

  They allowed Kip and Finbar to go without helmets in freezing conditions.

  Finbar was especially keen to protect his new WhiskerMic from the cold weather. The WhiskerMic was a wire-thin microphone disguised among his whiskers. It recorded everything within a twometre radius. If Kip and Finbar needed to check back on any details of their mission afterwards, they had a permanent record.

  Once their helmets were off, Kip and Finbar had a look around. High in Neron’s sky was a tiny blue ball of light.

  Neron’s sun, Kip guessed. It must be light years away. No wonder it’s so cold and dark here.

  As his eyes adjusted to the dark, Kip saw they’d landed on the edge of a city.

  Neron’s buildings were made of cubes stacked on top of each other. They looked like massive kids’ building blocks with flat panels on top.

  Kip recognised them immediately. Spinifex wind panels! he thought. They had been invented by the aliens from the windy planet Spinifex, and were the most efficient wind-energy tech available. Kip knew they were incredibly expensive.

  Suddenly Kip was struck by how quiet Neron seemed. He could see a spaceport in the distance, but it looked deserted.

  Guess those rumours about Neron being a busy trading planet were wrong, he thought. But then, how can they afford Spinifex wind panels?

  Kip was about to mention this to Finbar when his 2iC yelped. The ground underneath their feet was moving! Was it an earth tremor? A deadly quake?

  Finbar toppled over, landing on his furry backside.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Kip said. But Finbar didn’t answer. With his excellent wolf vision, he’d spotted what was making the ground move.

  They were standing on a giant rotating disc! A shallow, curved groove in the dirt stretched into the distance in both directions. The entire alien city was slowly turning. At the same time, Kip felt the wind change direction.

  The city must be turning to catch the most wind! Kip thought. He knew that the Spinifex wind panels could turn. But an entire rotating city would cost a bomb!

  Suddenly, there was a shrill cry.

  An alien had sneaked up behind them! And he had a group of friends with him.

  The aliens were tall and rubbery. They had huge flapping ears and long, fleshy snouts with deep black nostrils. Their eyes were tiny black dots.

  Kip knew that animals that lived in darkness underground on Earth were often almost totally blind. He guessed these aliens wouldn’t have much need for sight on such a dark planet. Maybe their other features were bigger than normal to make up for it.

  Also, Kip couldn’t help noticing the aliens were covered with deep scars. They look like something out of a horror movie like ‘Awful Aliens Attack IV’!

  The group of aliens came closer and closer. Then the lead alien shrieked something right in Kip’s ear. It was so close, Kip could feel his icy spit through the heated balaclava.

  EEEEEEEEEEEH!

  Startled, Kip quickly flicked his SpaceCuff to Translate mode.

  Kip nearly laughed in relief. Shrieking was this alien’s way of being polite!

  But when Kip looked into the alien’s grinning face, he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that the smile didn’t reach his tiny eyes.

  Still, Kip’s Space Scout training had taught him to keep an open mind about all aliens. It was important to be polite until he knew more about them.

  The lead alien shook Kip’s hand energetically. His fingers felt like sloppy seaweed! But they still had a firm grip.

  The alien grinned wider, just a bit too hard. He reminded Kip of dodgy spacecraft salespeople back on Earth.

  Stop being so suspicious, Kip! he thought sternly. They’re perfectly friendly.

  ‘We’re from planet Earth,’ Kip said. His SpaceCuff started screeching, translating his speech into the Neron alien’s language.

  ‘Brilliant! Love the place,’ the alien shrieked, grinning again.

  But he knows nothing about us, Kip thought warily. There’s been no contact between Earth and Neron!

  ‘My people would like to know if you’d be willing to share some of your planet with us,’ Kip said.

  ‘That sounds like a very interesting proposal,’ grinned the lead alien. ‘For the right price, of course.’

  WorldCorp had been right about the aliens being smart businesspeople, then. Fair enough, thought Kip. There’s no law against it.

  Still, the more time Kip spent with the smooth-talking aliens, the more uneasy he felt. He couldn’t put his finger on why, though.

  Kip glanced at Finbar.Was his 2iC getting the same bad feeling? Kip guessed he was, because Finbar was nervously smoothing his fur. Clumps of it swept through the air.

  A cluster floated past the lead alien’s nose. He paused. There was a strange look on his face, like an idea was coming to him.

  Then, out of nowhere, the alien made a horrible sound. It sounded like someone choking on a sock.

  The alien’s tiny eyes watered and bulged. His ears twitched wildly. Shallow, rasping breaths escaped from its mouth. The alien dropped to his knees, clutching his throat with spidery hands.

  ‘Is…is that some kind of local custom?’ Finbar said to Kip uncertainly.

  Kip shook his head. ‘Can’t be! Look at how the other aliens are crowding around.’

  For a moment, they seemed as confused as Kip and Finbar. Then the lead alien moaned something too low for the SpaceCuff to register. A moment later, all the aliens suddenly fell to the ground, clutching at their throats too.

  Finbar looked stricken, but something about it all reminded Kip of the last time he’d faked being sick, so his mum would let him stay home from school.

  But it was too risky to just ignore the aliens. They could be dying! Although Kip had a feeling that they weren’t trustworthy, it was just a hunch. And his Space Scout training taught him never to leave an alien in distress. He had to help!

  Down on his knees, Kip held a finger under the lead alien’s snout. He didn’t seem to be breathing.

  Kip’s heart began to pound. This was obviously serious! He couldn’t believe he’d suspe
cted the aliens of faking only seconds ago.

  He could be holding his breath, niggled the voice in Kip’s head.

  But Kip shoved his doubts aside firmly. Right now, he needed to focus on helping the aliens.

  Kip rummaged in his backpack for his first aid kit. He needed his LifeBubble urgently.

  Kip could simply breathe into the mouthpiece of the LifeBubble. An edible oxygen-filled bubble would pop into the alien’s mouth, filling it with air. It was quick and hygienic. Except…

  I’ve left my first aid kit on board MoNa, Kip realised. I’ll have to give mouth-to-mouth the old-fashioned way!

  Human mouth-to-mouth was gross enough. It would be even worse on Neron’s aliens, with their rubbery lips and long, soft noses.

  Kip shuddered. He leant down to plant his mouth on the lead alien’s.

  Then the alien suddenly snapped his eyes open. ‘Help us,’ he wheezed. ‘We’re terribly allergic to something…’

  He rolled his tiny eyes at Finbar. Then the alien collapsed in a loud coughing fit.

  Kip’s mind raced. The air was full of Finbar’s fur. What if that was what the aliens were allergic to?

  ‘What can we do?’ Finbar asked anxiously. He hated to see anyone in pain.

  ‘Your Earthling first aid won’t help,’ the alien said quickly. For a moment, his voice sounded normal.‘Ancient Neron lore tells of a berry that grows on a thorny water plant. It cures all ills.’ The alien paused, gasping again. ‘It’s our only hope.’

  ‘Where do we find this plant?’ Kip asked urgently.

  ‘The lake district,’ the alien croaked, trembling. Then, with a final wheeze, he fainted dramatically.

  Finbar gasped. ‘We’ve got to find the lake district. Immediately!’

  Finbar turned to Kip, his eyes enormous and sad. He put his paws under his chin in a begging pose.

  Kip could tell that Finbar felt guilty. After all, it was his fur that seemed to be making the aliens sick.

  Even if he didn’t quite trust the aliens, Kip couldn’t say no to Finbar. Besides, finding the plant would be a good way of exploring the planet. And maybe he’d get to the bottom of the aliens’ suspicious behaviour as well.